Some doubles, done slow at first and then at performance speed:

http://www.lancepierce.com/media/doubles.htm

For me, the secret was to use the inner SIDE of the thumb to do the pushing (rather than the pad of the thumb). It's probably a little different for everyone, though, and will require experimentation.

- Frank

Frank, you never flash the second card when performing in front of others. I don't think this method would work everytime, especially not in a performance setting.

In the video linked above, is it the Push Off being shown? He does it so smoothly!!!

Beaker

That's a nice double Lance.

The best double I have seen. great job Lance.

Thanks, guys. Technically, it's not a true push off, but most people accept it as such, and since dannyhaze asked, I thought he might find it interesting.

Cheers,


Lance

Lance, it looks great. To everyone else: learn the soft double out of The K;ause book.

Ahhh..., Yes Lance it looks great. But the real question is this. How much is the learning curve compared to a strike double? The strike does the same thing. Although admittedly not quite as "in your face" double as you demonstrated. But what difference does that make if you use a little(and I mean little misdirection)?

Please don't take this as confrontational. I would just like to read your thoughts about my questions. And also about this subject. There are literally many different ways to execute this sublety. My favorite, at the moment is the strike. And that is only because I have not mastered the "push off double". When I do master this I will definitely use it. I think the push is the best double turnover.

Hi, edh,

I don't know that the strike does exactly the same thing; I see a difference in the tension. One feels much looser to me than the other. I don't know about the learning curve on the Soft Double. I've seen some guys pick it up pretty quickly while others have to struggle a bit. I think it has a lot to do with how willing they are to loosen up and let go.

Regardless, I think each of us should go with what personally works best.

Cheers!



Lance

I don't agree that the strike looks more natural than the push-off. When you turn a single card over, your first push it off with your thumb, then turn it over with your right hand. So, a good double push-off is what mimics the single action in the most accurate fashion.

For the alignment, if the move is done softly and naturally, it doesn't need to be perfect. The right hand take will align the two card for the turn-over.

Jonathan.

Before I perfected my strike DL, I used the push-off. What works best for me was to use the little spot where the left edge of my thumbnail met the left side of my thumb. That little crook provided me with the best push-off of two cards.

Not me. The way I normally turn a single over looks exactly like my strike DL. But it's been so long now that I can't exactly remember how I used to turn singles over. You're probably right: the push-off does look quite natural when performed well, so it's not a major difference between the two techniques.

In fact, in performance a DL is usually done quick enough so that the strike DL and the push-off DL are fairly identical if they are done well. For me, the pushing off of the two cards with the left thumb and doing the "strike" with the right fingers happens pretty much simultaneously. So my DL is a bit of a hybrid of the two techniques. Still, I find that beveling the deck and concentrating more on the feel of the right edges of the cards makes the whole thing much easier and more reliable than relying on the push-off of the left thumb.

And again, one major advantage of the strike is that you can do a triple almost as easily as a double. For me, trying to work up a reliable triple with the push-off was really frustrating. Months of practice didn't get it solid enough. After switching to the strike technique, I had it down cold after about an hour of work.