I have a problem with my false transfer vanishes - finger, classic, and thumb palms. I've been practecing sleights from Bobo's book and ITBTWC for about a year, but I still cant get those vanishes right. The transfers dont look natural, and Ive spent countless hours in front of a mirror trying to perfect them. Any tips and help would be appreciated.

Post a YouTube video, maybe we can suggest some tips for improvement.

Try countless more hours of practice. That's really what it comes down to.

However, how you practice, both physically and mentally, does make a difference.

Since you seem to be aware of how your moves look, I'm assuming you ar edoing some sort of mirror practice or maybe making videos of yourself. If you are not but are instead relying on your own "magician's eye view" of your sleights, that's the first thing you should do. You need to see your work from the perspective of your spectators.

Also, make sure you are complementing your practicing of the sleights with practicing of the gestures without the sleights. Pretending to place a coin in your hand should look as similar as possible to actually placing the coin in your hand. Best case scenario, you practice your moves until they look like no-moves, though sometimes you will have to go in the other direction, e.g., learning how to hold a hand at rest that does not conceal a coin in the same manner as a hand at rest that does hold a coin.

There is a psychological component here, as will. You are aware that you are doing a sleight; you know what the move is and when it happens and what is happening, thus it stands out more for you. There are some things that we as magicians notice because we are aware of them, but which laypeople generally do not notice -- or can be manipulated into not noticing.

When I watch a video of David Roth, I can tell when he is dong a retention vanish or a false tranfsfer; I can tell when he has a coin in classic palm... not because I am a great coin worker (which I am not), but simplybecause I know what to look for. The truth of the matter is that there are unavoidable differences between a real transfer and a false transfer... between anempty hand and a hand concelaling a coin in classic palm. In the case of the false transfer, there is at least one extra finger move that does not take place in a real transfer; in the case of a classic palmed coin versus an empty hand, there is some extra muscle tension which is not there with an empty hand and which can be spotted if you know what to look for.

Having said that, maybe your coin handling just sucks. We don't know. And we won't know unless we can see it. As akirafist said, put up a video if you want serious criticism.

Just one more thing... "about a year" of coin work is hardly "countless hours." It may well be that you are as good (or as bad) as you should be after about a year of practice. If you are expecting your sleights to look as good after "about a year" as those of professionals who have spent a lifetime working on them, you're fooling yourself.

I've been working on my retention vanish and classic palm for literally years and I'm still not happy with either of them. Maybe I'm a perfectionist... or maybe my technique still sucks. For the sake of my clients and my professional reputation, I prefer to err on the latter side.