Juggling

Ball Passing Patterns

This page collects many two-person passing patterns, performed by Alice and Bob. I hope you can understand my diagrams. In doubt you can try to find explanations on my page about the mathematical theory of juggling.

I only consider the part of the passing pattern which can be described by some kind of site-swap notation. The basic version for these patterns is to stand front-to-front and to do the indicated throws. But of course all of these patterns can be enhanced by doing throws under your leg, from behind your back, by doing a mills' mess while performing the pattern, or by standing back-to-back.

The Physics of Ball Juggling

The purpose of this text is to explain some physical background of ball juggling. While the number of hands and the timing of throws is abstracted away in the mathematical theory of juggling, these quantities play a central role in this text.

The present version of the text is work in progress and will hopefully be extended.

Jochen Voss, Juggling in the Cryfields sports pavilion

The Timing of Throws

In this section we will have a look at a real-world juggling pattern to see what is going on. We will get timing information from the pattern, derive Shannon's first theorem about juggling, and finish this section by exploring how fast or slow you can juggle while keeping the same height of throws.

Juggling and Unicycling

My favourite juggling props are balls. But to some extent I can handle clubs as well, and I also own a unicycle.

I sometimes visit the Warwick Juggling Society. Unfortunately this term the university was unable to provide a room for us. Thus we meet sometimes, somewhere.
Another Coventry juggling group is the Coventry Community Circus, which meets each Tuesday in the Artspace building in Coventry.
When I lived in Kaiserlautern (Germany), I used to visit the juggling group at the University of Kaiserslautern. Current information about the jugglers from Kaiserslautern can sometimes be found on the Kaiserslautern juggling mailing list.
Since I am a mathematician, I am interested in the theory of juggling. You can learn a little bit about site-swaps (a mathematical way to describe juggling patterns) on my page about the mathematics of juggling. A collection of two-person patterns can be found on my ball passing patterns page.
More Photos can be found in my digital, almost blinking, fully automatic photo album.

Juggling Patterns

This page collects several juggling patterns, which can be described as site-swaps. This is a restriction which leads to the omission of many great juggling patterns like the Mills' Mess and of many tricks like throwing behind your back. But, as you will see, even with this restriction in place there is some interesting stuff left.