Juggling notation is the written depiction of concepts and practices in juggling.[1][2] Toss juggling patterns have a reputation for being "easier done than said" – while it might be easy to learn a given maneuver and demonstrate it for others, it is often much harder to communicate the idea accurately using speech or plain text. To circumvent this problem, various numeric or diagram-based notation systems have been developed to facilitate communication of patterns or tricks between jugglers, as well the investigation and discovery of new patterns.
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While diagrams are the most visual and reader-friendly way to notate many juggling patterns, they rely on images, so are complicated to produce and unwieldy to share via text or speech.
The following notation systems use only numbers and common characters. The patterns can easily be communicated by text. Most numeric systems are designed to be processed by software juggling simulators — for example, to view juggling patterns as computer animations.
Invented by Paul Klimek in 1981.
Developed by mathematically-inclined jugglers Bengt Magnusson and Bruce Boppo Tiemann in 1985,[1][3][4] siteswap is by far the most common juggling notation. In its most basic form, "vanilla siteswap", it is very easy to use, as each pattern is reduced to a simple sequence of digits, such as "3", "97531" or "744". However, vanilla siteswap can notate only the most basic two-handed patterns.
For more slightly more complicated patterns, extra rules and syntax are added to create the following two siteswap extensions:
Vanilla, synch, and multiplex siteswap are the "standard" forms of siteswap. Not only are they understood by jugglers, there are also many computer programs capable of animating juggling patterns entered in siteswap notation.
Other extensions to siteswap have been developed for specific purposes. These are far less common than the "standard" forms of siteswap, understood by far fewer jugglers and only specialized software.
Beatmap is a new juggling notation system, developed in 2004 by Luke Burrage.[6] While there are some similarities between beatmap and synch siteswap, there are also fundamental differences. The most important is that beatmap notates every "hand" on every beat during a pattern, unlike all forms of siteswap, which only notate each hand on every other beat. This means that beatmap can notate any number of hands and in any rhythm with no added complexity, unlike siteswap, which needs many extended sets of rules and syntax to be able to communicate the same patterns.
Beatmap notates not only each throw, but also the time and place of each catch. By including a simple indication of crossing and uncrossing arms, beatmap can notate Mills Mess–style patterns. Within beatmap it is also possible and easy to notate not only the balls in a pattern, but also the hands or arms of the juggler, as well as the position, location or orientation of the body of a juggler. Users claim that beatmap can more accurately describe more patterns than all ladder diagrams, causal diagrams, Mills Mess state transition diagrams, vanilla siteswap, synch siteswap, passing siteswap, and multi-hand notation combined.
So far use of beatmap has been very limited, as most jugglers and juggling software understand only variations of siteswap.