Difficulties between moving and connection gestures

Moving or connecting cards are two straightforward gestures:

Move: Simple click on a card and immediately start dragging it.
Connect: Simple click on a card and hold until the arrow cursor turns into a open white cursor, then drag away the connection line.

It may be that you need to practice a bit if you find this a bit tricky. The click and hold duration for connecting cards is based on the system setting for the so called "double click" delay, that is the time in finder that recognizes clicking a folder twice top open it. (slow clicking twice on a folder will do nothing, faster clicking will open it)

The "double click" time duration can be set in system preferences: Apple () menu > System Preferences > Universal Access > Mouse & Trackpad > Double Click Speed.
You may increase the time duration until you feel comfortable with it in Big Hairy Goal and Finder double clicking.

OS X El Capitan: Mouse & Trackpad pane of Accessibility preferences