Picking fast on first try's and then failing on retry's

[66nicks]

Hey, pretty new to actually picking, but I've been reading about it for awhile.
Have the basic concepts and everything pretty much understood.

I have tried picking two diff locks.
1st was a small padlock,
the second is a 5 pin I believe it's schlage $20 homedepot type doorlock.
(it unlocks turning to the left)

With both locks I found I was able to pick them fairly quickly on my first attemps.. within about 1-2 minutes and relatively no experience beyond reading. But once I relocked them and tried again for about 10-15 minutes I was unable to pick them and gave up until the next day or whenever I had a chance to try again. Today I was picking the Schlage lock on my bdrm door for about 30 seconds and my roomate walked by and asked what I was doing. Then he laughed at me when I told him.. and about 20 seconds later while I was describing it to him I picked the lock.. (he was pretty amazed) then I spent another 15 minutes unable to do it again.

I'm using a twist tension wrench, and I'm having the most success with a medium diamond. I also have a small hook, a c-rake and an s-rake.

Is this just an unfortunate coincidence or am I making a common rookie error that you guys know about?

Thanks for any help.
- Nick

[Romstar]

Its pretty common.

Take the time to follow Digital_Blue's tutorial and work your way from 1 pin to 5 pins. This will teach you what to feel for.

Romster

[66nicks]

Tks,

I have that tut on another tab as I'm typing this.. actually I had it there when I was posting this thread.. I just haven't gone through it all yet.

Something else I read was that fatigue can set in pretty
fast until you basically build up the new muscles being used..
so maybe I'm able to feel the lock fairly well at the beginning and after
a couple minutes I'm getting sloppy.

I'll take the time to rip apart a cheaper kwikset that I have that I don't have the key to and don't mind repinning/ or worst case breaking..
the lock on my room dooor I still have a key for and if I don't wreck it picking it I'd like to be able to use it again someday if I need a door lock.

[raimundo]

You may be jamming the tensor. if you take your finger offf the tensor and it is loose, you are not jamming, but if its stuck, look at it and figure out how the force is being grounded into the cylinder and not rotating the plug

[66nicks]

@ Raimundo
I don't think I'm jamming it. When I release the tension I can usually
hear 3-4 of the set pins click back into place..
Now I'm thinking there is just one pin that is giving me problems that I have to set before the others on this particular lock. Thanks so far for the input guys.

[raimundo]

Then your problem is probably in your head, you start with no expectation, then the second try, you are loading yourself with expectations and jamming your psyche Don't believe me? ask someone else around here, I think there are many who know what Im talking about.

[freakparade3]

I've had the same problem. I have a brass Brinks padlock that I opened within a minute the day I got it. That was a few months ago, now I can't open it if my life depended on it.