My hands are a bit smaller than average, I would say, and my fingers are anything but long. Practicing sleights like the one-hand shift are quite frustrating, even using a bridge deck. If my fingers were just 1/8" - 1/4" longer it seems I wouldn't have the difficulty.
Hours and hours and hours of practice on the shift alone seem to be getting me along very little. Anyone have any possible suggestions that might ease this "problem?"
Thanks!

Mike

a hand pump?

just kidding. All I can say is lots of the big names also had smallish size hands.. your fingers might feel uncomfortable in certain grips or have difficulty reaching this corner or that, but this is more a factor of the muscles being unfamiliar to the movement, as the strength builds up, the discomfort will decrease.

I hope you're right! In the past, however, it seems it has been a physical limitation, rather than a discomfort factor.
Thanks!

Mike

Geoff is correct, it's mostly just where your hands arn't used to performing the moves. So keep on practicing!

If you still struggle, good use of misdirection will help a lot in pulling off the trick (regardless of hand size) whilst also being entertaining and not just all fingers and thumbs.

I am not clever with my fingers. If I feel very difficult using the sleight even with much of practice, I will just change another method.

I agree with Neil. My fellow magician taught me not to stick slights.

yken

practice, even if it doesn't feel right, when you first start magic nothing feels right untill you get it down. its just a phase, im sure all of the magicians on this site probally has similar problems to you.

-Chris

All good advice above.
Max Malini had VERY short fingers and yet he was a master at sleights and, of course, misdirection.
Keep at it but you may eventually find that a lot of what you want to do can be accomplished by other means.

I have small hands, but I'm doing pretty well with sleight of hand.

You may have to work a little harder, but I don't think short fingers will hurt your learning much.

Just keep at it.

Thanks everyone, for all the encouragement! I really appreciated it!

I will press on regardless...

Mike