| Jason Garfield | |
|---|---|
 Most Popular Juggler of 2004 | |
|
Websites |
www.jasongarfield.com |
|
Highest numbers juggled |
10 balls qualified |
Jason Garfield (born August 9, 1974) is an American juggler who was born in Norwalk, Connecticut and grew up in Seattle, Washington. He is the founder and president of the World Juggling Federation.[1]
Jason started juggling when he was 11, and at age 13 he won the 1988 IJA Juniors competition.[2] By the time he was 15, he had juggled 9 balls, 9 rings, and 7 clubs, and done 200 catches of 5 club backcrosses.[3] After being awarded only 5th place for his 1st place routine in the IJA Individuals Competition in 1990, he quit juggling for 6 years.
Jason became interested in juggling again after performing at the Ohio State Fair when he was 22. He went on to juggle 10 balls[2] and 10 rings,[4] and tied with Bruce Sarafian for the 11 ball world record (12 catches) in 1997.[5] In 2000, Jason beat Bruce's record with 14 catches (video).[6] (The current world record for 11 balls is 25 catches by Alex Barron.)[7]
Jason won the IJA Individuals Stage competition in 1998 and 2002. After performing his 2002 routine, which was a parody of previous IJA competitors' performances, Jason received three Lucas cups: one for his 2002 win, one that he had never received for his 1998 win, and one that Mark Nizer surrendered to him from 1990.[8]
Jason has been producing instructional materials for juggling since 2000, starting with the series of Juggling Master videos.[9] The latest updated versions of his instructional videos and book are:
- The Theory and Practice of Juggling DVD - Teaches basic patterns for up to 7 balls, 7 rings, and 5 clubs.
- Etudes for Juggling: The Next Three Years of Your Life DVD set - Teaches siteswaps, overheads, halfshower, full reverse, shower, backcrosses, body throws, shoulder throws, 360s, and 180s (including dance training for 360s from professional dance instructors).
- JUGGLING: Fundamental Exercises and Practice Structure workbook - Covers everything in both DVDs.
Jason founded the World Juggling Federation in 2000, with the goals of expanding public awareness of juggling as a sport,[4] producing sport juggling competition programs for ESPN, providing an incentive for jugglers to push themselves to their technical limits,[1] and increasing the number of good competitive jugglers in the world.[10]
In 2003, Olga and Vova Galchenko (ages 12 and 15) attended a workshop Jason was teaching in Reno, Nevada. Jason was impressed with their abilities and offered to help train them. After being trained by Jason, the Galchenkos became the best club passing team in the world,[10] broke four world records in club passing,[11][12] and won seven IJA and WJF club passing competitions.[13][14]
Jason was voted the world's most popular juggler in Luke Burrage's Top 40 Jugglers poll in 2004.[15]
World records
Jason holds the following world records with publicly available video evidence:
- 5 balls in 1 hand: 10 catches (video), tied with Luke Davies (video)
- 4 club body throws: 4 catches (video)
- 1080 qualified with the most rings: 6 rings, 6 up 3-stage (video), tied with Anthony Gatto (video at 1:31)
- 1080 qualified with the most clubs: 5 clubs, 5 up 2-stage (video), tied with Vova Galchenko (video)
- Blind catch qualified with the most rings: 5 rings (video), tied with Ben Hestness (video)
- Blind catch qualified with the most clubs: 4 clubs (video), tied with Malte Peter (video)
Competitions
Jason won the following IJA and WJF competitions.[13][14]
IJA 1988:
- Stage: Juniors
IJA 1990:
- Numbers: Solo Balls
- Numbers: Solo Rings
IJA 1998:
- Stage: Individuals
- Numbers: Solo Balls
- Numbers: Solo Rings
IJA 2000:
- Numbers: Solo Balls
- Numbers: Solo Rings
- Numbers: Solo Clubs
IJA 2001:
- Numbers: Solo Rings
IJA 2002:
- Stage: Individuals
WJF 1:
- Advanced Balls
- Ring Endurance
- 5 Ball 360s
WJF 2:
- Challenge Competitions:[16]
- 5 Ball Low 360s
- 5 Ring Low 360s
WJF 3:
- Advanced Rings
- 5 Ring Freestyle
- 6 Ring Freestyle
- Ring Endurance
- Challenge Competitions:[17]
- 5 Ball Low 360s
- 5 Ring Low 360s
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://thewjf.com/about/department-heads/jason-garfield/
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://web.archive.org/web/20001018180009/http://www.jasongarfield.com/biography.html
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20070127214632/http://jasongarfield.com/timeline/1990/1990.html
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.thewjf.com/about.php
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/19980630172927/http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20000818120347/http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggling_world_records
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20030205185811/http://www.jasongarfield.com/NewJasonGarfield.com/Pages/bio.html
- ↑ http://www.seriousjuggling.com/juggling-videos-dvds.htm
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 http://web.archive.org/web/20070110233741/http://jasongarfield.com/2004.html
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20040207131152/http://juggling.org/records/records.html
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20050205103558/http://juggling.org/records/records.html
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 http://www.juggle.org/ija/championships/
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 http://www.thewjf.com/allevents.php
- ↑ http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/world/jugglers/top40of2004.html
- ↑ http://www.thewjfstore.com/2005convention.php
- ↑ http://www.thewjfstore.com/2006overall.php