Today I am in Boston and things happened such that I wasn’t able to get my run in until 10:30 pm. That was cutting it pretty close but I made it. My workout was awful as I moved pretty slow, but after a day of traveling, sightseeing, and hobnobbing at a scientific dinner meeting, it wasn’t surprising.
As I joggled outside along the dark Massachusetts sidewalks, I thought about why I didn’t have too many drops even thought there wasn’t much light. It turns out over the years I’ve learned a little something about juggling at night. Here are ways that I keep from dropping.
How to prevent drops while juggling at night
1. Use the shadows. While it’s possible to juggle in complete darkness, you almost never have too. Rather there is some light in the sky that you can use as a contrast to your juggling balls. If you’re having trouble with your regular pattern, throw the balls up slightly higher and use the contrast with the sky to keep track.
2. Use lighter balls. It’s always helpful to have bean bags which contain some light color. The light color reflects dim light better and will aid you in picking up the pattern.
3. Don’t look at the bean bags. You should get to the point where you don’t have to look at the bean bags while you’re joggling. And when you’re joggling at night, be sure to look through them. Sometimes you can be fooled by the light and it will make you miss. Just don’t look directly at the bean bags and you should be ok.
4. Use glow in the dark balls. If your normal bean bags aren’t cutting it. Try some glow in the dark joggling bags. Like this set that Joe Salter has done.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
headlamps work great, and lighter colored balls. i use white ones, and they show up fine in neighborhoods, but the headlamp just gives you a little more light. pointing the headlamp down a bit, about 4-6 ft in front of you is the right angle for me.
My experience with glow balls is that they are too bright and blind me. Great for juggling but bad for avoiding obstacles. I use shiny plastic russians, so any piece of light causes a point of glare on them, which I use to see where the ball is.
Matt, I agree with you if you were joggling in pure darkness, that the glow balls would kinda “blind” you. But, not in a neighborhood, city, or other area that has some lighting around. I don’t joggle with the props in front of my face, so I don’t really encounter that problem anyway. The props don’t go any higher than a few inches above my belly button, around the sternum area. I have ditched the glow balls because they’re too expensive, slippery, and they don’t last and malfunction often. At least, for the ones I had. Expensive ones probably are more reliable and durable.
I opt for a headlamp for night time joggling these days. It solves all the problems I used to have with glow balls. It’s safe too, for cars to see you better, rather than just using beanbags with no light. It also solves the problem of not being able to see in the night. The headlamp helps the joggling, safety, and for seeing holes and other hazards on the ground/golf course/woods/etc.
When I was using a headlamp during my nighttime joggle in the Great Midwest Relay, I also used a headlamp. Unfortunately, I used white bean bags and when they got into the light, they practically blinded me. I had to throw lower than my chin to keep from getting blinded.
Perry, yeah I could see that happening if your throws are around head height. I take shorter strides, since I wear VFF’s, so my joggling pattern is lower and quicker so I didn’t really encounter that. But, I’ve noticed it some when juggling and biking at night since two is one hand is naturally higher than the cascade pattern.
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