As I said before… learning how to juggle is easy. 5 ball juggling on the other hand is not easy. I’ve been doing some research on methods that other people have used to teach people 5 ball juggling. Do those methods really work? I don’t know. The reason why I am skeptical is because all those people already know how to juggle 5 balls pretty well. It’s possible that they might have forgotten what really helps you learn.
First things first – you are not learning any new concepts here. If you already know how to juggle a 3 ball cascade then you understand the concept. 5 ball juggling, or any odd number juggling for that matter, is done using a cascade pattern.
In my research I found there to be some disagreement on whether or not you should learn how to juggle 4 balls first. I don’t think it matters. I do think that you can learn to juggle 5 balls before you learn 4 balls because 4 ball juggling is just two balls in each hand, not a cascade pattern. Just because I think it’s possible to learn 5 ball juggling before 4 ball juggling doesn’t mean that I’m recommending that. I think mastering 4 balls will help you get a handle on working with more than 1 object in the air at a time.
So you understand the concept, and whether you already learned how to juggle 4 balls or not doesn’t matter. If you are going from 3 to 5 – more power to you! Running a 5 ball cascade is just so much harder than a 3 ball cascade. You are going from 1 ball in the air at a time to 3 balls in the air at a time.
So how do you learn 5 balls? That’s why you’re here right? First I’ll tell you what I didn’t do. I didn’t practice with different variations of 4 ball juggling. All I did was take 5 balls and start trying to do a 5 ball cascade. Seriously? Yes! I just did the same thing that I did with a 3 ball cascade but I just moved a little faster.
At first all I did was drop all over the place. You’re talking about 5 balls here and it’s hard. I honestly think the only way to really get started is to jump right into it. At least you will get the idea of how high you have to throw the balls and what the pattern might look like.
All that being said, my number 1 tip for 5 balls is short practice sessions. I spend at least 10 minutes, twice a day with 5 balls. Oh, and my number 2 tip… get yourself some Russian balls. My 5 ball pattern really improved when I started using Russian balls.