The 5-Ball Cascade

The 5-ball cascade... this is a difficult move that, once perfected, looks really, really good and is pretty impressive. The problem is that it takes quite a while to learn and demands a good deal of accuracy. Because of this, you need good juggling objects. They should be very close to each other in terms of weight and size, because otherwise it will be much more difficult to throw them all to the same height.

Because virtually every intermediate-to-advanced level juggler has at least tried this, there are a huge number of websites that detail how to learn to do this. I think that the general approach taken does not work. I think mine is better because you start off easily and get the basic principles without other distractions (most people recommend the siteswaps 55550, 552, and 5551, for example).

The most important tip I can give you before you start juggling this is to throw high. You could probably get in a few throws at head height, but if you seriously want to learn this you'll have to throw two or three feet above your head. If you throw too low, the rhythm will overwhelm you and you won't be able to keep up, and if you can't keep up with yourself you just have to slow down. If you want, you can speed up later, but for now, while you're learning, take it easy on yourself. The hardest thing about accuracy is being accurate many times a second, so don't go there if you don't have to.

Siteswap: 5	Watch this juggling animation for a little while. Notice (you can pause by clicking on it) that, in general, there are two balls in each of the two arcs, and that there is one crossing point through which every ball goes. To correctly learn this trick, you will have to internalize this throw enough that you can do it accurately, every time, over and over again, and quickly. That is where the difficulty lies.
Siteswap: 52512	You have to get used to not how high the 5 goes (although that is useful), but how hard you have to throw it so that it will land the correct number of beats later. The easiest way to do this is to learn a series of similar tricks that force you to throw the 5 at the right height. This is the easiest trick. You don't really have to put in a lot of effort to learn this one, but you should put in a little extra work to get the timing good. It is of the utmost importance here that you learn to do the throw from both sides. Practice this pattern until it looks nice.
Siteswap: 522	This looks like the 3-ball cascade, but it really isn't. The important thing here is to recognize that you throw the 5 every third beat. Move your hands up and down for the 2's, just don't throw them. Remember to get used to how high it is.
Siteswap: 55113	What you want to do here is get used to the 5's being thrown consecutively. You should see the two 5's that you throw peak at the same height. This is similar to a pattern where you throw all three balls up (55500) which I do not sanction.
Siteswap: [22]2[25]550022	Siteswap: [22][22][25][25]55022 Here, you're just throwing three and four balls up in the air. You want to get ready for the rhythm here. This is a really good place to work on your accuracy before the final step. Remember, all of these patterns should look good, the balls should peak at the same point, etc. You will eventually have three balls in the air all the time, so you can't just throw randomly and hope to catch the balls.
Siteswap: [222][22][225][25][25]5522[22][22]	This is the five-ball flash. What that means is that you're only throwing each ball once. If you have trouble with this, or can just barely do it, your accuracy isn't so good; go back. On the other hand, if you find this easy, go on to the next step. It should have taken you at least a few days to a week to get here - and that's if you practice every day. It will take you longer if you don't practice even a few minutes in every 24 hours. It will probably take you twice as long to get to the next step, and about twice or three times as long to get from there to a perfect cascade. This will take a lot of time - I've been working on it for two months and I only get 15 catches on average - so don't give up.
Siteswap: [222][22][225][25][25]555555522[22][22]	Here we are at the 'qualify' (in juggling parlance). Each ball must be not only thrown and caught, but immediately thrown again. This is actually a pretty hard step, because whereas before you could take your time now you have to rethrow each ball before the next one comes. It's much harder than you would think. At the beginning, your pattern will totally break down by the end of this, but by slowing down a bit and practicing you will be able to go for longer runs.
Siteswap: 5	This is the final step. It will take you a long time to get here, and if you stop practicing for a few weeks you will definitely have to do some practice to get back to your level on this. But don't worry - all hard tricks are like this. When you have finally gotten this to look good, you will have mastered five ball juggling! Yay! Now go try it with some heavy balls!