Achievement Ratio

Monday, March 12 was a big day for me. In Pittsburgh, for one night only, I got to see Jay Gilligan's presentation of his 10 year retrospective show. It was a look back at his 10 years as a solo artist. Jay began in '97 and moved year by year, showing one routine per year until now, 2007. From what I've seen of Jay in my limited experience with the juggling lifestyle so far, I thought he was a monumental juggler, infinitely creative and extremely talented. It's easy to forget that he started somewhere. Seeing his performance made me realize something that I'm about to discuss. In it's most basic form, the article is about starting points.

While I was watching Jay's show, I tried to think of the concepts he was talking about in between routines. One thing in particular stood out better than all the others. His "idea ratio" theory was that he is not necessarily more creative or more original, he just has more ideas, which sometimes tank and sometimes take off. Just by having more stuff to present helps him sift through the crap and refine the good ideas to make excellent routines that can be shown ten years later and still wow audiences. I started thinking about not just routine ideas, but achievements in juggling and our younger group of jugglers on the up and coming.

Recently, we've experienced a number of young kids getting "good" relatively quickly. A few names that come to mind are Haavard "Crazy Juggler", Daniel Eaker, Freddy Sheed, Adrian Pole and Brian Koenig. I'm sure there are more and some yet undiscovered but the point is this... there is nothing that sets them apart, no unnatural talent, they just try MORE things and have MORE success. Some people will say these young jugglers are rushing their progress, but if they can do the tricks, obviously they are within grasp.

When looking at a juggling career also, the harder you try, the more often you try, the more successful you will be. One of the quickest learners, I think, is Carey Pickford. If you look at his 2004 WJF promo video compared to his performance clips and music videos, he got a lot better. Also, his juggling career blossomed by doing more stage shows, halftime shows and getting paid to juggle. He's going places because he's trying harder than a lot of people are to start his career. I messaged him the other day and asked him about it. He says he's "trying VERY hard to become a [professional] juggler. After high school, this is what I want to do." He gets noticed around town because he performs there so often and right now he's working to land a summer job juggling. He never sits by and waits for calls, he actively searches them out and spends most of his time calling people asking for opportunities to perform. I'm sure he had his share of failures, but he learned from them and continued on. He can also do a five up 360 in singles... jerk.

I was talking with Doug Sayers about almost the same thing, this concept of achievement ratio. He has been practicing within his limits for a long time, and he gets a little upset when he sees all the young kids doing tricks he has not even tried yet, but wants to do. Now he's practicing harder things and believe me, he'll make a good showing next time you see him. It's not that he is practicing more, there is just more he is practicing. He is discovering things he can do and learning tricks that build on each other.

Achievement ratio has one downfall. This is the approach of a hobbyist juggler, professionals will scoff at this training method and say the BEST way to success is by only doing things you are comfortable with until it becomes perfect each time you try. Then you can add two more throws until it becomes perfect. I see no problem with trying a 3 up or 5 up 360 after you get your first 50 catch run with five balls. It will take a while to get it, but it will certainly take less time than building five balls to a thousand catches every time, then doing hundreds of 3 up flashes until you finally add the pirouette. If you have 10 years to burn, the professional route will ultimately lead to better long term success, but who's to say you won't go far with the achievement ratio approach? Look at Chris Fowler. 11 ball flashes, seven clubs, ten rings, plenty of achievements. He now does drills like a professional but he started by expanding his trick base. He says it helped him to start with a large trick base, because now he is working to solidify the things he wants to. From time to time, he still tries crazy tricks, but most of his practice now is spent doing the hard stuff he learned long ago but making it solid.

No matter what, you'll get good if you practice. Trying is half the battle. Getting "good" at juggling only requires you to start achieving, then over time the rest will follow.