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I've been thinking about how my methods have changed from the time I was dialing locks as a consumer, to how I deal with them now with some manipulation under my belt. How many of you have also noticed the shift in approach?

1) Consumers are instructed to start over if they mess up dialing a combination, and never to go back to a previous number to try to correct it. With some experience spinning locks, we become intimately familiar with wheel pick up, and can know how to "make" the wheels do our bidding. Gone are the days of starting over. Now if I overshoot a number, I know how to reset the wheel to come back at the number for a second try without starting the whole combination over again.

2) Manipulators learn to center the gate in order to maximize room for dialing error in spinning the dial. Very often, this means we end up with a gate center at a half number interval. I caught myself the other day giving a manipulated combination as 28 1/2 - 50 - 73 1/2. Only a manipulator would give a combination in this odd language, no?

3) Consumers are told to count the times they pass the next targeted number. For example, turn the dial to the left four times to the first number. Then, turn the dial to the right, passing the second number two times, and stopping on it the third time. Then, turn the dial back to the left, passing the last number once and stopping on it the second time.

Manipulators tend to keep track of the wheels by full rotations from where we start the turns in order to keep track of wheel pickup. When I reverse wheel direction to go to the next number, I'll count full wheel rotations BEFORE going to and stopping on the next number. In other words, consumers focus on the next number throughout the turns, while manipulators count wheel pickups based on the number we are spinning FROM before switching focus and stopping on the next number.

Am I an oddball, or do fellow manipulators think in these new terms too?

True on all accounts.

Especially in counting turns.
4x 3x 2x... is for us, 3x 2x 1

Ditto except on counting turns. I never say "past and stop", but rather "to", like 4 times to a number, not 3 times past and then stop. I do however keep a mental image of wheel pickups to be sure of what wheel is moving, especially in a more noisier environment.

Yup, I do both, m times to number and nth wheel pickup. The easier the wheel pickup is to feel and the closer two tested number are together the more focus I put on wheel pickup.

Yeah, I usually almost slow down nearing the pickup and mentally mumble "wheel 2 picks up" or somethig to keep track and focus. No such need when practicing home where the environment is known and I can expect "privacy" (as in no-one watching or doing something).