Joggler
Takes One Step More
If
joggling three balls represents a physiological step above running
without juggling, is five ball joggling a step higher still? Billy
Gillen of Brooklyn, New York, certainly thinks so.
He
also acknowledges that it's lonely there at the top. Despite his
attempts to convince others to join him, he's the only person who
regularly practices this particular physical regimen. It has required
a great deal of practice and patience in the year that he's been at
it, and will require a lot more to perfect it.
Unlike
three ball joggling, during which a runner's stride is basically
unchanged, five ball joggling demands short, shuffling steps to keep
up with the quicker hand movement of five ball juggling. More
hazardous still, the five ball joggler must keep his or her eyes
trained upward at the pattern, instead of forward watching for the
changing terrain underfoot. Considering that Gillen does most of his
five ball joggling along the potholed and heavily trafficked streets
of Brooklyn, the feat becomes remarkable.
In recent time trials on a smooth track, however, Gillen proved that
five ball joggling is for real. His fastest of three quarter-mile
attempts was I :55.8, which included time spent picking up three
drops. He joggled 100 yards in :20.1 with no drops. Since that time,
he claims to have managed a phenomenal 6:15.52 mile with 12 drops.
Comparing
the relative speeds of juggling five standing still and joggling five
on the run shows that joggling slows down the pattern slightly. For 50
throws with five balls while standing still, Gillen averaged 12.4
seconds. Joggling, the time slowed to a 13.9 second average.
Gillen
has proven he has the determination and eccentricity needed to
overcome obstacles and push back
the frontiers of joggling. In 1980 he joggled a stick, ball and baby
carriage wheel (club, ball and ring) 30 miles from Oakland to
Berkeley, California, while balancing a bean bag on his head. He
admits interrupting the jaunt at the 26 mile mark to see a Fellini
film.
In
1982 he trained for six months to run four miles around the track at
Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn joggling four five-pound
weights. It took 56 minutes to complete the feat, but a month for Gillen
to recuperate from the strain. It didn't make him famous, but "I
gave myself a very solid pat on the back!" Gillen said.
His fastest joggling occurred on the footwide elevated center divider
of the defunct West Side Highway in lower Manhattan. During a lightning
storm one summer's day, he joggled three balls along that narrow path
for a mile in 4:30. He thinks fear of electrocution had something to do
with the fast time.
Gillen
has been a runner since childhood, when he raced the bus a mile through
city streets to grade school. Wandering through Central Park one day in
1976, Gillen was enchanted by the sight of a juggler. He learned of John
Grimaldi's lessons at Trinity Church near Wall Street, and learned to
juggle the next day. "I went home and juggled for 12 hours
straight;" he said. "But I was tossing the balls out in front
of me and had to step forward to catch them. The next day, I was
joggling!"
For
several years he joggled up to 10 miles a day with three and four balls,
crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in his Captain America suit and circling
Washington Square before returning home. He found out about the IJA
convention joggling races and participated at the 1983 Purchase
convention. He finished second in the five kilometer event with a time
of 20:07.6, but moreover was astounded to discover another dozen
jogglers after so many years of practicing alone.
A
month later he began working on five ball juggling and carving himself
another lonely niche with practice of five ball joggling. Since that
time, he has rarely joggled three or four. Through last winter's
slush and snow, he joggled five around his usual long loop, stooping
hundreds of times to pick up his frequent drops. By March, though, he
could go a city block without a drop, and is now working on dropless
quarter-miles. At next summer's Atlanta convention, he plans to joggle
five balls in the 100 meter and one mile events.
A
former health food restaurant chef, Gillen now makes a living with
occasional work as a building renovator. He has also lately begun
street performing at neighborhood festivals in New York City. He credits
joggling as good training for his ability to tap dance, do a jig and
break dance while juggling five balls for an audience. He also includes
club juggling, plate spinning, magic tricks, balloon animal creation and
story-telling in his street shows.
"Joggling
is a new athletic frontier, the same as running was several years ago,
" Gillen said. "I think it suits intellectual people who are
studying new age consciousness. These are people trying to integrate new
challenges into their practice of sport, to take it that little bit
further... to do it with style."
Ed.
note: Gillen is not only a joggler extraordinaire. he is a helpful
fellow. He has sought out and secured the office of IJA Chronicler of
Juggling Superlatives.
Therefore,
those persons with juggling feats of note (if not of record!) should
forevermore send an account of their actions to: Billy Gillen,
Brooklyn. NY.
|
