Can You Loose It?

[quicksilver]

I didn't want to start a new thread just for one question but I didn't find the specific issues addressed in past posts....

I have been picking for several years. I started with raking and went to single picking when I found that some locks just would not rake. I became more successful. I work in the industry (alarms) and had opportunities to practice and started to feel comfortable learning new techniques, etc.

I stopped picking for about two years and wanted to get back into it. I started out with some easy locks and started to get that "feel" of the pins. Things had been going fine and I was progressing as when I started learning. Then I just seemed to have one "bad day" after another.....nothing was working: I was using some moderate priced Master padlocks, tight pins, stuff I could feel well on the end of the pick. It seems like I lost my chops! Has this ever happened to anyone else????

I know "practice does not make perfect" - rather "perfect practice makes perfect" so I am in the process of reviewing all the idiosyncrasies and basics that I had been exposed to. but I am at lose for why I seem to be missing it. My touch seems gone. I think I feel the pin but the thing doesn't feel "right".....Has anyone gone through this before?

[Eyes_Only]

I went through a similar phase myself where I didn't pick locks so regularly as I do now. And yeah my picking skills did diminish considerably after a couple of years. So much so that I had trouble with simple mortise locks or sometimes even Kwiksets for a while. What helps is to use the technique where you remove all but the first pin stack and practice picking that. Then continue adding more pin stacks until you can pick a fully pinned lock.

Try not to get too discouraged. Everyone has a bad day, week or month. Once you vigorously practice the basics for a little while you'll get your sense back.

[Shrub]

Right now as we speak im struggleing opening even the most basic of locks because ive been slack and not done ANY practice at all over the last 6 months or so,

I can still pick but im finding jobs are taking twice as long now so i really much get a practice schedule gogin again as its the only way to keep on top of your game,

[Wolfe]

yeah i can relate too. I've been gettin into safe work pretty heavy for a bout a year now and have not been practicing my picking very much. Im finding locks that i used to breeze through a bit of a challange. It took me about 15 mins to rake a diskus when it should of took me 15 secs.

It truely is Practice,Practice,Practice.

[quicksilver]

OK....I knocked some down with simple raking. But picking is still a challenge.

I am beginning to realize what I MIGHT have been going through......The tension wrench issue! I am actually using poor tension. Too LITTLE! And not enough concentration on the tension wrench.

Since I have been so slack in practice I have failed to realize that the concept has two elements. [At work we get those locks open when we have to in any manner that is fast, so I have really only used a pick gun for work related stuff.] - When I started to get back in it I thought to myself..."gentle on the tension....feel the pins....." but I was much too gentle and could not feel any "feed-back" from the tension wrench and actually started to ignore it!

I believe that has been part of the problem. HOWEVER....I think that this is something that really has to be done a heck of a lot. I don't mean raking a lock that is not really a challenge (I have had off days there before too). But what I mean is when you finally get the slight "pin touch" pick feel that lets you tackle the tough ones!

I made some very firm tension wrenches from square music wire to get me some very stiff and tight feels and am not thinking about opening them anymore....just finding the binding pin and feeling that little sucker. I am also writing down my experiences in a little diary form so I can really determine what I lost or forgot or ignored. It's a fun thing actually, I'm not letting it get me annoyed.

[quicksilver]

I wanted to add a bit to this thread as I have learned a bit in this unique position.

I followed a bit of advice herein and started back on a simple to pick lock; a Weiser residential lock mounted on a bit of wood that I had (junk drawer stuff). I didn't want to go back to one pin but would have if that's what it would have taken. Fortunately I found the residential lock just right in simplicity and feed-back feel.

I found that I was really not using both hands, but rather switching my concentration from one hand to another! This resulted in frustration as I could feel the binding pin but then would loose the turning motion for a fraction of a second to switch my concentration.

What's more I realize that I do much better with tools that give my hands very distinct feed-back. A feather torsion wench is not a good tool for me at this time in my learning....as the very spring that adds to the value, cuts the needed feel to demand that both hands work in unison.
-=WHY? Because what I was doing (picking padlocks or older hand-held stuff) demanded a strong tension and that was much greater at the actual opening then the spring tension could provide!

At the time of writing this I have actually PROGRESSED from where I was previously! Therefore I looked at this problem as a great opportunity to learn and it was. ~-=Thanks to all who wrote=-~

What I did was stick with it. Start from the very basics....BUT, I got in-put from different sources. Both verbal, written, and tactile sources of learning were looked at afresh. I told myself that since I could indeed pick them previously, that at minimum I could scrub and rake a lock open. From that point I remembered that I was told many years back that the individuated "picking" of individual pins will provide a basis for more variety of locks to be opened and what I did at THAT time was to just PICTURE IN MY MIND what a lock DID.....That's how I learned originally.

What happened in the ensuing years was that I didn't PICTURE what I was doing. I simplified the procedure in my mind's eye and thus I stopped using both hands in unison......Very interesting lesson. I am more enthused about lock picking than I had been as I have made progress!

[raven252000]

its like riding a bike istopeddoing it for 4 years decided to get back into it got new picks and all decided i would show off to a friend. took me 5min to open a ez set dead bolt but i kept trying and im better than i was everyone has off days just don't try to showoff on that day

[le.nutzman]

I would add that no amount of perfect practice is ever going to make it perfect, rather, "practice makes PERMANENT".

When you think about what skills both soft and hard you are learning or teaching yourself as you pick a lock, muscle tension control, feel, dexterity, even visualization. You're building these skills to a certain level, then when you stop, your skills slip backwards because you're not using them as much. But when you start again, you find that reaching the level at which you left off at takes alot less time, because you're subconciously remembering small significant things about what you used to do.

Practice doesn't make perfect by any means, Practice makes Permanent.