How to spring cards from hand to hand

To spring cards, hold the deck by its ends in one hand, bend it toward your palm and slowly squeeze until the cards shoot off one at a time into your other hand. Start with your hands almost touching and widen the gap only when every card lands. It takes weeks, not minutes, and it bends cards, so learn it with a practice deck over a bed.

What is a card spring?

A card spring is the flourish where a deck seems to pour through the air from one hand to the other in a continuous stream.

It is an old move. Professor Hoffmann included it in Modern Magic (1876), though he was a little sniffy about it: “This is a mere flourish, and belongs rather to the art of the juggler than to that of the magician.” He still described it because conjurors performed it so often. Today it is a standard first flourish in cardistry, the art of moving cards for their own beauty.

How do you hold the deck?

These steps are for a right-handed person springing from the right hand into the left. Swap hands if that feels more natural.

1. Fingers on the far end. Put your first, second and third fingers together along the short end of the deck farthest from you.
2. Thumb on the near end. Your thumb holds the short end nearest you. Let your little finger hang free.
3. Faces toward your palm. The deck sits across your hand with its face toward the catching hand.

That is how many modern tutorials teach it. Hoffmann held the cards between the tips of only the second and third fingers at the top and the thumb at the bottom. Either works.

How does the spring actually work?

You bend the deck by squeezing your fingers and thumb toward each other. As the bend grows, the cards nearest your palm can no longer hold on and pop free one after another. Hoffmann explains that, if the pressure continues, “the whole of the cards will spring away one after the other.”

The skill is in the squeeze. Press too little and nothing happens. Press too hard, too fast, and the deck explodes in clumps. You want a smooth, steady increase in pressure, so the cards leave in an even stream rather than in a few packets.

How do you catch the cards?

Most failed springs are really failed catches. Cup your left hand into a loose cage: fingers curled up as a wall in front, thumb up at the side so cards don’t slide off sideways. Aim the stream into that cage, not at your palm.

As the last cards arrive, bring your right hand down onto the left and square the deck. Hoffmann gives the same finish: the left hand is brought “palm to palm with the right” to square up the pack and go again.

How far apart should your hands be?

Start almost touching. Distance is the last thing you add, not the first.

Stage	Gap between hands	Move on when
1. Release only	Catching hand right under the deck	Cards leave in one even stream
2. Short spring	A few centimetres	Almost every card lands in the cage
3. Medium spring	A hand’s width or so	You can do ten in a row without a drop
4. Wide spring	As wide as you can keep it clean	Only when the stream stays tidy

T. Nelson Downs gave the same advice in The Art of Magic (1909) for his variations of the flourish. He told readers to practise the release first with the hand stationary, then move it a few inches, “increasing the distance gradually.”

Old books also show that a spring can look wider than it is. Hoffmann describes making a quick half turn of the body as you spring, so both hands sweep through an arc of about two feet. The audience reads that as a huge gap, while the hands stay only ten or twelve inches apart.

Where should you practise?

• Over a bed. You will drop the whole deck many times. A bed means less bending down and no scuffed corners.
• In short sessions. A few minutes a day beats an hour once a week. Your hand tires quickly, and tired springs turn sloppy.

Be honest with yourself about time. Downs wrote that springing the cards “requires a great deal of patient application before the knack is acquired.” Expect cards everywhere for the first few weeks.

Which deck should you use?

Springing bends cards. Every spring leaves a curve in the deck, and hundreds of practice springs will wear one out quickly. Keep a cheap working deck for practice and save your favourite for performing. After each spring, square the deck and gently bend it the other way to take out the curve.

A brand new deck can feel stiff and harder to spring at first, so give it a few gentle sessions before you judge your technique. Our guide on how to care for playing cards covers breaking a deck in and knowing when to retire it.

• Bicycle Standard Red Poker Cards are the classic Bicycle deck, made for all card games.
• Start Cardistry Playing Cards by Simon are designed for card flourishing, printed on 310gsm casino quality stock with a black core and a linen finish, with 52 cards plus 2 jokers.

Browse all our playing cards when it’s time for a fresh deck.

Want to learn card magic from Shin Lim?

That’s Shin Lim on the cover, springing a long cascade of cards. He won America’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent: The Champions with visual card magic, and he has put that style into two beginner sets. EVOLUSHIN of Card Magic is his card set, with custom decks, gimmicks and hours of step-by-step online training he teaches himself. For a wider start, Shin Lim’s EVOLUSHIN Magic Kit covers card, coin and mind-reading tricks across about 140 minutes of video in 20 chapters.

Where does old advice differ from modern practice?

• The grip. Hoffmann used two fingers at the top end. Modern tutorials usually use three fingers side by side, which spreads the pressure.
• The status of the move. Hoffmann called it a juggler’s flourish. In cardistry it is a core skill in its own right.
• Variations. Downs described methods where the pressure is gently relaxed so the cards fall in a ribbon while the hand sweeps upward, which he contrasts with the “old method” of shooting them across. That ribbon style is a separate, harder skill. Learn the basic spring first.

Both books are free to read. Modern Magic has Hoffmann’s short description, and The Art of Magic has Downs’s chapter of card flourishes, including his springing variations.

What are the most common mistakes?

• Squeezing all at once. A sudden squeeze sends the deck out in clumps. Build pressure smoothly.
• Going wide too soon. If cards miss your hand, close the gap. Earn every extra centimetre.
• Ignoring the catching hand. A flat palm lets cards bounce off. Make a cage.
• Practising with your best deck. It will curve. Use a working deck.
• Blaming yourself for a tired deck. Sticky or bent cards break the stream. Try a fresh one before you change your technique.

Once your spring is steady, pair it with the flourishes in our guide on how to fan cards for a short, smooth practice routine.

Frequently asked questions