“Sure, there are times when they do distract. The difference between practicing and performing is that you perform what you have mastered, and you practice what is just beyond your capability. To practice is to reach. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. But when people see you try and fail, they assume that you can’t. And you know that’s what they’re thinking, so it makes you self-conscious. Rather than slipping into the monotonous, meditative fugue state in which progress is made, you choke. Then, there’s a pressure to prove that you can. So, you do what you can. You show off.
I pick up three clubs instead of five, put a fourth one on my foot, begin my three-club cascade, then kick the fourth up into the air and incorporate it into the pattern, ultimately tossing one of them incredibly high into the air before gathering them all up and tossing them aside. No big deal. It doesn’t make me a better juggler, but it shows other people that I’m good. Validation.”