Gatto Article

[donald grant]

Whether you, juggle, perform, play with toys, whatever, this is a fascinating read....

http://grantland.com/features/anthony-gatto-juggling-cirque-du-soleil-jason-fagone/

[AptDweller]

Great article.  Although there is a sad note playing through out.  Here is an individual who obviously enjoyed his life before the public as a juggler.  But had to give it up to support his family.  I'm not sure many performers could have done that.  Three cheers for the Great Gatto!  I hope he made the right decision.

[PikWik]

honestly, i had never heard of gatto until now. too bad hes retired. but, to have left such an impact on the juggling scene is no small feat. over 30 years of work and dedication brought us one of the greatest jugglers in the world. that type of passion and earnest perseverance is very inspiring.

relate-able, encouraging, and humbling.

but most of all; thanks for sharing!

[BKA]

It's not entirely clear that he has actually retired. Possibly just on an injury break.

[Kev]

That's a really good read, thanks Donald.

I've been lucky to see Gatto perform and practice a few times, the thing that always stuck me (as well as obviously being an amazing juggler) was his posture - really balanced with minimal / efficient movement (which of course contributes hugely to him being an amazing juggler). We can learn a lot for kendama from this. As Void has said a few times, he learnt tricks by studying and copying the complete body position and movement of players, not just the kendama.

I like the 1 in 3 rule - saying that although you may have DONE a trick once, you can't truly say you can DO a trick until you can get it 1 in 3. It's a good principle to practice by. As has been said many times, "third time lucky, fourth time embarrassing".

The article raises good points about the 'camera always on' culture. It's something I find odd, maybe it's just me or maybe it's a generational thing but filming all the time seems to remove the element of pure play in the present moment which is so often rewarding and replaces it with an arms race for bragging rights. If you are a camera always on kinda person I'd really recommend trying turning it off once in a while, hit the park with just your toy of choice and play around, it's very rewarding! Sure you might miss filming something but hey, you know you did it right?

[LarsVegas]

[...]
I like the 1 in 3 rule - saying that although you may have DONE a trick once, you can't truly say you can DO a trick until you can get it 1 in 3. It's a good principle to practice by. As has been said many times, "third time lucky, fourth time embarrassing".

The article raises good points about the 'camera always on' culture. It's something I find odd, maybe it's just me or maybe it's a generational thing but filming all the time seems to remove the element of pure play in the present moment which is so often rewarding and replaces it with an arms race for bragging rights. If you are a camera always on kinda person I'd really recommend trying turning it off once in a while, hit the park with just your toy of choice and play around, it's very rewarding! Sure you might miss filming something but hey, you know you did it right?

So true, but I have to confess that I'm also currently committing that sin. I'm still (but probably not for much longer) in the Outlink competition. Honestly, the tricks really exceed my skills in two ways: I never tried any of the tricks before and even though single elements of the sequences already work really well (e.g. c-whip), the combinations are not very consistent. But on the other hand, it's so much fun and I'm learning tricks I've never thought about before. I'll continue practicing the next tricks too, even if I miss round 7 now. But I surely get more motivation while being "in". So I have the camera running all the time to capture that moment when it works.

Anyway, I start to feel that it would be fair if I miss. Compared to the other players in Outlink, I don't think I should win. The only reason would be that I currently practice really hard ...

But even though I passed so far, I never would say that I can "do" the tricks. For trick ladders, I usually practice tricks in blocks of 10 in each run. I'd consider "can do" if I succeed at least 8 out of 10 regularly. For the "3 out of 10" rule of BKA and JKA exams, that's the minimum to get confident for a stressful situation. For speed ladder competitions, a regular 9 out of 10, would be better. I can do that for Big Cup