Have you ever wondered, "What's the greatest number of balls, or clubs, or rings anyone's ever juggled?" A precise answer is a difficult thing to find. The Guinness Book of World Records lists juggling records, but gives no numbers of catches or rules, deferring instead to established International Jugglers Association (IJA) numbers competition rules. Until now, there never really has been an entity to oversee the verification and maintenance of the world's numbers juggling records.
A discussion of this on the Internet has led to the formation of a body to do just that. Known as the JIS Committee on Numbers Juggling, this organization recently announced a list of current records and has set forth precise procedures for setting new ones. The name "JIS" comes from the Juggling Information Service, which is a vast repository of juggling information on the internet (http://www.juggling.org/).
The main idea behind this set of records is that outside of official competitions, only videotape will do for proof. A record might be set during a competition sponsored by a national or international juggling organization or an affiliate, if it follows JIS Committee on Numbers Juggling rules. Otherwise, new records will only be considered when on video, thus doing away with the majority of questions that arise about what has or has not been accomplished. There is no charge for submitting videotape to the Committee.
The current list of world records maintained by the Committee follows.
Anyone may obtain free information about rules and submitting new records by sending a self-addressed postage-paid envelope or international reply coupon to any of the committee members listed below. Complete information is also available on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.juggling.org/records/and the Committee may be e-mailed at:
world-records@juggling.org
If any readers know a numbers juggler who might be in contention for any of these records, or if they have any videotape in their collections of jugglers who equal or break any of these records, they are invited to contact the Committee right away!
Committee members
http://www.juggling.org/records/committee.html