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For those who juggle balls and are thinking about learning rings,
rings are good in the following ways:
They
are lighter and they don't tire you out as much (important for
numbers)
They
have a smaller cross-section, hence relatively fewer collisions
They
look better (IMHO), at least from the side
There
are a bunch of neat tricks unique to rings
They're cheap, and they never wear out
But rings are worse than balls in same ways as well:
You
generally throw almost twice as high as with balls, so it's
difficult to keep the throws within comfortable catching reach.
You
have another 2 degrees of freedom to control on each throw, defining
the plane in which a ring is spinning. Ideally this should be the
same for each throw from a given hand; if this isn't the case,
collisions become more likely.
The
pain factor is definitely higher at the beginning. As with clubs,
though, it goes away with practice.
Wind,
wind, wind...
All
in all I think these factors more or less balance out, at least in
the 5-6-7 ring range. Most people are better with balls though,
since most people practice balls much more (The first law of
juggling: You get good at what you practice..)
The
main tip with rings is that you must REACH UP to make the catches/
throws. Your forearm should be essentially vertical when you catch
and release (but not necessarily in between, of course). The net
result is that your arms move up and down more, and you have to
throw high to keep things slow enough. Also the catch should land in
the soft part of your palm at the base of your thumb -- people who
are learning often don't bring their hands up high enough to make a
catch, and it lands on the flap of skin between the thumb and
forefinger (a spot which quickly becomes very raw, believe me). Some
people use gloves in response to this, but the lack of feel tends to
screw me up. Concentrate on correct form and the catches don't hurt
at all.
Wind
is a big reason more people don't practice rings. When you get up to
6 or 7 it becomes really difficult to practice outside (and of
course inside it's hard to find a ceiling high enough). If you have
access to a gym, take advantage of it. Anthony told me that even the
air currents in a large gym can be a problem with 9 or 10, but I'll
have to take his word for it on that one...
Tip
courtesy of Jack Boyce
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