I'm wondering if anyone else had this problem when first learning the pinch. I've never heard Sankey or anyone else mention it

My problem comes after putting the coin in pinch the Scotty York way, under cover of a pointing gesture. This places the coin in pinch but with a closed hand. When I try to open my hand, I find that the action of opening my hand causes my pinky to slide backwards along the side of my ring finger so much so that it makes it very difficult to keep the coin where it's supposed to be. If I try to do it at a natural looking speed, the coin either drops or moves too far the other way and can be seen through my fingers.

I have yet to find the right way to open my hand so that the coin stays securely in place.

Front Row Sankey.

I had the same problem. As cliche as it sounds, it's just going to take more practice. Work on the amount of pressure you put on the coin. Also, you may want to make sure your hands aren't dried out. Dry hand will kill any Back Clip.

I meant that I've never heard him mention the specific problem I'm having with the pinch, not just the pinch itself.



Thanks, I'll keep trying.

For what it's worth I pinch mine between ring and middle. This makes more of an angle problem but it is more secure. I don't reccomend others do this since you are trading one problem for another.

IMO the goshman\tenkai pinch is one of those moves that you just need to practice for a very long time until it will work for you.
You're obviously not used to holding things with your pinky and ring finger so this sleight will be difficult at first but after some practice you will forget you ever had troubles with it and it will open a door for so many great ideas for you.
Good luck

That's very true. You're essentially holding it in your weakest two fingers. It's not much for security.

Haha... that's good to hear. I thought it was just me. I googled the pinch and found everyone on some other forum (the cafe I think) talking about how it's pretty much the easiest thing in coin magic.

Yes, but the people on the cafe also tend to think that "(Insert the guy they want to suck up to the most) is the greatest magician in the world and has done more to help (Insert said individuals favorite type of magic) than anyone else in history". They're not exactly unbiased. As for the move, if they think it's the easiest thing, then they've avoided all the other stuff. Back Clip work has a lot of outside factors. Those windows that we always talk about really hurt your back clipping work. You have to learn to work around that.

It's not, even when you get good at it it's still not "the easiest thing in coin magic"
A lot of people know that magicians can hide things behind their fingers so making the slightest mistake with back clipping will make them suspect that you're hiding something behind your hand and after they're suspecting something it's very hard to prove them that you're not doing anything.
My point is that working with back clips is not easy, no matter what those guys said

This works for me: Open your hand like your serving the coin at the spectator. It's a little hard to explain. Your hand is palm-down. Your fingers are pointed toward you. When you open, your fingers never turn over, they just turn away from you 180 degrees. You can see Jay Sankey do this in his demo for Tenkai Pennies. I hope I explained this well.

Thanks for the tips guys.
I too was having a bit of a problem with the pinch.
I'll test out your tips.
Thanks again.

I had some trouble at first but now it is very easy.

I learned it from Gregeory (Greg) Wilson's "On The Spot". Once pinched the coin will be at a 45 degree angle to the ring finger. 90 degrees to the fingers is not right according to Greg. The DVD covers how to get into the position.

Once mastered you sould be able to open your hand 99% and have a comfortable grip on the coin. Next work on relaxing the thumb, index and middle fingers. You should be able to pick something up with those fingers and still maintain your grip.

How that helps.

I also learned it from Gregory Wilson's dvd "on the spot".

Not only do you learn the move, but you learn a really good impromptu coins across effect that utilizes the move.