Practice equals progress

[Chief2112]

I’m really enjoying learning some basics of Cardistry.

The satisfaction of something seeming impossible becoming possible is exciting!

Three days ago a Charlier cut seemed too hard. Now it’s smooth yet slow. Still needs to work to improve.

Once I kind of had that I tried a Revolution cut and I was like, “This seems almost impossible”.

Now today I completed the rotation for the first time albeit sloppy, but it’s not impossible. FYI: I’m short and certainly have small hands.

The truth is ANY movement of our bodies that is out of the ordinary will feel 100% foreign and impossible at first.

The difference between the cardists that become really good and the ones who give up because it seems “too hard”, is patience and practice. Repetition.

At the end of the day it just depends on how bad we want to be good and being good requires hard work and effort regardless of what you are doing in life.

Hope everyone is staying safe! I appreciate this new community I just joined. ✌️❤️

 

[Gabriel Z.]

I’m really enjoying learning some basics of Cardistry.

The satisfaction of something seeming impossible becoming possible is exciting!

Three days ago a Charlier cut seemed too hard. Now it’s smooth yet slow. Still needs to work to improve.

Once I kind of had that I tried a Revolution cut and I was like, “This seems almost impossible”.

Now today I completed the rotation for the first time albeit sloppy, but it’s not impossible. FYI: I’m short and certainly have small hands.

The truth is ANY movement of our bodies that is out of the ordinary will feel 100% foreign and impossible at first.

The difference between the cardists that become really good and the ones who give up because it seems “too hard”, is patience and practice. Repetition.

At the end of the day it just depends on how bad we want to be good and being good requires hard work and effort regardless of what you are doing in life.

Hope everyone is staying safe! I appreciate this new community I just joined. ✌️❤️

Glad your making progress. Very powerful message. Keep it up!!

 

[MohanaMisra]

I’m really enjoying learning some basics of Cardistry.

The satisfaction of something seeming impossible becoming possible is exciting!

Three days ago a Charlier cut seemed too hard. Now it’s smooth yet slow. Still needs to work to improve.

Once I kind of had that I tried a Revolution cut and I was like, “This seems almost impossible”.

Now today I completed the rotation for the first time albeit sloppy, but it’s not impossible. FYI: I’m short and certainly have small hands.

The truth is ANY movement of our bodies that is out of the ordinary will feel 100% foreign and impossible at first.

The difference between the cardists that become really good and the ones who give up because it seems “too hard”, is patience and practice. Repetition.

At the end of the day it just depends on how bad we want to be good and being good requires hard work and effort regardless of what you are doing in life.

Hope everyone is staying safe! I appreciate this new community I just joined. ✌️❤️

 

[CatalinaT]

you've motivated me to get back into it. thanks for posting this

 

[MohanaMisra]

Just a PSA to add onto it:

Practice might equal progress but there's a lot of harm in wrong practice. The biggest harm is TOO MUCH OF TIME BEING SPENT TO LEARN A MOVE which could have been learnt in a week, with proper practice.

Proper practice would mean watching the tutorial once.

And then again.

And then, the third time.

Keep watching it till you know WHAT to do. It'll look horrible (it does for everybody) at first, but you must at least know what you have to do.

Then take a few days to revise that knowledge. In a day or two (or a couple of days more, if you don't practice much, which is fine. Loads of more important things to do than learning how to shuffle cards) you will be better than before, but it'll still look CHOPPY (the kind that you will get roasted for posting on reddit). That's fine.

Now rewatch the video to learn HOW to do what you are doing. You need to pause frequently (with your fingers, or toes or even your chin, because that's all you'll be able to use if you practice while watching {as you should} ), pay VERY close attention to the FINGER POSITIONS exactly. And I mean exactly. Is it the tip of the finger or the face? If the tip, then more towards the nail or more towards the face? If towards the nail, then with how much pressure? All these things are important.

All of this might slow you down.

If it doesn't, then you yourself must slow yourself down, because only going slow will make you smooth and only becoming smooth will keep you from looking choppy. Only stopping yourself from looking choppy will result in a seamless, fast flourish and only a seamless and fast flourish will fetch you all those views and likes.

Remember to not do this while doing anything else, as in please don't try to correct your finger positions while watching a movie at the same time. It'll slow your progress down, create bad habits and, the worst, you might even miss a crucial scene from the movie.

After the pressure, finger positions, everything's on point, keep practising. While watching TV or You Tube. While reading Theory XI threads. While doing anything that leaves your hands empty.

While you're doing this, also keep searching for and reading every single question, suggestion, answer, confusion, problem and solution related to the move you're doing. You might not want to ask but chances are your questions have been asked already. If not then post your question. People will answer because the world still has humanity left in it.

Record yourself. It'll improve you in leaps and bounds, something that mirror practice always lacks.

Once you're smooth and fast at the flourish, remember to revisit it maybe once or twice in a few months. It's very less extra-time investment but it'll keep your skills from becoming rusty with that flourish, and maybe demotivating you (it feels pretty bad to have to relearn or practice rusty moves that once you were amazing at).

***

All of this might seem too much of time taken, but I promise you, it'll be much, much less compared to you just repeating a set of moves to achieve a flourish. These steps are easy to include in your learning flow (maybe you even do it sub-consciously) so please do!

 

[jakee5]

also to add and to be honest i didnt read all of Mohana's reply but if you are learning from vids slowing them down can help. When i started learning the basic one handed cut rev cut, scissor cut, ect. I could only do them with my right hand (right handed) now i do them better with my left its kinda funny to me

 

[MohanaMisra]

also to add and to be honest i didnt read all of Mohana's reply but if you are learning from vids slowing them down can help. When i started learning the basic one handed cut rev cut, scissor cut, ect. I could only do them with my right hand (right handed) now i do them better with my left its kinda funny to me

It's fine if you didn't read the whole thing. You'll come back to it later, trust me.

 

[Al e Cat Dabra]

@MohanaMisra wrote:
"The biggest harm is TOO MUCH OF TIME BEING SPENT TO LEARN A MOVE which could have been learnt in a week, with proper practice." Yes, I agree that this could be harmful, but isn't it even more harmful to spend a lot of time learning a move and learning it wrong - so that we flash or perform it sloppily? At a get-together of world-famous card mechanics (which included Steve Forte and Jason England, among other luminaries), after Richard Turner performed an incredibly beautiful and flawless sequence, someone commented, "Practice makes perfect." To which Turner responded, "No, perfect practice makes perfect."

 

[MohanaMisra]

True. I meant that but I should have mentioned it explicitly.

Regardless, I think for cardistry specifically, performing sloppily is a stage in the entire practice process. Of course, the correct practice process.

I was commenting more on the hard work vs smart work issue.

 

[WilliamPennanti]

Thanks for reassuring me. I have quite small hands and am really struggling with the revolution cut. I started to wonder whether i'd ever be able to get it!