Due to Football and Baseball injuries it is difficult to pull off certain flourishes and sleights. ( I could barely touch pinkie to thumb on my right hand )
Will continuous practice add the flexibility needed?
I was wondering if others have had the same problem and how they've overcome limitations.

I have some limitations on my hands from injuries. I used to get frustrated, I found I did get more flexible with time. Then I attended a Danny Cole lecture and he said that he had problems doing certain moves, flourishes and used to get angry about it. He then learned to either alter the handeling to a way that was comfortable for him or find a different handling all together. Not everbody can do every sleight and that is ok. I took that advice with me and it helped me in learning magic

While I don't have as serious an injury as yours, using hands in card magic helped a lot with dislocations of the fingers and thumb.

But with any injury or disability, I'm sure you will find a way around it like Ziggy said. Changing the way you handle sleights is probably common for everyone too, as long as it works out in the end. Good luck!

Its probably best to just take a break and give it a rest.

After watching a young armless man play the guitar for the Pope (with his feet) I really don't know if anyone has any real handicaps except what they think they have.
To answer your question. You will just have to work harder or find other ways to do what needs to be done in order to do the job.
At least you have an excuse. Unfortunatly I don't have an excuse. I just have to work harder myself.
Iven

I would use the flourishes and sleights you know you can do and put together some mind boggling magic with them. That is what people are remembered for, their performance, not how much cool stuff they know or can do.

Just pick a few things and be the best there is at tehm and you will go a lot further than you think you can.

Frank Tougas

Thanks Guys.....I guess I was just looking for reassurance that practice and ingenuity will overcome anything.

You can do it all... magic will increase your dexterity, agility and flexibility. Im sure given a few months of magical therapy you'll find your hands working well again.

Touching on what irossall said... Rene Lavand is a fantastic card manipulator... and he has one arm! So don't worry too much

When I was 13 I had a bad experience with something that caused, supposedly, a lot of damage to the nerves in both of my hands - frostbite.

My doctor and the neurologist told me that I had only about 20% use of my left hand and maybe 30% or so in my right. It's one of the reasons I took up magic more seriously at that time.

When I was working at the old Baer's Treasure Chest in Chicago (where Marlo nd Okito had worked before me), I started working on doing the steeple chase with sponge balls. This is loke a coin roll, but done with a ball out at the fingertips - it's a favorite of the billiard ball workers.

It took me almost 2 weeks of constant (4 - 5 hours per day behind the counter and at home) to get my left hand to cooperate. It took another 2 weeks for my right. I was ecstatic and went to visit the neurologist who had diagnosed me. His jaw dropped, he smiled and took me up to a room in the hospital where he worked and introduced me to a young man in a bed - the kid was maybe 13.

You guessed it, frostbite as severe as mine had been.

I showed him the sponge ball rolls and said, "All it took was a month. But now, I can do just about anything with them (my hands)."

That kid is now an illustrator - professionally - from what I have heard since.

Like I said, all it takes is dedication and effort. I dropped those *&^%# balls more times that I care to think about, but the payoff was well worth it, just to see that kid go from depressed to hopeful.

Hope this helps!

Lee Darrow, C.H.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. My difficulties are minor compared to some of the ones mentioned above. Sometimes you just get frustrated as Ziggy stated. Before and after each practicing session I'm going to try stretching the hands and fingers to see how that works. Sort of like Yoga for the hands and fingers.