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My coin magic is coming along nicely and workign through Bobos book I have a good few little coin tricks I am able to perform. My one big problem with coin magic has been the Cl***c P**m. And now I am at a stage where I can place a coin in Cl***c P**m and make it look wuite natural , whilst picking up things and walking round etc.

However, I have Jay Sankeys Revolutionary DVD and David Stones Basic coin magic volume 1 and the tricks that I really like off them involve tossing a couple of coins from one hand to the other whilst retaining one coin in Cl***c P**m.. I m having trouble with this as the muscles wont grip the coin unless I place the coin there with my fingers .

I hope this makes sense. Baasically How do you, after placing a coin in Cl***c P**m position in an open hand, retain it there when the hand turns over.. With me the muscle needed to retain it there just pushes it out of position and out of my hand.

OK, first, find your sweet spot.

Place a large coin, like a 50p, £2 or half-dollar in the palm of your hand.

Next, flatten the palm, fingers out.

Then, using ONLY the thumb and pinky, and trying to keep them straight, bring the tips of the pre-described digits together.

This 'activates' the right muscles.

With the other hand, and a continuing pincer movement with thumb and pink, move the coin around into a gripped area.

With practice, this will sort you out NO END.

NEXT: consider that you need to TRAIN the muscles for a while. To get this sorted, I seriously recommend a large flat washer, thin, or a beer bottle cap, PLUS a squash ball.

Practice palming the washer (as wide as a £2 coin at least, but thin around the edge) or the beer bottle cap. Both these items are easier to grip, and let you get on with concentrating on the muscle development as opposed to finding HOW to grip.

Also, use a squash ball to develop the strength and flexibility in your fingers. This can be done in front of the tv, whilst on a train etc.

For just over a week now i ve been doing Stones one coin routine , now when stone shoes his hands empty he spreads his fingers , but i cant do this with out making my thumb vanish like Meir Yedid so simple i keep my fingers closed.

I find a half easyer to palm then a £2 But the sweet spot idea is a sound one because every ons hand is diffrent once you found that you get a very nice palm indeed.

My palm looks extremely natural I seem to have found my spot now. Seiges Idea sounds good though on training the muscles. its just when I try and retain a coin in classic without the assistance of any digits.

Tip from Alex Lourido*:

If you have an oppurtunity to tap the coin/s with the other hands finger you can press one into Cl***c P**m just before you turn the hand over. Alex uses this in quite a few routines.




*not directly from him. Im not that well connected in the magic world. Although my uncle can perform something damn amazing with 21 cards.

when i first got into coin magic i also suffered the same problem, both in classic p*** and in JW grip my muscles were not developed enough to hold coins well.

I became obsessed with the problem, and solved it by purchasing a rather unusual little book called Mastery Of Hand Strength ( i forget the author) its a great book, designed for body builders to help develop forearm and hand definition, but i found it excellent.

here are some of the best little tips:

*When carrying shopping bags hold them in an index finger and thumb pinch grip, just pinch the tops of the handles like you were giving someone a nasty pinch. if you do this every time your out shopping you will find a great improvement in the size of your thumb muscles.

*stand behind a chair, and using the same finger and thumb pinch grip, lift the chair to above waist hight and then slowly lower back down. do this excersise until you hand hurts or until your girlfriend asks you what the hell you are doing.

*this ones a bit more odd, but trust me its gets great results. buy some thick fencing wire, and then using a pair of decent wire cutters, cut the wire a 1 cm intervals. The act of cutting wire like this is an outstanding excersise, and strengthens the entire hands.

All of these excersises are unbeatable for training the hands, you will notice that alot of the best coin workers have very large thumb muscles, which allows the thumb to be held in a extremely natural position when classic p**ming. (sankey is a good example of this)

Also, i had real difficulty doing the muscle pass before i started using these excersises.

Try them! you'll love the results!

I just felt a bit like a weird personal trainer writing that, but i hope it is of use to someone.

peace Atomo

When I was learning it, I would put the coin in palm and not just hold it there but squeeze and relax, squeeze and relax to get the muscles used to the exact size and shape of the coin that I would be using. I would then try adding coins, taking it up to about six, when you can do it with five or six coins one seems so easy.