It has been since March of 2018 since I broke both the speed juggling records the 3-ball cascade and 3-ball shower juggling patterns. I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to challenge either of these records but Michael Ferreri finally did with the shower juggling patter beating my mark of 556 catches in one minute with 558. That was enough to kick me back into training mode for the hardest Guinness World Record I have ever done.

Last March, I also set the mark for most juggling catches in a minute with 3 balls with the cascade juggling pattern, which is the one the juggling community recognized with 495 catches. That’s a record I’ve held continuously since June of 2016 when I got 428 catches in a minute beating the previous mark of 422 which was both the Guinness World Record as well as the Juggling community recognized (Guinness used to require the slower cascade juggling pattern but now allows the faster shower pattern). My only regret from that attempt was that I didn’t break the 500 catch in one-minute barrier with the cascade juggling pattern.

Michael broke the one Guinness now recognizes (shower) but I decided I was going to go for both if I was going to train for speed juggling again. The rules are slightly different for Guinness and the juggling community because for Guinness the timer starts when the timer says go (and you need 2 witnesses and 2 timers present for the attempt to be official). For the cascade pattern recognized by the juggling community, the timer starts when the first throw leaves the hand and all you need is a camera to capture evidence instead of 4 other people plus a camera giving a lot more flexibility on when and where you can break the record.

I broke the Guinness World Record for most juggling catches in one minute with 3 balls on my birthday on Dec 13, since I could think of no better gift for myself that the Guinness World Record in which I take the most pride. It then took me 3 or 4 sessions of recording myself over the next week to beat the 3-ball juggling cascade record.

For the Guinness Record using the shower I got 586 catches in one minute beating the previous record by 28 and my previous mark by 30, or a half a catch a second, which is a substantial improvement (half a catch a second more!). At 30 seconds I was at 304 catches, on pace for 608 catches in one minute! I was so close to breaking the 10 catch per second barrier. I’ll get it next time.

For the cascade pattern, my goal was 500 catches in a minute and I finally got 502. That’s the first time in history anyone has made 500 catches in one minute juggling in the cascade juggling pattern with 3 (or any number of) balls.

I once again hold both major 3-ball speed juggling records coming close to breaking the 600 catch barrier with the shower pattern and finally succeeding to be the first-ever to break the 500 catch barrier in a minute with the 3-ball cascade.

Here’s to more challengers stepping up! (fingers crossed)