Misconceptions about juggling

The following list addresses some common misconceptions about juggling. (The statements listed here are corrections, not direct statements of the false beliefs themselves.)
<tabber>For non-jugglers=
* Jugglers do not generally juggle bowling pins. The juggling props that are commonly mistaken for bowling pins are called clubs, not pins. Juggling clubs are designed specifically for juggling, so they are much lighter and easier to juggle than bowling pins would be.https://ballsjokes.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/i-just-cant/
* Most jugglers are not clowns.https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.juggling/qgwvQg0WcTY/SXwgzsPat8kJ The majority of jugglers are hobbyists, who may not perform at all;https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.juggling/eNOjxf6vft8/EqX68lnfy1oJ jugglers who do perform may or may not also include comedy in their acts;https://web.archive.org/web/20170211074150/http://www.newvictory.org/Blog/February-2017/juggling-misconceptions-water-on-mars and even comedy jugglers don't necessarily act or dress anything like clowns. A lot of jugglers dislike being associated with clowns.https://youtu.be/1rHk6dIoe4Q?t=1820
* Knife juggling is usually done with specially designed knives that aren't really sharp, so it's not as dangerous as it looks.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knife_juggling#Knives_usedhttps://youtu.be/4Gq8FAa6lV0?t=48https://www.facebook.com/groups/JugglingRock/permalink/1818309901571890/?comment_id=1818357108233836&reply_comment_id=1819380788131468https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-learn-to-juggle-kniveshttps://www.amazon.com/Juggling-Knives-Looking-Wrapped-Handle/dp/B01C3XWSDIhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/JugglingHome/permalink/3036087779949151/ (Most juggling knives aren't completely dull, though, and knives that aren't particularly sharp can still be fairly dangerous.)https://www.facebook.com/groups/JugglingHome/permalink/3222901731267754/
* Basic juggling is not done in a circular pattern or a wide arc with the arms held out to the sides, like you see in cartoons.https://youtu.be/EcgARTjABAQ?t=191 The easiest juggling patterns consist of two separate narrow arcs, one coming from each hand. It is possible to juggle roughly in a circle (called a shower pattern), but that's a more advanced trick, so that pattern is relatively rarely used.https://web.archive.org/web/20110614160437/http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/reference/history/subjectiverecords.htmlhttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CartoonJuggling If you want to learn to juggle three balls, doing two balls in a circle is counterproductive; that just causes you to develop the bad habit of not making proper throws on one side.
* Juggling patterns do not have to involve objects crossing over from one hand to the other. The most common way to juggle an even number of objects is the fountain pattern, which consists of two separate one-handed patterns done at the same time. This is not "cheating";https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.juggling/RweN_rG6BhY/Bv7rVF9uQqoJ in fact, jugglers generally find it more difficult to juggle a high even number of balls this way than in a crossing pattern.
==Difficulty level==
* It does not require an extraordinary amount of talent and coordination to be able to do basic juggling.https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.juggling/eNOjxf6vft8/EqX68lnfy1oJhttps://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.juggling/eNOjxf6vft8/tjq4uP9yHOMJhttps://www.reddit.com/r/juggling/comments/76rfwi/what_annoys_you_that_nonjugglers_think_about/dogihub/ Most people with average coordination can learn to juggle three balls with proper instructionhttps://www.juggle.org/juggling-and-your-beliefs/ and a few minutes to a few days of practice.https://beyondgrowth.net/personal-development/how-much-change-can-we-expect-lessons-from-juggling/https://www.quora.com/How-long-does-it-take-to-learn-how-to-juggle-3-ballshttp://www.kalvan.net/howtojug/howtojug.htm
* Eating an apple while juggling is not very difficult as juggling tricks go.http://davidrush4stem.com/3-apples-164-bites-1-minute/https://www.juggle.org/the-history-of-the-eating-the-apple-trick/ Jugglers tend to consider this trick to be a very easy way to impress people, compared to other things they can do.
* Making a ball appear to float in place while you manipulate it with your hands is a skill, not an easy gimmicked beginner's magic trick you can buy. A misleading "Fushigi" commercial from 2010 gave the false impression that anyone could do the moves seen in the video in minutes by using some kind of special floating ball. The Fushigi ball is just an ordinary contact juggling ball, which takes practice to learn to use.http://www.bradweston.com/wordpress/fushigi/http://freakinreviews.com/fushigi-reviews/https://tvstuffreviews.com/fushigi-ball
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|-|For jugglers=
*The Top 40 Jugglers list is based on popularity, and does not claim to rank jugglers by their technical skill.http://www.lukeburrage.com/blog/archives/1643https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVvNzePWNAk
*The carried ball in Burke's barrage is meant to go underneath the ball that was thrown under the arm, not to go over the top of the whole pattern, as it was mistakenly described in early editions of the Encyclopædia of Ball Juggling.https://www.facebook.com/groups/JugglingRock/permalink/2014763405259871/?comment_id=2015084388561106
*The trick known as treblas, reverse crotch throws, or reverse body throws(video) is not actually a time-reversed version of the trick known as Alberts, crotch throws, or body throws. Body throws done in reverse would be more like continuous (quasi) blind catches.(video)
*Chainsaws really are more difficult and dangerous to juggle than clubs. Chainsaw teeth are very dangerous even when the chainsaw isn't running,https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/nzGnBoXSnqU/m/iQkAUtS_vTYJ and a running chain is still fairly dangerous even if you remove the teeth. To actually make it safe to juggle chainsaws with the engine running, you would have to disconnect the chain from the engine, in addition to removing the teeth.https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/I4CmMV4goR4/m/g0G2D9Ys2jYJ And even then, chainsaws with the engine running aren't very easy to control.https://jugglingedge.com/forum.php?ThreadID=870#Small5904
*Knives and torches can also be more dangerous than some jugglers think,https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/g7NEFmRihrs/m/ZkANI4dWWioJ and it's important to have plenty of knowledge of fire safety precautions before you try playing with fire.https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/OkJmHyHA5WE/m/9aIu2KlwjokJhttps://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/OkJmHyHA5WE/m/W5GqLNWFWcoJ If you don't thoroughly shake off excess fuel (somewhere away from where you'll be juggling)http://www.juggling.org/help/torches/care.html before lighting the torches, and/or wait a few minutes for the fire to burn off the excess fuel before you start juggling,https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/g7NEFmRihrs/m/BANpVEOn8SgJ droplets of hot fuel can go flying and hurt you or catch things on fire.https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/g7NEFmRihrs/m/JriBwf0ac2AJ It may be safe to very briefly catch the wrong end when a torch is cold, but it's not safe once the torch gets hot.http://www.juggling.org/help/torches/danger.html You risk starting a bigger fire if you juggle anywhere near anything flammable. Potentially flammable objects include dry grass, your fuel source, your clothes if they're the wrong kind of fabric, and your hair.https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/mcZuZNcZ6H0/m/FFkvfQWXE48Jhttps://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/nIQBaFbinno/m/P1wF57qmaMcJ
*The advice "Don't move your feet" means you should practice making accurate throws so you're not forced to move your feet to keep juggling. It doesn't mean you should keep your feet still while making bad throws so you're forced to reach out and keep juggling in an awkward position. That would be worse than moving your feet.https://youtu.be/IBHqdOnnydo?t=2090 It also doesn't mean you can't ever add foot movement to your juggling if you want to. It just means you should be in control of whether you move your feet or not.
*"Mills mess" is not spelled with an apostrophe.http://www.juggling.org/help/tricks/mills-mess/history.html
*Jason Garfield is not perpetually angry in real life; that's just a character he used to perform for comedic effect.https://youtu.be/sZ32r9o1czc?t=105
*Practicing juggling only improves your coordination specifically for juggling. Despite some sensationalistic news reports, there is no scientific evidence that juggling helps with other physical skills, or that it significantly and permanently increases brain size, or that juggling is any better for your brain than practicing any other complex skill. (There is evidence that juggling can improve certain mental skills, though.)http://www.lukeburrage.com/audio/Juggling%20Podcast%2030%20-%20Discussion%20with%20Joost%20Dessing%20on%20body%20movement%20science%20and%20juggling.mp3 9:21-12:09https://tradingatoms.com/2016/03/29/the-neuroscience-of-juggling/
==History==
*The wall painting at the 15th Beni Hasan tomb (the oldest depiction of juggling) only shows three jugglers. A fourth woman throwing one ball is commonly presented as part of that picture,https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Illustrerad_Verldshistoria_band_I_044.jpg but that part is not actually in the original painting.https://www.facebook.com/groups/JugglingHome/posts/4415926718631910/?comment_id=4415934498631132&reply_comment_id=4415986348625947 The pictures you see of this are usually not photographs of the wall painting itself, but sketches of it that artists have made,https://www.jugglingedge.com/forum.php?ThreadID=1415#Small10169 which aren't entirely accurate.https://www.jugglingedge.com/forum.php?ThreadID=1415#Small10168
*The definition of juggling has gotten narrower over time, not broader. Entertainment in general used to be called "juggling", then only activities involving skilled object manipulation, then magic tricks were excluded, and now the term is often used even more specifically to mean something like "throwing and catching more objects than hands used" (which is sometimes mistakenly assumed to have been the original meaning of the word).https://web.archive.org/web/20180823182303/http://objectepisodes.com/t/the-definition-of-juggling/407?page=11 #219https://web.archive.org/web/20180823182157/http://objectepisodes.com/t/the-definition-of-juggling/407?page=14 #269https://web.archive.org/web/20180823190418/http://objectepisodes.com/t/the-definition-of-juggling/407?page=18 #349
*Not every juggler who performs in a suit is a "gentleman juggler". The gentleman juggler genre involved wearing formal Victorian clothing and using items typically found in a Victorian gentleman's home, such as hats, canes, cigar boxes, billiards equipment, and kitchenware.https://www.facebook.com/groups/JugglingHome/permalink/2935335466691050/https://www.facebook.com/groups/JugglingRock/permalink/2473232232746317/
*There was never a great juggler named Magnus Nicholls. Magnus was a hoax created by Barry Bakalor, Andrew Conway, and others on the rec.juggling forum.http://ezine.juggle.org/2015/08/12/magnus-nicholls-juggling-legend-or-juggling-myth/
*Enrico Rastelli was not the first person to spin a ball on a finger. Ball spinning had been done before, around 1700 in China. Rastelli isn't even known to have ever spun a ball on his finger; instead, he balanced a ball on his finger without spinning it. He also did ball spinning on a mouth stick.https://www.juggle.org/common-juggling-misconceptions/
*The type of juggling ball known as "Russians" actually originated in Ukraine, not Russia.https://www.juggle.org/the-history-of-juggling-balls-and-beanbags/https://www.juggle.org/mikhail-rudenko-inventor-of-russian-balls/ They were invented and popularized by Ukrainian jugglers. (At the time they were invented, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AZLO0AYb4M which was commonly called "Russia", though only one constituent state of the Soviet Union was actually Russia at that time.)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union#Etymology
*The first person to flash 11 rings was Albert Petrowski, who performed with 11 from 1963 to 1966,http://dev.juggle.org/history/archives/jugmags/25-11/25-11,p3.htm not Sergei Ignatov, who didn't do 11 till 1973.http://web.archive.org/web/20110723010829/http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/world/jugglers/interviews/sergeiignatov.html (The first person known to have flashed 11 rings on video is Anthony Gatto, in 1989.)http://web.archive.org/web/19970613223149/http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html
*Sergei Ignatov never performed a qualifying run of 11 rings on stage.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AJuggling_world_records#References_for_unverified_claims Ambiguous reports that he had "juggled" 11 rings were likely misinterpreted as meaning a qualifying run,https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/-HQ7wUwkGkQ/m/5jzSd9VmPrsJhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090130143616/http://www.jugglewiki.org/wiki/Juggling_Records and subsequently reported specifically as 22 catches based on that misunderstanding. Some observers have said they saw him do longer runs,https://web.archive.org/web/20110717164908/http://www.juggle.org/history/archives/jugmags/40-3/40-3,p24.htmhttps://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/-HQ7wUwkGkQ/m/iwdnStNUnCIJ but it's easy to miscount when watching numbers juggling in real time.https://web.archive.org/web/20110614141751/http://www.jugglingdb.com/news/rightpane.php?group=1&id=30857https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/-HQ7wUwkGkQ/m/7rDx7G3pXJEJ When Ignatov performed 11 rings, he started by juggling 9 before taking two from holsters, which could contribute to the perception that he was juggling 11 longer than he really did.https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/-HQ7wUwkGkQ/m/i0yohQnEc7MJ (That's what's happening in this video at 9:50.) (Ignatov is reported to have claimed to have done longer runs in practice,https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/-HQ7wUwkGkQ/m/i0yohQnEc7MJ including two times around,https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/-HQ7wUwkGkQ/m/St5iEoYeodkJhttps://www.facebook.com/davidcainjuggler/posts/pfbid03id9U3nL6uzkNEp6Ah1zr64RZRA56z2igV5dmLjRN175BshDzSeJsKGUeZtdaGail?comment_id=947963090569994&reply_comment_id=477603768175938, though there are also conflicting reports that he said he never did more than a flash, including in practice.)https://groups.google.com/g/rec.juggling/c/2MCGTdoJceE/m/dk1ibhOatqkJ
*The club juggling trick known as Alberts, crotch throws, or body throws was first done by Morris Cronin,http://www.juggling.org/jb/jb38.html not Albert Lucas.https://web.archive.org/web/20120320075022/http://www.juggle.org/history/archives/jugmags/36-1/36-1,p4.htmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX9KKhXRyzohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVSlxVt-v6w
*Michael Moschen was not the first contact juggler. Some of the contact juggling techniques Moschen used were new when he first performed them in 1985, but others already existed before that.http://www.ministryofmanipulation.com/articles/michael-moschen Tony Duncan and others were independently developing arm and hand rolling moves in the '70s and '80s. Famous European jugglers like Paul Cinquevalli, Enrico Rastelli, and Francis Brunn, inspired by Asian jugglers, were performing body rolling moves with one ball earlier in the 20th century.http://ministryofmanipulation.com/articles/history-ball-contact The magician Cardini was also performing hand contact moves in the 1950s.https://youtu.be/HhZ_DYGK6xY?t=330 And palm spinning (rotating multiple balls around each other in one hand) has been done for hundreds of years in China.https://www.baodingballs.com/history-and-types-of-baoding-balls/
==Siteswap==
*Bruce Tiemann was not one of the inventors of siteswap notation. He did independently invent siteswap patterns, invent a method of generating them, and name them "siteswaps". But he didn't describe the patterns using what is now known as siteswap notation until after he learned the notation from Paul Klimek.https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.juggling/SHYhB9OYOuM/_zj7icmejN0Jhttps://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.juggling/SHYhB9OYOuM/uAxYuqFaqGsJhttps://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.juggling/SHYhB9OYOuM/FbhmLpNnhKsJ
*The name "site swap" refers to changing the order in which objects are thrown,https://youtu.be/U5yTKUJrRew and not to changing which hand an object is in.https://youtu.be/rGhdPxJv5Dk?t=64 (Otherwise, a pattern like 864 where the objects never cross from one hand to the other wouldn't be a siteswap.)
*A number in a siteswap technically indicates how many beats later the object will be thrown again, and doesn't necessarily indicate the height of the throw. It's true that within a toss juggling pattern done at a constant speed, higher numbers correspond to higher throws, and it is useful to assume that by default, a number represents the kind of throw you would make when juggling that number of objects.https://youtu.be/rGhdPxJv5Dk?t=520 However, it's not entirely accurate to refer to the numbers as heights, for several reasons:
**The height of a throw notated by a certain number depends on how fast the pattern is being juggled. A 5 in a slow pattern is higher than a 5 in a fast pattern.
**The ratios between the physical heights of throws in a pattern are not the same as the ratios between the numbers representing the throws. The 6s in 633 are more than just twice the height of the 3s.Siteswap#Properties_of_siteswap_patterns
**There are ways that a throw can be represented by a certain number in a siteswap, but not go as high as you would throw when juggling that number of objects in the air at the same speed. A bounced 7 would be thrown lower than a tossed 7.http://www.twjc.co.uk/siteswapmisconceptions.html
*A number in a siteswap indicates how many beats later the object will be thrown again, not how many beats later it will be caught.https://www.facebook.com/davidcainjuggler/videos/10223640511059952/?comment_id=10223641251158454&reply_comment_id=10223661502824733 The time it takes before an object is caught can be less than the throw's siteswap value by up to two beats, depending on hold time.
*Siteswaps are not written in hexadecimal. The reason high numbers are written as letters in siteswap is to avoid ambiguous double-digits, so siteswap numbers beyond f would be written as g, h, i, etc.
*Not every sequence of numbers with a whole number average is a valid siteswap.http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/geek/notation/siteswap/bensguide.html?page=3 If anywhere in the repeating sequence there is a number followed 1 beat later by 1 less than that number, or a number followed 2 beats later by 2 less than that number, or a number followed 3 beats later by 3 less than that number, etc., it's not juggleablehttp://www.siteswap.org/validate.html (unless the pattern involves some kind of multiplex).
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|-|Fake juggling videos=
*A video from 2007 shows someone juggling three hammers. The video is manipulated to make it look like he hammers a nail into a board with the hammers in midair, and then throws the hammers so they stick in the board.https://www.juggle.org/faking-juggling-achievements-in-photos-and-videos/
*A video from 2011 shows someone apparently juggling 10 shuttlecocks by hitting them with two rackets. The juggling is unrealistic;https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/rec.juggling/jE57ns4BZw0/ciY58HhMGsYJ for one thing, the throws are all about the same height, asynchronous, and crossing, which is a pattern that can only be done with an odd number of objects. Juggling several shuttles with one racket is a real activity that's common among badminton players in Asia,https://www.facebook.com/groups/322794881971630/posts/1034102610840850/ but this particular video was made with CGI.https://web.archive.org/web/20140811054446/http://www.pacific7.com/work/badminton-england-virals
*A video from 2016 shows someone apparently solving three Rubik's cubes in under 20 seconds while juggling them in a Mills mess pattern. The cubes in the video are computer-generated.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-urGsFu3Fk It is possible to actually solve Rubik's cubes while juggling them, but it takes much longer than that.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_gHa2x2OQAhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/JugglingRock/permalink/1705428569526691/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njKW8t0aAF8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQn8Y3u9ABE
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==References==
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