On this website we have over 30 interviews with jogglers. Each one of them are interesting characters with inspiring stories. But after reading through all the interviews, I can conclude that there are a few types of jogglers. What kind of juggling runner are you?
The Speedsters
These are hard core runners who picked up joggling as a way to make their running more interesting. They post some impressive times even by runner’s standards and are often out to set world records. Michal, Travis, Lenny and Tyler are examples.
The Performers
These are jugglers who like performing in front of the large crowds that gather to watch races. They’ll often juggle with 4 or 5 balls (like Barry or Peter), use clubs like Joe H, or juggle different patterns like Joe S. Speed is not the primary focus for these jogglers. Some of them like Riley even bounce 3 basketballs.
The Challengers
Some people turn to joggling because they are curious whether they can do it. They are often runners who are bored with their usual race routine or jugglers who want to see if they can complete a race. Jeff C is an example of this type of joggler.
The Perfectionists
These are jogglers who focus on making it through a race without any drops. In most cases, a joggler will have a few drops but with focus and determination, a perfect race is possible. Ralph is an example of the joggling perfectionist.
The Fun Seekers
While all jogglers juggle because it is fun, there are some who’s only motivation is the pure joy of joggling. These are not runners who are looking to set records or to get accolades from the crowd. They just get a set of bean bags in their hands and go out and have fun. Joggling is a meditative way of life. Examples include Dana Lee Ling, Jack H, and Anders K.
The Streakers
Finally, there are the joggling streakers. These are people dedicated to joggling every day keeping a streak alive. They will joggle through rain, sleet, and snow without fail. If they go long enough, they can get their names in the USRSA (United States Running Streak Association) directory. An example of this type of joggler is Andy.
That’s all of ‘em. I know I didn’t list myself but I fit into all the categories (as do many other jogglers). No matter what type of joggler your are it’s a fun sport and if you haven’t tried it, you should.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice post. Glad you talked about this topic. Joggling is diverse and filled with creativity, and that’s what makes it appealing. It’s multi-faceted and people can focus on different aspects of joggling.
Juggling has for years been stereotyped as only one type in the minds of the public-clownish, entertaining, toss juggling done in circuses mainly. But, slowly it’s been expanded into many different forms (contact, sport, hobby, technical, freestyle, etc.). Joggling has a little less years under its belt than juggling, so I think it’s nice that it can start out with more diversity. It’s a sport, hobby, way of life, exercise, artistic expression, and form of entertainment.
I’ve enjoyed exploring and expressing some of the creative sides to joggling, along with the marathon joggling and race joggling.
As soon as I learned about joggling, I was really attracted to the challenge of it. I’ve been able to do the 3 ball cascade for a long time, but I’ve never been an accomplished juggler.
I’m convinced that the precision, coordination, and balance required to master joggling, will also make me a better runner.
Plus, it’s a lot of fun to joggle.
It is definitely lots of fun to joggle. I was joggling around my neighborhood yesterday and when I stopped at a stop light, a guy said to me, “why do you juggle?”
I said, “Because it’s fun. Much more fun than merely running”
Perry-sounds like a good answer to me. It’s fun and it goes good together, is usually what I say because it’s the truth.
Perry, when interviewing jogglers, in particular speedsters, did you collect any info about how their non-joggling times for various distances compare to their joggling times? I’d be interested to know how much slower your joggling race times are, and how the % slowdown varies by distance and runner.
-George
George,
According to Michal he loses about 10% of his speed by joggling. Here is a comparison of his times.
http://thejoggler.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-much-does-juggling-slow-me-down.html
All of my PRs have been set while joggling so I have no idea whether it slows me down or not.
Perry,
Since all your PRs have been set while joggling I think you should make the claim that you’re the only joggler in the world that joggling makes faster rather than slower!
Michal’s post is very interesting, although making the comparison between PRs done a number of years apart clearly isn’t ideal. Doing something like time trials of 400m,800m and a mile both with and without joggling would be an interesting experiment without being too taxing. Longer distances would take more recovery (especially for the marathon where so many other factors come into play as well). I’d always used the rule of thumb of the joggling slowing you down about 30-35 seconds a mile. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if your slowdown is a bit less though since you exlusively joggle. I’m also curious how much being a good juggler helps. Clearly at the extreme of a beginner juggler that’s dropping a lot and having to slow down to avoid dropping even more, juggling ability is a big liability. I think once you get to the intermediate juggling level, I doubt juggling ability makes more than a couple of percentage points difference in speed.
-George
That sounds like an interesting experiment. Maybe I’ll try it this summer.
You’re right that juggling ability can be a significant liability if you’re not such a good juggler. However, if you can get to a point where you don’t have to look at the balls when you juggle, then I don’t think it should affect your speed much.