Improving Slight of Hand
Contents Intro
1
Take a move in isolation
2
Practice the move slowly
3
Repeat
4
Solicit feedback
5
Discipline
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Intro Sleight of hand is an almost indispensable skill for any magician, but for those whose work is heavily focussed on card and coin tricks, it is vital. Unfortunately, there is no quick-fix to acquiring good sleight of hand – you will simply need to practice until it becomes second nature. Every skill which requires a complicated set of mechanical actions requires that these actions be honed through practice. Every genius in crafts and magic became so through discipline and practice. Just take a look at Da Vinci’s early anatomical sketches. Just consider Houdini’s early career spent escaping from thousands of different sets of handcuffs. The sleight of hand required for a magician to do tricks is perhaps the ultimate example of this. If your hands are so well practiced in certain actions that you can perform them effortlessly, without thinking, then you can concentrate your conscious mind utterly on the business of misdirecting your subject. But how, exactly, should one practice sleight of hand?
1
Take a move in isolation When learning a specific movement, whatever it may be, do it slowly. Break it down into its constituent parts and perform them in isolation. Then combine the parts in order to make the movement seamless. If you notice that one particular part of the move is flawed or clumsy, then take the move in isolation and look at it. After all, a methodical approach is the most efficient.
2
Practice the move slowly Practice the move slowly in front of a mirror.
Once you’ve gotten a basic grasp of the move, you can start to do it in front of a mirror. This is important, since it will give you the perspective of your prospective audience. Evaluate the move at this stage – if you’re making mistakes, then you should correct them now, since unlearning a bad habit is time consuming and irritating.
3
Repeat Now that you've gotten the mechanics of the move mastered, it’s time for the fun part – repeat the move until you can do it without thinking about it. With enough practice, you should be able to do the move when you’re not even looking at it. You can even do this while you’re doing something else – perhaps you might watch television while doing it. If you’re able to fully concentrate your mind on other things, then you've gotten to the stage where you can begin to incorporate the movement into tricks..
4
Solicit Feedback Of course, there may be some element of the trick which is flawed that you haven’t spotted. This is perfectly normal and to be expected. In order to address this, you should try performing the trick in front of a friend – preferably a friend who is also a magician. This way, they will be able to spot things that you cannot and you’ll be able to refine the trick even more. The feedback may also allow you to work on your presentation. It may be that you slow or pause your speech during a particularly taxing part of the sleigh-of-hand. If this is the case, then you will need to work on the bit in question until the problem has been eliminated. This will be worth it in the end – after all, a weak link in your chain, whatever it may be, will undermine the entire routine. You’ll end up dreading it and your performance will suffer as a result.
5
Discipline Occasionally, when practicing something you find tedious, your mind will begin to wander onto other things. You may, for example, start thinking about what you’re having for dinner, or what you plan to watch on television later that evening. For this reason, devoting one’s time to practicing this is not always easy! You need a little self-discipline. Fortunately, self-discipline is in itself something which can be re-enforced through repetition. The more committed you are toward practicing the easier it will become to concentrate on practicing. The psychologist Daniel Goleman has compared developing focus to lifting weights at the gym. Over time you, can build the strength of your focus by exercising it. This exercise consist not in having your mind remain on a specific task, but on returning it to that task whenever it happens to wander. When you practice your sleight of hand, your brain will build on the neuralpathways necessary to perform that sleight of hand more easily. Much of this will occur when you’re not even practicing – these pathways will even build as you sleep; what was challenging yesterday might seem laughably easy tomorrow. For that to happen, however, you need to devote the time to honing your sleight of hand. The results will be worth it!
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Thank you!
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