Aspies For Freedom

I believe juggling is an autistic activity, because it is solitary, colourful, circular, continuous and monotonous.

Do any of you share that belief?

Do you mean solely autistic, or of more interest to autistics?

Personally I have a special interest in crochet and knitting and find that the elements involved suit me very well, such as the repetitive stim-type constant hooking and looping the wool, the softness of the wool, the mathematic basis of the craft, the complex patterns involved.

I mean of more interest to autistics.
I think most jugglers are not autistics, but I expect many autistics to like juggling (either doing it themselves, or merely watching others do it).

Crochet and knitting also seem like autistic activities. Especially when you are the one who describes them.

I like to watch juggling but cannot do it myself, due to lack of motor skills.

Me too, Cat. I can't do anything like that at all well - shuffling cards, catching and throwing balls, dancing - very occasionally I almost fall over just because I haven't put my feet in the right place and have somehow lost my balance. What a palaver  :roll:  :smile:

Stella

I have done some juggling on occations when I've had access to 3 tenice sized balls.

I actually had a belief that juggling was impossible for aspies not just because of our poor motor skill but because it requires a great deal of multitasking.  I could never juggle more than 2 items.  I was actually thinking this could be used to help diagnose AS a few weeks ago.

I'd try it except I know the balls would all end up bouncing off my head.

Try juggling small bean bags, they don't bounce!!  I sometimes try it just for something to do and zen like!  I'm not very good as my fine motor skills or coordination make the bags start flying away from me!  Oh, that reminds me, try juggling facing a wall, that inhibits the "juggler's sprint".

I don't know if it's still out there, but, I found a book called, "Juggling for the complete Klutz."  It's hilarious and comes complete with 3 juggling bean bags.

Peace

After I posted this and renewed my resolution to practice my quitar an hour a day.  I decided to practice juggling and noticed I had two sets of juggling bean bags.  So I decided to practice for 10 minutes and resolved to do so every day.

So since I have two sets, if anyone wants my spare set let me know.  I'll be happy to send it to a good home, however you want it sent!

Gee, I don't know if I can handle all these New Years resolutions!  Practice Guitar everyday, Juggling----ditto, Giving up certain things--DON'T ASK! :roll:

Peace

I think I'll stick with swimming!

At least swimming is the perfect exercise, aerobic and resistance training!
I wish I had access to a pool again.!!!!!

Peace

Maybe if you think of an activity in Bits, as we do, then it becomes a *multitask*. The solution is to think of the task as one action.

Thus; the action of juggling is seen as two hands plus three or more items ( balls, bags, ribbons) It is made up of countless neural messages. Similarly, playing an instrument or walking is incredibly complex. No wonder we fall over sometimes just thinking about it!
But some of us are pretty good at it.

I am trying to juggle. I am trying not to think about it too much. I am sure it is fun. Like riding a bike , once the feel of the rhythm gets into our cerebellum it will be all one action and no longer multitasking. Maybe if we tried to juggle to music?

becca

It's great fun to watch, and I'm sure I'd enjoy if ever I could get the hang of it, Ken. I just don't have the co-ordination for anything like that.

Trying to learn juggling is very good for your motor skills, back in the day, when I didn't know I had Asperger's, I had an obsessive episode (read passionate) with juggling. And after many hours of training, I'm proud to say that I still can't juggle  :wink:  but atleast my coordination is not as bad as it once was. In fact it improved greatly because of it.

I recommend giving it a shot.

Bram Cohen, the famous programmer with Asperger's Syndrome who came up with BitTorrent, has juggling as one of his hobbies.