Viewing all threads tagged #instinct.
Did you have to overcome any instincts in order to improve?
Can you confirm or refute any of the above or give other examples?
Or else, has maybe some movement become a reflex, like the urge to instantly throw anything back up again instead of even thinking of collecting, and no matter it might collide or where it'll land?
[ #instinct ]
Little Paul - - Parent #
Instinct or habit?
When I drop any trick and have to pick things up from the floor I habitually look all around me. This comes from many years of playing with mulitiperson passing patterns 3 times a week, looking to see if its safe to stand up again.
It's been almost 15 years since I was playing with those patterns but I can't break the habit - yet every time I do it I feel as though it looks to the outside world as if I'm checking to see if anyone watched that last attempt.
I hate that feeling every time I do it, it makes me stupidly self conscious for the next run, but it's now so deeply ingrained I just can't kick it!
Good question. I think, throwing away from yourself, too far ahead, when losing control, from your face is sth you (= I) do all your (=my) juggling life. I think it's instinct to protect your eyes. A selfmade barrier when going to collect right after a flash, downright renouncing on a next throw even if it went well, but you hesitate and it collapses, would surely be a (bad) habit. My post was rather out for real instinctive, involuntary, unwilling .. erhh .. habits (lol), moves, things you do, guided by central nervous system, by the cerebellum (small old low brain part). - But distinguishing one from other could be part of the question.
Your looking around is surely an act of archaic self-defense. But nothing, you have to overcome in order to improve ;o])
This doesn't match my experience of teaching - most beginners encounter the throwing forward problem, but as a result of incorrect technique - rolling the ball off the fingers instead of popping it out of the palm. It doesn't return as they go on to learn higher numbers, which you would expect if it was an self-preservation instinct.
I never thought about why I threw balls forward when I first learned juggling, but when teaching I usually assume bad technique. I'm not very good at ball juggling though so I can't really tell what the correct technique is... I'd think that there are different ways to do it too.
I had the opposite problem when learning clubs, throwing the clubs towards me. That was certainly bad technique. There was an instinct I had to overcome there though, the instinct to lean backwards to get my face further away from the clubs. (It didn't even work, just made the throws even worse and closer to my face or head.)
Little Paul - - Parent #
Throwing balls away from you is usually because you're throwing with your fingers not with your hand.
Throwing clubs towards you is usually because you're throwing from the end of the handle, not the middle.
I think the "move your head out of the way" instinct is natural self preservation, and not really something that has to be overcome if you fix the throwing technique first.
That all sounds very plausible: you don't fulfill the whole throwing movement and release to early when in a haste --> props go forward.
Yet, I'm not fully convinced:
When doing dangerous props (massive wooden clubs; hard heavy balls), I encounter an increased tendency to keep the props away from me. Whatever happens, always throw away, or not even catch and let drop before hurting myself and by nature keeping the ground states further away. That same impression I have when doing normal props, just way not so strong.
I have also in mind Gatto's famous 9b practise run over a minute in a gym, where he trips rather back than ahead. From all I've seen, i think, tripping back rather than ahead during practise is not so frequent to be seen. So, I guess, only the masters have the precision and accuracy to control high throws going rather even slightly back than rather not to far ahead.
And it's maybe more natural to throw anything, a branch into the walnut tree, slightly forward where you can catch it again and where you see where you're stepping, instead of throwing it behind where you don't see where you step.
And I'm not sure the problem of throwing too far ahead doesn't come back whenever learning a new trick or higher prop number (I always had it for sure).
Speaking physics, a point would be: when aiming within front plane, just as many fails could reasonably go backwards as go fail ahead. That is, when not in a haste and not releasing too early, but when generally aiming bad.
Mike Moore - - Parent #
I had a problem with throwing (and walking) forward when I first started, but that wore off quickly.
I sometimes have the opposite problem as #4: sometimes I'll throw a 1 to avoid gathering two balls in one hand, even if I intend to do a multiplex. Probably because I rarely do multiplexes.
For a long time, I started 5+ balls with my palms angled inward, throwing the ball that my thumb was holding first. This wasn't really a problem with 5-8, but started to involve fast of wrist twisting with 9 ball releases. It took me about 2 months to feel just as comfortable with the standard way or releasing. That was a fix I've made in the last year.
Subscribe to this forum via RSS
1 article per branch
1 article per post