History of Juggling

Who do you think was the first person to juggle?

Maybe one day, when Adam was working the land a fruit fell from a tree and hit him on the head (He did seem to have problems with fruit and trees).  When it hit him on the head, maybe he threw it back up in the tree only making another fruit fall.  After repeating this over and over, the fruit did not seem to stay in the tree but they did seem to float momentarily as he controlled the way they flew into the air.

Once Adam had to leave the garden, He was also realizing that he now had to juggle in the modern sense of the term.  He was now responsible for keeping a handle on family, work, and his new somewhat broken relationship with God.  Do you ever feel like you need to juggle in order to keep control of all the things that are going on in your life with school, parents, friends, church, and your health?

We are not sure if Adam juggled or not, but there is a good chance that Moses or someone that he knew in Egypt did.  The first records of juggling are seen in wall carvings of an unknown prince from around 1994 B.C.  These carvings depict Egyptian women juggling balls. 

Even though juggling is not magic, a skilled juggler can appear to use special powers to keep balls, clubs, knives, or torches afloat while avoiding mid-air collisions.  For this reason, in the ancient East and in some Aztec tribes juggling was often associated with priests or shamans who supposedly used juggling to predict the future.  By seeming to have the ability to make objects float, they were able to develop believability with the people in their area or tribe.

Juggling is defined as keeping two or more objects i n the air at one time by alternately tossing and catching them.  The objects that one tosses and catches are called props, and the path that these objects follow from hand to air and back is called the pattern.

The most common pattern used is called the cascade in which the balls travel in a vertical figure eight pattern above the hands.  If you want to try juggling, click here to find out how you can learn and how juggling may make you smarter.

Other early evidence of juggling is seen in Greek art.  Balls seemed to be the most popular prop for juggling but there is also some reference to the manipulation of knives and torches.

There does not seem to be much evidence of the use of clubs (as is seen often today) in much of the historical references to juggling.

More evidence of juggling before the birth of Christ is seen in this terra cotta statue from ancient Thebes about 200 B.C.  It is a man with balls balanced on different parts of his body.

Often there is very little history associated with jugglers because they traveled the land performing at town markets or gatherings and then moving on to the next town.  A juggler was always good at drawing a crowd.  You can see in the history of dentistry page on this site, that ancient toothdrawers in the marketplace would often open with a juggler in order to draw a crowd whom they could then convince that they would feel much better if they let them pull their teeth.

In and before the tenth century A.D., laws have been found in Ireland which explained what a juggler must pay an audience member in the marketplace if they made a mistake and harmed them with one of their props.  (This law does not apply at Dr. Juggles’ performances.  HA!HA!)

As we move into more modern times, juggling and clowning became often lumped together as a part of the circus, carnivals, or vaudeville acts.  However, both really took a backseat in the entertainment world as theater, film, and television made their way onto the scene.  But most people still smile when they see a juggler, and that is the goal of most jugglers, “to bring a smile to the face of anyone who may pass their way.” 

Dr. Juggles would like thank Professor Arthur Lewbel for historical research and pictures published in his paper Research in Juggling History.  To contact Professor Lewbel, visit Arthur Lewbel Home Page.

Juggling Could Make You Smarter, So Here Is How You Learn

According to Laurie Volkin and Richard Dargan, ASRT contributing writers (this story came from  www.asrt.org/content/News/IndustryNewsBriefs/MR_Index.aspx), juggling can increase the amount of gray matter in certain areas of your brain based on MR scan studies of subjects who learned to juggle.  Gray matter is mainly found in the outer layers of the cerebrum in your brain and is responsible for advanced mental functions.  Researchers used 24 people who had never juggled before and divided them into a juggling and a non-juggling group.  They performed MR scans on the subjects during the study and 3 months after the close of the study.

The juggling group was taught to perform a 3 ball juggling pattern over a 3 month period, and their gray matter was shown to increase whereas the nonjugglers’ gray matter did not.  After the juggling group stopped juggling for 3 months and were scanned again,  their gray matter had decreased some.

So, let’s start exercising your brain and beef up your gray matter by teaching you to juggle.

Here is how:

1.  Order the Dr. Juggles How To Juggle Kit which will include 3 Dr. Juggles Juggling Balls and detailed instructions on how to perform the 3-ball cascade mentioned above. Order now!

2.  Until your Dr. Juggles How To Juggle Kit comes in the mail, ball up two socks (hard to learn with tennis balls because they bounce off your hands) and practice tossing and catching to build up your hand-eye coordination.

Get used to tossing and catching in this pattern: