Ring Kickups! (just add carpet?)
Mood:  down

I'm sure we've all stumbled upon this blessing.

You're juggling rings in your home, probably late at night (in your socks?) and you drop one on the carpet.  You are pissed that you dropped and start to bend over to pick it up when you realize...you don't have to!  The plushy carpet is your friend.  You step on the closer side of the ring with one foot, slighly raising the other side of the ring into the air.  With a carefree smile, you slip your other foot under the raised part of the ring and, letting go with the other foot, kick it up into the air and back into the pattern.  Yeah, you're cool.

But the coolness doesn't last.  Next time you're practicing in the gym, you bemoan the lack of carpet and, drop after drop, bend over to retrieve those oh so two dimensional plastic Cheerios.

But here's my thought of the day - maybe, just maybe, the coolness CAN last.  Maybe the idea of easy ring kickups can transcend carpet.  What if you took a bendy, skinny, tubular product (like plastic wire with the thickness of a pipe cleaner) and glued it around the inner side of the ring?  Do it of course on both sides.  Now, no matter how you drop, the ring will be just slightly elevated on a cylindric "high heel".  Because it's on the inner ring, you can step on the outside of the ring and cause the other side to pop up slightly, like it would on carpet.  It's similar to stepping on one side of an upside down styrofoam skimmer hat.

Jugglers never have to worry about bending over to kickup balls and clubs.  Why should rings be any different?  With this simple mod, you can count on consistent carpetless cickups!  If any of you try it, tell me if it worked!  The pictures below are to help explain my point.

Good luck!