Joshua writes:
I have a question regarding your Approaching Magic Practice ebook. The original document suggests magic training through drilling either a single move or an entire effect/sequence in a very specific way.
I really like this approach and just wanted to say thank you very much. Your magic training approach helped me perfect the most difficult card routine I’ve ever tried to tackle, Darwin Ortiz The Sting. I’m sure you’re familiar with the effect, but there’s a notoriously awkward and difficult riffle stacking sequence that has a 2-1 (2 cards, 1 card—each side) rhythm as opposed to the more “used” sets like holding back 3 cards, 4, etc.—with your approach you outlined I was literally able to master the sequence and I don’t think I otherwise would have been able to.
Currently, I’m practising a whole routine that takes 5 and a half minutes to complete from start to finish and I’m finding 10 minutes not to be quite enough and 15-20 repetitions to me on the heavier side.
I was wondering if you had any recommendations for me on the best way to approach this scheme.
Thanks, Dominic for the indelible mark you have made on me as a magician!
Regards, Joshua
Great to hear you had value from the drill method. It’s helped me so much over the years and I love the results I see it getting in the students that commit to it.
Shhh… Let me tell you a secret… REALLY the whole drill method is Approaching Magic Practice is simply doing ONE thing:
Pushing you to make a commitment to
magic practice and to follow
up with consistency.
Denzel Washington said:
‘Without commitment, you’ll never start, but more importantly, without consistency, you’ll never finish‘
These are wise words. The number of reps of the routine doesn’t matter for effective magic training… What’s really at play here is a method to stop you from jumping from trick to trick, and commit to focus on just ONE routine, and then follow that up with regular practice. Simple, but it’s what 99% of magic enthusiasts fail to do.
How many repetitions? You know what feels right for you in each magic training session depending on the material… Perhaps do 3 repetitions of the whole routine twice a day… That’s enough… as long as you have the consistency of practice over a number of days or weeks. but commit to continuing that for 15 days. Video your day 1 performance and then your day 15 performance using the camera on your phone.
Remember to go SLOWLY through the routine and practice the patter as well as the moves. Never isolate what you say during the routine from the practice of the mechanics, they should be embedded together throughout your magic training sessions.
I wish you every success with it Joshua
Dominic Reyes
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