Getting a Pattern Solid

I posted here almost a year ago asking for help with general progression and venting about my frustrations with 6 balls. I spent last summer reteaching myself good form and improved my 6b async record from March of 58 throws 57 catches to 74 throws 69 catches in September and sync from like 26 catches to 60 throws (55 catches). I had a wrist fracture in October so had a month off juggling but I’ve been back at it for a bit now and can still get pretty close to that number of catches and I’m pretty sure I equalled my sync record the other day.

Anyway, here are my questions. And these are questions about juggling in general, not just 6 balls.

What methods do you use to get a pattern solid?

Some days I still struggle with form where one side is doing something weird, it feels like I can’t get both arms to sync up as one system, my pattern is out of rhythm, stuff is just going in completely random directions and it feels like I have no control, or a combination of these. When this happens patterns like 633 become even more difficult (that one is already so hard for me because of the low 3s). Do you think it is good to practice through this? Practice for a shorter duration? Or skip practice that day?

When I say solid, I mean actually solid, as in the pattern is stable. For example I’ve read a lot of comments on these threads along the lines of “My best run of 5 balls is 1 minute and I’m starting to feel solid”. I do lots of tricks that are harder than 5 balls, and back in September I did 5 balls for 3 or 4 minutes (time was 4 minutes later so at least 3 minutes passed) and to be honest I don’t feel solid at all. Some days it feels stable; other days I have the issues described above. When I say this I by no means am trying to minimize anyone’s accomplishments. 1 minute of 5 balls is very impressive and a huge achievement. But there are also people out there that can keep 5 balls going for 10+ minute or even over an hour. A stable pattern/having solid form is necessary to do that.

Lately my goal has been to focus on having elite control over my patterns so I try to (key word try) to keep the best form possible. I practice circling both ways with 4 clubs and 5 balls.

Getting extremely good at 4 clubs in sync and practicing circling both ways worked wonders for getting my pattern more stable. Sync makes it obvious if your form is off. Notice I didn’t say solid. I have a really clean pattern. I’m not sure how long I can go doing 4 clubs, but both sync and async I’d say probably at least several minutes because I often go for a minute or two at a time when warming up circling both ways or practicing different patterns. I will often just collect the clubs when my arms get tired and rest for a few seconds.

Circling both ways with 5 balls has been helpful. Practicing half shower both sides and tennis both ways has been helpful. I know people on here say 744 is the easiest siteswap but it’s actually one of the hardest that I practice (I’ve done 645 with inside 6s for 100+ throws and I think 744 is way harder). Collision issues and half showers have been having trouble getting stable so I started recently circling with those. The idea being that I’m splitting my attention with the over throw while teaching myself to control the direction of the pattern. And last time I tried 5 balls on a unicycle and 5 balls on a rolla bolla it was quite a bit easier than the time before (I’ve only attempted these a few times in my life and within a few minutes of trying last time I could get 30+ catches multiple times for both). I also started getting serious about training reverse cascade recently.

Should I add walking back and forth to my training? Sometimes when I have the issues described it feels like I’m throwing away from myself and/or pulling towards myself on one side.

Another question is, what do you think about practicing circling both ways with siteswaps like 534 or 645 for example? How about asymmetric siteswaps such as 4 club double singles (53)? I’ve discovered 5 clubs is really tough (record 12 catches cf). Do you think this is useful or does this create bad habits because of the throws at different heights? It blows my mind watching people demonstrate elite control with crazy siteswaps with 5+ objects.

My long term goal is elite control with 5&6 balls, rings, and clubs. I know 6 clubs is pretty tough so at least being able to run the sync and async fountain fairly solid would be cool. But especially 5&6 balls, 5 clubs, and if I get back into regular ring juggling again 5&6 rings. I haven’t done much ring juggling since May but my record with 5 rings was 74 throws, and 6 ring sync 12 catches cf done on my 3rd attempt that practice and then I took a break. And I had managed a round of 64 and 744 back to pattern with rings too. Right now my focus is balls and clubs. Theoretically my ring juggling should be better getting back to it after ball and club juggling has improved significantly.

Also, any tips for getting better in general at 4 club siteswaps? 55514 helped me make extremely quick progress with 5 rings, but it is so hard with clubs. Actually all of those siteswaps are extremely hard with clubs imo. I’ve done 552 for about 80 catches, 5551 for 56 catches on one side and 35 on the other side, double singles for 98 catches on one side and I think like 70 or 80 on the other, 534 in triple, single, double for 60+ catches. But I am by no means consistent (really just at theme with my juggling in general), and to complicate things more my “better side” depends on the trick. Some patterns are easier left handed and others right handed for me.

Okay I wrote a lot so I’m going to outline my questions. I’m a strong believer in “help me help you” so I try to be as detailed as possible when I am troubleshooting. Here are my questions again:

Should I practice through bad form days? I find that when I do, often the next session is better, but I'm curious about others' experiences with this.

How do you get a base pattern stable?

Should I add walking forwards and backwards with patterns to my training if my goal is to get stable?

Is circling both ways with siteswaps a good way to get those siteswaps stable? Do you think this forms any bad habits with juggling in general because of the different heights?

How about circling both ways with asymmetric siteswaps such as 4 club double singles (53)?

New question: Any tips for better 5 club juggling in general? The “prerequisites” are already so hard so I figure it’s best to work on everything at the same time.

New question: did you ever go through a phase where your form felt hit or miss depending on the day, or have any of the issues I described near the top of my post? How long did it take you to grow out of that? What did you do to fix the problem?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I think oftentimes we don’t like to admit how insanely hard this stuff really is. I think 5 balls is very advanced for example. It’s not often I get to be around other jugglers but when I do 95% of people drop within a minute. Jugglers that do 7 balls, 7 rings, and even 7 clubs will drop immediately on 6 ball fountain because it such a ridiculously hard and crazy trick. Sometimes I wish people were more honest about how hard all of this really is, but maybe at the same time it’s better not to know that these things are hard.