Hey, just felt like writing a random blog today. I was reading this TL blog about things that would be cool to learn about and someone linked this video.
I was instantly amazed. I always fool around with my pen or pencil during class. So after looking at this video it led me to this huge community about pen spinning competitions and pen mods. http://forum.upsb.info/forum.php
I have started working on my fundamentals for pen spinning, my hand muscles are not that strong apparently. Maybe while improving this my SC2 APM will rise? Who knows?!
Wondering if anyone else out there in TL does pen spinning and is any good at it?
Oh and here is an amazing drifting video I thought everyone might enjoy.
one of my friends do it it'll make ur hands more nimble, but its really hard and takes a lot of practice to be good at. start with like thumb arounds or charges
I do pen spinning a lot and i highly recommend you not start. First of all, it takes a lot of work and effort to learn and its not as easy as "ill do it by tomorrow"
Secondly, don't start because then you cant stop. If I hold a pen, I cant resist (its hard at least) and its highly distracting. Dont start. Also, its only impressive for a short while and after that it becomes annoying to the viewer.
edit: volkswagon penspinning commercial was hilarious
I "found" that forum a long time ago (3 years ago maybe) when it first came up and didn't learn anything much past the fundamental tricks they gave (charge, fingerpass, thumbaround, sonic) and their reverses. Made some of the easy mods they had (the bictory and a few others), got used to linking the fundamentals together, and haven't done anything else since.
You can really do a lot of cool stuff just by learning the fundamentals and using them together, but the stuff beyond can be pretty hard to grasp without a good pen mod. Start off with an RSVP unmodded with the cap on the back (slightly uneven center of gravity but iirc people recommend some unevenness for momentum), or a standard unsharpened "circular" pencil (not hexagonal like some are) with erasers on each side (rip one out from another pencil and stick in onto another).
It's really not that hard to learn tricks, just time-consuming. You gotta sit down for hours each day till you get one down smoothly, then you gotta sit down for even more time to learn how to smoothly link it to other tricks. And you even have to "relearn" tricks to do them on other fingers. Oh, and I'm only talking my experience with the fundamentals and other simple moves here... I can't imagine how long it would have taken me to learn more beyond that :V
Only non-fundamental tricks I got good at were the twisted sonic, sonic rise, and infinity. In combination with all the other fundamentals and reverse fundamentals (except fingerpass), I could do a bunch of cool stuff that amazes my friends. Anything beyond that... welp D: Just learn whatever looks coolest to you and you get used to it.
I got my start on this guy's tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/user/akujinnoeso He doesn't make anymore, but they're easy to follow. He's left-handed, so he has a little window in the bottom-right with a reflected version of each tutorial
Wow, I wrote a lot of stuff that you probably could have found on their forum. Oh well. Someone else on TL could probably penspin far better than me, but they'd probably give the same advice too. You just gotta practice a lot.
Also what ReketSomething posted is true. Keep that in mind.
lol that drifting video is awesome. The part with the the segway... so sick.
I can do the most basic pen spinning. I've managed to do a complete rotation with sonic and reverse sonic. And thumbaround is pretty easy now. I prefer sonic more however.
Yes, and I don't recommend doing it. You'll never stop. Any time I'm nervous, or talking, or whatever, even when I'm standing up, I feel like I need to keep spinning the pen.
Also yes, it isn't hard, just takes a lot of time to learn, and even longer to master. You'll do it once in the beginning and go what the **** when you can't do it again.
It doesn't make your hand stronger a lot of those tricks some of which i know just require good muscle memory and mostly dexterity.
On January 03 2011 11:34 ReketSomething wrote: I do pen spinning a lot and i highly recommend you not start. First of all, it takes a lot of work and effort to learn and its not as easy as "ill do it by tomorrow"
Secondly, don't start because then you cant stop. If I hold a pen, I cant resist (its hard at least) and its highly distracting. Dont start. Also, its only impressive for a short while and after that it becomes annoying to the viewer.
edit: volkswagon penspinning commercial was hilarious
And teachers get pissed when you drop a pen then walk over to pick it back up. I wasted like one year of high school mildly paying attention in classes doing that and the rubik's cube, now i have 2 important skills for getting a job, oh wait.
I can pen spin as depicted in the above videos, but had absolutely no idea about the community around it. I used to be on a drumline and had to do a lot of stick spins for one of the shows that I was in. I eventually translated some of the spins over to my pen while I was bored in class and went from there. I tend to do it when I am bored in class mostly without really thinking about it.
I find pen spinning to be the easiest with a heavier, longer pen. This might be because of how I learned to do it in the first place on marching snare sticks, however.
I actually pen spin as well, it definitely help makes your hands better and more nimble! I learned about upsb a while back ago and learning about modified pens and etc.. :3 it also makes people at school look at you pretty kewl, but I never bother teaching them though ]:
On January 03 2011 11:34 ReketSomething wrote: I do pen spinning a lot and i highly recommend you not start. First of all, it takes a lot of work and effort to learn and its not as easy as "ill do it by tomorrow"
Secondly, don't start because then you cant stop. If I hold a pen, I cant resist (its hard at least) and its highly distracting. Dont start. Also, its only impressive for a short while and after that it becomes annoying to the viewer.
edit: volkswagon penspinning commercial was hilarious
hahaha, he's just trying to be dramatic
pen spinning is fun and highly addictive; its great because at school when you're just sitting on your table, you can just do pen tricks and its so fun
its not that hard to learn; i got into it (not INTO IT INTO IT, more like casual -> mediocre, nothing TOO hardcore) in sixth grade and i've garnered some popularity doing pen tricks, all the way up to twelfth grade people know me as the kid who does pen tricks lol
im korean yes
basically you look up some tricks, figure out how its done, and you have literally 10+ hours of practice time a week by just being at school and naturally chilling on the desk spinning
its way fun, and i would recommend you try it out
obligatory poll
Poll: Pen Spinning
Yeah I'm casual (31)
53%
I'm hardcore (own like 5 spinning "pens" (read: sticks) ) or was hardcore (12)
20%
Know some people who can; I can't myself (10)
17%
I have never really known about it (6)
10%
59 total votes
Your vote: Pen Spinning
(Vote): I have never really known about it (Vote): Know some people who can; I can't myself (Vote): Yeah I'm casual (Vote): I'm hardcore (own like 5 spinning "pens" (read: sticks) ) or was hardcore
you can't vote for the hardcore option unless you have 1. spent at least 7 hours modding pens 2. spent at least 40 hours looking through forums/tutorials 3. spent at least 3 hours of video watching of pens
A Korean Exchange student at my Uni told me that he's spent so much $ in the states on pens made for spinning. I guess they are quite expensive in Korea compared to the U.S.
lol thats ridiculous, most people use what is called an "RSVP MX"
you basically go to the store, buy a pack of RSVP pens, you get a Hybrid Gel Grip pen, you shift some parts, get some drilling done, and you have a fully functioning pen that is extended and weighted perfectly
not expensive
-------
oh your post confused me, yeah they're cheap in u.s. don't really know how cheap they are in korea, i know they sell custom made double headed pens called comssa's and ship them
This guy has tutorials for pretty much every trick you'll ever need, and he's still very active. He doesn't talk, but it's easier to see than it is to explain how to do everything.
On January 03 2011 11:28 OmgIRok wrote: Dude...... That drifting video is pro, but what the hell the engine sound starts to get pretty damn annoying after a few minutes
Ya he is so good at drifting. I guess the engine is pretty loud and can be annoying but I sort of like it.
On January 03 2011 11:34 ReketSomething wrote: I do pen spinning a lot and i highly recommend you not start. First of all, it takes a lot of work and effort to learn and its not as easy as "ill do it by tomorrow"
Secondly, don't start because then you cant stop. If I hold a pen, I cant resist (its hard at least) and its highly distracting. Dont start. Also, its only impressive for a short while and after that it becomes annoying to the viewer.
edit: volkswagon penspinning commercial was hilarious
But it looks so fun!
I don't think I have the time to get really good at it but I wouldn't mind being able to do some finger passes.
On January 03 2011 12:28 eLiE wrote: I'm gonna blame my big hands for not being able to do pen tricks. Drum stick tricks are a different story....
I do the "Charge." Learned it four years ago, and now it's just kind of a habit when I have a pen in my hand. I also do the version where it switches between your fingers.
I can do the thumb-around, but with very low accuracy. I'll land it maybe 20% of the time.
It's just something to fidget with. All cool, though.
Apart from the Skullcandy Skullcrusher headphone in-line bass thing and the microsoft wireless mouse... I wouldn't be surprised if the video maker was a TL member. :-P
On January 03 2011 13:58 DivinO wrote: Apart from the Skullcandy Skullcrusher headphone in-line bass thing and the microsoft wireless mouse... I wouldn't be surprised if the video maker was a TL member. :-P
i actually thought he would a fabulous SC player till i saw the wireless mouse. damn its terrible
My friend is ok at pen spinning stuff, I never cared about it. I was always interested in Balisongs (butterfly knives). That shit is way cooler anyways. This guy pretty good
PS- This thread made me think of those new commercials about buying a car or something. The salesmen are spinning pens the entire commercial while walking around and shit. There are at least 2 of them.
yea here they are. I originally though this hand was super imposed but I just read the guy was found on youtube or something and its real.
i can do some basic stuff like sonic, charge, fingerpass, thumbaround and thumbaround reverse (i do these back and forth often) but not much aside from that. its just something for fingers to do when bored lol. i think i learned in high school
i highly recommend taking up pen spinning, especially if you're in high school since then you automatically have a lot of time during class to practice. You should put a sweater or something on your desk so you don't make a big noise every time you mess up. Everything you need can be found at http://forum.upsb.info/ which is basically the teamliquid of pen spinning, and they have a wiki too with most known tricks, hybrids, and combos.
start with the fundamentals, which are thumbaround, sonic, charge, and fingerpass. Mastering all of them shouldn't take more than a week if you practice everyday whenever you have the chance. Then learn their reverses and then you can start learning other basic tricks such as shadows, infinities, backarounds etc. I recommend getting an RSVP for your first spinning pen. Learning a new trick is always frustrating since you'll drop many times, but just stay with it and eventually you'll master it.
On January 03 2011 17:48 mtvacuum wrote: i highly recommend taking up pen spinning, especially if you're in high school since then you automatically have a lot of time during class to practice. You should put a sweater or something on your desk so you don't make a big noise every time you mess up. Everything you need can be found at http://forum.upsb.info/ which is basically the teamliquid of pen spinning, and they have a wiki too with most known tricks, hybrids, and combos.
start with the fundamentals, which are thumbaround, sonic, charge, and fingerpass. Mastering all of them shouldn't take more than a week if you practice everyday whenever you have the chance. Then learn their reverses and then you can start learning other basic tricks such as shadows, infinities, backarounds etc. I recommend getting an RSVP for your first spinning pen. Learning a new trick is always frustrating since you'll drop many times, but just stay with it and eventually you'll master it.
Are you using the hgg tip for your MX? because they are really hard to find TT.
On January 03 2011 16:43 iSeeNubs wrote: Oh man I have so many mods it's a shame to think about how much money I've spent lol.
Ya I have been working on it. I don't have any of the mods though. Not really sure where to get them so I have just been using whatever pen I have around at the time. I have been doing the fingerpass. I am still super slow at it and it does not look fluid at all but it is nice to fidget with when I am not doing anything.
Doing the thumb around is super frustrating since I launch my pen or it falls almost everytime I try it.
Topics about pen spinning come up every so often. I learned all this shit on my own without anything from the internet [ before youtube ] or other people. My friends and I learned to do this in middle school cuz we were bored in class with nothing to do. I'm pretty sure I created like 3-4 tricks but I didn't name them or anything cuz I didn't think it was important. I would watch world championships of pen-spinning and just laugh cuz they were so bad. During middle school it was hilarious because the whole pen spinning thing blew up and a lot of people would ask me how I did it or try to ' battle me ' [ LOL to be in middle school again ]
I also think custom-modding pens just for spinning is laughable. There are many pens that are made as they are which are challenging and show true skill. Don't get me wrong I think its cool there is a community for this, but they went about it the completely wrong way. I guess to make an analogy you could say I am a fan of street basketball rather than college basketball.
Here is a video I posted on TL back in 2004.
You can search the threads if you want proof. I'm in my 20's now so this was like 6~ years ago. I'm still at the same level since I never wanted to improve or learn the new tricks that were made by the pen spinning community.
Edit: You'll notice the drums in the back. I picked that up in high school. I knew how to do pen tricks before I learned the drums, although it did transfer over and let me do cool drum stick tricks.
Y'know how people say "Take your hand off your crotch and uncross your legs", well, never applied to me. Right hand on mouse, left hand spinning pen ever since I learnt it. Shit, it has to be annoying for anyone else in the room.
Never bothered with anything advanced though, don't really care that much. But uh, as people have said I'd suggest not learning it. I get annoyed every time I sit somewhere and realize I don't have a pen handy.
On January 03 2011 17:48 mtvacuum wrote: i highly recommend taking up pen spinning, especially if you're in high school since then you automatically have a lot of time during class to practice. You should put a sweater or something on your desk so you don't make a big noise every time you mess up. Everything you need can be found at http://forum.upsb.info/ which is basically the teamliquid of pen spinning, and they have a wiki too with most known tricks, hybrids, and combos.
start with the fundamentals, which are thumbaround, sonic, charge, and fingerpass. Mastering all of them shouldn't take more than a week if you practice everyday whenever you have the chance. Then learn their reverses and then you can start learning other basic tricks such as shadows, infinities, backarounds etc. I recommend getting an RSVP for your first spinning pen. Learning a new trick is always frustrating since you'll drop many times, but just stay with it and eventually you'll master it.
Are you using the hgg tip for your MX? because they are really hard to find TT.
I got into it casually in high school. If you want to get into it then kudos to you, but I would advise not practicing in class, especially in a lecture hall or something. It's cool to watch someone flip their pen smoothly but it's absolute hell if the guy next to you is dropping his pen every 5 seconds. I would even advise against bringing something soft to practice on top of since it looks equally awkward. And if you drop your pen in a lecture hall and you can't reach it, you'll look pretty foolish. Practice each trick on your own until you can go through a whole lecture or so without dropping. Then impress the ladies. GL HF!
Yeah I started back in elementary school, grade 7, and by the time I got to high school I had a grasp on all the fundamentals (thumbaround, charge, sonic, fingerpass) and all the reverses.
I met a friend who was interested in learning more too, and we started challenging each other more and more to learn, which was great encouragement and boosted our skills even more. Eventually I lost interest though, but he went on and started learning more complicated tricks and bought a few 'pro' spinning pens. He gave me one for my birthday and I still spin once in a while.
EPT
