Fundamental Tricks

The Fundamental Tricks are collections of tricks considered to be the baseline for pen spinning. In the past they were used as a teaching aid to point new spinners in the right direction for learning the hobby, but analysis and later discussions in the field of notation led to new definitions of 'fundamental' tricks and thoughts about how they are used in the construction of harder tricks and linkages.

Classical Fundamentals

Thumbaround

See also: Around#Thumbaround

An around trick wherein the pen is held with the thumb on one side and two other fingers, usually index and middle, on the other. The pen is held such that the center of gravity is towards the inside of the hand, and the pen is pushed to perform a single rotation around the thumb, before being caught.

Sonic

See also: Sonic

A trick derived from fingerswitches where the pen is held between two fingers, usually middle and ring, and is switched first to an intermediary fingerslot, then a destination fingerslot. The most basic sonic starts between middle and ring, switches to index and ring, then finally switches to index and middle. A charge is almost always implied, with one full conical charge spin occurring from start to finish when the sonic is performed, but the trick can be performed without any charge motion at all.

Charge

See also: Charge

A conical spin trick where the pen is held between two fingers, usually index and middle, then is flicked forwards and backwards, up and down between the two fingers to make the ends rotate in circles. Often combined with other tricks such as the sonic to provide a circular spinning effect.

Fingerpass

See also: Pass#Fingerpass

A mini-combo and not a trick like the others, the fingerpass is constructed of four separate pass tricks. These are performed to traverse the pen down the hand on the palm side and then back up the hand on the back side of the hand.

Extended Fundamentals

Tricks that have historically considered to be part of the fundamentals, or have been argued to be deserving of being considered a fundamental trick.

Infinity

See also: Wiper#Infinity

A mini-combo that consists of two wipers and a fingerswitch, with multiple variations that extend or modify the combo. Historically argued to be a fundamental as it consistently ranks among the first non-hybrid tricks that spinners learn.

Elementary Tricks

Determined after research into the individual constituent parts that make up individual tricks, including the fundamentals themselves. Originally proposed as six tricks by Fel2Fram and Hexbinmos in Hexbinmos' Elementary Notation, but was simplified down to five by RPD when presenting his Simplified Elementary Notation.

Fingerswitch

See also: Fingerswitch

Charge

See also: Charge

Tipped Charge

A trick where 0.5 revolutions perpendicular to the fingers are made.

Wiped Charge

Wiped charge refers to tricks that mimic a wiper motion while simultaneously having the pen instead be held by the middle and no end passes through two or more fingers. It’s analogous to tipped charge but rotating in a different plane. The name was proposed by Tchus.

In a similar fashion to tipped charge, this trick usually consists of 0.5 revolutions, with no change of motion, where its nor goes clockwise and its rev, counterclockwise.

Roll

See also: Roll

Slide

See also: Slide