6 ms·

I used to run the world's biggest juggling video repository (JuggleThis.net, now defunct) which itself was definitely responsible for a lot of the irritation Ga

I used to run the world's biggest juggling video repository (JuggleThis.net, now defunct) which itself was definitely responsible for a lot of the irritation Gatto found with the new generation of camera-happy juggling kids. Certainly he was frustrated by newcomers filming 100 takes and showing just one (something I'm guilty of too!). But without being a juggler yourself it's hard to express just how much better than everyone else he really was. If being able to do a trick with N balls is unit difficulty, adding N+2 balls is a factor of 10-100 harder. Being able to perform it is another 10-100 times again. Gatto regularly performed things the next best jugglers could barely do at all. He was the Donald Bradman of juggling, and I'm very sad we now have to say "was".

clarky07 13y ago
I'm not ashamed to admit I had to look up Donald Bradman. Cricket? That's the analogy you went with? :-)
- artichokeheart 13y ago
  OP is Aussie. As a fellow Aussie this makes perfect sense
- Schwolop 13y ago
  In terms of "sportsman who is so far ahead of his peers that it's almost impossible to explain how", then yes, I think Bradman fits the bill!
- zem 13y ago
  there is pretty much no one who has dominated a sport the way bradman dominated cricket, i think. consider - he has the highest lifetime test batting average of all time, at 99.94. which doesn't perhaps sound that impressive, out of context, until you see that the next three people in the record books have averages of 60.97, 60.83 and 60.73. he was more than 50% better than the second-best test batsman around.
  - virtualwhys 13y ago
    Not sure how cricket compares to baseball, but in the 20s and 30s the overall talent level was nowhere near what it's become in modern times. Saying that, Bradman's batting average is absurdly high, does 99.94 mean that nearly everytime he went to bat he was able to put the ball in play without the opposing team being able to get him out? If so, the equivalent in baseball would be almost always getting a hit (closest in modern era was, I believe, .424 by Ted Williams), something that would require the hand/eye coordination of superman, basically.
    - zem 13y ago
      well, "putting the ball in play" is not as hard in cricket as in baseball; the 99 refers to runs, not a percentage. but getting more than 100 runs in a game (known as a century) is a reasonably significant feat in cricket; that bradman's average was almost 100 runs is spectacular.
    - Cogito 13y ago
      Not quite, but close. In cricket you (and a second batter who is with you) stay at bat until you are dismissed. There are a number of ways to be dismissed, such as being caught on the full or run out, but you don't need to put every ball into play. In order to score runs you generally must play the ball, but trying to score runs increases your risk of being dismissed. The best batsman are able to both score runs and minimise their risk of being dismissed, and so are able to stay in bat for longer and score higher totals. Bradman was, on average, able to score almost 100 runs every time he went out to bat, and that is just ridiculous.
    - kamaal 13y ago
      What an average of 99.94 means is every time he went to play he scored an average ~100 runs. Which is just too remarkable. And that too in test cricket. Test cricket is just what it is, its a test of patience and concentration. You are supposed to play unreasonably long amounts of time(the whole day) in scorching heat. There fore to go in and play that, it just means one thing. Not only where his batting skills top notch in the history of the game, his ability to focus, concentrate has not been matched ever since. Please note bowlers are always on the look out to get your out. And there are literally many way in which you can get out. This isn't just sport. This is meditation.
- zizee 13y ago
  I am curious to hear your thoughts on which sportsperson is a more appropriate analogy?
  - zardeh 13y ago
    Wayne Gretzky?
    - nagrom 13y ago
      Cricket has a much, much bigger audience globally than Ice Hockey - there's a lot of Europeans, Australians, South Africans and Indians on HN who have likely never seen a hockey game :-) It's also not so much of a team game - cricket statistics are much more likely to reveal an outlier than hockey, football, rugby or handball. It's possible to separate to a much greater extent a player from the quality of their team - if you put me and three other random guys on a basketball team with Michael Jordan, he would look a lot less impressive than he did with one of the greatest teams ever assembled! The same goes for Messi, Maradona, Gretzky, etc. Their talents need, and encourage to some extent, wonderful performances from their teammates to make passes, runs, tackles, interceptions, etc. The only effect that a similar substitution would have on Bradman would be that he'd need to concentrate on 4s and 6s and keeping the rest of us 'in' long enough. If you wanted to sub in a North American sportsman as an outlier, it would need to be a baseball player, I guess :-)
  - clarky07 13y ago
    Someone that a higher percentage of people would be familiar with. While his feat is impressive, it is I'm guessing widely unknown. Perhaps Jordan, Ali, Gretzky, Babe Ruth would seem more appropriate. For those not too familiar with cricket, that "average" isn't like a batting average in baseball. While incredibly impressive, it is not equivalent to getting a hit 100% of the time. As for impressive feats above and beyond, Babe Ruth comes to mind. He hit more home runs in a season than many entire teams did at the time.
    - mattlutze 13y ago
      OP apparently isn't from the USA; I'd imagine in OP's cultural context the Bambino is less well known, baseball being a mostly North American sport. Let's not forget we have an international readership here :-)
- avalaunch 13y ago
  I had to look him up to, but once I found this, I understood why he went with Donald Bradman over Pele or Jordan or Ali. http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/the-most-remarkable-graph-in-the-history-of-sport/ http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/the-most-remarkable-graph-in-...
  - femto 12y ago
    The amazing ending to the story is that in his last innings, "The Don" required 4 runs to reach an average of 100, but got out for a duck (zero) on the second ball. Apparently the ovation he got on entering the ground rattled him. The article below gives a description and makes the case that it was a fitting ending for a great, more memorable than if he had got the runs. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/bradmans-last-innings-duck/story-e6frexni-1111112597564 http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/bradmans-last-innings...
  - anoncow 13y ago
    I assume OP is from the commonwealth. Don Bradman is a household name here
    - goatforce5 12y ago
      And I ask you is he any good?
      - anoncow 12y ago
        With an average of almost 100, he was the very best and will be the benchmark that all future greats will be compared to.
        goatforce5 12y ago
        'Tis a line from the chorus of a famous (?) song about him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spDWaeBE2AY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spDWaeBE2AY Our Don Bradman - And I ask you is he any good? Our Don Bradman - As a bastman he can sure lay on the wood. For when he goes in to bat He knocks ev'ry record flat, For there isn't any thing he cannot do, Our Don Bradman - Ev'ry Aussie "dips his lid" to you.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
jliechti1 13y ago
What about Vova Galchenko? (One of the other jugglers mentioned in the article - the one Anthony inadvertently got into a "competition" with). As far as putting on a show and performing with poise, Gatto easily wins. In at least some specific areas like clubs, Vova seems to rival him though. He is really consistent and has demonstrated he can perform pretty well too. Here's a direct link to Vova's video [0]. This is probably one of my favorite juggling videos to watch. Incidentally, I believe Vova has moved on as well- he got a degree in Computer Science and is doing software development these days. His sister Olga has also gone on into engineering. [0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEb3YknGUks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEb3YknGUks

clarky07 13y ago

I'm not ashamed to admit I had to look up Donald Bradman. Cricket? That's the analogy you went with? :-)

artichokeheart 13y ago
OP is Aussie. As a fellow Aussie this makes perfect sense
Schwolop 13y ago
In terms of "sportsman who is so far ahead of his peers that it's almost impossible to explain how", then yes, I think Bradman fits the bill!
zem 13y ago
there is pretty much no one who has dominated a sport the way bradman dominated cricket, i think. consider - he has the highest lifetime test batting average of all time, at 99.94. which doesn't perhaps sound that impressive, out of context, until you see that the next three people in the record books have averages of 60.97, 60.83 and 60.73. he was more than 50% better than the second-best test batsman around.
- virtualwhys 13y ago
  Not sure how cricket compares to baseball, but in the 20s and 30s the overall talent level was nowhere near what it's become in modern times. Saying that, Bradman's batting average is absurdly high, does 99.94 mean that nearly everytime he went to bat he was able to put the ball in play without the opposing team being able to get him out? If so, the equivalent in baseball would be almost always getting a hit (closest in modern era was, I believe, .424 by Ted Williams), something that would require the hand/eye coordination of superman, basically.
  - zem 13y ago
    well, "putting the ball in play" is not as hard in cricket as in baseball; the 99 refers to runs, not a percentage. but getting more than 100 runs in a game (known as a century) is a reasonably significant feat in cricket; that bradman's average was almost 100 runs is spectacular.
  - Cogito 13y ago
    Not quite, but close. In cricket you (and a second batter who is with you) stay at bat until you are dismissed. There are a number of ways to be dismissed, such as being caught on the full or run out, but you don't need to put every ball into play. In order to score runs you generally must play the ball, but trying to score runs increases your risk of being dismissed. The best batsman are able to both score runs and minimise their risk of being dismissed, and so are able to stay in bat for longer and score higher totals. Bradman was, on average, able to score almost 100 runs every time he went out to bat, and that is just ridiculous.
  - kamaal 13y ago
    What an average of 99.94 means is every time he went to play he scored an average ~100 runs. Which is just too remarkable. And that too in test cricket. Test cricket is just what it is, its a test of patience and concentration. You are supposed to play unreasonably long amounts of time(the whole day) in scorching heat. There fore to go in and play that, it just means one thing. Not only where his batting skills top notch in the history of the game, his ability to focus, concentrate has not been matched ever since. Please note bowlers are always on the look out to get your out. And there are literally many way in which you can get out. This isn't just sport. This is meditation.
zizee 13y ago
I am curious to hear your thoughts on which sportsperson is a more appropriate analogy?
- zardeh 13y ago
  Wayne Gretzky?
  - nagrom 13y ago
    Cricket has a much, much bigger audience globally than Ice Hockey - there's a lot of Europeans, Australians, South Africans and Indians on HN who have likely never seen a hockey game :-) It's also not so much of a team game - cricket statistics are much more likely to reveal an outlier than hockey, football, rugby or handball. It's possible to separate to a much greater extent a player from the quality of their team - if you put me and three other random guys on a basketball team with Michael Jordan, he would look a lot less impressive than he did with one of the greatest teams ever assembled! The same goes for Messi, Maradona, Gretzky, etc. Their talents need, and encourage to some extent, wonderful performances from their teammates to make passes, runs, tackles, interceptions, etc. The only effect that a similar substitution would have on Bradman would be that he'd need to concentrate on 4s and 6s and keeping the rest of us 'in' long enough. If you wanted to sub in a North American sportsman as an outlier, it would need to be a baseball player, I guess :-)
- clarky07 13y ago
  Someone that a higher percentage of people would be familiar with. While his feat is impressive, it is I'm guessing widely unknown. Perhaps Jordan, Ali, Gretzky, Babe Ruth would seem more appropriate. For those not too familiar with cricket, that "average" isn't like a batting average in baseball. While incredibly impressive, it is not equivalent to getting a hit 100% of the time. As for impressive feats above and beyond, Babe Ruth comes to mind. He hit more home runs in a season than many entire teams did at the time.
  - mattlutze 13y ago
    OP apparently isn't from the USA; I'd imagine in OP's cultural context the Bambino is less well known, baseball being a mostly North American sport. Let's not forget we have an international readership here :-)
avalaunch 13y ago
I had to look him up to, but once I found this, I understood why he went with Donald Bradman over Pele or Jordan or Ali. http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/the-most-remarkable-graph-in-the-history-of-sport/ http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/the-most-remarkable-graph-in-...
- femto 12y ago
  The amazing ending to the story is that in his last innings, "The Don" required 4 runs to reach an average of 100, but got out for a duck (zero) on the second ball. Apparently the ovation he got on entering the ground rattled him. The article below gives a description and makes the case that it was a fitting ending for a great, more memorable than if he had got the runs. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/bradmans-last-innings-duck/story-e6frexni-1111112597564 http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/bradmans-last-innings...
- anoncow 13y ago
  I assume OP is from the commonwealth. Don Bradman is a household name here
  - goatforce5 12y ago
    And I ask you is he any good?
    - anoncow 12y ago
      With an average of almost 100, he was the very best and will be the benchmark that all future greats will be compared to.
      - goatforce5 12y ago
        'Tis a line from the chorus of a famous (?) song about him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spDWaeBE2AY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spDWaeBE2AY Our Don Bradman - And I ask you is he any good? Our Don Bradman - As a bastman he can sure lay on the wood. For when he goes in to bat He knocks ev'ry record flat, For there isn't any thing he cannot do, Our Don Bradman - Ev'ry Aussie "dips his lid" to you.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

jliechti1 13y ago

What about Vova Galchenko? (One of the other jugglers mentioned in the article - the one Anthony inadvertently got into a "competition" with). As far as putting on a show and performing with poise, Gatto easily wins. In at least some specific areas like clubs, Vova seems to rival him though. He is really consistent and has demonstrated he can perform pretty well too. Here's a direct link to Vova's video [0]. This is probably one of my favorite juggling videos to watch. Incidentally, I believe Vova has moved on as well- he got a degree in Computer Science and is doing software development these days. His sister Olga has also gone on into engineering. [0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEb3YknGUks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEb3YknGUks