Eyes Closed

May 24, 2015
158
25
Had a very interesting learning experience today that I'm still in awe about.

Earlier this evening I was practicing the Sybil and I decided to record myself. As soon as I turned on the camera and started recording is when things fell apart. It was a complete joke that left me in shock. I felt like in that moment I had picked up a deck of cards for the very first time.

Utterly frustrated, I turned off the camera, went back to my living room, sat on the couch and went on a mad spree doing the Sybil over and over again. Kept getting worse and worse. As a result I was an inch away from throwing the deck at the wall.

Thankfully I didn't do that. Instead for some instinctive reason I closed my eyes and did the Sybil again. This time the improvement was night and day. Did it again and it got better. Continued to practice with my eyes closed and finally I was able to achieve a sense of flow that I have been chasing for the past couple of weeks.

I couldn't believe it!

From there I moved on to the Squeeze Cut again with my eyes closed. I just started practicing this cut this week and made some amazing progress in just a few minutes than I have all week.

I can't understand how the simple act of closing my eyes can help make some drastic improvements in my 2 hand cuts?
 

Duncan F.

Elite Member
Apr 26, 2013
115
39
The answer lies in the fact that flourishing relies on your hand's muscle memory. Sometime your vision can mess with this, so closing your eyes forced you to rely purely on the muscle memory that you have developed for the moves. I know I've got a move down when I can do it without looking :)
 
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May 24, 2015
158
25
The answer lies in the fact that flourishing relies on your hand's muscle memory. Sometime your vision can mess with this, so closing your eyes forced you to rely purely on the muscle memory that you have developed for the moves. I know I've got a move down when I can do it without looking :)

That makes total sense but such a weird feeling to experience. It makes me wonder how much the mind can get in the way of the learning process.
 
Jul 1, 2014
181
167
I did actually tried this and still doing it now. It's sure an effective way to practice.
 
May 24, 2015
158
25
I will definitely try this when I feel bogged down. Interesting stuff!

I definitely recommend it. You don't have to close your eyes either. Just don't look at your cards when your practicing. But at the very least closing my eyes definitely helped calm me down and let go of the frustration I was experiencing.
 
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Tower of Lunatic Meat

Elite Member
Sep 27, 2014
2,435
2,029
Texa$, with a dollar sign
'Camera anxiety'sucks. I tried forming me doing Rinzler last night and couldn't get a clean shot. Afterwards, 5 clean Rinzlers in a row. It's about getting comfortable in front in the camera. Instagram is helping me
with this a bit. But I will say, I do find myself doing eyes-closed flourishes to calm down often.

Typically it's ones that don't leave my hands like Deck Flip and Erdnase Go Round. Even though that would be cool do land one of those blind.

My go-to is usually Teachwrap or Muse Cut. I'd like to work Rinzler in there once I have it down because it feels nice in the hands. Backpack as well because there's a LOT that you would need to mentally visualize that I think would be interesting to experience.

But yes, keep working with the camera!
 
May 24, 2015
158
25
'Camera anxiety'sucks. I tried forming me doing Rinzler last night and couldn't get a clean shot. Afterwards, 5 clean Rinzlers in a row. It's about getting comfortable in front in the camera. Instagram is helping me
with this a bit. But I will say, I do find myself doing eyes-closed flourishes to calm down often.

Typically it's ones that don't leave my hands like Deck Flip and Erdnase Go Round. Even though that would be cool do land one of those blind.

My go-to is usually Teachwrap or Muse Cut. I'd like to work Rinzler in there once I have it down because it feels nice in the hands. Backpack as well because there's a LOT that you would need to mentally visualize that I think would be interesting to experience.

But yes, keep working with the camera!

Camera anxiety definitely does suck. This past weekend I set up my camera for the first time and filmed some Sybil Cut shots that I feel I'm pretty decent at now. However when that red light was on I was a complete mess. It was like I picked up a deck of cards for the very first time. As soon as I turned the camera off I was performing the Sybil Cut without any issues at all. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.....LOL

You can practice a flourish till your hearts content but you can't really judge whether or not you've mastered a flourish until you do it smoothly in front of a camera or in front of another person.
 
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