The ideal surface for bouncing is smooth, level and very hard (eg a paving slab or wooden floor are ideal).
Two Methods of Bouncing
| Non-Forcing (Lift) | Throw the ball slightly in the air in a small arc (so that it is likely to land in front of your opposite foot). The ball should land in the upraised palm of your other hand. Lift bouncing is a lot slower and easier to learn than Forced bouncing. |
| Forcing | Force the ball towards the ground by keeping your palms facing downwards. With the forced bouncing, you throw (force) the ball downward and it goes at least as high as the release point. This method is more likely to be used when learning 4 & 5 ball bouncing and it looks more impressive and faster than the lift method! |
First Trick – Reverse Cascade (lift bounce)
| One Ball | Throw from one hand so that it rises a few inches and hits the ground in front of your opposite foot and bounces up into the upraised palm of your other hand. Try lift bouncing one ball in both directions for a while to get used to bounce juggling before moving on to trying two balls. |
| Two Balls | Start with a ball in each hand. Throw the first ball so that it lands in front of the opposite foot. When it hits the ground, throw the ball from the other hand in exactly the same fashion. Catch the first ball, catch the second ball (Throw, throw, catch, catch)! |
| Three
Balls |
Every ball is thrown over the previous ball and they all hit the ground in front of the opposite foot.To do this, take two balls in your favoured hand and one ball in the weaker hand. Start from the favoured hand and throw the first ball, letting it bounce in front of the opposite foot, when this bounce happens, throw the ball which is in the weaker hand, and when it bounces, throw the third ball (the remaining ball in your favoured hand), then just keep going. |
Once you have mastered this,try force bouncing using the above method, then you are ready for the following tricks!
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Tricks |
| Kick Back | You can retrieve a dropped ball by stepping on it as it bounces away from you, pulling your foot in toward you at the same time. |
| Bounce Columns | Drop one ball in the centre of your pattern, then drop one from each hand on either side. Then catch and drop the one in the centre, then catch and drop the two on the outside! Simple, easy and this trick looks great! |
| Bounce Two in One Hand | One of my favourite tricks, is to walk around while bouncing two balls in one hand, and letting the balls bounce a little less each time until you are having to bounce very quickly and near to the ground! You can then work your way back up to a taller pattern again. |
| Under Leg | Put your leg through the bouncing pattern so that one ball goes under your leg. Throw down, raise your knee, the ball bounces under your knee, and you straighten your leg again. Learn this on both sides, then try to perform an under the leg throw with every ball you are bouncing! |
| High Drop to Cascade | While juggling a cascade, throw the bounce ball extra high, let it bounce and when it comes back up past your hands, treat it as the first throw in your cascade pattern. |
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Juggler for Hire section – (based in the United Kingdom)
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Spin
For a special bouncing effort, you can put either forward or back spin on the ball to make it behave in a different way when it bounces off any surface.
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Backspin –Toss the bounce ball with backspin to make the ball bounce back to you. To use backspin, you pull down with your thumb over the top of the ball as you release it.
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Forward Spin –To add forward spin, pull your hand out from underneath the ball as you throw. Toss over your shoulder with forward spin and the ball might just bounce behind your back and return over your shoulder into your pattern!
