Who thought magic could be boring?

The basics of anything start out boring. Its just a fact of life. Want to learn math? You gotta start out with addition and subtraction. Over and over and over again, till it becomes second nature. Become a Quarterback? Learn to hold the ball right and throw all the time till it becomes second nature. The pattern here is that the basics need to be second nature for you to grow and become great at whatever you choose to do. In my case that means going over chapter 1 in Card college volume 1 for at least a hour each night over the last four days. With the exception of Tuesday, that happened.

I could tell what I brushed over in the chapter. Starting with the dealing position I noticed my thumb was really far forward. Even though I held the deck "correct" when I put it in my hands, I tensed up and shifted the deck back towards my body. I held it in position as I walked around, checking every few seconds. Then I use a end grip to lower the deck to my practice pad. Pick the deck back up in end grip and return it to dealing position. You can only take so much of that before you catch your mind wandering. Trying to spice it up you look ahead. Elevated dealing position. You visualise the sequence in your mind. End grip to pick up the deck placing it in dealing position. Then end grip again to lift the deck to a elevated dealing position. The deck is starting to look a bit uneven. You grin as you realise that leads right into squaring the deck. Smiling you maneuver the deck from end grip to dealing position. Back to end grip into a elevated dealing position and finish with a good deck squaring.

After you run through the routine a couple of times you do a slow version, checking the "check points" and realise you missed the straddle dealing position. Now the routine becomes end grip to dealing position to end grip to elevated dealing position. A quick Square up and into a straddle dealing position followed by a end grip. Then you drop the cards back on the close up pad and start all over again. You have effectively done nothing.

Three more days left in this week to practice the stuff I ignored my first time through. Like outjogging cards,the swing cut and most importantly the dribble and the step. Three more days of dealing positions, cutting cards, squaring cards, spreading cards, outjogging cards, dribbling cards, dealing cards, forming breaks, steps, spreads, and the riffle (not the shuffle, just a plain old card in bicycle spokes sounding riffle). I keep holding myself back from moving on, knowing that every day I practice I relax more and each movement becomes more and more like second nature to me.

Slow and steady

I am working through chapter 1 and catching little mistakes I had made. Even though I want to rush forward and start relearning my riffle shuffle, its nice to see improvement in my basics. Somewhere, somehow, I had put myself under the impression I needed to learn how to rifle shuffle without a table to start learning card manipulation. Now I can't remember why or even where this came from.

Yesterday I had meant to post and describe all the practice I had put in. But I didn't practice anything beyond the riffle shuffle and spreading the cards while I was in the waiting room at a doctors office. Instead, I played Batman: Arkham Asylum till I had to go to sleep. If you have the chance, play it. Go check the reviews its earned, this is a great game. The Story feels like a comic book and the setting is open enough to feel like you have control even though you have to follow each plot point in order. The detective parts of the game are fun and add to making you feel like batman. I am just starting the game so there will be more talk about it as I go through it. Between that and the MAG beta, I could be a busy man. You know, if my time wasn't taken up by silly things like work and sleep.

New focus.

Ok, so my plan is to use this blog to track my progress learning card manipulation and magic tricks. I really haven't done much with it besides show odd pictures from my camera phone, so I thought I would put it to better use. I will be starting with Card College Volume 1 and I will try to take it a chapter at a time, each week. Also, I will post any other book or web site I use to help me learn magic and card manipulation: starting with ...... Theory 11. If you haven't seen this web site, head there now and watch a couple of the videos. Back? Good. Sweet huh? Sometimes you have to stumble on a place like that to re-energise and remember why you took up magic in the first place.

Also, I love to "game." You'll see both my Playstation ID and XboX 360 Gamertag on the sidebar as well as hear about the games I am playing (currently Dead Space). Not just console and PC games though, I enjoy Warhammer 40K and D&D.

Let's see how this goes, a chapter a week till I finish Card College 1, then on to volume 2.

Terry