How To Balance A Juggling Club On Your Chin

For those who like to juggle, you might have juggled with clubs before. Clubs are sometimes referred to as 'pins,' although clubs designed for juggling are vastly different from bowling pins, so 'pin' is often considered an incorrect name for a club.

It is possible to teach yourself how to balance a juggling club on your chin. All you really need is an open area, a juggling club, yourself, and plenty of patience.

Step one: Find an open area to practice in

Bring a juggling club with you and find a flat surface, preferably outdoors or in an area with a very high ceiling, and no nearby obstacles. You will need to have a place to stand where you are unlikely to be disturbed, and where you will have a fairly large radius of empty space around you, where people will be unlikely to walk.

Step two: Tilt your head back

While holding the juggling club, tilt your head back such that the flattest part of your chin is parallel with the ground. (NOTE: It is also possible to balance things on your nose, but I don't recommend doing this with a juggling club, at least not until you've learned how to balance things on your chin. Clubs are heavy and could hurt your nose.)

Tilting your head back this much will likely compress your throat somewhat, making breathing feel weird and possibly a little bit painful. This is something that you will just have to get used to. If you practice for a while, it should start to feel less uncomfortable.

Also, you will need to have the muscles in the back of your neck be constantly pulling on your head, and this will start to feel sore and wear you out after a while, so don't overdo it when you practice. You will probably feel soreness in your neck and shoulders after a practice session, so be prepared for that.

Step three: Put the club on your chin

Now, put the club on your chin. Don't let go of it until you've positioned yourself to try to make sure that it doesn't fall right away. When you are first starting out, you probably won't be able to keep the club on your chin for very long. This is normal; it takes practice.

Keep your legs slightly apart, and don't lock your knees, because you will need to move a lot (at first) to try to keep the club on your chin. As you practice, you will begin to need to make fewer adjustments. You will get a feel for making extremely tiny adjustments and movements to keep the club upright.

One of the hardest parts of this is keeping your head tilted back. You might instinctively want to tilt your head forward after you let go of the club. Resist this temptation. You need to keep your head tilted back and get used to the feeling of having it tilted back.

Step four: Repeat, paying attention to the moments of successful balance

Keep doing steps two and three. Tilt your head back, put the club on your chin while holding it, adjust yourself, and then let go of the club only when you feel that you can keep it upright for at least a little while. Do this over and over and over, and eventually you will start to naturally learn how to move your body to keep the club upright for a long time.

Just pay attention to how it feels in the moments when the club seems like it is balanced and not falling. Gently move in ways that prolong the moments of balance. It takes practice, but you will gradually learn how to feel whether the club is balanced or falling, and you will gradually learn the gentle ways in which you must move your body in order to stop the club from falling and return it to a balanced state. It is difficult to describe, and you will probably be able to feel what I'm talking about, naturally acquiring the skill and the intuitive senses and motions necessary, if you practice it for yourself.

With enough practice, you should be able to prevent the club from falling at all, although it takes a surprising amount of stamina to balance a club for a long time. But this, too, can be improved with practice. Good luck!