From: celarier@reed.edu (Stuart Celarier)
Newsgroups: rec.juggling
Subject: Re: keeping new members
Date: 11 Sep 92 18:24:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: reed.1992Sep11.182451.667
Organization: Reed College, Portland, OR

[Medium-long, I got carried away again!]

With keen interest I have read the last few posts on retaining beginning  
jugglers in a local club.  Here at Reed College juggling has been offered as an  
official PE class since 1979, when I was a sophmore.  Then again, Reed also  
offers a tremendous variety of PE classes, Tai Chi, Aikido, mountian climbing,  
skiing, sailing, etc., and requires students to take six quarters of something.

In addition to it being a class that the students can take, we have always been  
a meeting place for the local Portland jugglers, which has been a very nice  
symiobic relationship.  I now teach the class, and we always have a fair number  
of student jugglers who have long since fulfilled all their requirements, we do  
retain some people -- myself included for the last thirteen years.  Many of  
them began juggling in the class, although I was delighted to note with the  
beginning of this academic year that a few of the freshmen and new transfer  
students already had learned to juggle at least once before.  I have taught and  
helped a few hundred people to juggle, in this setting you'll only get a  
handful of them remaining beyond their graduation.

There has also been an informal connection between the math department (that  
unruly bunch) and the juggling club, starting with the two math professors, Joe  
Roberts and Joe Buhler, who got the club/class started.  At one time it was  
often rumored that juggling was part of the orals for the math department --  
which even led to one woman surreptitiously learning to juggle to in order to  
surprise her orals board.  Somehow juggling and math go together, but I've also  
noted other departmental alliances, such as juggling and music (is it the  
rhythmic and improvisational elements, or are female music majors just  
naturally attracted to male math majors?), and juggling and theater.  These  
alliances can help the beginner by giving him or her a role model, perhaps a  
mentor, or just a friendly face. 

I certainly concur with the sentiments that a bunch of juggling jocks and  
heavies can scare away the beginning jugglers.  I used to juggle in the same  
gym as Mark Hoff, from Berkeley, who grew up playing with Frank Olivier after  
school.  That was hard.  What I do is try to turn that situation around.  I  
tell the new students that the other jugglers there are a *resource* for them  
to use.  If they see someone who is doing a neat trick, they should go right up  
and ask them who to get started on it.  I also try to get the cooperation of  
the local folks, because, after all, those students are our ticket to free use  
of a dry, warm gym with high ceilings and great lighting.  But if someone comes  
up to me and asks me how to do Mills Mess, I say that I haven't learned that  
trick yet, but Rob or Rhys over there could show you and the both are really  
helpful; let me introduce you.

I do NOT agree with the comment that once you have shown someone the basics  
there is basically nothing you can do until they master a cascade.  In fact, it  
is precisely before they master the cascade that they need the most help.  I  
spend a few minutes with each new student each week.  With an average of one to  
two dozen students (plus attrition) this amounts to 45 minutes to an hour of my  
time each week for the first 4 or 5 weeks, and then as  it slacks off towards  
the end of the quarter I get more time to pass with my buddies.

What new jugglers need most is encouragement.  Especially in the face of people  
working on their moving oogle or passing nine clubs!  New jugglers often do not  
know how to recognise or judge their own improvement.  Look for something,  
ANYTHING, which has improved in their juggling since last time.  Praise them  
for it.  "You seem to be getting your tosses more in control."  Or, "your  
timing is getting more even, see if you can focus for a little bit getting it  
even smoother."  Be sincere, but also be generous with the encouragement.

New jugglers also don't have the experience that accompished jugglers do at  
looking at the juggle and seeing what is going right and what is going wrong.   
New jugglers need a lot of coaching type help.  Walk up and ask "how's you  
juggling coming along?"  Watch them a time or three.  Let them know that their  
hands are too high, they are juggling too fast,  their left hand is in front of  
their right, or that they always seem to crash on their right side.  Often the  
beginner cannot see these simple things because to them everything seems to be  
happening all at once.

Also in the coaching spirit, you will frequently find beginners who are  
repeating the same mistake over and over.  This is the fastest road to  
frustration, which is the quick way to "dropping the big one," which is  
dropping out.  Tell them that they have to learn to recognise when they are  
repeating a mistake again and again, and look for their own ways to break that  
cycle so they don't end up learning the mistake.  "From three balls, go back to  
two balls for just a second; okay, there's no problem there (or maybe the  
problem *is* there), so now go back to three balls and try to keep the exact  
same feeling you had with two balls."  Or maybe they should try by starting  
with the other hand; even if they don't get as far, it has broken up the  
destructive cycle of repeating failure.

I also do not consider it a failure if someone does leave the group, or stops  
juggling for a long period of time.  I have seen so many instances of someone  
saying "Oh, juggling, yeah, I learned to do that ages ago, uh, can I try your  
bean bags?"  When I teach at a summer camp or similar setting, the big part of  
the lesson for me is that the students can see what the trick *is*, and have  
learned how to learn it.  They don't have to master it today (okay, the  
pressure is off), but I want them to go away understanding the steps that they  
need to know to teach themselves how to juggle.  The people who leave the club  
may very well come back (with the right encouragement!) when the time is right  
for them.  Think of them as an investment:  maybe for every fifty people you  
teach -- actually spend time with and teach -- there will be one of them who  
will have the inclination and time to stick around and become a good club  
passer.  Therefore, I should teach about 300 people so I can get a  
seven-pointed star going :-)

A lot of this implies that I am taking a lot of responsibility for the club  
into my own hands.  I think it may be that in a group of accomplished jugglers,  
someone has to take the initiative to spend more time making the club work for  
beginners; otherwise your club could get pretty lonely all of a sudden.  Sounds  
like prime material to discuss over the apres-juggle beer, which reminds me...  
--
Stuart Celarier		"No Problem, Easy Pickup" Portland Jugglers
celarier@reed.edu	PO Box 82842
503/236-9386		Portland, Oregon 97282