I'm just starting to learn card throwing cuz I had a friend who could shoot cards with great accuracy+ distance.

Here's a pretty good site that teaches you throwing card techniques: http://www.knifethrowing.info/throwing_cards.html

and there's a great book on card throwing called the "Cards as Weapon" by Ricky Jay. It's out of print, but I heard it's a great book.

-Heavyweapon

I used to be really into throwing cards, so I can get about 10 ft now on a good throw, haven't done it in a while. What technique do you use?

Also, I heard ricky jay cut into a watermelon with a card once, does anybody have a video of that I've been looking for that a long time now.

i used to be into this a long time ago when they had it on ripleys.... i was actually able to cut a bannana in half :P

wow nice... i'm just starting card throwing... I'm no where near you guys :(

I use mostly the Thurston method, and sometimes the Jay throwing technique... wut methods do u guys use??

-Heavyweapon

PS. I couldn't find any videos... but I have a number of pictures from his book, "Cards as Weapon- Ricky Jay",.. here they are:

The Jay trophy room after a recent safari featuring the prize waterbok he felled with a single perfectly placed shot.



Jay hurls cards through London dailies at speeds estimated over 90m.p.h. Holding the "Mail" is Norris McWhirter. (Wow imagine if Jay misses....)



Jay demostrates accuracy by throwing card into small window at BBC Studios.



These are all the pics i could find... nothing on the watermelon clip/pic... sryz

Thats alright, I couldn't find the watermelon one either, and as for the grip, I use the Thurston one.

thurston all the way! but i wind my hand all the way back behind my head kinda like the guy on ripley's

btw, just look up card throwing on youtube...theres so many vids!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt_6eoqNcgI...card%20throwing

^ watermelon pwnage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o16DcNuXHcs...card%20throwing

heh saw them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p843OxiRBs

Shit! Look at how fast that accelerates. I think I may give this a shot.

Thnx for the watermelon vids, the first one looked kinda fake, as if he just placed it in, but I guess that wouldn't make sense because the card would bend.

lol me and my english teacher do this during clas at times. lol its fun

http://www.zippyvideos.com/9551584735438386/yay/

after one day, 3 layers of paper. I also didnt shoot hard to make sure it sticks in the paper, and doesn't go through

Hmm 10 ft? I got 10 ft in my first few tries... =/ Am I doing this right?

Anyways, this is pretty cool! Now I can get revenge on the guy who threw cards at me and my friend... it hurt so much.

hmmm card throwing doesnt give card throwers a bad name, HOWEVER leiguns give pen spinners a bad name....fuck it im making a leigun vid!

that's because card throwing's sole purpose is to hurt people. pen spinning's original purpose was probably for entertaining audiences...but it doesn't need to be harmless ;)

hurting people is entertaining haha

I disagree with your comment... card throwing's sole purpose is not to hurt ppl...

If you have read "Cards as Weapon" by Ricky Jay, he had a section on "Magicians and Card-Scaling", and he mentioned a couple of magicians who used card throwing skills as part of their performance.

Eg. boomeranging cards, distributing small books/ souvenirs, as well as "stunts to impress one's friends" -Ricky Jay


"Once, I threw one of the little sketchbooks from my horn of plenty, right across the chandelier to the spectators in the upper gallery, and gained tremendous applause for the boldness of the feat."- Robert-Houdin

He also mentioned that "card throwing was a useful skill because it allowed one to distribute small books or souvenirs to the audience via the same basic method [of card throwing]" -CAW -Ricky Jay

If what they say is true, (I'm pretty sure of it cuz they're professional card throwers), then isn't it the same as our leigun?

Well.. what I'm trying to prove is that card throwing isn't a bad manipulation.. it's just that people take adventage of their skills and use it to hurt ppl...

Anyways... I'm really freaken tired.. actually don't kno 1/2 of what im trying to say... i jus finished my eng provincial exam today... so tired............ hope what I tried to prove was meaningful and can convince you that card throwing is not just "bad"

-Heavyweapon

holy shiat, Zombo how did u do that?? what method did you use???

thursten something grip

Card throwing as actually the main reason why I started pen spinning. I thought it would improve my wrists for throwing cards...turns out it didn't. I stopped when I could get the card stuck in styrofoam. Maybe I could get a video up tomorrow.

wanna share ne tips? haha..

-Heavyweapon

Holy shit, guys. I read this whole thread lastnight at 8:00pm. I tried it out, and it was so frustrating, that I kept doing until I got it right. I'm not sure what grip I was using, but after two straight hours of throwing cards (and then playing 52 pickup XD) -- I'm able to cut stuff like.. plants. Which my mom freaked out about, btw. And I've also marked up some walls from about ten feet away.

Right now my right arm hurts too bad to make any videos, and I almost pulled my right bicep this morning at the gym because of it. So in a few days I'll be sure to show you my Gambit-like skills.

This stuff is sweet -- so if someone is reading this thinking they can't do it, I'm proof. Its easy once you get your own wrist motion down.

Personally, I throw from about waist level when I'm holding the deck that low, so you can pump out cards at about, two a second. It looks awesome. But I've also thrown well bringing my throwing arm up to the opposite site of my body, about as high as my head when "cocked" back the whole way.

Try this game I invented with my friends. It's basically darts with cards.

Take three layer of news papers. Tape the corners together, then put blue tack to stick it on the wall (unless you want to be messy and tape directly on the wall)

http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/3230/37io1.jpg
http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/9020/29wh1.jpg
http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/5665/16uy.jpg

Then set a distance to shoot from, and a shooting order. Each player proceeds to shoot two cards at the target.

Whenever there's a hit, the player checks to see if any point is scored. A point is scored when the paper is teared in a convincing manner (the hole must be pretty big, at least half of the height of the card).

Since there's 3 layers of paper, a single point is scored if it only goes through the first layer, double for two, triple for three. A "homerun" is scored if the card literally passes through the papers without getting stuck or bounces back of it. In short, it must hit the wall behind the paper ("perfect shot"). That's 4 points.

Each hit, whether it scores points or not, is circled with a highlighter for future references.

Winner is first to 11 points or more. Even if someone reaches the target mark, the shooting order must be completed to give everyone the chance to throw the same number of cards and score points.

Example: This hit is only 1 point.

http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/9637/1231233zu.jpg

That game sounds fun, except I'd think you have to be really good at card throwing to be able to get it to go through so often, I'd probably be there all day trying to get a point.

depends on the range you're shooting from. Start almost at point-blank if you're new

Yo Zombo and Joshua... are you guys working on only power/ distance? or accuracy as well? I've been practicing only my accuracy for a couple of days now... but i don't think i can do 1/2 the things you guys accomplished.. I'm just curious if u're concentrating on accuracy as well..

And Zombo... u're game sounds really fun.. but I'm just wondering do you stick the newspaper flat on the wall? or like on the corner of 2 walls or w/e?

-Heavyweapon

my room has angled walls, but you can also stick in a corner.

Using this game, I have to train both accuracy and power, cause you need both to score points.

Maybe you could draw a bullseye on the newspaper and give bonus points depending on where you hit, kind of like darts. That would add another element of points to the game.

I just started this today and scattered a calendar down froma wall with a card. It's also fun listening to the snap when it hits something.

Actually, I've been working on my technique more than anything. I almost have it down solid enough that I can switch up how hard I'm throwing it, etc.

This is really fun and easy to start up. Just like pen spinning. XD

try the thursten throw except throw like your pitching a baseball, only throwthe card vertical to the ground

This is really fun. My arm's really sore right now. I'm using Zombo's newspaper idea and it works pretty good. There's tons of rips in the paper, but I've only gotten a card to stick in the paper twice.

Could anyone post a picture of the right way to hold a card before throwing please?

check the first site mentionned in the thread.

I guess I could try drawing a bull's eye, but I suck at drawing, so my circles would not even look good. Besides, we (me and my friends) are not good enough to have pinpoint accuracy. Just hitting the newspaper is nice.

the "vertical" throw DI is mentionned generates a lot of power, but I find it's harder to aim with it and it also shoots too low. It's better to raise your arm and shoot horizontally.

i can put a lot of power( a lot, ive had the card actually STICK in my cousins back, no joke) and at the time i had little or no control. with practice, you can control them just as good...i mean the horizontal way is like throwing a frisbee and some people cant even do that!


but i had to up the newspapers to 7 or 8 cuz 3 is too easy :D

edit: http://www.ricksmithjr.com thats how i throw...in the intro

thats not vertical throwing
thats horizontal throwing.

that's the same method Chris Ferguson uses.

I put 3 papers, cuz 8 is a pain to assemble. It's already hard to straighten 3 papers together.

I also remember seeing something on TV about card throwing. Some guys made a spinning thing to create a card shooting machine. They were doing it to prove cards are only capable of giving paper cuts. I'll try to reproduce an inferior version of it by using the motors from those little cards I used to collect.

if you take it as a slashing weapon, sure. If you take it as a blunt weapon, a strong throw to the head can knock someone out.

The one on TV was on mythbusters I think. But I guess cards wouldn't be able to cause that much pain/damage because they are too light.

Not gonna happen. You wouldn't be able to give a card enough kinetic energy to knock someone out. The velocity it would have to be traveling would be retarded.

And am I the only one here who likes the Rick Jay grip the best? I mean I can get a little more power with the Thurston grip but my accuracy is horrible.