Ball juggling

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Balls are roughly spherical objects,http://www.juggling.org/records/rules.html usually small enough that several can be held in one hand at a time. They are the most common prop used for toss juggling and bounce juggling, and they are the prop that most people learn to juggle first. Most jugglers consider balls to be easier to juggle than rings or clubs. Beanbags are the most common type of juggling ball, and are preferred by many jugglers, especially numbers jugglers.
The earliest known record of ball juggling is an Egyptian wall painting of female dancers and acrobats juggling balls in the 15th Beni Hasan tomb, dating from the middle kingdom period of about 1994-1781 B.C.https://www2.bc.edu/~lewbel/jugweb/history-1.html
The highest number of balls that have been qualified (at least twice as many catches as objects) is 11 for toss juggling and 10 for bounce juggling, and the highest number of balls that have been flashed (same number of throws and catches as objects) is 14 for toss juggling (by Alex Barron) and 12 for bounce juggling (by Alan Sulc).http://wayback.archive.org/web/20130518042037/http://www.bouncepage.com/records.htm
==3 balls==
thumb|left|400px|3 ball tricks by Tsubasa MurakamiThe 3 ball cascade is usually the first juggling pattern a beginning juggler learns. The world record for 3 ball endurance is 13 hours, 10 minutes, and 5 seconds by David Rush.http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-duration-juggling-three-objects-
==4 balls==
thumb|left|400px|4 ball tricks by Tsubasa Murakami 4 balls are most commonly juggled in a fountain pattern (2 balls in each hand). The wimpy pattern may be more difficult for beginning 4 ball jugglers because the balls collide easily, but since crossing throws are generally easier than non-crossing throws, the wimpy pattern is easier than the fountain for higher numbers. The 4 ball endurance world record is 3 hours, 3 minutes, and 13 seconds by Chris Smith.(video)
==5 balls==
thumb|left|400px|5 ball competition routines at WJF 6 The basic pattern for 5 ball juggling is a higher (and/or faster) version of the 3 ball cascade. 5 is the minimum number of balls used in the intermediate and advanced WJF competitions.https://www.thewjf.com/ioc/https://www.thewjf.com/aoc/ The advanced overall championship includes a 5 ball freestyle competition (best trick contest; held since 2006). Before 2015, the overall championship also included a 5 ball 360s competition (most 5 up 360s in 1 minute). The world record for 5 balls is 3 hours, 44 minutes, and 46 seconds by Bence Ónodi.(video) Thomas Dietz claims to have juggled 5 balls for 3 hours and 47 minutes.
==6 balls==
thumb|left|400px|6 ball sequence by Thomas Dietz The WJF overall championship includes a 6 ball freestyle competition (first held in 2006). The 6 ball world record is 30 minutes and 45 seconds by Max Kuschmierz.(video)
==7 balls==
thumb|left|400px|7 ball tricks by David Ferman Until 1984, there were only two divisions in the IJA Numbers Championships - one for 7 objects (competitors could use either 7 balls or 7 rings in the same division) and one for 5 clubs. Since 1984, the IJA has had competitions with a separate division for each prop, where competitors are scored higher for juggling higher numbers.http://www.juggle.org/ija/championships/ The WJF overall championship includes a 7 ball freestyle competition (held since 2004), and also included a 7 ball isolated endurance competition (endurance contest with competitors standing on chairs to allow only accurate, controlled patterns) from 2007 to 2014.http://www.thewjf.com/allevents.php The world record for 7 ball juggling is 16 minutes and 25 seconds by Adolfo Almonacid.(video) The world record for the longest 7 ball bounce juggling run with publicly available video evidence is 19 minutes and 30 seconds by Jukka Sairanen.
==8 balls==
thumb|left|400px|8 ball 8 up 360 by David Ferman The first person to juggle 8 balls in the IJA's numbers endurance competition was Dan Bennett in 1984, and the first person to juggle 8 balls in the bounce juggling numbers competition was Fritz Grobe in 1993. 8 is now the minimum number of balls used in the numbers endurance competitions at the IJAhttp://www.juggle.org/ija/championships/files/2015/04/NumbersRules2015.pdf and the WJF.https://www.thewjf.com/competition-rules/ The 8 ball juggling world record is 1 minute and 18 seconds by Enzo Nicolas Aguero.(video) The world record for bounce juggling 8 balls is 4 minutes and 12 seconds by Alan Sulc.(video) The following people have juggled 8 balls for over 100 catches on video: 
*Enzo Nicolas Aguero - at least 466 catches(video)
*Anthony Gatto - 381 catches(video)
*Simeon Graham - 261 catches;(video) 312 catches(claim)
*Luca Pferdmenges - 241 catches(video)
*Sylar Buckner - 234 catches(video)
*David Ferman - 214 catches(video)
*Tom Whitfield - 185 catches(video)
*Max Kuschmierz - 185 catches;(video) 231 catches (claim) 
*Michael Ferreri - 161 catches(video)
*Thomas Dietz - 159 catches;(video) 169 catches(claim)
*Ty Tojo - 146 catches(video)
*Adolfo Almonacid - 139 catches(video)
*Bruce Sarafian - over 130 catches;(video) 160 catches(claim)
*Luke Davies - 126 catches(video)
*Erik Toll - 126 catches(video)
*Jonny Moore - 116 catches(video)
*Florian Maertz - 115 catches(video)
*Spencer Androli - 115 catches(video)
*Eivind Dragsjø - 107 catches;(video) 122 catches(claim)
*Haavard Hvidsten - 103 catches;(video) 160 catches(claim)
Other jugglers reported to have done over 100 catches of 8 balls:
*Alex McGillivray - 128 catches(claim)
*Paweł Witczak - 112 catches(claim)
*Jirvan Knobbe - 109 catches(claim)
*Jack Denger - 106 catches(claim)
*Jan Poolen - 106 catches(claim)
*Christian Hauschild - 105 catches(claim)
*Josiah Jones - 101 catches(claim)
*Kristian Wanvik(claim)
==9 balls==
thumb|left|400px|9 ball 7 up 360 to a collect by David Ferman The first person to juggle 9 balls in the IJA's numbers endurance competition was Anthony Gatto in 1989, and the first person to bounce juggle 9 balls in competition was Nate Seefeldt in 2001. 9 is the minimum number of balls used in the WJF's numbers endurance competition. The world record for 9 balls is 54 seconds by Anthony Gatto.http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html(video) The world record for bounce juggling 9 balls is 1 minute and 7 seconds by Cao Kai.(video)
The following people have juggled 9 balls for over 100 catches on video: 
*Anthony Gatto - 304 catches;(video) 348 catches(claim)
*Tom Whitfield - 152 catches;(video) 178 catches(claim)
*Ty Tojo - 136 catches(video)
*Michael Ferreri - 132 catches(video)
*Ofek Snir - 131 catches(video); 202 catches(claim)
*Domenyk La Terra - 121 catches(video)
*Sylar Buckner - 104 catches at age 14(video)
Other jugglers reported to have done over 100 catches of 9 balls: 
*Thomas Dietz - 192 catches(claim)
*Matan Presberg - 103 catches(claim)
*Grigoriy Lovigin(claim)
*Vova Galchenko(claim)
*Alex Barron(claim)
Tricks that have been done with 9 balls include:
*Duplex splits - qualified(video)
*Triplex stacks - qualified(video)
*Cascade with head bounce - qualified(video)
*Halfshower - qualified(video)
*Reverse cascade - qualified(video)
*(ax,8)* - qualified(video)
*7 up 360 - to a qualify(video)
*7 up 180 - not qualified(video)
*Overhead throws - flashed(video)
*Backcrosses - flashed(video)
==10 balls==
thumb|left|400px|10 ball world record by Tom Whitfield Several jugglers are recorded as having done 10 balls in the early 20th century, including Frank LeDent, Pierre Amoros, Enrico Rastelli, and Jenny Jaeger.http://ezine.juggle.org/2014/11/17/juggling-firsts-part-one-balls-and-ball-bouncing/http://ezine.juggle.org/2014/05/19/common-juggling-misconceptions/ 10 is the highest number of balls that have been qualified in any of the numbers endurance competitions at the IJA and the WJF. The first person to successfully bounce juggle 10 in competition was Robert Mosher III in 2007, and the first person to successfully toss juggle 10 in competition was Tom Whitfield in 2023.https://www.juggle.org/enewsletter/2023-08(video) The world record for bounce juggling 10 balls is 51 catches by Mathias Ramfelt.(video) The following jugglers have qualified 10 ball non-multiplex toss juggling on video:
*Bruce Sarafian was the first person to qualify 10 balls on video, in 1994. He has done 23 catches on video (verified by JISCON).http://wayback.archive.org/web/20120414225947/http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html
*Jason Garfield - 20 catches(video)
*Daniel Eaker - 22 catches(video)
*Alex Barron - 33 catches(video)
*David Ferman - 26 catches(video)
*Dan Wood - 25 catches(video)
*Luke Davies - 22 catches(video)
*Tom Whitfield currently holds the 10 ball world record with 51 catches.(video)
*Alex McGillivray - 20 catches(video)
*Brian Koenig - 20 catches(video)
*Dave Leahy - 20 catches(video)
*Dylan Tweed - 24 catches(video)
*Luca Pferdmenges - 20 catches(video)
*Michael Ferreri - 21 catches(video)
*Erik Toll - 29 catches(video)
*Sylar Buckner - 33 catches(video)
*Enzo Nicolas Aguero - 24 catches in a halfshower(video)
*Simeon Graham - 21 catches;(video) 22 catches(claim)
*Ben Thompson - 22 catches(video)
*Jonny Moore - 20 catches(video)
Other jugglers reported to have qualified 10 balls: 
*Thomas Dietz - 28 catches(claim)
*Dave Kelly - 25 catches(claim)
*Nik Meier - 22 catches(claim)
*Joey Cousin(claim)
*Peter Blanchard(claim)
*Ben Beever(claim)
*Anthony Gatto(claim)
*Alex Rumford(claim)
*Jirvan Knobbe(claim)
Patterns and tricks that have been done with 10 balls:
*Asynch fountain - qualified(video)
*Synch fountain - qualified(video)
*Wimpy pattern - qualified(video)
*Lift bounce - qualified(video)
*Force bounce - flashed(video)
*Duplex stacks - qualified(video)
*4-plex splits - qualified(video)
*Halfshower - qualified(video)
*bbbbbbbbb1 - flashed(video)
*bbbbbbbbbb0 - flashed(video)
*b9a - flashed(video)
*Ball balance - flashed(video)
*Club balance - flashed(video)
*Isolation - qualified(video)
*Rola bola - flashed(video)
*Kick-up from a 9 ball qualify to a 10 ball flash(video)
==11 balls==
thumb|400px|left|11 ball world record by Tom Whitfield11 is the highest number of balls that have been performed onstage. Frank LeDent, who was performing with 11 in 1907, is the first person credited with juggling 11 balls.
Bruce Sarafian was the first person to flash 11 balls on video. His first flash in 1992 was listed as a Guinness world record.http://dev.juggle.org/history/archives/jugmags/46-2/46-2,p27.htmhttps://archive.org/details/guinnessbookofre00matt/page/536/mode/2up?q=juggling In 1994, he broke his own world record with 12 catches (verified by JISCON),http://wayback.archive.org/web/19970613223149/http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html and in 1997 Jason Garfield tied for the record, also getting 12 catches.http://wayback.archive.org/web/19971014123652/http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html In 2000 Jason beat Bruce's official record with 14 catches,http://wayback.archive.org/web/20000618075927/http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html and in 2001 Bruce regained the record, submitting a video to JISCON of a run of 15 catcheshttp://wayback.archive.org/web/20011222223103/http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html (which he says was actually recorded in 1995, making it the earliest 11 ball video currently available online).https://youtu.be/QsOHV779nwU?t=120
This remained the world record for 11 balls until 2010, when Alex Barron also got 15 catches,https://youtu.be/2_nEVVPiDj4 and then 17 catches three days later.https://youtu.be/aqbtugSVYp8 Three days after that, Peter Bone broke the record with 18 catches,https://youtu.be/_WIdWu5LXb4 and in four more days, Alex did 19.https://youtu.be/9b9405uteA8 Two days later Alex Barron got 21 catches of 11 balls.https://youtu.be/CPmAWY1dAaE Alex claimed to have done 23 catches four days after he did 21, but his camera got knocked over by the wind just before he did it,https://youtu.be/PFUAbbrfxxs so there was no video evidence of the qualify until he was able to get 23 catches again in 2012.(video)
Later in 2012, he did 11 balls for 25 catches.(video) In 2017, Alex did 26 catches,(video) and then 33 catches.(video) Tom Whitfield set the current record with 34 catches in 2022.(video) Dan Wood also qualified 11 in 2022,(video) Erik Toll qualified it in 2023,(video) and in 2024 Sylar Buckner became the youngest person to qualify 11 balls, at age 14.(video) Dylan Tweed possibly qualified 11 with 23 catches in 2020, but not all the catches are visible in the video.
Patterns and tricks that have been done with 11 balls:
*Isolated for 13 catches by Dylan Tweed(video)
*Flash on a rola bola by Karel Schuller(video)
*Flash with a club balance by Luke Davies(video)
*A flash ending with a 1 up 360 by Peter Bone(video)
*Halfshower for 15 catches by Luke Davies(video)
*(cx,a)* for 12 catches by Alex Barron(video) and Luke Davies(video)
*Lift bounce for 12 catches by Eden Zak(video)
*Duplexes for 14 catches by Sylar Buckner(video)
*4-plexes for 24 catches by Bill Coad(video)
*5-plexes for 30 catches by Bill Coad(video)
==12 balls==
thumb|400px|left|12 ball world record by Alex BarronThe following jugglers have all done at least a flash of 12 balls on video:
*Bruce Sarafian was the first person to flash 12 balls on video, in the wimpy pattern, in 1996.
*Ben Beever flashed 12 in a synch fountain in 2001, but JISCON listed it as a "disputed record" because the video does not meet their standards for validation (the first two throws are not shown).
*Sam Hartford - synch fountain(video)
*Alvaro Palominos - wimpy pattern(video)
*Peter Bone - asynch fountain(video)
*Brian Koenig - 14 catches synch(video)
*Alex Barron broke the world record with 13 catches(video) and then 14 catches(video) of a synch fountain in 2010,http://wayback.archive.org/web/20120629050419/http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html and then 16 catches of a synch fountain in 2011.http://wayback.archive.org/web/20120717011211/http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html(video) He did 17 catches of an asynch fountain in 2016,(video) and set the current world record with 20 catches in the wimpy pattern in 2017.(video)
*Dan Wood - 15 catches asynch, 16 catches synch(video)
*Dave Leahy - synch(video)
*Alex McGillivray - synch(video) and asynch(video)
*Luke Davies - synch(video) and asynch(video)
*Tom Whitfield tied the world record in 2024 with a run of 20 catches in an asynch fountain.(video) He has also done 16 catches synch.(video)
*Simon à Campo - synch(video)
*Dylan Tweed - 14 catches asynch,(video) 16 catches synch.(video)
*Eivind Dragsjø - asynch(video)
*Erik Toll - 16 catches synch;(video) 15 catches asynch;(video) 18 catches wimpy(video)
*Sylar Buckner was the youngest person to flash 12 balls, at age 13.(video) He has done 12 catches synch, and 17 catches asynch.(video)
*Karel Schuller - 12 catches synch;(video) 13 catches asynch(video)
*Johnathan Mundell - synch(video)
*Jonny Moore - synch(video)
Luke Burrage and Josh Turner both claim to have also flashed 12 balls, and Nik Meier claims to have done 12 balls for 14 catches.
Other patterns and tricks that have been done with 12 balls:
*Isolated flash by Dylan Tweed(video)
*Halfshower for 14 catches by Alex Barron (video)
*Force bounce by Alan Sulc (video)
*Duplexes qualified by Patrick Pettersson (video)
*Triplexes for 18 catches by Bill Coad (video)
*4-plexes for 24 catches by Bill Coad (video)
*5-plexes for 35 catches by Bill Coad (video)
==13 balls==
thumb|left|400 px|13 ball world record by Alex BarronPeter Bone claims to have flashed 13 balls in 2005, but has no video evidence. Alex Barron was the first person to flash 13 balls on video, in 2011. He increased the record to 15 catches in 2013.(video) In 2019, Dylan Tweed became the second person to flash 13 balls on video. Tom Whitfield(video) and Dan Wood(video) both flashed 13 balls in 2022. Erik Toll flashed 13 in 2023,(video) and tied the record with 15 catches in 2024.(video) Also in 2024, Sylar Buckner became the sixth and youngest person to flash 13 balls on video, at age 14.
Bill Coad has done 13 ball 5-plexes for 25 catches,(video) and 13 ball 6-plexes for 30 catches.(video)
==14 balls==
thumb|left|400 px|14 ball flash by Alex BarronAlex Barron is the only person who has done 14 balls in a non-multiplex pattern. He flashed 14 in an asynch fountain in 2017.(video)
Bill Coad has done 14 ball 6-plexes for 30 catches.(video)
==See also==
*Ball juggling category on Juggle Wiki
*Ball juggling world records
*Beanbags
*Russian style juggling balls
*NORWIK juggling balls 
*Bounce juggling
*Table tennis balls
*Ring juggling
*Club juggling
==References==
Category:Props
Category:Ball juggling