★★★ United Cardists' Guide for Beginners ★★★

[admin_noreply]

(reposted from .net)

Welcome to United Cardists' Guide for Beginners

So you want to be a Cardist?

Well, we are glad that you found us and we want to be a positive influence for you to get into the world of Cardistry. This guide will give you some basic background information and material to get you started.

What is Cardistry?
Cardistry is the artistic movements of a deck of cards or a portion of the deck. This definition is generally exclusive of sleight of hand, which is the manipulation of cards that disguises an effect from the spectator. With Cardistry the effect is the manipulation of the cards and intended to be viewed by the spectator. Cardistry can also be known as Flourishing or Xtreme Card Manipulation (XCM) More on that in the history of Cardistry.

The History of Cardistry
Cardistry has it's past from the world of magic particularly card magic. Card magicians have been performing flourishes for a very long time. Magicians have generally used flourishes as a way to accent their magic routines, or as a display of dexterity in between magic tricks. Jerry Cestkowski "The Flourishman" is the earliest known magician to specialize in card flourishes. He is an authoritative figure in the Cardistry/XCM/Flourishing community and his book "The encyclopedia of Playing Card Flourishes" (EoPCF) is known as the "Bible".

De'vo Von Schattenreich was the leading figurehead in the separation of Flourishes from Magic. De'vo became well know for his creativity and flourishing skill. Around 2001 De'vo proposed that flourishes could easily stand on their own apart from Magic routines, and his work greatly influenced the development as flourishes as a separate art form. To distance flourishes from magic, De'vo coined the phrase Xtreme Card Manipulation in 2004.

In 2006 as Flourishing and Xtreme Card Manipulation gained popularity, controversy began to arise in a sense of style and direction of the future for the community. Richard Z. coined the phrase "Cardistry" as a new term to define Flourishing and Card Manipulation as it's own art form. There was controversy and XCM and Cardistry generally became known for their different styles. Cardistry contained a style that relied more upon quick two handed cuts, whereas XCM became known for other artistic movements, especially armspreads and displays. Over the years, conflicts have been resolved, the terms Cardistry and XCM have been used interchangeably between Cardists, however the term flourishing, still implies a tie to magic. Where as it is understood that Cardistry and XCM are separate art forms.

Where should I begin?
Well, if you are brand new to Cardistry you will need to pick up a good quality deck of cards. If you happen to only have a deck of cheap novelty cards, you should be able to perform a few cuts with them, but you will soon find they are not ideal. High quality cards can be easily attained in the United States for around $3 USD. It is recommend just to start off with a deck of Bicycle Playing Cards. Grab the deck that says "Poker 808" on it. Outside of the United States, it can be harder (and more expensive) to find a high quality deck. You will want to look for a deck by the "United States Playing Card Company" or Carte Mundi. Once you get further into Cardistry you will discover different decks have different qualities, and rare decks can be highly sought after.
Now that you have your deck of cards. You will want to head over back to the Training Ground and learn how to perform some Basic Cardistry Moves. I always recommend starting with the Charlier Cut.

Practice, Practice, Practice
As I'm sure you noticed, you were not able to perform the move on your first try. If you did, stop lying. Learning to manipulate your fingers in detailed motion is something that is foreign to most people. But don't worry, it is something that everyone can pick up with practice.

What is practice?
It seems like a silly question, but in reality there are two different types of practice, and you will need to utilize both to become a proficient cardist. First their is attentive practice, this is where you first learn a move and you are really studying the motion of your fingers, comparing that to the correct motion, and looking to perfect the move. Then there is passive practice. Passive practice can only come after some attentive practice, it is performing the motions of the move without paying strict attention to the motion of your fingers. To properly learn a move, you will need to spend some time in attentive practice, where you are very detailed to get the motions correct. And then you will need to spend a lot of time in passive practice just repeating those motions over and over. The passive practice will form Finger Memory. Finger memory is where your fingers will actual learn the motions as a routine and perform the motions without much thought or effort. It is very important to learn the moves attentively correctly. If you begin a move incorrectly you will have a hard time learning to do it correctly.

A sample routine
Most of your moves will be learned by a video at this early stage. When you come across a tutorial that you want to learn you can follow these simple guidelines.

First, watch the entire video, then pick up a deck of cards go along step by step, several times until you can perform the move step by step and you remember the steps. This should only take 10-20 minutes for a simple move. Now you can put the video aside, and start attentively practicing. Perform the move over and over until you can do it completely one time through. If you are new to flourishing and its a new move to you, this may take a little bit of time. Refer back to your original source if needed. Now you can challenge yourself to perform the move twice in a row without messing up. This is still attentive practice, where you pay close attention to what you are doing. Once you can perform the move a couple times in a row, there are two common techniques to attentive practice. One is to simply attempt the move 10 times and count how many you completed it without messing up. This will give you a nice ratio, if you completed 6 out of 10 attempts, you can say you are 60%. You can up this to 100 attempts. Another method is to keep challenging yourself to complete more in a row without messing up. If you mess up you have to start over.

Once you have spent a sufficient amount of time in attentive practice you will have the finger memory to perform the move without really looking. Once you have that, you can move to passive practice. Passive practice is pretty easy, you just pick up a deck and perform the move over and over, while completely not thinking about it. You can watch Tv, you can read an article, you can watch more videos online, just don't concentrate on the cards, when you mess up, pick up any fallen cards and do it again. After a bit of passive practice, go back to some attentive practice to verify you are performing the move correctly.

How long will it take me to get good?
How good you get will entirely depend on how much effort (practice) you put into it and how much natural talent you have. Which will be entirely different for everyone. However, you can be reassured that anyone can learn enough to impress your laymen friends in a matter of a few days, if not hours.

Moving on
Okay, so you have mastered the United Cardists beginner section, now what? Well you can choose to go many different routes. You can continue to learn as much as you can online for free. Many cardist in the online community have developed their own moves and have created great tutorials. From advanced material to more basic moves. However, even though many are very well done, there are also a lot very poorly done. At one point in time you will want to upgrade your arsenal with some professional material. As you become familiar with the community you will learn of many DVD's and Books, by professional Cardist available from different websites for purchase.

The Cardistry Community
The strongest presence for the cardistry community is online. Feel free to join our forum. Please just be aware of common internet courtesy and understand that we as cardist represent a very small niche of the general population. Cardist online may sometimes seem like exclusive groups, but just stick around and be respectful and you will fit right in.

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This article was kindly contributed by Patrick for United Cardists
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(reposted from .net)

[lumpyliew]

Is Genesis V1 good? I would pick that up together with V2 soon . I already have The Trilogy but had yet to watch it ...

[Chozo Tull]

Genesis V1 is decent for beginners, but there are no two handed cuts in it. The Trilogy on the other hand features almost exclusively 2 handed cuts ^^

[lumpyliew]

Oh thanks ... I am starting cardistry soon ( currently , I only know The Werm , Sybil ) haha I'm a card collector that's why

[DukeBoy]

Like the new section

[Cyberkalvin]

I was looking for that Beginner's Media Section, and I didn't find it.
Well I've seen there are a lot of videos in YouTube, but I thought there could some kind of guide, about wich moves are basics, and wich learn after.
Well, keep practicing

[MagikFingerz]

I was looking for that Beginner's Media Section, and I didn't find it.
Well I've seen there are a lot of videos in YouTube, but I thought there could some kind of guide, about wich moves are basics, and wich learn after.
Well, keep practicing

It IS a frequently asked question, so I guess it should be a guide for it. Though it will always differ slightly from person to person which moves are the easiest. You could always create a new thread about it

[craftspell]

Is Genesis V1 good? I would pick that up together with V2 soon . I already have The Trilogy but had yet to watch it ...

I would definitely recommend Genesis V1 as well as the Virts' online tutorials as a starting point for cardists! I feel that The Trilogy, while very awesome and all-rounded, is more intermediate based.

[MagikFingerz]

Is Genesis V1 good? I would pick that up together with V2 soon . I already have The Trilogy but had yet to watch it ...

I would definitely recommend Genesis V1 as well as the Virts' online tutorials as a starting point for cardists! I feel that The Trilogy, while very awesome and all-rounded, is more intermediate based.

I agree. And the tutorials the Virts puts up are a really good resource for those who can't afford DVD's, they're doing a great thing for the cardistry community by putting up grade A material and even following up on people's comments.

[ecNate]

It is recommend just to start off with a deck of Bicycle Playing Cards. Grab the deck that says "Poker 808" on it. Outside of the United States, it can be harder (and more expensive) to find a high quality deck. You will want to look for a deck by the "United States Playing Card Company" or Carte Mundi.

I should maybe post a new specific thread about this, but will try here first. I've been learning using Bicycle Expert Back and Everyday Zombie decks, which I believe both have air cushioned finish. They seem to work pretty well and would be high quality I suppose. However, I just received my copy of the Virtuoso v2 (spring/summer) and LOVE how the cards handle. Others complained they are too thin, but the spring and the feel really works for me. All I can find on the source is they are USPCC "produced on a casino-grade stock ".

In looking at this thread it seems that maybe I should be trying the Bee cards out to get a similar feel on a cheaper deck since I only got one deck and it's mostly for collecting. Does anybody know for sure what stock/finish that Virt v2 deck used or what would be closest? These really feel to me like the best stock/finish to at least learn on, if not use exclusively. Yes, getting more Virt decks is an option, but they are quite expensive and since I'm just learning I will destroy them over time.

Thanks

[sprouts1115]

Just curious, what elements make a good Magicians deck?

I think I have an idea. Part of it deals with the fan of the back of card. Who is winning the war? Do magicians like bordered or borderless backs? Why do Magicians prefer Embossed over Smooth? What is the real story?

If EPCC and Legends win the production war, Magicians will lose the Gaff cards. They print on a 9 X 6 uncut for 54 cards. While the USPCC does a 8 X 7 uncut for 56 cards. 52 + 2J + 2Gaff. Are Gaff cards still important in a Magicians deck?

[MagikFingerz]

Just curious, what elements make a good Magicians deck?

I think I have an idea. Part of it deals with the fan of the back of card. Who is winning the war? Do magicians like bordered or borderless backs? Why do Magicians prefer Embossed over Smooth? What is the real story?

If EPCC and Legends win the production war, Magicians will lose the Gaff cards. They print on a 9 X 6 uncut for 54 cards. While the USPCC does a 8 X 7 uncut for 56 cards. 52 + 2J + 2Gaff. Are Gaff cards still important in a Magicians deck?

Magicians generally prefer bordered because of reversed card effects, gamblers however (or magicians working with gambling sleights) prefer borderless backs because they blend with each other to hide second/bottom deals etc. And I can only imagine that most card handlers prefer Embossed because of the superior glide.

As unrealistic as anyone "winning the production war" but USPCC is, I'm sure EPCC/LPCC can accommodate gaffs at some point. One could also argue that Jokers are unnecessary for magicians, and therefore can be replaced with gaffs if need be. But I would think that any professional who works with gaffs a lot will be using Bikes (or another inexpensive recognizable deck) and buying whole gaff decks and/or making their own.

[Chris Aldren]

Oh I see, That's great dude!

[EndersGame]

This is a great guide! I've spent a lot of time writing a couple of articles on this subject as well, so I'd like to put in a plug for them here:

How to Get Started in Cardistry
https://playingcarddecks.com/blogs/all- ... -cardistry" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Top Moves and Flourishes That Beginners in Cardistry Should Learn
https://playingcarddecks.com/blogs/all- ... ould-learn" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Happy learning to all newcomers!

[House of Cardistry]

I just ordered a deck of Virtuoso fall/winter 2017’s and already have several decks of bicycle cards along with a deck of theory11 medallion cards that I just wanted to have to see if they handle better than the usual Bicycle cards. Spoiler alert!! They do. The Bicycles handle just fine but even as a total newcomer I can already see why upping your game pays off. Even if it’s just the “placebo effect” of knowing that you’re using (especially in the case of the Virts) cards that are recognized as being among the very best available... I feel like my thumb fans are more even and the overall feel of the cards themselves are just better. For everyday practice (in my case, all 8 days now, lol!!) the Bicycles are perfectly fine. I spend most of my time picking them up
off the floor anyway at this point so no point in dinging up the “good” cards!!