Pen Spinning Notation

Pen Spinning Notation refers to the writing systems used to represent pen spinning tricks, linkages and combos without the use of videos or images. Multiple structured notation systems have been devised over the year in various languages. This article primarily focuses on English notation systems, with a secondary mention of different notation systems in other languages.

Basic Notation

Tricks

A trick is a described sequence of movements of the fingers and pen. The combination of tricks results in linkages, and longer sequences of tricks (or sequences of linkages) becomes a combo.

Trick names are written before fingerslots and between modifiers.

Fingerslots

Fingerslots are made up of individual abbreviated elements known as locators, which can refer to fingers and positions on the hand, wrist and arm. There are currently 12 main locators:

Locators and abbreviations

Abbr.	Locator	Abbr.	Locator
A	Arm	T	Thumb
E	Elbow	Tf	Thumbflap
W	Wrist	1	Index finger
H	Hand	2	Middle finger
B	Back of the hand	3	Ring finger
P	Palm of the hand	4	Pinky finger

These locators are then combined to form fingerslots, written in hierarchical order:

A > E > W > H > B > P > T > Tf > 1 > 2 > 3 > 4

For example, T12 is ordered correctly, and 21T is ordered incorrectly.

Modifiers

See also: Modifiers

Modifiers are elements that change the structure of how a trick is performed. They are split into two categories, prefix and suffix modifiers.

Prefixes

Inverse	Continuous
Mirrored	Double
Fingerless	Triple
Tipped	Curled
Counter	Side
Aerial	Palm
Isolated	Backhand

Suffixes

Normal	Rise
Reverse	Fall
Harmonic	Bust
Riser	Double Bust
Release	Cardioid
Pop

There are two additional modifiers, Moonwalk and Still, which have been deprecated long ago but appear in older notation.

Rotations

For tricks with a variable number of rotations, the amount of turns is indicated after the trick and modifiers, but before the slots. e.g. Thumbaround 1.0 T12-T1.

Transitions

Transitions are written as two fingerslots divided by a "-" dash character, after the trick name and modifiers. e.g. Pass Reverse 12-23. The initial and final slots are typically the only two written, but it is possible to notate the intermediate slots as well e.g. Sonic 23-13-12.

Hand Orientation

The orientation of the hand is prepended to all other modifiers, and there are four main positions that are described:

Hand Orientations

Abbr.	Orientation
PU	Palm up
PS	Palm side
PD	Palm down
BS	Back Side

They can be formatted and written in a variety of ways, for example PD TA, (PD) TA, [PD] TA and (PD): TA are all valid.

Formal Notation

Formal notation is a series of syntax additions that can be included to make pen spinning notation more precise, or to handle corner cases that cannot be described using basic notation.

Expanded Locators

In formal notation there are additional locators:

Phalanx/joints

Abbr.	Locator	Abbr.	Locator
w	Metacarpal	k	Finger joint (any)
x	Proximal phalanx	wx	Knuckle
y	Middle phalanx	xy	1st interph. joint
z	Distal phalanx	yz	2nd interph. joint
t	Tip of the finger

Faces

Abbr.	Locator
b	Dorsal face
p	Palmar face
s	Lateral faces (any)
sp	Pinky-side lat. face
st	Thumb-side lat. face