This one was supposed to be easy. After one practice I realized it was going to be harder than expected. After 100 practices I was starting to question the power of a growth mindset. I didn’t create this record but the person who did had never successfully challenged it.

The record was for “Longest Duration Juggling on the Backs of the Hands”. The minimum mark set by Guinness was 5 minutes. The crux was Guinness doesn’t allow the fingers to be used. Most jugglers juggle on the backs of their fingers. I had to juggle on the back of my palms. The balls kept rolling off. Even the soft hacky-sack-like balls. It took me over a year of practice. In fact, it was over 12 months in that I first passed the 5-minute mark even in a practice run. Only in the 8 days leading up to the attempt could I reliable break the record.

When I juggle for so long the shoulders ache, the tendons in my wrists lock up, and my arms burn. In a rare occurrence for me, I set my personal record while breaking this Guinness World Record at 7 minutes 35.78 seconds.

Thanks to the team for the support and verifying all the rules were followed!

I got to set my first 2-person juggling world record at the Boston Juggling Festival. Most consecutive side by side juggling catches for #65. Even more impressive than the record itself is who I set it with. Arthur Lewbel is one of the most published and cited economics authors in the world as well as a juggling aficionado and author with more juggling connections that virtually any juggler in the world. He started the MIT juggling club around 1975 and encouraged me to start the MIT Student Juggling Club in 2004. Thanks!

He also recently published his book When Balls Collide with Jack Kalvan on the skills and mathematics of juggling. I got my signed copy.

Signed copy of when balls collide with both authors pictured (Jack on the book)

The record itself probably fits in the medium difficulty level. It would take the average person a couple of months of dedicated effort to break it but since we were at a juggling convention with dozens of accomplished jugglers, most of the people there could have broken it. Both Arthur and I are 7 ball jugglers to continuously passing 6 balls between ourselves took just a few minutes of practice and warm up to get ready to break. The previous record was 111 passes and we got 267 catches on the 2nd try (first try we broke the record but wanted to go for more).  (***March 2019 update: Guinness World Records wanted every catch counted, not just passes to the other person so the official count was nearly double: 532.)

I have to admit both of the witnesses were such accomplished jugglers they could have each broken this 2-person record by themselves! Jonah was the best numbers (lots of objects) technical juggler at the convention pulling things off on stage I have never seen in person before and Jim has medaled multiple times at the IJA in bounce juggling.

I can’t believe I finally did it! I’ve been practicing for this record since I applied in March of 2016 making it one of the first records I ever applied to beat. It’s also one of the hardest to break.

For you non-jugglers out there, don’t be deceived: taking a bite out of an apple is one of the easiest juggling tricks in the book and audience enjoyment to difficult rating is one of the highest in juggling – assuming you’re not performing for jugglers. I was performing at the opening night of the Boston Juggling Festival.

Record holder Michael Goudeau took 151 bites out of 3 apples in 1 minute (a feat he wasn’t able to replicate when he went on the live Guinness Show, and I know why!)

I got about 140 bites out of my 3 pre-weighed apples on the first try and had a full 10 seconds left in the minute. The audience was very friendly and gave me another shot. On my second try, I got 169 bites out of the 3 apples. The last bite was after time expired, 2 bites happened while I was spitting apple out of my mouth and 2 bites just hit my teeth vs having visible bites taken. The new record is 164 bites taken out of 3 apples in 1 minute.

This is my 64th world record broken and in the top 5 most difficult to break. It took me 2 tries but I had a 3rd bag of pre-weighed apples for this show and was ready to try it again 5 more times the next day without an audience. Now we have plenty of apples to eat for our weekend in Boston.

Thanks to the team and the awesome audience!

Today I took on the giant: gravity. I took it on with not a small pebble but three large stones. I then broke the Guinness World Record for “Most Bowling Balls Juggled”.

You might wonder how many bowling balls it is possible to juggle. I hope you guess it’s one or two because I can only juggle three. In fact, nobody can juggle more. There are two reasons for this: 1) bowling balls are heavy (Guinness requires each to weigh over 10 pounds and 2) they are not, in fact, meant to be juggled. If they are juggled, Guinness requires they be juggled for more than 20 seconds.

Last year I bought 5 bowling balls at a killer rate from a shutdown bowling alley. I got all 5 for $10. I never thought I’d be able to juggle five but I got four 10 pound balls and one 6 pound ball for fun stuff. I thought maybe I’d be able to get a qualifying run of 4 balls in (8 catches) but then found out Guinness requires a 20 second run vs 8 catches. I have yet to juggle 2 balls in one hand so I’m still a way of.

I broke this record at the CBS 2 News STEM day at the Fair today held at the Western Idaho Fair.

It was kind of a last-minute record attempt since my wife had our 2nd son on Tuesday night (2.5 days ago). We decided about 11:30 AM we were feeling good enough to stop by the fair and at noon I decided I should break a record while we were there. By 1 PM we were on site with 30+ lbs of bowling balls and I made the attempt in front of a small audience in the STEM area.

I juggled for 30 seconds, or 50% longer than the required length and was sweating profusely and breathing so hard I could barely answer the news questions after.

Happy World Juggling Day. June 16, 2018.

Today I juggled axes. I’ve been preparing for this record attempt for more than 2 years. The longest lead-time item was finding the right axes. It took over 2 years to find them. The next longest lead-time was building up the strength, endurance, and accuracy to juggle the axes for over 5 and a half minutes. I have been lifting weights for months. I regularly do 60, 80, and 150 rep sets with 20, 15, and 12 lb weights. In five and a half minutes I lifted over 5,000 lbs with my biceps while juggling these three, 3 lb axes. It was almost 2,500 raw pounds plus it about doubles the effort to throw them airborne.

I had to chop wood with them before the attempt per Guinness rules to confirm they were real. I have cut myself a couple times in practice but mostly practiced with the sheaths on to avoid injury.  I would have had significant injuries if the sheaths hadn’t been on. The City of Boise wanted to make sure we were prepared so a space was cordoned off for the attempt. There were several officers on hand. The paramedics also brought out a gurney just in case… that was a first.

Josh Horton of Jake and Josh was the previous record holder with 604 catches.

Boise is hosting the “Road to the X-Games” with ESPN at the Rhodes skate park. On Friday and Saturday competitors are vying for a spot on the finals in Minneapolis for Skateboarding and BMX biking.

I had 2 radio station interviews (I think that was the first time I’ve been interviewed for radio…). It got to wear the headsets and talk into the mic. It was fun.

Thanks to the City of Boise, ESPN, the witnesses, timekeepers, police, and paramedics for coming out to support the event!

David Rush is a featured keynote speaker who inspires and entertains. With over 200 World Records broken, David Rush is just what your event needs.

This week I was in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Cradlepoint Partner Summit and worked all day every day on my day job as a product manager giving product presentations and getting great feedback from our amazing partners.

On the last night the day was over and I pulled out my moonlighting gig as a speaker promoting STEM education and a growth mindset. The partners in the room all have their struggles and challenges but if we work to solve a problem and believe we can, we can get better at anything we want.
I attempted to break a Guinness World Record to illustrate my point.

The attempt was for “Most Juggling Back Cross Catches in One Minute”. The previous record was 65 and under the new rules, every single throw had to start behind the back and be caught in front of the body.

I gave a short talk and then was about to start when I noticed the overhead spotlights were on and I had to stare straight up so I asked that they be turned down. The lights were turned down and I had the timers give me the go signal but didn’t realize until I had started that they turned down the wrong lights! I made it almost 40 seconds and 85 catches before I messed up. Normally this would be good enough to break a most in a minute record (it was more than 65) but this record stipulates the entire minute must be completed or the attempt is disqualified. I had the lights set correctly this time (with a slight juggling intermission to give them time) and tried again. And I dropped a ball. I tried again. And I dropped a ball again… and again. I felt pretty good other than some slight nerves but this is a tough record to set.

I place Guinness World Records into easy, medium, hard, and impossible categories. World’s fastest juggling is impossible. Longest lawnmower chin balance is medium. This one was hard. This is about as hard a record as I would ever want to attempt in front of a live audience, and even then it was biting off a bit much.
I took a break and grabbed the mic to observe that this felt a lot like business. We try and fail, try and fail. If we don’t give up, the failure isn’t permanent, it’s simply an opportunity to improve. The talk also helped to calm my nerves. I said I was going for it again and the audience roared in approval. This was great other than it gave me an adrenaline rush which makes juggling very hard. For juggling backcrosses, I only see the ball when it’s above my head and I can’t see it when I actually have to catch it. Nerves throw off my ability to accurately position my hand.

I gave the record attempt another try and promptly dropped a ball.
It felt like I had been up on stage for a half an hour and may have to cede the floor to give away the awards. I gave it another try. This time I was doing well. I made it to 30 seconds with no issue. From 40-50 seconds I started getting amped up and nervous and had a few bobbled catches but held it together. As soon as I made it to 50 seconds I got in the zone. I often get super nervous right before breaking a record but I knew I couldn’t let that happen this time. I got total focus, blocked out the noise, and kept on juggling through the timer calling “TIME!” And it was then time to celebrate. 128 continuous juggling backcrosses in 1 minute. I later reviewed the video an noticed from the time I first threw a ball to when I caught the 128th catch was only 7 minutes 20 seconds.

Guinness World Record #44 is in the books because I didn’t give up. I practiced hard to prepare and I executed. At Cradlepoint we’re practicing with our partners, sharing information, and making each other strong, and when we get back in front of our customers we’re going to execute as well.

Special thanks to Robert Huff, Beau Barker, Travis Culwell, Mike Hagman, Jake Smith, Tony Puopolo, Michelle Obrochta, Jessica Christie and the rest of the Cradlepoint Team

I’m often asked a variant of this question: What’s my favorite Guinness World Record? Which is the hardest? Of which record are you most proud?

This one.

World’s Fastest Juggling.

It’s defined as the most juggling catches in 1 minute. Like most people, I take the most pride in the things I have work the hardest on, and I have practiced for this record for nearly as long as I’ve been setting Guinness World Records.

After assembling the timers and witnesses at Cradlepoint on a Wednesday afternoon, on my first try, I got 556 catches in one minute beating the previous mark of 502 catches in one minute by over 10%.

When I first ran across this Guinness World Record in 2015 the mark stood at 422 catches in one minute. In my mind, it was nearly untouchable. But then I approached breaking the record with a growth mindset I practiced with a vengeance.  I believed I could break the record and spent countless hours on deliberate practice. I broke it in June of 2016 with a run of 428 catches in one minute to lay claim to the tile title of World’s Fastest Juggler. To date, I know of no one who has passed this mark using the cascade juggling pattern. I subsequently hit 472 catches in 1 minute in 2017 as the first minute of a 3 minute Guinness speed juggling run. Today I publish the video with 495 catches -the first known run of over 8 catches per second.

The Guinness World Record mark is now 556 catches in one minute.

Guinness actually has 2 three speed juggling records: “Most juggling catches in one minute (3 balls)” and it implicitly required the use of the cascade juggling pattern. This is the record I previously broke. They also had a similar record for “Most juggling catches in one minute (3 objects)” that explicitly called out that any juggling pattern could be used, so the faster shower pattern was allowed and it stood at 466 catches in one minute. Guinness recently accepted an application for the fastest 3 ball juggling using the shower pattern after previously rejecting other applications using it. In the meantime, JISCON (Juggling Information Services Committee on Numbers) only counts the high throws in the shower pattern as “catches” so the 556 Guinness “catches” would only count as “278” catches.

I contacted Guinness to let them know of the inconsitancy and they determined they were going to stick with their decision to allow the shower juggling pattern for the 3 ball record. Eleven months of practice later I can lay claim to both Guinness World Records using the shower juggling pattern (556) and the JISCON record with the cascade pattern (495) for speed juggling.

I filmed the 3 ball cascade record at lunch earlier in the week after a quick 2-mile run (while juggling) on the treadmill to warm up.

I then broke the 3 ball shower Guinness World Records during a live event with witnesses and a news station present. I broke it on the first try which was good since I got so excited during the attempt my arms nearly turned to jelly.

I invite challengers to these records as I love a challenge and I know I can go faster and just need the motivation to do so.

On Wednesday at 2:30 PM at Cradlepoint I have an interview with KBOI 2 news about promoting STEM education and then I will attempt to reclaim the most difficult Guinness World Record I have ever set. It is the one I have practiced for on a weekly, if not daily basis for more than 2 years. On Wednesday, I will attempt to become the fastest juggler in the world by re-breaking the Guinness World Record for “Most Juggling Catches in 1 Minutes (3 balls)”. The current record is 502 catches in 1 minute.

You may ask, don’t you already claim to be the fastest juggler in the world? Yes… but. On Wednesday I remove the but. The but right now is that Guinness recently changed the interpretation of their rules to allow the shower juggling pattern to be used for speed juggling vs the cascade pattern. The juggling community still only recognizes the cascade juggling pattern and I still hold that record at 472 catches in 1 minute. When I first broke this record it stood at 422 catches in 1 minute. I upped it to 428. The rules changed and it jumped all the way to 502 catches in 1 minute. I would just assume hold both to remove any dispute.

In the shower pattern, the balls move around in a circle and 2 throws and catches happen nearly simultaneously vs the cascade pattern where each ball is thrown up and over to the other hand one at a time. For the last 11 months, I’ve been practicing with the shower pattern to get it up to speed since before all my speed juggling and blindfold speed juggling has been dedicated to mastering the cascade pattern.