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.