COMPETITOR PROFILE
Sondre Ribe Øverby Born in Fredrikstad, Norway. Now living in Melbu, Norway.
Q: How long have you been juggling?
A: I am not sure for how long I have been able to juggle, but I know for sure I started practicing 5 balls in February 2006. I believe I learned the 3 ball cascade in August 2005.
Q: How did you learn how to juggle?
A: I think one of my friends taught me.
Q: Why did you keep juggling?
A: Before I learned it, juggling was THE most ultimately awesomest thing in the world, so that got me started easily. After I had learned 3 balls, my
friend and I would have show-off "competitions" where we tried to do 3
balls longer than the other...
I am very competitive, so I practiced my ass off to beat him. He quit doing it when we got to 4 balls because he had other free time occupations, but I didn't. Another motivation was that my gym teacher - he thought my juggling was awesome - told me that my current grade in gym was 5(equals a B), and that he wanted to have a bet with me: I could now juggle 4 balls, and the amount I could juggle at the end of the year in 10th grade(the last year of elementary school in Norway) would be my grade. Of course I qualified 7 for him by then, and got the best grade of 6; an A. He told me later I might have gotten that
grade anyway, but the motivation I had for juggling, which is, as we know, physical, was what really made sure I got an A.
Q: Why do you want to compete in the WJF competitions?
A: I have always been very competitive, and have always looked for any kind
of competition in all the skills I am capable of. When a juggling
competition, featuring the skill I am probably best at right now, comes
up, I feel it would be awesome to take part. Besides, it is a measurement
of raw technical skill and consistensy in juggling moves, which would make
sense for me to compete in, seeing as this is what I practice. I have
always valued things that are actually hard rather than aesthetically
pleasing; I prefer paintings that do in fact look like real things, for
example.
Q: What are your goals in juggling, technically and professionally?
A: I want to get good enough to be a potential winner of the Avanced Ball
competition at the WJF. I also hope to make a living from performing for
at least a few years at some point in my life. I am aware of that very few
can have it as their main profession, and I will probably not do so, but I
want to be able to do it professionaly for at least a while.
Q: What kind of training has been the most beneficial in progressing your juggling skills?
A: I make sure I warm up and go from 5 to 6 and 6 to 7. I also don't practice
things I need more than 5 tries to get. That wouldn't be efficient
practice time.
Q: What has had the most influence on your juggling?
A: I feel that my competitive spirit helps me the most, whereas I am
sometimes bored of juggling and I don't want to practice, but I know that
I will be rewarded for it later, so I go and do it anyway. It's probably
that I want to stay and be at a certain level compared to the others; I
want to be one of the "good jugglers", and this is part of what keeps me
practicing. I get a sense of accomplishment when I see I have gotten
better. I am of course not anywhere near the best ones in any way, but I
am above average, and I want to get as high up as possible.
