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Arounds are tricks that involve turning the pen in a disc motion around fingers, body parts or other objects.
They are potentially the oldest pen spinning trick, and one of the most versatile and developed, ranging from the simple Thumbaround to the difficult Armaround or Pun Kan. Arounds are the most common tricks used as combo finishers.
History
The thumbaround is most likely the first trick to be discovered. The first names that we have records of are those from the special feature in Korokoro comic: big roll for TA and reverse roll for TA rev. Around 1997, Hideaki coined the term normal and adapted reverse from the Korokoro Comic name. Later, after creating the names for the spin number modifiers (half, single, single axel etc) he also used single as another name for the thumbaround. When Kam made Pentix, he started calling the trick 360 Degree Normal/Reverse, using normal and reverse like Hideaki. The name was then changed by either Kam or nhk_9 in late 2003, but the topic where that was discussed has been lost. In March 10th, 2004, in Pentrix, Kam listed the trick as thumbaround normal/reverse, which is the only name used in English nowadays.
There are also many Chinese names. The first one comes from the Taiwanese sula_la. The tricks in his website are all named after “The Eighteen Palms”, which were popular at the time. In particular, 亢龍有悔 means the proud dragon repents. 亢龍有悔 is the most well known sula_la name, especially by older spinners. In Chinese common vocabulary, the trick is referred as 繞大拇指的 and in Taiwan and Mainland, 正轉 is another common name. However, among experienced spinners, just calling it TA is common.
Although it’s a debate that is no longer active, the difference between an around and a spin was heavily discussed back at the beginning of the century. The first name in English notation for one of these fingerarounds was indexspin, by Kam in 2000. It’s uncertain who started this change, but as early as in 2003 we can see the name indexaround for this very same trick in penstudioz, although indexspin was still cited as the main name.
In 2004, the Naming Committee released an article called “Around vs Spin” in which the difference between both trick names was established: around for 1.0 revolutions and spin for 1.5 and higher. However, the actual first name for one of these tricks comes from Japan, as the Korokoro comic (1990) had ガンマンロール (gunman roll) as the name for the IA rev 12-T12. Hideaki then simplified the name to ガンマン (gunman) and extended its meaning to all fingeraround reverse.
Variations
Arounds are separated based on normal or reverse direction, plus their tilt of the disc the ends follow when the trick is performed. Standard tilt has the disc tilted towards the palm on the palmar side of the hand, and reverse tilt away from the palm on the palmar side. When arounds are performed palm down, their direction of rotation relative to the Earth is reversed, with clockwise becoming anti-clockwise and vice-versa.
Standard tilt
Thumbaround
One of the oldest tricks. The pen is pushed with a finger to turn 360 degrees around the thumb before being caught. Originally performed between slots T12-T1 and pushed with the middle finger. The reverse is typically pushed with the curled index finger in the catch position of the original thumbaround.
Extended Thumbaround
A very common hybrid of a thumbaround and a bust notated as such:
Thumbaround T2 ~ Bust 12.
The trick transitions from a standard tilt to the reverse tilt and has a total of 1.5 rotations.
The first name was given by kam in 2001: extended 360 degree normal, with 360 degree normal being the name that he had given for a thumbaround at the time. After the name change to thumbaround, he also changed the name of this trick. In Japanese, the term tornado was being used to describe fake double [1], but then its meaning changed to describe this trick as well. Tornado is understood in English as cont ext TA.
Fake Double
A fake double consists of doing a thumbaround and then an indexaround, while on palm side during the whole motion of the trick.
fake double = (PS) TA ~> Fl IA
In English, Kam called the trick 720 degree normal in one of the first versions of Pentix. The origin of the name fake double is uncertain, but it is thought that it was given by Kam, as both fake double and fake triple appear in his recommended trick learning chart (2002), and fake triple is known to be his creation.
In Japan, Hideaki initially called this trick トルネード (tornado) but nowadays, that means extended TA, both in English and Japanese. In 2001, Hideaki changed it to スプレッドダブル (spread double), which is the most common name nowadays,
Although the definitions of ext TA, fake double and thumbindexaround are clear nowadays, the debate was intense back in the day. The UPSB v2 thread for those tricks was infamously long and convoluted, although it has been lost.
Fingerarounds
The pen turns 1.0 rotations around a finger as it's pushed by a finger closer to the pinky side. The fingers that the pen goes around are added as a prefix in the notation (e.g. indexaround 12-12, midringaround 34-23).
In Japan, ガンマン (gunman) is used for fingeraround reverse. The modifier シメトリカル (symmetrical) is usually equivalent to inverse, but in this case it’s more similar to mirrored. A シメトリカルガンマン (symmetrical gunman) would be, for example, MA 12-12.
In Korea, originally the (finger)arounds were written as 역수직 일회전 (perpendicular reverse one revolution) but in the 2005 NX lectures, the term 154 Perpendicular arounds 휘감기 (winding) was created. This is used as a suffix together with finger prefixes, in a similar way as in English. We should notice that in Korean notation, the same term is used for both bust and indexaround, thus ignoring how angled the trajectory may be.
Fingeraround 0.5
The pen turns 0.5 rotations around a finger before it is stopped and caught by a finger closer to the thumb side. The notation may be confusing as the 0.5 suffix denotes the number of times the pen rotates around a finger while notation for something like midbak 1.5 denotes the number of topspin rotations.
Neosonic
An around 0.5 reverse into a thumb slot or the thumb flap.
The name neosonic was coined by Kam as a reference to beginners failing to understand the movement of sonic and doing this trick instead. The original neosonic was a MA rev 23-Tf, which is the trick that Kam had described in Pentix and that Szeto had explained in Iluvitar some years prior, but since then, IA rev 12-Tf has become the de-facto neosonic when no slots are specified.
Spread
A spread is a palm up fingerless around that makes contact with the knuckles (i.e. backhand). Similar to how continuous fingerless busts are performed, spreads are performed with the pen hitting the knuckles in order to gain vertical height as opposed to fingerless arounds which only spin around them. It is due to the added verticality that some spinners incorrectly see spreads as aerials.
The term spread originates in Japanese notation. There was some confusion regarding this trick name from various videos on youtube. Jamie Enns explained in the UPSB v3 how in Japan it’s used for two different kinds of tricks, and that since English notation has enough names for palm down fl arounds (bak, bust, fl around) we should only use it for the other type. In Korean, 스프레드 (Spread) has the same meaning as in English.
Fxxk
The fxxk is a variation of the spread, usually done with the fingers more or less straight and palm up, with the pen rolling on the back of the fingers before being thrown to the air. The most common variation is middle fxxk. It’s from that finger positioning that the name comes from.
Armaround
The Armaround or Arm Around, sometimes referred to by the Thai name Pun Kan, is an around trick where the pen makes 1.0 rotations around the forearm. The trick is almost exclusively used in conjunction with other FL tricks or as a finisher in certain technical spinning combos.
The arm around was invented by Pyralux and was originally called the 'arm bak', but it would be Spinnerpeem who popularized the trick and gave it the popular name Pun Kan (translated from Thai as 'arm coil') after performing it five times continuously in his final round combo of the Pen Spinning World Cup 2010.
Powerpass
- See also: Powerpass
Antigravity
Rex Trick
It is a linkage comprising of a fingerless TA reverse followed by a small fingerless charge in the TF slot with a simultaneous palm side to palm down switch. Then, while palm down, the mod does a 0.5 spin and is caught in the same slot that the trick started. It can be done continuously.
It is named after Rex, a member of TWPS.
Reverse tilt
Backaround
Shortened to simply 'bak', backarounds are like the standard arounds but the tilt is in the opposite direction for a given hand orientation. Palm down around reverses tilt away from the back of the hand, while backarounds tilt towards the back of the hand when the trick starts. Backarounds have the opposite direction to arounds, as historically the backaround was considered to be a separate, individual trick without a reverse.
Midbak 1.5s and pinkybak are very common finishers with the former being an iconic staple for aesthetic spinning, especially for styles that utilize the MX.
The backaround originated from David Weis in 1999 as an attempt to perform continuous arounds without using the fingers to push the pen. The reason the normal of the backaround spins opposite of the standard tilt around is because he found it easier to perform arounds continuously in the "reverse direction" as stated by Weis himself, later on calling it the 'backaround'.[2]
Bust
A Bust is a common name for a reverse Backaround. Continuous fingerless busts around the index finger are performed with the pen hitting the middle finger in order to gain enough vertical height to spin around the index finger. They are a very common finisher.
The first instance of the word bust is in 2002, with the creation by Kam of the trick sonic bust (see: Sonic bust). His objective with that trick was to link two tricks that in principle have different directions of rotation: the sonic (CW) and the indexaround (CCW). This was the first definition of bust: an indexaround attached to a trick which, in principle, had a different direction of rotation.
The name was used widely during UPSB v2 and in 2006, there were three well known tricks with the bust modifier attached to them: sonic bust, twisted sonic bust and demon sonic bust [3]. Years later, Thai powertrickers popularized its continuous usage. At that point, the initial definition was lost, and bust not only began to mean attaching a backaround reverse to any trick regardless of its direction of rotation, but it started to be used as a standalone trick as well.
In Japanese Notation, this trick is mostly notated with スプレッド (spread), although the name バスト (bust) can also be seen at times, especially among powertrickers and newer generations.
Thumb Backaround
Once confusingly called "Thumb lever", it follows the same rule as the backaround. The normal direction is reversed and it uses the opposite tilt for hand orientation. Originally performed palm up only. Rarely performed in reverse.
Raimo Backaround
A Raimo Backaround is a hybrid between a backaround and a pass rev. The trick was characteristic of the Japanese spinner Raimo.
Bakfall
A 'backaround fall', or 'bakfall, consists of dong four backarounds, starting with the index finger and finishing with the pinky.
bakfall = bak 12-12 > midbak 12-23 > ringbak 23-34 > pinkybak 34-34
The name bakfall is just an abbreviation of backaround fall. During the UPSB v2 era, Kam, David Weis and nhk_9 discussed how a true backaround fall would be done, but ended up coming up with a neobak fall [4]. When and who came up with its current version is unknown, but in 2007 it was already an established trick.
On the topic of the rise and fall modifiers, Sketching said that:
“If you’re not doing one of the standard Rise/Fall combos (Sonic, Backaround, Neobak), I would suggest just writing out the individual tricks that you do”[5]