theory11 — Magic Tricks & the World's Finest Playing Cards

Problems with some flourishes

lolhammertime

lolhammertime

Mar 28, 2016
116
36
Somewhere deep in the jungle
I am having problems with various flourishes for different reasons.

Charlier cut & all one handed cuts: my hands are too tiny to hold two packets in one hand

Spring: Either my thumb hurts and I can't spring the cards or I can spring but can't catch

Thumb Fan: I can fan but it ends up fanning some cards and the last chunk of cards is one huge chunk

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.
 
Here's a picture of my thumb fan. It's really hideous. I don't know the problem of why I can't get it even.
 

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When I watched some tutorials on Charlier cut, one of them said "if you're young, you can still grow into the move". But I won't accept that because all the good flourishes out there includes the Charlier, and if you can do it with small hands, I probably can.
 
First of all, you're lifting up the WHOLE packet, whereas you only need to 'break' the packet with your thumb.

A 'thumb break' would be the proper terminology.

Once you make the thumb break, the bottom packet should fall into your hand so you kind of have this '<' going on.

Tilt your hand downwards a little bit and towards the left (if you're doing it with the right. Down and to the right if you're doing it with the left). The ONLY finger that should have any contact with the bottom packet should be the pinky to prevent it from dropping into oblivion. The top packet should only be held up by the thumb, middle and ring fingers. The pointer finger is free-up at this point.

Now, you can use your pointer to go back behind the bottom packet (preferably as middle as you can) and push it up and towards you, so the only thing holding it up now is the pointer and thumb.
This should cause the top packet to drop once this happens after you go as far as you can with the bottom packet.
Once the top packet drops, it should now be the bottom packet.

All that should be done is to release your pointer finger. Tilt your hand upwards (parallel with the ground), and downwards (using your wrist as an unmoving pivot point, but moving the rest of your hand downwards so that the packet gently falls on the the rest of the deck).

I will say this, I wrote this very early in the morning. If something doesn't make sense, I encourage engine to correct me in this or to ask for clarification.
 
Brett Hurley said:
No problem. If you are having problems in other one-handed cuts, let me know and I can more than likely be able to help.
Click to expand...
I think I'm already okay with one-handed cuts.

As for the thumb fan I'm using a different method that nobody uses.

But I'm still having problems with springing. I can only spring plastic cards but I can't catch the cards. I can't spring any other cards, my thumb just ends up hurting.
 
It appears that you have the general mechanics down.

Typically, 'Scissors are done by snagging a packet from the middle of the deck instead of the very top. Try that first.

Also, Scissor Cuts may require a bit of finger and thumb stretching to be able to do. You might need to get your other fingers involved in order to move the deck away from the packet for the time being. But we'll see. Maybe dipping the deck down a bit with your other fingers. Not sure at this point, we're troubleshooting. I learned it last July due to it being a prerequisite to another flourish I wanted to learn ('Rinzler'. One of my favorite One-handed flourishes). Took a little bit of time to get down, but it's a cut that you absolutely need in your inventory as it furthers finger dexterity, stretching, and packet snagging. Keep at it, try snagging packets from the middle (doesn't matter how many cards you get either. I can Scissor Cut away everything except a small packet of like 10-15 cards). Experiment with it a bit. Don't get discouraged, it's going to take a bit more time to get down than Charlier Cut because there's a fair degree of 'knack' to it.
 
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Brett Hurley said:
It appears that you have the general mechanics down.

Typically, 'Scissors are done by snagging a packet from the middle of the deck instead of the very top. Try that first.

Also, Scissor Cuts may require a bit of finger and thumb stretching to be able to do. You might need to get your other fingers involved in order to move the deck away from the packet for the time being. But we'll see. Maybe dipping the deck down a bit with your other fingers. Not sure at this point, we're troubleshooting. I learned it last July due to it being a prerequisite to another flourish I wanted to learn ('Rinzler'. One of my favorite One-handed flourishes). Took a little bit of time to get down, but it's a cut that you absolutely need in your inventory as it furthers finger dexterity, stretching, and packet snagging. Keep at it, try snagging packets from the middle (doesn't matter how many cards you get either. I can Scissor Cut away everything except a small packet of like 10-15 cards). Experiment with it a bit. Don't get discouraged, it's going to take a bit more time to get down than Charlier Cut because there's a fair degree of 'knack' to it.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tips, I'll definitely try them out. By the way, is it normal to have the side of your index finger hurt while doing the scissor? I'm experiencing a LOT of index finger pain when doing the scissor cut.

UPDATE: I can now do a scissor cut thanks to your help, though oftentimes cards fall to the floor and my fingers hurt.
 
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