Hi, all!
9 months after having discovered magic - don't laugh - , I would like to point out a little light in the tunnel of beginning this art: starting last March, it took me exactly 3 months , working 10 minutes a day, 7 days a week - with a timer - to learn the thumb around pen spinning - or wand spinning- .
Yesterday I decided to set up a new move - new to me of course, I'm sure you all know that- with my wand, based on the coin walkdown; I had to find the move and then to execute it; I took me ... ONE HOUR before I was able to do it ten times in a row without having to crawl under the sofa to bring my wand back; Then tell me if I'm wrong: I think training is creating permanent connections in the brain, and the fingers hability you gain practicing a given exercise creates an un-erasable hability to master any exercise involving the same kind of moves...Could it be cards, coins, whatever! It shouldn't be too hard , on this forum,to find more experienced people than me! Then, what do you guys think about this?
Greetings to an incredibly helpful community - no, I won't give any names- and Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season!
Gilles

All I can speak to is personal experience, and you have quite a bit more time in magic than I do. When I started, I had a terrible time managing to classic palm a coin. It was virtually impossible for me to do. But, I'm a naturally fidgety person. So I just started fidgeting by practicing the palm Now, I can actually do it!

It's not natural looking, and my thumb nearly shoots across the room when I do it But, I can actually manage it. It's amazing what practice will do.

Happy Holidays to you too Gilles!
We have the same time in the game and I think we are both discovering the same thing! Don't know about it being un erasable but some of it does seem to have that "like riding a bike" feel!

I know that in the past when I attempted getting into magic I never put in the time that I have this go around and it seems that 6-9 months is somewhat of a magical number (providing you ARE practicing consistently)! I know my frustration level has gone way down when working on a sleight and I know that some things WILL take longer than others to learn and I'm willing to pay the price since the rewards get better and better with each passing day!

I too am an advocate of the 10 out of 10 practice routine and recommend it highly!

I look forward to hearing more of your progress as I always like having someone with like time and goals as a measuring stick!

Cheers,
Mick

Certainly improved dexterity, but what you are creating is called "muscle memory".

You know... I used to lock myself in my room for pretty much a year straight. I learned all the card sleights I could, and wanted to know it all. A year of my life I feel I wasted, I could have been out riding my bike, or doing something active and fun, like performing. In performance, you should try to make it fun or even a challange for yourself. That is the only way to truely progress, to be able to take any moment in time and make it a magical journey, and not just a trick... It's something that comes with skill in acting, performing is the only way to build those skills find out who your inner magician is, a great example John Carney does an alternate personality mysterio or something like that I believe and he gets right into the character. Every time you see or do magic, you must learn from it! Observe every detail. If you can make someone feel an emotion and/or scare their socks off because what they see/feel/hear/touch/smell/taste can't be real, then you know it's paying off. Learning every trick in the book is worthless because a good actor can take these tools (sleights, etc.) and make a thousand tricks revolving one simple stupid move. Look at the marked deck for instance.

Good morning, magicians!
Mickey, no problem, we'll stay in touch!
Marek, personnally, I didn't live like a monk these last 9 months, and the wand thing is only one of the aspects of my discoveries in this world of magic...I agree with you about performing, but when you say this training year was wasted? Don't you need to build confidence - by training, what else? - before you perform in front of people? I plan to begin now, we've a meeting tomorrow at my club, I'm scared I confess, but one day you have to cross the bridge, yeeeech...
About acting and creation, Carney for sure is in my top three, but did you read Tommy Wonder's books? Sure you would love them!
Be good!

Right on cue Photius!

-Matt

Totally was a waste, should have been looking for magic buddies that push me. The best way to learn is have a group of friends that you regularly can do magic with, and you push one another and try to fool each other. That's what really prepares you, having perspective.

@MarekSokal.
At the end you get effects which methodology would only fool another magician while the effect itself is structured in such a way that it wouldn't fool any layfolk out there.

I got this from Darwin Ortiz' excellent book Designing Miracles.

I have a daily practice routine with cards, coins, C&B, ropes. I spend about 10 mins on each and then read till I get tired of reading. The pocket tricks I break out to get a quick ego fix, and I'm good. My progress is slow, but I am picking up less cards and coins from the floor now...progress is progress. It took me 2 years and mucho denaro for the golf pros before I ever shot a round of golf below 90.

I have been doing cards for a few months.

I remember seeing a video on a card color change when I first started.

"I will never be able to do that", as I watched the cards flipped, palmed, snapped, etc.

Now, just a couple of months later I watched the same video, "That's interesting", and realized that I could do that with some practice.

I remember seeing someone do the Erdnase Color Change and I found it very magical... when I expressed admiration on his handling, he saw I didn't know how to do it, but I wouldn't come out and ask how it was done, so he took some time to explain how it was done. I tried and tried, and I was lousy at it, and forgot all about it. Then I saw it described in Card College and while I knew what I needed to do, I just could not make it look magical. One card would flash etc... Then suddenly a couple weeks ago, while watching " Born to Perform Card Magic" With Oz Pearlman that I had gotten her since she expressed an interest in card magic. I saw how he handled it, and while it was almost exactly as I had seen it done years before, something just seemed to click.

Suddenly it was like two synapses that were not connecting, connected. And I could not put the deck down , since I could suddenly get the move .

Everyone says, " practice, practice, practice, even if you see no improvement...then suddenly it just bam... clicks."

this is exactly what happened to my one hand top palm.. it just.. happened!

I think part of it is muscle memory, where the nerves just repeat and do things that you have been doing over and over and over to a point where they do it on their own without conscious control or thought needed.

But I have also heard that when you are not actively engaged in something your subconscious mind is still tackling it. Like when you have a problem and give it all your attention to no avail, then you do something else to get it out of your mind, and suddenly your mind pops in with a solution. Or... when you give a sleight 3 or 4 weeks of " to what you think is" fruitless practice, then you put the cards down for a week...and suddenly... the sleight goes off without a hitch.

Anyone else find they try something over and over and over to no avail, then after they put it down for a while...it just seems to work?