This post was translated from my post in Thai, so it may be hard to read in some parts as well as lack of some information. You can find the original post here.

Better to read before start

Before you start pen spinning, you need to know that this hobby takes a lot of effort and patience, I mean A LOT. You may get down some tricks in about 2-3 hours, some in 4-5 days, some in months, and some even take more than a year. And for making a flow combo you will need a lot of tricks. So prepare that you gonna be a newbie for about 1 year.

Beside, this guide will give you only brief advice which is not need to follow. Pen spinning has some basic tricks and tricks need to learn to acquire the harder tricks, but overall it is pretty much freedom in learning order.

ONE.

For the starting, you may not have the ‘spinning pen’ or ‘mod’, but you can try making it yourself by putting 2 caps on both sides of a marker. You can use your normal pen for practicing too since tricks in this phase are easy enough to master without many problems with them. (though they are still hard enough to take your effort anyway)

For more about the pen choosing, you can read the guide I wrote it before here.

4+4 fundamental

In pen spinning, there is 4+4 fundamental tricks that been recommended to learn first. You can go with any in this 4, you will need to master all of them anyway.

Thumb Around

Sonic

Charge

Fingerpass

And the +4 are their reverses, so in total we have 8 tricks

Is Fingerpass important? Fingerpass and its rev. are a part of the fundamental, and yet it is one of the tricks that take most time to master. Some people even took a whole year to master it. If your goal is to make a flow combo, you don’t need to master the whole Fingerpass, but it’s very important for you to be able to do the Pass on every slots because they are very useful in combo making, as well as required in many tricks in the future. But if you want to master the Fingerpass, there is nothing wrong with it. Just remember that it may take your time a lot so it is recommended to have other trick practicing at the same time or else you may get boring in half way.

Other tricks you can practice without any basics or experience

There are fairly easy tricks you can start with without basics, but some of them may not be much useful in the combo. They are good in case you are boring with the 4 fundamental tricks

Wiper & Figure8

Backaround

Triangle Pass

Index Around

Half Tap

Neosonic

Other things you should learn in this phase. • Learn about the finger slot and how to call it.

• Learn how to make a spinning pen by yourself.

TWO.

After you master all of the fundamentals, your skill will be ready to practice many more tricks. The list below is some recommended tricks you should learn, and again you can learn in any order. Also don’t forget to practice their reverses too.

Basic Trick

Index Around

Middle Around

Backaround

Inverse Sonic

Twisted Sonic

Warped Sonic

Shadow

Thumb Spin

Wiper

Figure8

Infinity

Other things you should learn in this phase. • Learn about types of pen spinning video like Solo or CV.

• Learn about the pen spinning term like rev., fl., inv., etc.

THREE.

Now you can do many tricks, so it will be a good time to practice some hybrid tricks and linkages, as well as doing easy combos.

Actually, combo making isn’t hard at all. You can make it yourself easily by thinking about the starting and finishing slot of each trick. If trick A finishes in 23, you just need to find the trick starts in 23 and put that trick after the trick A, then look at the finishing slot of the new trick and repeat the whole process again until you satisfy and you will get a combo.

About the hybrid, hybrid is like a mini combo or linkage of 2 or more tricks combined together, except that it has the trick interruption which will make some tricks didn’t finish well or start in the half way. If you learn the hybrid well enough, it will expand your materials and you will be able to create more linkages in your combo.

Linkage & Hybrid

Cardioid

Corkscrew

Double Charge

Demon’s Sonic

Devil’s Sonic

Angel’s Sonic

Powerpass

Extended Thumb Around

Bak to fl TA rev.

TA x2 (Double TA)

Bust x2 (Double Bust)

Other things you should learn in this phase. • Watch Solo and/or CV, as well as combos from other spinners to inspire yourself.

• Learn how to make easy combos or linkages.

• Look into many kinds of the pen used in modding.

FOUR.

You should be able to do some easy combos right now, but if you don’t know how to make a ‘good’ combo, you are still far from calling yourself a solid spinner.

This phase will be the real ‘crossroad’ for every spinners, because you should think about your spinning, what type of spinning you like or enjoy, how you want it to look like. Will it contain a lot of powerful trick with nice flow, or have many complex linkages and hybrids, or you want it to look simple but aesthetic?

The best way to find it if you don’t know is to watch a lot of pen spinning videos, especially CV or collaboration videos which have many spinners in 1 video. So you can see a lot of spinning from other people, see many kinds of tricks and linkages people doing, just find some of them to inspire you yourself.

Below this I will recommend some kind of spinning that being major and you can find it easily, but remember there are many more than this.

Powertrick

The spinning that contain a lot of flashy powerful tricks with nice flow. Mostly use fingerless tricks connected together.

Tricks you should learn

Palm Spin to fl. TA

Spread

Notable spinners you may like

Infinity

Hold the pen on the pen tip and swing it to create unique effect. Some beautiful and some complex.

Tricks you should learn

Wipers & Figure8 in many slots including weird slots like 13, 24, T2

Double / Triple / Quadruple Infinity

Notable spinners you may like

Linkage

Spinning that contain a lot of complex tricks and linkages, using the same old tricks in new slots or new ways.

Tricks you should learn

Flush Sonic

East Sonic and West Sonic

Moonwalk Sonic

Notable spinners you may like

2 Hands

Another remarkable choice because both hands used in the combo. I recommend you to learn some easy transfer tricks as well as practice your non dominant hand a little bit. The difficulty of 2 hands spinners is that there is no official names for most transfer tricks so it will be pretty hard to find the tutorials.

Notable spinners you may like

Aesthetic & Refinement

The most simple spinning, but not as easy as you think. This kind of spinning mostly use only simple tricks in the combo and focusing in the refinement and aesthetic of each trick, as well as the overall of the combo.

You may need to practice with some medium-light single-sided pens like G-3 mod or RSVP MX. It will be pretty hard in the first time because most people get use to double-sided mods since they are generally easier to spin. And you should learn about the refinement and finger positioning too.

Notable spinners you may like

Some tricks I recommend to master if you didn’t yet.

Midbak

Ringbak

Rex’s Trick

Raimo’s Bak

Ring Around

Other things you should learn in this phase. • Find the kind of spinning you want your spinning to be.

• Try copy the linkages or combos from other people.

• Make many mod pens, find the pen that suit yourself the most.

Postscript I want you to read

As I said above, there is many more kinds of spinning, as well as each spinner has their own identity even with the same tricks choice too. So don’t just copy everything from any spinner, but you need to adjust it to suit with yourself too. And at this point, it is completely free to practice anything you want. You can even try to mix 2 or more together.

And don’t worry if you cannot find any kind of spinning you like in this article, there is much more outside this. You may try to watch a lot of people spinning, and even you cannot find it, it is still fine. Just do whatever you want, you may even create your own kind of spinning, being unique is good too.

I decided to remove the word ‘style’ from this article since what I explain isn’t really a style. Style in penspinning has much more factor to consider, not only trick choice. I may write the article about it later.

Pen spinning tutorial resources

Pen modding tutorial resources

Pen Spinning Community