In this magic blog post, let's look at why learning plateaus happen to magicians, and what we can do to push past them.

As magicians, we need to commit to a routine of magic practice, both to develop new material, and also to stay sharp and fresh with our working acts. However, sometimes we can be practicing as hard as ever but seem to be treading water and making no progress.

It's in your head.

Sometimes we can create our own problems within a magic trick, or with part of the practice. These 'problems' may be tiny errors, or adjustments that we become completely focused on, and in your minds they become huge road blocks. We may obsess over the timing of a sleight, or the exact placement of an object on our close up mats. These fixations can become all consuming, and much of our practice time becomes devoted to working on them, to the detriment of the rest of the routine.

It's important to examine on your whole practice program, making sure that you don't fixate on aspects that may not be a good use of your time. To help prevent this, we recommend that you drill the WHOLE routine repeatedly, rather than working on single moves one at a time. The aim is to develop the complete routine together as a single performance, rather than as modules that combine to create the magic trick.

Unreal Practice.

When you have a boring or repetitive task to do, everything becomes a distraction. It's easy to spot distractions like TV, music, facebook etc, but those are not the most dangerous because they are so noticable.

The most dangerous distractions and those that feel like real work! You may be devoting many hours each day to your magic, but how are you really spending the time? Watching magic DVD's, reading magic magazines, sorting out and cataloging your magic props is not practicing.

Magic research on the internet is not practicing.
Reading this magic blog is not practicing.

Make sure that you set aside a dedicated practice time, planned out in advance. This practice time should be work on a specific magic trick, with no other distractions. By doing this, you will find that you need to spend far less time on your magic as the work is applied where it really counts.

Getting help from a magic teacher.

Just about every sporting professional makes use of a coach. Coaching isn't a luxury, or just a way to motivate the student to practice. Coaching allows a third party, who is detached from the learning process, to examine the whole practice program from an emotional distance. The coach cuts through all the distractions and imaginary problems that can suck up practice time. By using a third party to oversee your magic practice, you stay on track over time and work towards ONE goal, avoiding distractions.

If you find yourself making no progress in your magic practice, it may help to book a single session of personal magic tuition. This session isn't to learn more magic tricks (You probably already know enough). The goal of the coaching session is to look at your current progress, oversee your practice program and identify problems that you may not notice yourself as you are too close to the process.

Find a magic coach that you can trust to give you professional tuition. Ask them to watch your current material and give you HONEST feedback.

If you can't afford a professional magic coach, you can ask a trusted friend or your partner to help you stay focused on the practice program you set yourself. The important thing is that you have someone independent to keep you on track.

Finger Exercises for Magicians – Free Ebook

by Dominic Reyes 2 Comments

How to add finger exercises for magicians into your magic practice, to protect your hands, and improve dexterity.

The aim of finger exercise is to build up finger speed, strength and overall dexterity. Through regular exercise, finger strength is also increased and you will see a marked difference in your ability to manipulate a deck of cards or a stack of coins.

Where the work happens

Your fingers don’t actually have muscles within them. The muscles which are used to work your fingers are located within your palms, and also on your arms. They are linked to the fingers by tendons, which control the fingers as the tendon ‘strings’ pull and relax.

The muscles in your palms are not very strong. They are designed to pull the fingers inwards to the palm. The stronger muscles that control the majority of your finger strength reside in your forearm. The tendons of these muscles travel through your wrist to your fingers. Because the power in your fingers is related to the strength of your arms, by toning these muscles, your gripping strength will improve.

For sleight of hand, the aim is to increase your suppleness by stretching the tendons to pull the muscles.

The Merchant of Magic has created a free ebook that will teach you simple, easy Finger Exercises for Magicians used by professional magicians as part of their sleight of hand practice sessions.

The 21 page ebook will teach you how to:

Develop dexterity, speed, and strength in your hands.
Avoid R.S.I injury.
Spot the symptoms of R.S.I
Improve focus and coordination.
Maintain healthy finger joints.
Improve your ability to manipulate playing cards or coins.
Understand how your muscles control your fingers.
Know when, where and how to exercise your fingers.
Much much more.

The Finger Exercises for Magicians ebook includes video tutorials of each exercise.

‘I found your exercises book and I can’t tell you how amazing my wrists and hands feel right now. I’m a writer/artist so I use my hands a LOT and I have always had a little trouble with pain in those areas from constantly typing (I type fast too so it can be a lot of strain) as such I tend to write for a bit and then have to stop, sometimes for several days at a time. When I read through the exercises I wondered if it might help with the typing as well. I haven’t done it long term yet but it really loosened the stiffness in my wrists and hands even just doing it once. I’m so grateful for you sharing this, I just wanted you to know. Thank you so very much!’ – Stephanie Valis

Top 10 Signs That You Are In Love With Magic

by Dominic Reyes 1 Comment

You've been practicing a few magic tricks and enjoyed entertaining your family and friends; But now you can't stop thinking about magic!

In order to help you figure out what is happening, we have compiled the following top 10 ways to know you're in love with magic:

Number 10

You've forgotten your previous hobbies.
Do you find yourself wanting to spend more and more time practicing your magic, at the cost of your other interests? If you find that your regular sessions at the gym, or your music practice are suddenly an inconvenience that is eating up your 'practice time' it's a clear sign that you are developing a magic obsession.

Number 9

You can't stop thinking about magic tricks.

Do you find yourself thinking about magic, presentations, and patter lines all day long? In the shower, whilst driving, or even when you are tailing behind your partner in department stores? If every waking moment is filled with thoughts of magic or ideas for new tricks, its a good sign that you are in love with magic.

Number 8

You care about magic.

There is a reason why you don't want to know the history of the band you went to see recently: you don't love it. When you're in love with something, you want to know all about it: It's history, it's community, what makes it work. You truly care about it, and it's popularity and future.

Number 7

You don't care about the quirks and geekiness of magic.

Even wearing a playing card tie doesn't seem so terrible. You wouldn't do it yourself, but can understand the temptation.

Number 6

You have great chemistry.

You can't be in love with something that you have no chemistry with. You are beginning to think like a magician, and think in similar ways to other magicians, that's a good sign. You can sit down with anyone who is interested in magic and chat to them for hours.

Number 5

You start seeing magic everywhere.

Suddenly, you start to notice adverts for local magicians, when you are out and about. The TV listings start to seem to have more magic that usual, and you start spotting magicians performing when you visit restaurants and pubs. You automatically switch to become 'open' to seeing magic performed all around you.

Number 4

You love spending time practicing.

You look forward to practicing, and don't care much about what else you could be doing. Lately, just sitting on your own with a deck of cards sounds like the best way you could spend an evening.

Number 3

You cram everything into one pocket, so you have room to carry magic props.

Pocket management suddenly becomes all consuming. You start looking at little bags to carry magic tricks and coin holders for your gimmicked coins. You start carrying a sharpie pen with you at all times.

Number 2

Other priorities take a backseat.

You used to train religiously, but lately, if you have a new magic DVD, you don't mind missing a workout. Not only that, but your workaholic drive of take home your work on weekends, seems like an unwise lifestyle choice.

Your to-do list seems to have become filled with new moves to learn and tricks to purchase and learn.

Number 1

You start planning about the future and magic is in it.

You start dreaming of turning your love for magic into a career. You find yourself looking at professional magicians websites online and reading about performing commercially. In the future, you want to make an income from magic, perhaps as a side line at first, but the thought of the lifestyle of a professional magician seems like a dream job.

When planning your next holiday, you know you want to build in magic somehow. A holiday to Vegas has taken over from the beach as your dream destination. Your future plans seem to have changed to include magic as much as possible.

It's love!

If you find yourself identifying with most of the above signs, there's a good chance you are in love with magic, rather than it being just a passing phase. If that's the case, congratulations! This is a lifelong love affair that will bring you more happiness than you could ever believe. Jump right in and welcome the obsession!