just saw this article for Wimbledon High School where they are having lessons in learning to deal with failure.
Learning to take risks and build resilience

It is very true when learning skills that fear of failure can be a bit of a non starter. Often when we teach people to juggle at splats they will not want to drop the balls. It is seen as a sign of failure when actually it is quite the opposite. It is absolutely essential to drop, firstly to relax enough to just let the catching happen and the throw to be gentle but also your brain needs the information from the failed attempts to work out how to do it.

Having juggled now for over 21 years I know not to be judgmental when learning new tricks and to realize that given time and practice the trick will work. in fact you learn to sit back and actually really enjoy the learning process as it is fascinating to see how it works. Of course little doubts do pop up in your head but the skill is just to watch them and see they are there and not get involved in the internal debate:0)

This is why after 21 years of teaching juggling it is never boring. It is always fascinating to see how people learn, what obstacles they put in front of them or of course how free some people are in just doing it without any fear or doubts.

anyway good luck to Wimbledon High School and the head Heather Hanbury on what looks like a fun week. I will drop them a line and see if they fancy a juggling lesson.

Stephen Richards
BEd PE
Oh and fancy learning have a look at Learn to Juggle. It’s got some really cool animations that took ages so pick up some juggling balls or socks or anything unbreakable and get juggling and don’t forget to drop