How to Juggle Two Footbags: 3 Easy Steps

Learning to juggle two footbags is actually fairly easy with just a few minutes of practice a day.

The basic steps are as follows:

1. Master the toe stall.
2. Lean the “juggling set”.
3. Repeat.

I realize that may sound a bit simplistic, but that’s really all there is to it. If you haven’t mastered the toe stall yet, you may want to print this out for a rainy day sometime in the future… Don’t even bother trying to juggle (unless you enjoy frustration ).

Now, the “juggling set”, quite simply, is an arching set that returns back to the foot. It’s a bit tricky to put in words, but the sketch to the right (I’m no artist) should illustrate the proper flow of the bag. In this illustration the player would be on the left, facing the right side of your screen.

The key to realize here is that the release/set and the catch/delay are offset by roughly 10 inches. This is absolutely critical with two bags to eliminate mid-air collisions.

Thus, the set is towards the body, and it follows a parabolic arc that ends up roughly 10 inches closer than where it was set from. To begin with, practice this set with one footbag until it comes naturally.

Next, you’re ready to move on to two footbags, but with only one catch. Start with a bag on your foot and for now forget it’s even there. Focus on the bag in your hand only… Release it from your hand with a slight upward (maybe a foot) toss that matches the path of the picture on the right (the bag on the upper right is in the approximate release location you’re looking for). Just after you release the bag in your hand, set the bag on your foot using the same motion shown back up to your hand. Remember, at first the one on your foot really isn’t important – all you need to focus on is doing that hand toss to your foot (which you’ve already got mastered). Getting the set with the bag that’s on your foot will come with practice. This is the basic fundamental key: Being able to do one catch (switching the bags between your hand and foot) with the proper path. It may take a few sessions to get comfortable with this (it didn’t come to me quickly).

Now comes the magic part… Forget the hand catch mentioned in the previous pargarph, and go back to the foot, repeat, and now you’re juggling. Note: Don’t forget to practice both feet. Also, the path of your foot is essentially a mirror of the path of the bag, but with a much shorter amplitude (height).

PS: Below is a video I have of myself juggling two Nighthacks. It’s not the greatest tutorial video, but it was handy .

(Note: if your browser does not support the video below, check it out on YouTube or better yet, since the YouTube version is pretty fuzzy, I highly recommend you watch the high resolution version here)