Drawn by Sarah Derby

I’ve been juggling since around 2003. At that point I could already ride a unicycle and had tried (toss) juggling related activities like diablo, flower stick and spinning plates.

I’d wanted to learn for a while but I struggled to learn from a book. A regular 3 ball cascade is not complicated, you throw a ball from each hand alternatively but having someone show you in real life (ie not a video) is so much easier.

At a summer camp a guy came with lots of circus props and I made it my mission to learn 3 balls. Somewhat naively I thought that’s all I wanted to know how to do. No tricks. Not numbers juggling. Just a 3 balls cascade. Of course once I had the hang of 3 balls I couldn’t leave it there.

There a plenty of websites with tutorials and lists of tricks so for now I’ll not bother doing that. In my links section I’ve listed a few of my favourites.

I go to Glasgow Juggling Club that meets Wednesday evenings at North Kelvinside Community Centre. It’s a friendly place and the ideal place for a beginner to learn and for anyone to get better.

There are plenty of props that belong to the club to play with; waveboard, balls, clubs, rolla bolla, unicycles and a giraffe unicycle!

My favourite juggling balls just now are MMX 62mm. I used to use bean bags which are easier to catch than balls but because they change shape are unpredictable which makes smooth juggling harder. The MMX balls are a compromise between a solid ball and a bean bag, easier to catch but don’t deform much.

For juggling clubs I have 4 Mr Babache and 3 Beard Trainers. I didn’t mean to get two different types but it turns out they are so similar it doesn’t matter.