Last updated on March 30th, 2021 at 11:03 pm
Learn To Juggle With Our Contact Juggling Tutorial
In this contact juggling tutorial we will go through the basics that will have you performing a couple of neat visual tricks.
Don’t know what contact juggling is all about? Check out our brief guide
How does contact juggling work? First off you will need to purchase some contact juggling balls? You can pick these up at specialist shops or online just head over to somewhere like Amazon. At the time of writing you can pick up them for $25-45 or £10-25 depending on the type and style.
Whether you go for the clear acrylic or coloured ones is entirely your choice, but for I would recommend going for the stage ball or practice balls first.
These are affiliate links, Amazon may share a small amount of revenue with us if you buy through one of these links. This has no effect on the price you pay.
Why purchase a practice contact juggling ball?
The reason for going for a stage ball or practice ball first is there is a good chance you are going to be dropping these fairly regularly whilst you are learning. You don’t want your nice shiny acrylic ball getting scuffed. You will want it for when you are ready to put on a performance or show in front of your friends and family.
What other factors should you consider before purchasing?
Another factor when purchasing contact balls is size? You will notice you can get these in a variety of sizes from 60mm to 100mm are the really common sizes available. I would suggest you go for 100mm to start with as being larger will help you control them more easily, you can always try different sizes later. Also not all of the balls are the same weight for the same size, for example you will tend to find acrylic ones are heavier than the stage balls.
One thing I can guarantee if you get into contact juggling you will end up with quite a few different ones.
Time to become comfortable with your ball
Let’s start contact juggling by taking a look at what type of cradle to use along with the butterfly technique. To illustrate this technique we will take a look at the incredibly talented contact juggler Lindsay Istace, take a look:
- Video Source: Lindsay Istace YouTube Channel
It appears to be easy or at least Lindsay makes it look that way. Spend time getting used to the feel of having the ball on the back of your hand as Lindsay says. This will be the first thing you need to feel comfortable with moving you hand and retaining control and then of course move on to flipping it.
Lets take a look at a couple of contact juggling tricks and essential skills.
- Transfers
- Finger Rolls
- Basic Isolations
- The Charge
Transfers
Ok let’s take this on a little further
So that gives you some basic techniques to work on.
- Video Sources: EosphereCJ YouTube Channel
or take a look at another contact juggler doing transfers
- Video Source: Zap101 YouTube Channel
Finger Rolls
However now we are going to look at something a bit different, concentrating on our fingers. This is a very important part of contact juggling as it adds to the overall illusion as Lindsay will demonstrate.
- Video Source: Lindsay Istace YouTube Channel
Plenty of practice is required but I think the end result is very cool.
Basic Isolations
Time to have a look at isolations which again look really neat.
- Video Source: Juggle Hut YouTube Channel
and a few more isolations this time from Mr Pauls contact juggling tutorial
- Video Source: Kinetic Circus YouTube
The Charge
I think we have time for another really cool illusion from Lindsay Istace.
- Video Source: Lindsay Istace YouTube Channel
Contact juggling tutorials are great but I need to see the routine
Keep practising and adding the skills one by one and you will be able to put together a little routine. But I think as we have seen quite of lot of contact juggling tutorials from Lindsay I think it only fair we finish the one of her routines.
She really is great a contact juggler who’s personality really shines through in her performance, fantastic stuff.
Final Thought – It’s Time To Pick Up A Contact Juggling Ball
Hopefully you have enjoyed this contact juggling tutorial, having seen all these talented people you now have your ball in hand and are making progress on some of the basics. You can see the kind of performance you could put together to really amaze your friends and family. Now surely that look of astonishment on their faces has got to worth a little effort.
If you would like to learn to contact juggle then follow these guides closely, trust me the time put into perfecting it is well worth the effort.
Thanks go to Lindsay Istace, EosphereCJ, Zap101, Juggle Hut & Kinetic Circus for making such easy to understand and follow contact juggling video tutorials. I recommend you check out their YouTube channels for more amazing juggling illusions and other cool stuff.
Share Your Progress Videos
If you would like to be featured on the site to help inspire those people currently learning contact juggling please send you video links here.
Prefer a different type of juggling, why not see our guide to learning to club juggling
I will be adding another contact juggling tutorial soon, so don’t forget to check back regularly for more guides along with some of the most crazy juggling skills you have ever seen!!!
Remember practice, practice, practice!
