Juggling Scarves: A Learning Tool That Aids or Hinders Learning?

The effectiveness of using juggling scarves to teach juggling was investigated. Differences in juggling tennis balls between subjects who practiced with tennis balls and subjects who practiced with scarves at progressively increasing speeds were assessed. No significant difference between the juggling scores of these groups was found. The subjects using scarves generally reported more confidence in their practice method than did the group juggling tennis balls, and greater confidence in their ability to transfer learned scarf juggling skills to the more difficult tennis ball juggling. They also reported less difficulty in maintaining a high amount of “time on task” during initial practice than did the tennis-ball group.