So I have begun to officially make up my mind on some touchy subjects. Let's go back to the beginning.
I was roughly 7 when I wanted to learn magic. Svengali deck etc was available at my local dollar store....
OK maybe not that far.
Here I am 30 and proud father of 2. My daughter age 8 is excited for magic thanks to the Masked Magician on TV and now is watching YouTube to learn card magic. So now my heart is rekindled to magic.
YouTube is where I began my official magic journey. The content there is tons, some good, some bad. I quickly wanted to learn every trick I could I wanted to be a sponge and before I knew it, I had only gained thousands of fragments of techniques in both magic and cardistry.
I bought books focused on some things I wanted to learn, but I have gained no skills because I chose to try and learn everything so quickly and I became a sponge of knowledge, dripping the excess being what I cant retain. This has been my method for a long time.... it has been a negative learning experience and I realized this last night.
Last night my epiphany came to be while literally working on one of the most basic card flourishes for over an hr and gaining little success.... if you guessed the Card Spring, you may have been in my shoes. It was of course a video from the sometimes hated world YouTube, but the video was of Chris Ramsay challenging a friend to document his experience learning said flourish. It motivated me to keep trying as after 3 years of dabbling with instant discouragement, I opened a new deck and got busy saying f#$@ it to destroying a deck and hand cramps. I worked at it for 90 min strait last night. And just finished another 45 min session. I can string maybe a 12" gap catching most of the cards. My cards look worn but not destroyed. I'm dropping but its progress I have not made in forever, on a technique that I have only tried maybe 1 or 2 times a day.
Then I got thinking, I have great books, Royal Road, Expert Card Technique, Card College Vol. 1, and a few others. I read them, but I only used them for knowledge. I never practiced took time to fail etc. So I shall now be practicing my card spring gaining the distance between hands. I had issues with cards rotating and other nuances but I never gave it time and practice.
I think I am going to begin my journey for a second time. I have just pulled Royal Road off the shelf, it has pages marked all through it. I wont progress past a technique till it becomes second nature almost.
So my biggest question is in addition to the card spring, how many other technogues should a second time beginner focus on at once. The first items in Royal Road is the overhand shuffle and rifle shuffle. I know the material but I cant perform it so what's the point? I want to learn them but my last method had me overwhelmed with knowledge and information. But at the same time I also want to have enough techniques at once to keep me interested instead of feeling a monotonous feeling of failure with say just working on 1 item. I guess I am asking what is too much to juggle at once?
Also tips for the card spring? I have had to move my thumb from the bottom corner a bit because the cards one spin? Also I cant catch the cards as a packet they are rotated every which way when I increase the distance between hands. Then I usually drop cards when my catching hand moves to the hand doing the spring...
I'll get it figured out. But I wanted to motivate those that maybe felt overwhelmed as well and let discouragement and the feeling of failure keep them from putting in the time. Books and YouTube do not show the countless hrs of practice most of the time that goes into learning a technique.
Until I found the video showing a mans roughly 11 hrs of practice learning the spring I have let discouragement get to me.
Link to vid:
Dont give up
I was roughly 7 when I wanted to learn magic. Svengali deck etc was available at my local dollar store....
OK maybe not that far.
Here I am 30 and proud father of 2. My daughter age 8 is excited for magic thanks to the Masked Magician on TV and now is watching YouTube to learn card magic. So now my heart is rekindled to magic.
YouTube is where I began my official magic journey. The content there is tons, some good, some bad. I quickly wanted to learn every trick I could I wanted to be a sponge and before I knew it, I had only gained thousands of fragments of techniques in both magic and cardistry.
I bought books focused on some things I wanted to learn, but I have gained no skills because I chose to try and learn everything so quickly and I became a sponge of knowledge, dripping the excess being what I cant retain. This has been my method for a long time.... it has been a negative learning experience and I realized this last night.
Last night my epiphany came to be while literally working on one of the most basic card flourishes for over an hr and gaining little success.... if you guessed the Card Spring, you may have been in my shoes. It was of course a video from the sometimes hated world YouTube, but the video was of Chris Ramsay challenging a friend to document his experience learning said flourish. It motivated me to keep trying as after 3 years of dabbling with instant discouragement, I opened a new deck and got busy saying f#$@ it to destroying a deck and hand cramps. I worked at it for 90 min strait last night. And just finished another 45 min session. I can string maybe a 12" gap catching most of the cards. My cards look worn but not destroyed. I'm dropping but its progress I have not made in forever, on a technique that I have only tried maybe 1 or 2 times a day.
Then I got thinking, I have great books, Royal Road, Expert Card Technique, Card College Vol. 1, and a few others. I read them, but I only used them for knowledge. I never practiced took time to fail etc. So I shall now be practicing my card spring gaining the distance between hands. I had issues with cards rotating and other nuances but I never gave it time and practice.
I think I am going to begin my journey for a second time. I have just pulled Royal Road off the shelf, it has pages marked all through it. I wont progress past a technique till it becomes second nature almost.
So my biggest question is in addition to the card spring, how many other technogues should a second time beginner focus on at once. The first items in Royal Road is the overhand shuffle and rifle shuffle. I know the material but I cant perform it so what's the point? I want to learn them but my last method had me overwhelmed with knowledge and information. But at the same time I also want to have enough techniques at once to keep me interested instead of feeling a monotonous feeling of failure with say just working on 1 item. I guess I am asking what is too much to juggle at once?
Also tips for the card spring? I have had to move my thumb from the bottom corner a bit because the cards one spin? Also I cant catch the cards as a packet they are rotated every which way when I increase the distance between hands. Then I usually drop cards when my catching hand moves to the hand doing the spring...
I'll get it figured out. But I wanted to motivate those that maybe felt overwhelmed as well and let discouragement and the feeling of failure keep them from putting in the time. Books and YouTube do not show the countless hrs of practice most of the time that goes into learning a technique.
Until I found the video showing a mans roughly 11 hrs of practice learning the spring I have let discouragement get to me.
Link to vid:
Dont give up