Please do let us know if you successfully learn to juggle thanks to this attempt at a lesson! -Matt

"Oh, I forgot about hands" - Matt Gray, 2018, half way through a juggling tutorial. :D

"I would like to apologise on behalf of me"..."for *that* face in *that* video"

"it's just throwing them and catching them" - it allllll makes sense now

The hardest part is not panicing about the timing of the third ball which causes you to throw it with more force than the other two.

Another tip for juggling: Don't look down at your hands! You don't know where the balls will land if you can't see the top of their arc. Counter intuitively, it's much easier to catch the balls if you look up at the top of their flight even if you can't see your hands at all.

"I would like to apologize on behalf of... me" made me lose it

Part juggling lesson, part surrealist 2008 youtube sketch, entirely delightful.

If you find "throw throw catch catch" hard try "throw throw drop drop" for a while.

"What is my face _doing_ there??" ...I believe that's called a smile, Tom. ^_^

Tom doing his best impression of a sitcom character randomly walking into shot for no reason

"I would like to apologize on behalf of... me." Something about the way Tom just nonchalantly strolls through the frame as he says that is so funny to me! 😂

"I've got some balls" - Matt Gray, The Owner of the Big Antenna, 2018

It took me about 2 weeks to learn to juggle, and another 2 weeks to learn with clubs... I went to a party not too long after where a guy tipsily said "can you teach me how to do it?" and despite saying "sure!" quite enthusiastically I knew deep down there was no chance... So we grab some fruit from the fruit bowl (it was the best we had at the time) and I show him pretty much this, 1 ball, moving to 2 balls, moving to 3 balls. He got the hang of 1 in about 10 seconds... Got the hang of 2 in about another 30... And was juggling 3 balls equally as well as me (if not better) in less than 3 minutes. I guess the moral of this story is this... If everyone has something that they're innately good at, pray yours is more useful than juggling. Edit: Posted this half way through before Tom's almost equally identical story haha :p

This is my favorite Park Bench video. I HATE THAT IT IS. They've done technology, behind the scenes, filmmaking... THINGS THAT I CARE ABOUT but this one is so funny. Tom's timing for popping in and comments is so funny in more ways that I understand, like it got subconsciously funny. Matt's terminology, the great "Oh, I forgot about hands" with the video almost done I do not care about juggling, and yet, I will be rewatching this.

ah yes the spinny spinny roundy problem Proffesional Juggler Terminology™

Tom looks so HAPPY when juggling :D

I have no interest in juggling and still watched them teach it for 12+ minutes. It's like, they can put up a video of shredding the printed comments to the video and people would watch it.

"What is my face doing there?!" I would speculate that there was a moment as you started where you weren't sure if you could still do it, and the crazy open-mouthed smile is "Oh, Cool, I can still do this!"

Now teach us how us how to juggle in front of the Parliament while trying to fend off the Sky news security team.

But how would you teach a Scottish cow on a deskchair to juggle?

The video where Matt attempts to be a real sports coach (and mostly does it) and where Tom fills in as an assistant who tries to help but wants to be the head coach.

Tom's little smile at the end is adorable :)

"What is my face doing there?!?!?" You're smiling, Tom! And it's adorable!

The basic juggling pattern is call a cascade. When Matt started throwing one ball over the other two, that goes by a couple names. I know the trick as "tennis". When all three balls go outwards, that's reverse cascade. Or at least it is according to the one person and one book I have seen on the subject. I learned to juggle to help me quit smoking. Fun fact, you can't smoke or think much about smoking when you hands are full of balls... and no, the ball jokes never get old when you juggle.

"Link to that below" Matt, I don't see a link. You lied to me...

It is time for this face, from this image, from this video v2 (tom edition)

tom's face at the end was the "babe going from temporary braindead to laughing at something"-face

Protip: it is all about the throw. Catching should eventually be the easy part because the ball just lands there. Focus your eyes at the top of the pattern, the brain works out the trajectory on its own. Relax, it will be a mindlessly fun trick after an hours work.

start juggling with flaming torches. you don't want to drop those so you're gonna learn quick

I grew up around clowns. They kept trying to teach me to juggle. I have like 0 depth perception and very little hand-eye coordination, so it very much failed. I've known how to juggle for a decade - in theory. I still can't juggle. If you're looking for a punchline there isn't one. This is a true story.

And why didn't Matt say "Mills it!"?

I'm afraid you didn't actually teach me to juggle, but you inspired me to have another go at the Mills' Mess for the first time in about six years. Nailed it after about five minutes. Turns out all that practising I did at uni was still in there, but at some point in the last six years, my brain had 'clunked'. Cheers guys! Also, the over the top thing is the reverse cascade.

Tom's smile at the end when he's juggling is adorable.

I worked at a Sainsbury's in produce and managed to teach myself to juggle with loose apples in the stock chiller, all because I didn't want to do any work that day...

TOM! Mills it! We want to see Tom attempt Mills mess as well!

so, I just spent a good half hour practicing with fruit. not the best decision. now I only have 2 "balls" and need to clean my floor.

York Jugglesoc Alumnus checking in. If you're around York and want to do some more juggling videos, do let me know, or contact the society! :D

If you have problems moving, put a wall in the way. (So if you walk forwards, face a wall an arms length away.)

Matt: "I've got some balls." You're lobbing them in the air with grace.

SO! Who came to see Matt juggle and stuck around for the double entendres?

I accidentally juggled once. I was just trying not to drop everything and it just happened, for about six seconds. Haven't been able to recreate it.

2 months to learn? I've been learning for 20 seconds and I'm already 1/3 of the way there.

The guy who went this is easy after 5 minutes might have been trolling you he might have already known how.

Tom's juggling face is absolutely adorable.

as an ex juggeling teacher, this is atually a pretty good lesson, well played

I saw a car identical to mine go by at the start and I had an unnecessarily large freak out.

To cure "going forward disease": juggle in front of a wall

This makes me so happy. I spent twelve years off and on trying to learn, before I gave up on the standard perfectionism method. I taught myself basically what you two go over here (especially the couch trick!) and just got through with grim determination in the face of never being able to throw quite properly. In the three years since then, I've really not gotten better at throwing as much as I've gotten better at catching. I'm glad that other people are dealing with it in the same way I have been. One thing I would add is that sometimes it's better to jump to something harder to refine the basics, rather than go back to the isolated case. I pushed through to four balls straight away, without learning any other patterns. This is a bad plan, and it resulted in months of frustrating lack of progress until it suddenly fell into place. (I wish I'd thought of "just ignore the last ball") But the process of having to learn to do everything faster resulted in higher accuracy with three balls.

I was drinking when I heard the "You won't get Juggler's Arse" line, caught me completely off guard.

I've just realised a massive mistake I've been making for years thanks to this video! In primary school a friend taught me to juggle, but the way I learned was to throw the balls really (ridiculously) high so you have a lot of time to prepare for the next throw and catch. This resulted in me throwing the balls "forward" from my fingers rather than out the side of my hand as Matt explained. Looks like I have a bit of unlearning to do! Nice video :D

This is almost exactly how I learned. A good technique to help conquer 'going forward disease' is to position yourself in front of a door, like a closed wardrobe. When you're learning the basic cascade, the balls will bounce of the door back into your hands. That way you're not trying to master everything all at once. Doing this, I managed to pick up basic 3 ball cascade in a few hours.

Tom "What is my face doing there?!"Matt "ddddddduuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyy"

Tom Scott: “Ugh, what is my face doing there?” Tom Scott’s face there: *expressing complex human emotions, resulting in a smile* 😁

And what other superpowers do you pair have?

So based on the relatively detailed juggling trivia he was able to recall on Citation Needed, I might assume Chris Joel was in juggling club as well?

Been subscribed to Tom for a while now. Seen you on his videos, also I listen to radio x. Love your videos, time for a binge watch

Jugglers' arse... Boy that's an old reference now.

Tom was more mean to Matt than usual in this one and kept having to interrupt every 15 seconds. :(

That was quite a lot like the book I learned to juggle from as a child :) with more troubleshooting advice! Good teaching

My elementary school spent a weirdly substantial amount of time teaching us all how to juggle. I think was several weeks in fact, each day during PE. There were multiple levels of difficulty, representing by different objects to juggle and as you mastered one, you moved on the the next. The objects that I can remember were scarves (which fall very slowly and are actually really helpful for learning the motions), balls, rings and clubs/pins. I always found the rings to be easier than the balls, but I don't think I ever got to try the pins. J had completely forgotten how much I loved juggling until watching this video. I will now purchase 6 balls and 6 rings on my next payday. I also always enjoyed juggling two balls with one hand (if that even counts as juggling). My mother had a set of two "Qi Gong Balls" that I would play with, and learned to juggle with one hand. Of course, I broke them doing that. Also, I guess the correct name is Baoding? I had only ever heard Qi Gong. Chinese is confusing

Oh I haven't been watching you for far too long. Waaaaaay too long. Feels good being on the bench again. Thank you.

"go to your local juggling club" didn't even know there was such a thing haha

This was hilarious. You guys are just unintentionally funny.

Took me about three months to learn how to juggle, but I wasn't practicing consistently at all. That being said I can do it now and my best piece of advice is something you suggested, which is to practice in front of a bed or sofa so you don't have to bend all the way down. That gets old fast! Thanks for the refresher!

I've messed around with juggling balls because my physical therapist is a horrible horrible person and got me juggling balls.

Matt Gray is my spirit animal. Ball jokes never get old.

I "learned" to juggle 3 balls years ago, when I just picked them up and did it (had to practice a lot to get rid of "walking forward" and "rotating", though). But I never saw these these tricks! Time learn something new, thanks!

I got some juggling balls at Christmas. I'm actually going to learn now. Thanks :)

Seeing this right after the Cello Scrotum episode of Citation Needed is priceless!

I learned how to juggle by reading a book on juggling way before youtube was ever a thing. Took me a while too since it was on and off. Seeing this on video seems like it's so much easier for someone to learn how to do it these days. It's nice to have one of those things that you can just surprise people with.

Pity you guys put the slo-mo over the normal footage, instead of after

nicely explained, thanks Matt :)

Great juggling tutorial! I loved all the slow mo. Thanks!! :)

Got a set of juggling balls for Xmas many years ago, progressed to three balls by lunch and still no further.

I like terms like "going forward disease" and "The turny turny roundy problem."

Also when you are learning and throwing a single ball back and forth try to practise it so that it gets to eye level with every throw. Juggling is a lot easier when all the balls go to the same height and not too high or too low.

Matt’s noises at the end are the best

Oh Tom, you're so prone to envy! :c Cool video! :)

This video helped me get qualified in three ball juggling in about two weeks. Thanks a bunch!

With that last bit about Tom's face, I was expecting a crash to That Face, From That Video.

This is the funniest thing I've ever seen, no word of a lie

That was excellent. Would love to see some more skills videos on the bench when you have or meet someone with something interesting to share.

About to buy a juggling set off amazon now guys. Cheers for my new obsession

Thrilling. Absolutely thrilling.

it took me like an hour to learn to do this.your step by step method seems way better than me who just kept attempting until it worked

It helps to learn in front of your bed, so when you drop one, you don't have to bend down so far! Also, it forces you to throw and stand in one place.

The professionalism.

You could almost literally take every third sentence and interpret it as a joke

I filled in my free moments at AIT in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, practicing with pool balls in the barracks break room. I taught myself from a book called Juggling for the Complete Klutz, which came with three bean bag cubes, which I still have somewhere.

There are a lot of things which you can't do and then something just goes clunk and suddenly you can do it. I'm a violinist, and many string musicians have to take a long time to learn vibrato (a technique where the pitch wiggles, which helps hide the slight inaccuracies that inevitably occur when playing a string instrument). For me, I was playing, and was trying vibrato, which I was incredibly poor at, and then suddenly I did it again and it was good. It wasn't perfect, but from there I managed to develop a really good vibrato, and it just kinda clunked in.

I remember being sent on a "Team Building" course with work over ten years ago, and one of the tasks was learning to juggle. I do remember being sort of OK at it by end of the day

Funny enough I got a juggling set like a decade ago and only tried a few times when I got it! This has inspired me to get it back out and try it again haha it's also where I kept my bouncy balls, red noses and a small foam Guinness ball too lmao

the throwing to the outside pattern is just called reverse cascade because your hands are moving in reverse from an normal cascade pattern.

Matt, if mills mess took you forever, I challenge you to try 441. It's simpler than mills mess in the sense that you aren't pretzling and untangling your arms. You will however, tie your brain in knots. Edit: the throwing order for 441 is left-right-pass right-left-pass.

If you're based in London, look up Spinning@ on Facebook and come play. Absolutely everyone is welcome, regardless of skill level!

Tips (that helped me) I found it is mainly about rhythm, 1st learn to shift your weight from one leg to the other in a nice steady rhythm (the right music can help, legs open and kept straightish each step is when you would throw) 2nd practicing with bean bags, close to a wall. beanbags so they dont bounce but slide down wall this takes traveling out of the equation to start allowing you to focus on the rhythm 3rd try to keep elbows roughly in same place, stare at wall at eye height and move forearms to throw beanbags at or just above that point, sound of bag sliding down wall can help track it for catch without looking (keep gaze at eye height). Hope this makes some sense and helps somewhat. I found that shifting weight, one foot to other especially helpful for learning to juggle clubs both solo and with a partner ;)

Continuous outward throws are called a reverse cascade :)

You guys should come to the British Juggling Convention! This year, it's in Canterbury in mid-April. Even if you just for the weekend, I can promise you it's an amazing event. This is me formally inviting you to BJC 2018. Please come.

Tom's face is like "JUST DON'T DROP THE BALLS"