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Once you have general juggling down, and you can fairly consistently move the ball between the three cups, it is time to start practicing the spike. As scary as it may seem, you'll soon find it to be not nearly as difficult as it looks. An important thing to keep in mind is that the spike is no different...

Continue reading "Practice Advice: The Spike"

The previous article on juggling focused on 3 points key to successful juggling, using your knees, keeping a light grip and not swinging the ball.   These next two points should greatly improve your consistency when juggling as well.  Not throwing the ball too high and making your movements deliberate will keep you focused and help improve your skill very rapidly. 

Continue reading "Practice Advice: Simple Juggling - Part II"

Now for the actual tricks. The first thing you’ll want to accomplish is to be fairly consistent with throwing the ball between the three cups(juggling). Using the sara grip, you will want to start simply by catching it on the large cup, then the small cup, then the center cup. You can start from a dead(hanging) ball on all of these or bounce from cup to cup.   At this point the goal is to get comfortable catching the ball in the various cups.

The three most important things to keep in mind are the  following: Use your knees, keep a light grip, and don't swing the ball.  

Continue reading "Practice Advice: Simple Juggling - Part I"

After you have freed up some time in your schedule, we can talk about the main grips you'll be using. There are three of them that will be mainly focusing on, the Sara grip, the Ken grip, and the Tama grip.

Continue reading "Practice Advice: The Grips"

So you have your new kendama, maybe even made some modifications to it for optimal play, now what?  Unless you have a resolve made of steel the first day is probably the toughest.  Everybody loves to constantly succeed, unfortunately kendama is not a forgiving hobby and immediate success is unlikely to say the least. This "Practice Advice" series of articles will walk you through learning to play your new kendama like a pro in extensive detail.

Continue reading "Practice Advice: Starting Out"

Why did you start playing kendama? Who did you learn from? What keeps you playing? For me, I first saw kendama at a juggling festival in Portland. A great juggler from Japan came and gave a workshop. He had some for sale, but was sold out by the time I decided I wanted one. I was bummed. I picked up...

Continue reading "Why do you Kendama?"

These are the terms used on this site.  If there is another common name, it is also listed.

Continue reading "Parts of the Kendama"

Kendama as we know it, with a ball, 3 cups and a spike has only been around since the early 1900's.  The origins of the kendama go back much farther, however.

Continue reading "Kendama History"

Much like a yo-yo, you can start playing with your kendama immediately out of the package.  If you read the instructions that come with your yo-yo, however, they tell you how to shorten the string and set the yo-yo up for optimal play.

The kendama doesn't have any such instructions, but there are some things you can do to improve your kendama's performance and make its play more consistent.  These improvements can lead to faster skill development and help you hit those really tough tricks more consistently. 

Continue reading "Setting Up Your Kendama for Optimum Play"

There is a different setup for right handed and left handed play. The difference is which side of the cups the string comes out of. 

Continue reading "Kendama Setup - Right or Left Hand"