World Juggling Federation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The World Juggling Federation (WJF) is a juggling organisation founded in 2000 by Jason Garfield which began to gain popularity in 2003 when ESPN showed an interest in televising a juggling competition. Its highest profile event is the WJF convention hosted in Las Vegas and shown on ESPN2. The organisation promotes the idea that juggling is a sport and encourages jugglers to compete against each other in order to get better. Competitors at the convention must wear uniforms and must have a technical routine to compete.
Acceptable juggling props at the convention are:
- Balls
- Rings
- Clubs
- Boxes
- Diabolos
The different types of competition held at the convention are:
- Beginner, intermediate and advanced competitions in each of the three main discipline
- Club passing
- 360s (and similar)
- Endurance
- Freestyle
Competitors for 2006 include Jason Garfield, Vova Galchenko, Thomas Dietz, Olga Galchenko, Wes Peden, C.J. Smith, Kristian Wanvik and William Wei-Lang Lin, many of whom are running workshops during the convention.
The WJF encourages children to learn to juggle, so they have set up juggling programs in public schools, including boys and girls clubs, and community centers. They also provide demonstrations, workshops, lesson plans, juggling equipment and Jason Garfield's instructional book/DVD combo.
[edit] External links
- The WJF - The World Juggling Federation's official website
- An inteview with Mark Bakalor about the WJF - Mark Bakalor, the marketing director of the WJF explains the aims of the organisation.
- "Up In the Air", a TIME article on Vova and Olga Galchenko, that talks about the history of the WJF
- The World Juggling Federation Forum - WJF Discussion Board including Members-Only Instructional Forums.
