In case you haven't read any of the rest of my web site, I am a juggler. I've been juggling a few years now. (Since about 1978 or '79.) I do it to entertain myself. It's fun and it is decent upper body exercise.

I like to learn tricks and push myself to master as much as I can with the equipment I have available. I think I have a pretty decent repertoire for someone who doesn't juggle for a living. I can keep 5 balls going for a fair period and I'm trying to learn tricks with 5 balls. I'm close to getting 4 clubs down.

Well, last Wednesday I got a chance to learn a pattern named "Mill's Mess" from someone that I had been practicing club passing patterns. He (Matt) showed me two different drills you need in order to learn the "Mess."

Big mistake! Around 1:30 am that night I was lying in bed moving my hands, trying to figure out how to string together the parts that I'd learned into the whole pattern. Dang it! I had to get up in the middle of the night and practice because I just was not going to get to sleep otherwise. A couple of hours later I was not really any closer to stringing the "Mess" together, but I was tired enough that with a little reading to distract my mind I could get to sleep.

The next day I had another meeting to practice club passing, so I didn't drill the "Mess" very much. Then on Friday I found a way to drill with three balls. A few minutes of this and suddenly I was trying the "Mess" full on and beginning to "feel" the pattern in my hands.

Saturday morning, after breakfast, I was sitting at my computer, but I was feeling "Mill's Mess" in my hands. So I got my juggling balls and there was the "Mess" immediately. I could feel the pattern completely and no longer had to think about it. Now I could concentrate on what was going wrong. By the end of Saturday I could shift back and forth between the regular fountain and "Mill's Mess." That is essentially my definition of "mastery" of a juggling trick.

I've been doing that pattern at odd moments both yesterday and so far today. It's got a great feeling to it and it really goes well with the Mike Oldfield music that I've been listening to. For those of you who might want to learn "Mill's Mess" I am writing up a description of the drills. This is really only suitable for people who already know how to juggle 3 balls.

But if you read over this, you'll see a progression that I've seen in everyone as they learn either basic juggling or add on tricks. You drill and drill and don't really progress very much. Take a break, a long one, a day or more. Come back and drill again and things are suddenly much better. But it seems that all the progress came during the break. You are better today, but you don't seem to get much better. You get tired and start getting worse. Take another break. A couple times of this and something snaps. What you were trying to learn has moved into your limbs and you stop thinking about it and just do it. Now you can think about other things during your drills, like what is really going wrong. Mastery is just around the corner.