Overhand Shuffle Neatness

[Amo]

So I just got Royal Road to Card Magic, the best 4 pounds I have spent in years, and I was wondering if the neatness of the overhand shuffle comes with practice or if there is a technique to it. When I place the cards down back into my palm some of the cards come back up in a spread making it messy. Same goes with the shuffle length ways in my hand, cards are all over the place. Am I doing the grip wrong? I can't get my thumb relaxed and in the centre of the card and my pinky doesn't feeel relaxed on the out edge of the pack. My index is curled at the second joint just as it is in the book so I'm assuming it is just practice but I want to be sure.
Thanks in advance, Adam.

 

[FormlessMars22]

Hey mate, Aaron Fisher covers the overhand shuffle in great detail in the first volume of his Pathways to Mystery series, if you're serious about it, you should really check that out.

 

[wZEnigma]

Adam,

First off, I agree with FormlessMars22's advice on Aaron Fisher's work. He's an expert at it and has released some great YouTube videos in his Card Magic Minute series. Check out the first few videos here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=aaron+fisher+overhand+shuffle

Insofar as the messiness of it, that actually may be proper technique. The overhand shuffle controls are made to appear as if you are genuinely mixing the cards. If they're messy, breaks are easier to disguise, and it seems as if you have less control over the order of the cards. However, if you are meticulous with the shuffle, spectators may suspect something.

That being said, I'd make it meticulous before you intentionally make it messy. Study Aaron's work and read over the Royal Road text several times. If you'd like, I'd love to help you out via Skype or the like. I hope this helps.

 

[Amo]

Thanks for the replies. Ill have a look at Aaron's work and i will be practising a lot more over the next months due to being off school, yay! Hopefully i can aster it soon. Just one more question mostly based on the book its self, shall i perfect everything in the overhand shuffle section including the tricks before moving onto the riffle shuffle or shall i master the overhand shuffle then move onto the riffle or what ever is next? I don't think i would do a lot of the earlier tricks due to having some of Dan and Dave material as well as Royal Road.
Thanks for the advice so far!

 

[wZEnigma]

If you read the intro to Royal Road, the authors recommend learning at least two tricks from each section before moving on.