I am having a little trouble with my long distance spinner. Can anyone help me out? I am not getting much distance yet, and I usually end up getting two or three cards instead of one. Does anyone have any tips?

Try using one of those thumb tips which has a rough end to it. I can't remember the name though.

cheerios

If you go to a stationary shop you can purchase rubber finger thimbles that people use for counting money, paper, etc. If you have Jeff McBride's dvds, he also explains the technique for card shooting there.

Dizzy

Just had a look at the dvds and it's on Jeff McBride's, 'Art of Card Manipulation', Volume 2. Also Rick Jay's, 'Cards as Weapons' is recommended, but it is out of print.

The 'Art of Card Throwing' by Rick Smith (Jr.) is supossed to be very good. He can throw a card 64 meters.

Dizzy

Try using half a deck for now, and try positioning your fingers that are holding the card further towards the center.

ollie

Actually, I think its volume three. I have come across a few that have that kind of problem, all I say to them is to practice more. They get it eventually. The problem wasn't so much in their form, it was just that they were not making good contact on the back of the card with the flesh of their thumb.

All I can say is practice with about 2 or 3 cards. That might be from pressing down too hard, or your cards are sticking together. Get a wet cloth without soap and just sort of clean them.

How long have you been doing it? It will take a while to get consistency and distance. In fact, for very good results it can take months. You need to build the muscles in your hands, get use to the grip and find the "knack".

Just keep doing it, the half deck idea is very good and helpful. The thumbtip suggestion is not so good, you will get the distance but you do not learn the proper way. You do not want to put the thumbtip on everytime you want to do the spinner. Besides, most likely you will expose the tip and then you are in trouble.

Lighten up. Literally. A light touch will make all the difference. People try to force the card to spin high and far. The resulting pressure forces multiple cards off the deck, and limits the distance. Try a lighter touch.

Best, PSC

I got a lot out of The Art of Card Throwing DVD by Rick Smith Jr., but what he presents on the DVD is not the answer (I don't think) for your question. It's still a good DVD to own, with some good techniques for scaling. I would have to agree with the other members and say go with the small rubber thumbtips used for money counting, as they are very tacky and will allow that firm sliding grip needed to eject 1 card at a time. They're pretty cheap and they last forever.

Thanks everyone! It's funny that you mention the art of card throwing. I use that as a half joke because my name is Art. I am now referred to as the Art of magic. lol

Ok yeah that was a really bad joke

Bad joke but don't get custumed to using half of the deck because then wen you use a full deck it feels 10 times what you normaly practice with (trust me this problame has alredy hapend to me).

Ok well now I seem to have another problem. I don't know why I just noticed, but when I'm regularly throwing cards, they slice to the left with my right hand or to the right with my left. How can I fix this?

It sounds like basic aerodynamics to me. Not much you can do about it. Just learn to "lead" your target.

I think it has to do with the angel at which you let go of your cards. try to do it in slow motion with a wrist snap, so the card actually stays in a straight line while its airborn. and then incorperate the arm movements into it

I had a lot of trouble when I started learning this move. I found it much easier if I turned the deck 90 degrees and pinched it by the short ends instead of the long ends. The added benefit was that I could get into this position one-handed from normal dealing grip, just by wrapping my pinky around the back of the deck and levering the left side up. Additionally, it's much easier to support the deck this way.

After I'd done it this way for a while, I had a lot less trouble with the regular handling. However, I still generally do it "my way" (I'm sure someone else has done this) since there's no get-ready. I wouldn't use the regular handling unless I was doing something like Greg Wilson's Boomerang Card of Death, which requires it.

Paul

Give up the LDS if you have trouble with it. There are much better more effective shooting grips anyway.

Whatever happened to good old-fashioned American "sticktoitivness"?

Well, without showing off here now, I have made up my own way of spinning a card in the air, which no other magician does this way, as far as I know.
The long distance spinner is not my cup of tea as I found out quickly when I first did it a few years ago. The way I do it now looks much better. It is a bit harder though and requires a flicking move of your ring finger. I cannot describe it here in greater detail, but I just wanted to point out that there are other ways of spinning a card in the air than the long distance spinner.

Believe it or not, I would argue that the most important thing about doing the spinner is relaxing the shoulder. A tense shoulder makes everything else, and that's only a good thing on very, very, very rare occasions.

My card spinning, like yours used to be terrible. I really find, with ALL flourishes, sleights, moves etc. it's good to use half of the deck. I did this when I was learning the Charlier, card throwing/shooting, triple cut, square cut, pretty much all of my tricks. Half deck is actually a great thing to do. Maybe even start off with a quarter of the deck and build it up from there.