The Excuse

Why creativity is limited in recreational jugging.

At the RIT convention, Jay Gilligan held a very interesting workshop on creativity. He gave us a small outline of how to think up new juggling patterns. The primary goal is to choose some basic siteswap (3, 423, 522, something easy) and by play around with it in hopes that the finished pattern looks totally different. This is achieved through the following:

• Altering the rhythm of the pattern (changing speed/height of throws)
• Changing the position of your body in relation to the juggled objects (e.g. contortion)
  
• Changing your environment in relation to the juggled objects (bounce a ball of the wall, shower through a basketball hoop, stuff like that)
• Motion of your body (and therefore the pattern itself, e.g. mills mess)
  
• Motion of the environment

I honestly did learn a lot, but I'm not sure if I'm going to embrace it just yet.

Let me preface this statement. As a juggler, I am about as technical and unoriginal as they come. In the majority of the time I have been juggling (about 2 years), my focus has been on basic siteswaps alone. Although I am now learning and practicing more 3 ball tricks, they are still not very original. Sure, some patterns I've never seen anyone else bother to do, but they seem fairly obvious so it would be silly of me to assume I am the originator.

So why do many recreational jugglers including myself put off or even pooh-pooh creative juggling? The answer is different for most people, but I will attempt to provide a few reasons that I'm sure many can understand and perhaps relate to. First, creative juggling isn't merely juggling, it's also creating. Some jugglers just like to juggle. They don't want to create. They want to stay away from the over thinking and simply have fun. Second, some of these juggling "purists" may simply avoid creativity because they don't have the time to both juggle and create. Many recreational jugglers must balance their juggle time with school, work, family, or whatever else they have on their plate. Third, they may already be creating and expressing themselves through different arts. Fourth, being creative is risky. One can put a lot of time in trying to think up a pattern only to either:

1. Completely fail.
2. Find out that it has already been done before.
   
3. Figure out a trick, realize they aren't talented enough (or don't have enough practice time) to ever pull it off, then proceed to ask someone else to do it. (More rewarding then numbers 1 and 2, but not rewarding enough.)
   

Allow me to address number 3. Number 3 is why the majority of the creativity in the juggling world is coming from highly skilled jugglers. Think Peapot jugglers. Think VisionBot jugglers. Creating is less risky when you have the technical skill to back it up. One who is skilled in juggling has more confidence in their ability to develop and solidify hard yet original tricks.

In my opinion, the recreational juggler's common excuse is a mixture of these four reasons. Many recreational jugglers will pursue goals that other jugglers have already achieved, and as long as they find that rewarding they will continue to do so. I know I will.