juggling with eyeglasses
gantenbein
Within the last few years my eyesight has been getting progressively
worse. First I started wearing eyeglasses when driving, but now I wear
them most of the time, including the times when I practice juggling.
Somehow I feel that my juggling has suffered since. I'm not sure whether I
just need to recalibrate my hand-eye-coordination to the eyeglasses,
whether juggling with glasses just sucks, or whether I just didn't see how
bad my juggling was without glasses.
I'd be interested in peoples experiences when juggling with eyeglasses,
especially of those people who started wearing glasses after they started
juggling.
Also: Would contact lenses offer any advantage (other than the obvious
lower risk of being smashed by a stray ball)?
Thanks in advance!
Steffen
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Will S
I juggled wearing glasses for many years, and more through playing Cricket
than juggling I've noticed that balls look much smaller through glasses
than they do through contacts. Depending on how blind you are, I think
the stronger the lenses are, the smaller the props would look through
glasses.
I've recently made the switch to contacts and now juggling with glasses on
feels strange. But it takes time to get used to wearing glasses, even with
a new pair. I'd recommend contacts.
Hope that's helpful,
Will
David Cain
first 24 years I didn't wear my glasses when juggling. I finally had
to start wearing them while juggling about three years ago. It took a
while to get used to it, but now I don't even notice it. It just
takes time to adjust.
David Cain
TK
> Hi!
>
> Within the last few years my eyesight has been getting progressively
> worse. First I started wearing eyeglasses when driving, but now I wear
> them most of the time, including the times when I practice juggling.
> Somehow I feel that my juggling has suffered since. I'm not sure whether I
> just need to recalibrate my hand-eye-coordination to the eyeglasses,
> whether juggling with glasses just sucks, or whether I just didn't see how
> bad my juggling was without glasses.
I have worn glasses most of my life, have not been able to pass the
driver's license exam for 30 years. I can juggle equally well without
glasses although I rarely do anything without glasses including juggling.
I suspect that your problem is more emotional than physical. Any time I
have to adjust my lifestyle (or goals) because of a limitation that
could be attributed to aging, I initially resent it before I adapt.
> I'd be interested in peoples experiences when juggling with eyeglasses,
> especially of those people who started wearing glasses after they started
> juggling.
>
> Also: Would contact lenses offer any advantage (other than the obvious
> lower risk of being smashed by a stray ball)?
That I have no firsthand knowledge of.
--
TK
http://www.wejuggle2.com/
Still Having a Ball
One of the compensations for being old is not having to worry about
getting old.
Andreas Folk
for juggling except for blindfolded routines^^. it's a little difficult
with ring pull down and pull offs and i have to be careful with nose
balancing. looking half through the glasses and half above the frame was a
little disturbing in the beginning but i got somehow used to it. i'd
recommend a titan flex frame because it's indistructable. so far i
destroyed two normal frames in almost 5 years of juggling.
gr��e ;)
andi
fakoriginal
Daily ones are my preference - no fiddling around with solutions, just pop
them in and go. I did hit myself just below my eye yesterday whilst
wearing contacts.
I was glasses first, then juggling, with the majority of my juggling done
whilst wearing glasses (it's a relatively recent conversion). Contacts are
a great improvement over my glasses as I no longer get the letterbox
effect of losing things as they pass out of range of my glasses (like the
distortion of putting a straw into a glass of water). My glasses are no
longer in danger of getting smashed, or the more frequent occurrence of
sliding down my nose every time I bent over to pick something up. Contact
lenses don't steam up if you're moving from cold to hot locations. Overall
they rock in so many ways. The only time I prefer glasses is when I want
to give my eyes a break or when I am doing a lot of computer work.
fak
edward
I'm just wondering, all the people wearing glasses while juggling - are
you long sighted? I thought short sighted people wouldn't need to, but
maybe that's not true either?
fakoriginal
I was a short-sighted glasses wearing juggler. My prescription is strong
enough that anything I am juggling doesn't have to get very far away to
lose definition (hard to spot axles on a diabolo for example). There is no
way I could club pass whilst not wearing glasses (or contacts). Loss of
definition means fuzzy edges and your eyes straining to make them sharp
(not a good idea for already poorly eyes).
fak
TheDee
I wore glasses for years before I started juggling (shortsighted). My big
problem was when passing or playing gladiators (combat) - flying clubs
into face = expensive broken frames + painful nose. Peripheral vision was
the biggest issue with me - my field of vision was separated into that
"within glasses" and "without glasses", which did cause some problems when
trying to learn body throws (with balls).
Contact lenses weren't really an option for me as I suffered from a series
of eye infections, but when I could wear them, they did overcome the
broken frames problem.
Almost two years ago I got my eyes zapped, now have (almost) perfect
vision.
Best decision I've made in a long time!
Dee
who had (almost) this conversation with fak last Monday!
gantenbein
Hi Edward,
I'm short sighted. I'm not sure whether I need to wear glasses while
juggling. I just felt that my perception of the objects (i.e. balls in my
case) was not 100% clear with higher throws, so I figured I might as well
wear my glasses while I juggle. Obviously I was hoping that this would
improve things, but felt that the opposite was the case. I probably could
go back to juggling without glasses for the time being, but I guess over
time my vision will probably not improve and I might have to wear glasses
(or contact lenses) sooner or later, so figured it might be a good idea to
get used to it now.
Steffen
markool89
> >
> I wore glasses for years before I started juggling (shortsighted). My big
> problem was when passing or playing gladiators (combat) - flying clubs
> into face = expensive broken frames + painful nose. Peripheral vision was
> the biggest issue with me - my field of vision was separated into that
> "within glasses" and "without glasses", which did cause some problems when
> trying to learn body throws (with balls).
> Contact lenses weren't really an option for me as I suffered from a series
> of eye infections, but when I could wear them, they did overcome the
> broken frames problem.
> Almost two years ago I got my eyes zapped, now have (almost) perfect
> vision.
> Best decision I've made in a long time!
>
> Dee
> who had (almost) this conversation with fak last Monday!
>
>
I wish i could afford laser eye surgery. It would solve alot of things.
And its strange that this subject should come up today, because last night
i whacked my glasses with a club. They didnt brake thankfully, but my nose
hasnt felt right since.
And i would hate contacts. That grosses me out!
Mark/kraM
-----------------------------------------
Hoping my new signing out thing is looking cool. (is it?)
fakoriginal
fak - still cringing at the clamping
eMretsiM
props in the air. And bad things can happen when doing 360s.
I do have glasses for vision correction purposes but they are too weak to
have any noticeable effect on my juggling (apart from the issues with
frames and 360s of course.)
thatguy
I have been wearing glasses since I was 6 and my eyesight is pretty
abhorrent. I cannot tell people's faces apart unless they are less than 2
feet away from my eyes.
I got new glasses last week and I have noticed that my juggling has most
definitely suffered. I cannot do the 531 tricks as with as much ease as
before and siteswaps with clubs have suffered as well. I believe that it
will take a few weeks for you to get truly used to juggling with glasses.
Interestingly enough, I can juggle without my glasses. I can get runs of
5 clubs and I have flashed 7 balls.
Thank you,
thatguy
Ben Thompson
and worse and eventually I got some glasses, but only wore them when
driving and sitting in the back of classrooms. Now I wear them almost
always, but I never wear them while I juggle. It may get to the point
where I'll have to, but for now, I prefer just taking them off. I just
can't seem to get used to things going in and out of focus as they go from
beneath the rims of my glasses through the middle and up past the upper
rims. I also spin way too fast to keep glasses on my face. I can do a few
normal 360s without them going to far, but if I try a 720, the glasses
will end up halfway across the room.
jamesfrancis
My eyes are also getting progressively worse. I have been wearing glasses
for 1.5 years now and wear them 8 hours a day on average.
I haven't really tried juggling much with glasses on as i try to wear them
as little as possible outside of work (to prevent my eyes deteriorating
further and because i associate them with work and juggle to take my mind
off such things). On the few attempts i have tried i just find it
difficult to deal with the transition the line of sight of the ball makes
over the rim of the glasses. I guess this may take some getting used to.
However i have noticed without glasses my ball juggling has slowly got
worse. I sometimes miss catches completely that i just misjudge the
location of. I don't think this has affected my club juggling though (at
least not noticably).
This has put me off ball juggling quite a bit recently as i just find it
frustrating. I'm not sure i could put contacts in as cant touch my eyes.
Somepoint if i want to continue juggling balls i will have to make the
transition to glasses.
James
The Void
> I'm not sure i could put contacts in as cant touch my eyes.
Funny, your arms don't look that short.
The Void
..................
Tastectomy
--
TLMB tees & hoodies: www.tlmb.net/tees
I AM BAZZ
Not particularly useful for your predicament, but I do Contact, and the
fact that I wear glasses prevents me doing temple stalls and rolls over my
head. I wear contacts on occasion, and can't say i've noticed any
difference to my toss juggling (i do wear them high on my nose though, so
I have no issue with objects coming in and out of focus).
I am currently looking into getting some Pince-nez glasses, and having
them reglazed with my prescription to use when doing contact.
popstar_dave
>
> i try to wear them
> as little as possible outside of work (to prevent my eyes deteriorating
>
I'm no optometrist myself, by I do know that my optometrist told me that
this is a common misconception about wearing glasses, but it isn't true.
That being said, he may have just been encouraging me to wear mine more,
then hopefully buy new ones from him.
Dave
...is slightly shortsighted, but almost never wears his glasses (except
when he wants to look intelligent).
popstar_dave
>
> I wear contacts on occasion, and can't say i've noticed any
>
Contact lenses. You're doing it wrong.
ultimatewannabe
I am not exactly the perfect person to answer this as I have worn glasses
since second grade. My vision is extremely poor, when I take off my
glasses I would have to be within 1 foot of your face in order to
distinguish your eyes from the rest of your face. After I began juggling
I tried switching to contacts and had lots of problems and switched back
to glasses. I found that my eyes were extremely sensitive to light (could
not walk outside without sunglasses) and I had a tendency to knock them
out. About once a week I would get hit in the face in just the right way
to knock one of them out. Glasses have their own issues but I have fixes
for the ones that bug me the most. During juggling and other physical
activities I secure the glasses to my face with a 1/2" (13 mm) wide rubber
band that has been cut so it is no longer a loop and has a hole in each
end. The holes were made with the very tip of a knife so sliding the ear
piece of the glasses into the hole provides ample friction. This is more
than enough to handle 360s, bending over to pick up props, and all but the
most extreme face collisions. I don't spin particularly fast and I can't
do 720s at all so I don't know if this would work for Ben or Lauge.
That said, different people react very differently to contact lenses so
regardless of what people say about them, I recommend talking to an
optometrist about them if you have the money and think it might help.
On a different note, I find that when I switch to sunglasses on bright
days (same prescription) I have trouble for the first 10 minutes or so as
I'm adjusting. That point seems only mildly related but worth mentioning
because it's late and I want to keep typing.
Mike
)
occasions I have tried to juggle wearing glasses, I find it a lot harder.
I'm really aware of reflections on the lenses, which are distracting and
make it hard to concentrate on juggling. But that might just be because
I'm not used to seeing the world through glasses...
Dave Altman
> Also: Would contact lenses offer any advantage (other than the obvious
> lower risk of being smashed by a stray ball)?
Yes, Steffen. Contacts don't fog up like glasses and you can't fling them
off like you might doing anything real physical. I juggle in glasses quite
often, but there are a few things I won't do because I know the glasses
might get thrown off my face. Contacts can get knocked out if you get hit
hard enough, but glasses get in the way much more.
I am surprised out many times I will hit or brush the corner of the
glasses where the temple meets the lens. It doesn't seem like I get that
close to my eyes, but I guess I do. I rarely hit myself in the face, but I
must be missing myself by only an inch or even less.
Contacts aren't perfect, but they are better than glasses for anything
physical. I can see well enough to juggle without glasses, but I normally
just keep them on. Low light seems to bother me more than fuzzy objects,
though.
Dave Altman
JugglerPeter
I always wear glasses - when juggling or other activities. My eyes don't
reallay like contacts, and for a while I put in months of work getting my
eyes to the point where I could wear contacts for more than a couple hours
at time (yes, it took months to get my eyes to that point). But overall
it wasn't worth it.
As to glasses falling off or down your nose - that shouldn't happen if
your glasses are fitted properly, or possibly you need to modify the style
of glasses you wear (plastic frames don't fit as tightly as metal).
The big benefit of glasses is that I've never given myself a black eye
from juggling. I've take a few shots that I'm sure would have if I didn't
have glasses to protect my eyes (I make sure I get unbreakable frames and
the most durable lenses available). Bloody noses, yes. Black eyes, no.
Peter
gantenbein
Thanks for all the advice and helpful tips!
After reading through some of the replies of jugglers with less optimal
eyesight than my own who still take off their glasses while juggling, I
decided to go back to juggling without glasses as well. Seems to work OK.
I'll worry about glasses vs. contacts at some later point in time ...
Many thanks to everyone who replied!