Crash course on approaching pen spinning (technical focus)

This article will explain how to approach pen spinning in a general sense (with a focus on ‘technical spinning’). I consider ‘tech spinning’ to have 2 ultimate aims (some overlap), and it is up to the individual to determine what elements of these to pursue and what they enjoy/are interested in. Analysis and practice are both ways to find more ways to appreciate the depth of pen spinning and should be enjoyable, even if there is frustration at times.

#1. Integration (related to creativity and execution): exploring possibilities of different variations - power, counters, wipers, fingercross, 1p2h, 2p1h, 2p2h, and implementing these possibilities effectively to create various effects - elegance, order, chaos, abnormality.

Padrace has written a post explaining how to consider the use of tension and release in creating effect here.

#2. Density (related to difficulty): maximum skill level in margin of error/precision by using various trick mechanics

- power-based difficulty: most tricks that have mod leaving hand for any period, hard to do consistently, ability tends to rise notably over time

- timing-based difficulty: easy to do badly, hard to do smoothly, can be done with high consistency once adequately practised, ability rise is very gradual, e.g. fingerpass, 1p2h twirl fall, moonwalk inverse side sonic, moonwalk inverse twisted sonic

Monheim has written a post explaining the significance of density to technical spinning here.

Framework for approaching PS/article summary

1. Learning tricks in logical fashion by adjustment of core parameters
2. Making linkages by applying modifiers and hybrids
3. Levels of consideration to gather the desired elements of spinners you have seen, then applying these deductions to your own spinning
4. Assorted general advice

Learning tricks - core parameters

Every success and failure, as well as the visual effect of every trick and combo can be thought about using core parameters

Trick related core parameters

• Force amount and direction
• Position of mod in relation to fingers
• Finger movement and position of fingers directly used in doing the trick
• Angle of rotation of mod 

Effect related core parameters - some overlap with trick related parameters, less related to scope of this article

• Finger movement and position of fingers not involved in doing the trick (wrist and arm motion also)
• Changes in speed of rotation of mod
• Setup factors - mod and background colour, lighting, camera angle, exposure

Spinners should pay attention to what core parameters are used in videos they watch, as well as their own attempts. Trick related core parameters are relevant for ‘technique derivation’ (tech deriv - ability to derive a technique for doing tricks/links). 

Tech deriv has 3 forms:

• Subconscious - as part of natural motor skill learning, brain automatically picks up on various changes in core parameters with current attempts.
• Deliberate - systematically adjusting core parameters to see how this determines outcome of future attempts, then using this information to make further deliberate adjustments.
• Retrospective - if a previous attempt is successful, which core parameters were different - this is hard to apply immediately, so it is more practical to apply long-term. If succeeding in links that were impossible weeks/months/years ago, consider what core parameters were changed that lead to this. This can give useful conclusions, e.g. ‘this trick requires less force than expected, maybe this is true for other similar tricks’ or ‘slowing down may help in doing this difficult linkage smoothly’.

While deliberate tech deriv is a higher level of thinking than subconscious tech deriv, improvement in consistency sometimes occurs without awareness of any changes in core parameters. This does not mean that deliberately paying attention to core parameters is less useful, as doing so is vital to systematically learning rather than blindly trying and hoping something lucky happens.

Making linkages by applying modifiers and hybrids

On the simplest level, one can consider spinning in terms of exactly what trick/links were performed. Linkages can be made by applying modifiers, with more detail on pages 31-35 (37-41 on google drive viewer) of RPD's book. I highly recommend reading through the entirety of this resource.

Credits: Pen spinning history and notation, second edition (2021, Diego Gonzalez 'RPD')

This can be applied more generally, e.g. making 1p2h, 2p2h and 2p1h versions of 1p1h ideas, or to solve certain questions, e.g. fishing to link traditional power tricks with palm down fingerless around reverse; using knowledge of planes of rotation to create subtle direction changes or 2p2h transfers without releasing either pen. Systematic application of modifiers can also be seen by fel2fram with japanese motion and twirls.

General aims and how to approach them

How does one determine what direction they want to take in spinning? Watch videos of different spinners and determine what is appealing or interesting, and then consider what is being done to achieve that. 

Levels of consideration (simple to complex)

1. What tricks/links were done?
2. How does that trick/link and the rest of the combo contribute to the effect created?
3. What intention or aims are conveyed through that trick selection and effect?
4. Do the combos made by that person point towards a broader aim or vision? How can these aims be applied to one’s own spinning?  (this is not about copying the tricks, although copying some tricks is likely one of the earlier steps)

After determining what elements of #1 integration aim and #2 density aim to pursue using the above considerations, the question is then how to better approach this vision. The optimum way is to create combos with deliberate content - where each trick/linkage contributes in both material and visual effect, and have these combos aim to represent some element of that broader vision - a gradual process that can take dozens of planned combos over many years. There may be changes in that vision and evaluation of how to better approach it during that process. This does not mean every combo made has to take several weeks/months, but that every combo should try to show something deliberate (whether it be how a certain modifier can be used, what effect certain tricks have and so on). Each combo is like drawing another dot to help join the dots to approach the ultimate aims; so the resulting combo does not have to be perfect because it represents a step along a long path rather than an end goal in itself.

For my own aims, I set #1 integration aim as ‘integrate all 1p1h, 1p2h, 2p1h and 2p2h ideas’, and #2 density aim as ‘skill level that would be competitive at world level even if spinning were a major sport/artform’. The limiting condition for #1 is that fingercross is excluded because of flexibility issues, and for #2 is that a variety of difficulty mechanics are prioritised rather than using all effort into one trick family. The intentions deduced were based on fel2fram (density, systematic modifier application, chaos as an effect), dary (density, illusion as an effect), ohyeah (creativity in 1p2h), menowa (grouping links to create impactful themed combos). The effects I aim for based on these inspirations are chaos and illusion through application of frequent different unpredictable mechanics. These various aims and elements can be seen in various forms in my material from 2017 to 2020, most of which is described in previous blog posts.

See you all in WT21! If things go well, I will be able to show ‘that combo’ which demonstrates how I connected the dots over the past 3-4 years to achieve some form of these 2 aims.

Additional tips

Useful things to consider during practice

• Hand texture (moisturiser, warmth, stretching)
• If training same trick, use same mod over same background that you can easily see
• Play music to adjust mood

Useful things to consider prior to filming

• Adjusting angle to show certain planes of rotation (and/or planning breakdown based on this)
• Which direction hand tends to move during certain tricks (and then adjusting angle and body movement to prevent offcam movements)
• Mod colour and background colour - visibility to yourself and audience; how long mod appears, how obvious errors are
• high contrast makes the spinning effect (and errors) more obvious e.g. white mod with black background
• mod with grey/pink/orange/light blue/light green ends over a light-coloured background looks shorter
• mod with black/dark blue/red/dark green ends over a light-coloured background looks longer
• Practice material at filming location, with camera on - does not matter if you are seriously trying to do the entire combo, the aim is to get you mentally accustomed to doing the combo at the place you aim to record it at, while knowing you are being recorded
• Practice later parts of the combo primarily, then gradually add on preceding tricks once you are consistent enough (because you will have less chance to reach the later parts when you actually begin recording)
• I try to land these blocks once every 5 to 10 minutes before adding next bits; and before filming I prefer to be able to do the entire combo in regular practice 4 times in 30 minutes. Of course, these numbers are just rough recommendations.
• Decrease the difficulty of the material and then film some successful drafts with that easier material - helps to reduce the mental pressure of not having any drafts and also helps getting used to the material and doing it on cam, then upgrade the material back to whatever you wanted previously

Useful things to consider (besides core parameters) if you keep failing on certain material

• Try other variations that are related to that trick/link
• You can always entrust that material to your future self - remember what the difficult link is (write it somewhere if necessary), then improve bit by bit day by day and try it again in a few weeks, months, or even a year - you may find that what was entirely down to luck a year ago can suddenly end up being very consistent when you attempt it again with your improved level now
• Change the mod - some links that people expect require large amount of force or large amount of momentum do not require anywhere near as much force/momentum as expected (or vice versa; but it’s usually the case that things require way less force), it’s logical to adjust core parameters but sometimes it helps to change the tool being used too
• Inherent natures of power-based and timing-based difficulty are quite different, so it may help to practice them with that in mind (once again, this is just a recommendation)
• for power, you can train 2-3 ideas to make up ½ to ¾ of each practice session and generally expect some noticeable progress in 2-3 weeks or so
• for timing it may help to train 2 ideas for 5-10 minutes each for a long time (a month or more), doing the links slightly slower than your usual pace and then trying to make the separate motions into one smooth motion after a while