iron ball juggling.

[uki]

You might be inspiring me to take up juggling again.

i am glad i could help.

There's no way I'm going to be able to get hold of 5 kg iron balls though I don't reckon.

there's a place 5 minutes from my house to get them... they are 18 bucks, he sells them to me for 20... if you would like i can pick you up a set.

Have chucked 5 kg bags of rice in the air and caught them in a variety of ways all the way home from the rice store though... great for grip strength into the bargain, so may have to make some 5 kg soft sandbags.

never really did the grab catch methods...

You ever juggle with bags, Uki?

not really... i am assuming you mean rice bags or something similar... i juggle bricks, rocks, soup cans, clubs, bars, rebar, concrete stakes, trowels, block hammers...

What are the advantages with the balls?

i'd say that balls have the most versitality in the amount of tricks you can do... patterns you can follow. the sphere being the most perfect shape in nature and three being the most powerful number... yet juggling akward things such as bricks for example, help you maintain more concentration because the bricks usually spin at odd axis rotations and usually have to be caught and thrown from a different angle of trajectory than the perfectness of balls... your eye and hand co-ordination improves drastically the more odd the object you can juggle... for a really mind twister... juggle some juggling scarves... they float rather than fall... it's pretty weird.

[Mr Punch]

Thanks very much for the offer sir, but the extra 6500 miles may cause a problem! I'm happy trying rice bags, or sand as that should be less volume.

Done knives (juggling and irregular household type numbers), clubs and regular sticks before. Even tried billhooks for a few minutes once, but they're pretty dangerous for amateurs like me!

I know the grabbing techs aren't as quick in juggling, but should be a great forearm builder anyway. Doing everything in an overhand grip should be directly transferable to fu skills (rising elbows and palms, and forearm and grip strength galore!).

Now can I remember any tricks is the question!

[uki]

another way to juggle is called claw juggling, where you do not catch the balls with palms facing upwards, but with tiger clawing motions... grabbing the ball from above... it looks like you are scaling a wall without moving. i'll get some pics of it to better explain the concept...

[uki]

*bump*

the new folks might not see this thread if it's all buried.

[Lucas]

hey uki do you ever juggle blades?

[Chazmek]

Those pictures are simply awesome!

Looks much more interesting than regular weight training.

When/why did you start juggling for conditioning?
Did you start juggling as just a party trick, or has it always been for training?

[uki]

Looks much more interesting than regular weight training.

they cannot replace weight training altogether, but they do offer an alternate and more profound form of practice... combine the iron juggling and my masonry work, i have a well rounded weight training program.

When/why did you start juggling for conditioning?

i started juggling 4lb iron bars bars back in 2002, i juggled those until 2007, which is when i found a metal shop in town that had iron balls for sale... the upside of the balls is that there are far more tricks that can be done and they are over twice as heavy... much of my training exercises stem from simple creativity, in this instance i took my past time of juggling and simply incorporated heavier objects.

Did you start juggling as just a party trick, or has it always been for training?

i started juggling back in '97 when i was in garmisch-partenkirchn, germany... i got fired from my job with the AFRC and i had 4 months to kill until my return flight to the states... i hitch-hiked to berlin and i was dropped off in the city and lo and behold there was a street juggler on the sidewalk, i struck up a conversation and he told me that night was the local jonglere meet that was every tuesday, so i went... then he took me out everyday and we juggled for money to eat with... i have been juggling ever since... it paid my way for three trips to europe and two years worth of travelling from country to country... simply living on the streets and soaking up the experiences of life. i started martial arts training in '98, my teacher taught me the basics of bagua circle walking and told me that juggling while walking the circle would be an excellent way to train... and that is how it all began.

[uki]

hey uki do you ever juggle blades?

i somehow forgot to respond to this... yes i juggle blades - haven't in awhile though... when i worked as a dishwasher i would juggle the kitchen knives, including the cleavers. i was juggling a cleaver once and tossing it over my shoulder, catching it behind the back... LOL... i caught it too far up on the handle and hacked into my hand - blood everywhere... they told me not to juggle the meat cleavers in the kitchen anymore.

[mickey]

Greetings,

Uki,

Thank you for sharing your training method with us. I hope you will come out with the dvd before someone else takes your idea and runs to the bank with it with it. What you are doing is definitely worth including in Kungfu Magazine. I would love to see it there.

mickey

[Tombo]

Wow, that is quite an interesting hobby, well done with all you've done so far!

[uki]

Thank you for sharing your training method with us.

that'll be 100 bucks a month for the next 24 months...

I hope you will come out with the dvd before someone else takes your idea and runs to the bank with it with it.

my life doesn't revolve around making a DVD.

What you are doing is definitely worth including in Kungfu Magazine. I would love to see it there.

maybe someone should write an article for it then...

Wow, that is quite an interesting hobby, well done with all you've done so far!

thanks... juggling is a multi-faceted practice.

[dimethylsea]

i started martial arts training in '98, my teacher taught me the basics of bagua circle walking and told me that juggling while walking the circle would be an excellent way to train... and that is how it all began.

Just out of idle curiosity, what sort/style of bagua did your teacher do?

I've seen people do teacups with shotput balls, and a friend I introduced to the art does contact juggling, but the iron ball juggling is a very neat innovation!

UR DOING IT RITE!!

[uki]

Just out of idle curiosity, what sort/style of bagua did your teacher do?

she was a student of peter kwok and his senior student gary torres... so whatever they do(did).

from what i heard about kwok, he was one badass dude...

[uki]

some simple iron ball juggling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BmruNFxJ7o

[Lucas]

thats impressive uki. i'd like to go backpacking with you somewhere, you're like a walking meal ticket!