Richard,

The beautiful Alligaltor Rose and I practice a couple of items that seem to help us.

Remember the "C" grip that is talked about in the the class? We really do try to hold our hand in this manner all the way through the throw to include the release. The "C" grip should stay the same throughout the entire throw. We use a vey light grip on the dice but push our fingers together and at release keep the fingers in the shape of the letter "C" so that the dice are rolling out of our fingers. We don’t want the fingers to release the dice. Remember you still have a very light grip on the dice but for us pushing the fingers together gives us a straight line for the dice to roll off.

Use the gripper to insure that the fingers are straight across the front of the dice. If one finger is a little high or low the dice will not, as you say, come out square.

When you release, reach out with your arm, and only with your arm, and hold the release with the dice already out of your hand and heading to the back wall until the dice hit the table. On Sunday afternoon watch the players on the PGA golf tournament and when they swing, they keep their eye on the ball until several seconds after the ball is struck to insure the ball is hit square. The difference between golf and throwing dice is that we are holding he dice and the pro golfers are not holding the golf ball. We know exactly where the dice are—they are in our fingers. Your eye should still be on the target until the dice hit the table.

Always remember it is straight back and straight forward reaching out with the arm and holding it—hold the release postition.

When we say to reach out we mean with the arm only, as you do not want to extend your body by leaning forward. Remember at release you must have yhour 3 fingers horizontal to the table so that the back spin is also horizontal.

Is this a lot to remember Your Bet. But simply work on a particular part of your throw so that you get the feel of that part of the throw. For example a good exercise is a drill that we practice by looking down at the dice at the beginning of the throw without looking at the target. Remember this is a practice routine. You want to to watch the dice at rest at the beginning of the throw to insure they are level and watch the back swing to insure it is straight back. If it isn’t stop, start over and watch another back swing. If the back is swing is straight then swing forward but keep looking down as in this exercise we don’t care where the dice land we want to watch our back swing.

Now as to the forward swing, we have 2 foot by 3 foot mirror that we throw at. It can be placed at the end of your craps table or the receiving practice rig. Adjust the mirror so that you can see your entire swing–back and forward. With a practice rig you mighe have to push the landing station again the wall and set the mirrow in the back of the receiving station so that it can lead against the wall as well. Do not look at your landing area but look at the arm and hand in the mirror and watch all the elements of your throw. See if your forward swing is straight down the "run way" and that your release is level. Are you flicking your fingers, moving your shoulder and/or body. You may want to work on one of these elements at a time. Remember it is a simple arm swing from the shoulder and the arm should be the only part of your body that moves. You get the idea.

I have rambled along enough. Hope that some of these ideas can be used in your practice routine. Remember in any sporting activity, and this thing we call dice control is a sporting activity, you work different parts of your game. I played high school basketball (way too many years ago) and we had drills for everything—defense, dribbling, rebounding, free throw shooting, jump shot routines, passing, zone defense, man to man defense, etc. You should practice with the same ideas in mind.

Hope to see you in one of the classes soon.

Doc and Alligator.

Thank you so much. I will get to work on this. Your suggestions are greatly appreciated. I can see things that I have let slip out of my pattern.

Richard Marker

A great check list Doc!

Dominator