Recently, I posted a video about my progress on learning a card flourish called “The Spring.” I had only logged about 1 hour of practice, all told. That’s 60 minutes of actual hands-on attempts, all added up over a number of weeks.
Since learning most physical skills like this requires many hours of practice, I didn’t expect it to be good at this point, which is good. I didn’t disappoint. It was – as the title of the post suggested – pathetic. See it at: My Pathetic Card Spring
What about 2 hours?
So yesterday, I made another video of my progress on this move. It’s better! This is after approximately 2 hours of total practice.
What did I change? Nothing that I’m aware of! Even in the first video, my hands and fingers were in the right places. And I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, at least as described in all the tutorials I’d seen (videos on YouTube) and read (magic books). For someone who likes to connect a cause to a consequence, preferably with data to back it up, this can be frustrating. But truly, the only thing that changed – at least on a conscious level – was the amount of time spent doing it.
I asked about this (regarding another move – the 2-handed fan) on The Magic Cafe forum. And one answer resonated with me as particularly apt. I was told “your hands will learn it before you do.” And as weird as that sounds, it is really what it feels like to me. A more scientific way to say the same thing is that the learning is taking place on an unconscious level. I’m learning more and more that you need to trust this if you want to master these moves!
Anyway, here is a video of what I’m calling my “slightly less pathetic card spring.”
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