Practice and practice some more

[TommySteal]

Hey guys
I've been thinking about this for some time and how best to word the question, because as we all know, practice is essential if we want to better ourselves as magicians. Seeing as I'm not lucky enough to have a personal mentor, I have to dig around elsewhere for any hints, tips etc.

Personally, I think I practice a lot, or at least I used to until just recently - maybe 4 hours a day I'd be playing around with the deck. I focused mainly on moves and tried coming up with short routines. But then I discovered or I believed that although I was putting all this time in, I was actually making little improvement. Basically I don't think I'm getting any better, despite the practice.

I heard different magicians say different things on the best way to practice, and honestly I got a bit confused. For example, Helder once said the best way is in front of people. I can understand that this would be good for confidence building, but if you messed up you wouldn't have the knowledge or experience to get yourself out of it. I heard it's also beneficial to rehearse in front of mirror, which I often do, only I find myself relying on it too much and end up really rigid. David Roth says to only use the mirror for checking. Anyone understand what he means? I was watching the Ponta interview the other day on youtube, and he said something I quite liked which was he tends to strive for smoothness over accuracy.

A final thought: if anyone else is having this problem one solution might be to hook up live on skype or something to watch each other perform live. I'd be up for that. What do you think?

Anyway, I wonder if you guys could give me some insight into the different methods you use to practice. I look forward to reading your replies.
-Tom