Today I decided to set some goals for my contact juggling and it seemed like reasonable advice for just about anyone. Goals not only give a target to aim for in our practice sessions, but also allow us to see how far we’ve come. Here’s how I set my own personal goals.
Determine an Objective
This may seem a tad obvious at first, but if you aren’t sure whether or not you want to learn head balance or foot catches first you may end up wasting a lot of time through inefficiency. That’s not to say you can’t have two objectives and follow them accordingly.
Set up Milestones
One of my personal goals is to be able to balance a stage ball on the very top of head and roll to it from other stall points and walk around. Examples milestones would be:
- balancing the ball on my head for 5 seconds, then 10, then 20, then 30, then a minute…
- walking 5 paces with the ball balanced, then 10, then 20….
- Rolling the ball to the top of my head and nearly getting it for a second, then maybe twice in a row.
As you can probably tell, I have less faith in my ability to eventually roll the ball to the stall point.
Keeping a Record
One of the best pieces of advice ever given to me was to keep track of my abilities. Being able to look back even a week or two and see how many milestones you’ve hit is a great way to regain confidence during slumps.
Reminder
When your goal is written down, with your progress being charted, you will be sure to keep practicing.
