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I'm about 5'5'' and have small hands relatively to my friends (it would seem like some of them have a 4th segment compared to mine). I can do quite a few card tricks (and by tricks I mean real sleight of hand/card control) and flourishs, but certain sleights like palming and passing seem nearly impossibly...any suggestions on any magic for someone with small hands, or maybe people who are able to successfully perform a pass with small hands (which seems to be my focus at the moment...I know you can get away without it but the concept amazes me)? When I was much younger I had attempted coin tricks but its very hard to palm with small hands...any tips or names of specific techniques I could look up (not looking for expsure, names of techniques or specific books/DVDs would be appreciated).
Thanks!

I would also appreciate any advice given. I have tiny hands compared to most of the people I know, and find it almost impossible to palm cards without them being spotted, as my hands simply aren't large enough. Any tips or anything about passes or anything mentioned in the post above would be really helpful.
Thanks.

i have smallish hands for my height (6ft 2"), all i'll say is - keep at it, you can fit a card in your hand, you just have less leeway than most, i have to be spot on when i do it, but it is do-able...

also, the side steal - genius...obviously not exactly the same, but with the right direction and misdirection, you can achieve the same kind of results...

as for the pass, i struggled too, i settled on the hermann pass in the end - andy wakeman's dvd The Pass is exceptional if you learn better visually...and there's a few other superb ones on there too...its a little pricey though, but worth it...

I too have small hands....5' 5" and find it incredibly hard to palm and cannot do a decent pass.
However up until recently I thought these thing may be out of my reach due to my small hands but after watching the one handed palm section in Revolutionary card magic with Jay Sankey I realised it is just a question of practice.
I'm still practicing now but as long as you can lay a card in your palm without it going over the edges, even if it's a very tight fit like with me, then you can in theory palm it.
I have recently learned a one handed three way cut which I thought I'd never be able to do as when I started it just stretvhed my hand way too much and was quite painful. But after week of practicing on the train to and from work (30 mins each way) I have almost got it down.

Maybe your hands are too small in which case you can always resort to using bridge sized playing card which are narrower or like me it is just a matter of confronting the frustrating yet highly rewarding world of practice, practice, practice.

You can but bridge sized cards which are smaller.....I have smallish hands but can just about palm a card but then again im a growing lad and my hands will grow but palming a card with bridge cards are really easy because they are narrower.

And with the pass just try alot of misdirection and then do it.

Since I had some spare time I had a quick search and came up with the following topics that might be of interest:

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic6487.php How big are your hands?
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic6225.php Palming a card!
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic5629.php Palming
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic3264.php The Pass...

Mostly on palming and the pass with reference to hand size.

We each use the tools that we are given.

I have terrible windows. My fingers are bony and you can see right through my fingers when I hold my hand up with my fingers pressed against each other. It makes any kind of palming, including the very, very simple finger palm, difficult, at best.

So what?

I adapt and I overcome. I do things in the way that I must do them to make them work. Mostly misdirection.

I can't make my fingers less bony, so I figure out ways to do what I need to do to make the magic happen. I know guys who can palm off a card in a way that nobody else does it and the "professionals" would never suggest or try themselves. But, these guys have special needs when it comes to specific sleights.

Yea, so what?

You take the tools that you have, the tools that you were naturally given by birth, and you adapt and you overcome.

Mike.

Good point Mike, we all have natural gifts and defects that make it respectively easier and harder to do ceratin aspects of magic. I for example was blessed with the ability to classic palm a coin as soon as I found out what a classic palm was. Now I can comfortably cp 4 10ps and use a mouse at the same time, then drop them off individually. On the other hand (chuckle) I didn't feel comfortable enough with DLs to perform them until I'd been practicing cards for about 6 months. It's just a matter of being grateful for your natural talents and working on your disadvantages. Andy Nyman can't cp a coin, maybe that's why he's a mentalist.

I dont know where I read or saw it but Im sure I saw that the pass is not hindered by size of hand. I have smallish hands and I can do a (passable ) pass

I'm six foot and I have tiny winy miny hands! Well... in comparison to my body and most people I know .

As said before, palming is not a move all by itself. Misdirection is vital! At least in my opinion. I can't do a palm without looking unnatural. But I don't have a problem with it especially under the cover of the correct misdirection.

I don't have a proper set patter for my routines and I just work on the spot. So e.g. If I was doing an ACR and I wanted to do a card to pocket, the palming would be done when I make up some random patter, which could be a pause while I just make up some kind of joke on the spot. I know this is slightly off topic, but all good information I think. The misdirection needed would be for the spectator to look at your eyes. and for that to happen, YOU need to look at THEIR eyes. Not a stare, but the casual look would be enough misdirection. And voila! You can do your palming without the spectator looking and your hands are now by your sides looking as natural as possible!

Again, slightly off topic but hopefully this information can be useful to many!

Steve

I'm also short, (about 1.70 meters, don't how much it is in feet), and my hands are small on the same scale as my height. But I still can palm cards better then my friend that have rather big hands and still can't palm a card right.
It's all about practice, when I palm a poker size card I just really need to be accurate with my hand because it pretty much takes my entire palm.
So when I practice, I practice with poker size cards, and when I perform, I perform with bridge size, that way I have the skill from practicing as well as the confidence from knowing those are smaller cards.
And sometimes you just need to think of other methods. For instance in my kids show I produce a 36" silk, and no matter how I tried to fold it, I never could get it to be small enough so I can palm it in my hand, so instead I just hide it in my jacket and produce it with some misdirection from some flash paper.

Oh yeah, and don't forget, classic palming coins and other small objects is a lot easier with smaller hands than with big ones