How to juggle 3 balls Learning the cascade

These past few days, I’ve met a lot of people while training outside who asked me how to juggle. After teaching them, I decided to create a short but consistent video on how to learn to juggle 3 balls. I must mention Oscar Dieguez, the juggling teacher at Carampa’s Circus School, whose astonishing methodology taught me so much.

This video is designed to help you progress from one ball to three. I’ll also explain various educational patterns to achieve your juggling goals, complemented by animated gifs and their associated siteswap patterns for clearer explanations.

Check out the video to see what I’m talking about. I hope you enjoy it and learn to juggle with it.

A Video with 11 Essential Exercises for Solidifying Your 3-Ball Cascade

In this video, I’ve summarized the most effective method I’ve come across for teaching how to juggle. This method has been extensively tested in workshops and with people I’ve met along the way, and it has consistently proven to be highly successful.

How to juggle step by step with GIF and Sitewaps

Exercises with one ball, launching into a new dimension

• Hold a single ball in your dominant hand, elbows bent at 90 degrees, and palms facing upwards.
• To throw the ball, move your forearm upward, avoiding wrist or whole arm motion.
• Keep both elbows beside your hips. The throw should reach eye level at its peak and be angled to land in your weaker hand’s waiting palm.When catching, let the ball fall into your hand without reaching out.
• Adjust your body position if the throw is off-center.

Exercises with 2 balls, the art of exchange

After learning the basic throw, we’ll add a second ball and learn the exchange – a fundamental juggling move where two balls swap places.

• Hold two balls (preferably of different colors) – one in each hand. Begin by throwing the first ball (we will use the orange) from your dominant handd.
• Once the ball peaks in its trajectory, toss the second ball (the yellow) from your weaker hand “beneath” the first ball (inverse throw). The trajectories should not be identical, as this could result in a mid-air collision, but should be adjusted to the catching hand side.
• Catch the first ball (orange) with your non-dominant hand and the second ball (yellow) with your dominant hand.

Practice the basic exchange with two balls, and after try to hold the pattern

This is the exchange. You can also switch sides: throwing the first ball from your weaker hand followed by the second throw from your dominant hand. Once you feel comfortable with the exchange on both sides, you’re ready to take on the cascade.

Now, let’s try to start with two balls in one hand.

Exercises with 3 balls : Reigniting the flame

Before to try to maintain 3 balls as long as you can, try to do only 3 catches, and when you will be solid with 3, try to do 5 catches. Remember to always start every time with each hand.

Now, it’s time for the main event! Grab three balls – two in your dominant hand and one in the other hand.

• Hold the two balls so that you grasp one (orange) with your thumb, index, and middle finger, and the other (green) with your ring finger and pinkie.
• Launch the first ball (orange) from your dominant hand.
• As with the exchange, throw the second ball (yellow) from your non dominant hand when the first ball (orange) is at eye level.
• Catch the first ball (orange) with your weaker hand.
• When the second ball (yellow) is at eye level, throw the third ball (green) from your dominant hand. This is similar to the exchange, but on the opposite side.
• Catch the second ball (yellow) with your dominant hand. Close the pattern and, start from the other side.

Once you have this solid, you can try to add more throws and caches as I said in the beginning of the Step 3.