Evaluation of the light weight Juggling system

^(*) University Montpellier 1, Montpellier, France
^(†) Scuola Superiore S. Anna, Pisa, Italy
^(‡) TECHNION, Haifa, Israel
^(§) Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland
E-mail: julien.lagarde@univ-montp1.fr

Abstract

This paper presents the training of juggling skills, a highly complex problem of coordination, under tight time and space constraints. This training is achieved with a simple training platform, a light weight juggling platform (LWJ), and is compared to training with real balls. The principle directing the design of the platform is to obtain a simple tool. The simplification, in comparison to real world juggling, is based on the identification of invariant properties in the spatiotemporal coordination of intermediate and expert jugglers. Two classes training solutions were added to the LWJ: An audio-tactile pacing or augmented multimodal environment, and the manipulation of cognitive components of the juggling skills. The transfer to juggling with real balls was evaluated in four different experiments.