Hi gang, anybody do this one? If so, can you do it near 100% of the time? I love the effect, but after much practice I'm about to give up. I've probably spent about an hour a day for about a month and I can only get it about 40% of the time. If you can do it well, how long did it take you to get it to that point?

I did "the move" for a while (not with his patter and with a ring). I might not have been 100% but I don't recall missing it in a performance.

I'm doing something very similar now so it has gone by the wayside.

You probably need to relax. Try just doing one half of it at a time at first.

Sometimes, when I run into a wall, I will set it aside for a while and re-visit it once some of my old ways of thinking about it fade.

You may have new insight with fresh eyes. This has helped me more than once.

-Mary Mowder

I just wrote about this very effect in another post just yesterday. WOW!!!

Welcome to the Café Tuna. I have been doing this Sankey effect for years off & on, and I still love doing it as it always amazes people and just looks impossible.

I can remember early on it being sorta knacky, but eventually I became pretty consistent at making it happen. You just gotta keep playing with it and she comes. Once you get it down, a quick warmup of the action is often helpful before you present the little trick...It sorta jump starts the reflex/muscle memory of it all to help make sure everything goes where it's supposed to on command of it.

I'm mostly a coin guy but this is one of the very few closeup effects that has seemed to stick with me for a pretty long while now.

It's a keeper in my book, and I would suggest you keep playing with it and it will become part of you, until when you happen to miss it every now & again, you'll be even more surprised that you did...That's how well you'll be doing it on the regular. Keep at it, it's worth it!

*Incidentally, that little move is a prolifically classic one and well worth the time and effort to master as it can bring about a variety of some absolutely "striking" magic.

What source are you trying to learn this from, his dvd or book?

Thanks for the responses and encouragement guys and gals!

Mb I agree that warming up helps out quite a bit for this one, I find it difficult to do cold.

motown, I downloaded an instructional video a few years ago from the Jay Sankey web site. I practiced it for a while back then, hung it up, then recently (about a month ago) started working on it again.

I charged my drill up and I think I'm gonna bore the key hole out a bit more and chamfer the edges of the hole so it slides a little better.

You might try it with an easier object, like a finger ring, till you get the knack, then go back to the skate key.

Once I could do it with a ring, I found I could do it with other objects like a chinese coin.

-Mary Mowder

Is the problem catching, talking or releasing?

-Mary

In most striking effects, the hands most move in unison. The recieving hand opens ever so slightly.

Now to bridge the gap between 40% - 100% you will need to vary speed of the moving of the hands and the distants between both hands.
Once you found the right movement and distance that increases your percentage, lock those parameters in your mind.

The saying "practice makes perfect" is not true! Perfect practice makes perfect. If you you practice something wrong you'll most likely never master it.

Once you have found your striking sweet spot, now it's time to practice.

I hope this helps.

Joe Rindfleisch

I believe that is David Williamson's move. Never could get that down.

Doug

It is important to remember that some of the most rewarding moments arise from hours of tremendous frustration. So please don't give up on the move...it will come with time, and the invaluable advice from the previous posters...
That being said, don't forget that you don't necessarily have to perform the exact same sleights that the creator does. Feel free to experiment with moves in your skill set, and perhaps you'll find something that you think looks just as good, but is more reliable