Spinning Styles

There are numerous unique approaches to spinning in the hobby, each with different goals. This page aims to serve as a glossary of the most well-known types.

Not to be confused with Aesthetic Style.

Types

Technical

Technical Spinning or Tech is one of the two major broad categories of Pen Spinning, along with its polar opposite: Aesthetic Spinning.

Tech is based around accomplishing some measurable goal, usually in terms of combo complexity, difficulty or repetitions. Power overlaps with Tech when it comes to the difficulty aspects, but it is possible to be a Technical Spinner without Power, instead using linkages for complexity.

Aesthetic

Aesthetic Spinning or Aesth is the second major broad category. It is concerned with creating pleasing visuals to the viewer, which is usually a fixed camera. Aesth often ignores complexity and difficulty in search of better visual appeal, and includes elements irrelevant to technical spinning such as finger positioning, hand angles and mod choice.

It is common for Aesthetic spinners to use Single Sided mods for their visual effect.

Power

Power derived from the term Power Tricks is an extension of the legacy 'Hard Trick' style of spinning. Adherents repetitively train difficult tricks in order to perform them continuously, either for use in combos or to achieve a personal or World Record.

Power tricks are usually but not always considered Fingerless, that they are performed continuously without catching the pen.

Creativity

Creative Spinning or Creativity is based around coming up with new and unique linkages, tricks and combos.

Where it overlaps with Technical Spinning, two additional subcategories of hard and soft creativity appear.

Soft Creativity

Soft Creativity is the construction of combos and linkages in a creative way that disguises the real difficulty and/or uniqueness of the combo. Historically Soft Creativity spinners have used rarely seen trick variations to surprise viewers, often in a flashy way that results in acquiring more points than deserved in a competitive scene. A prime example of Soft Creativity is the Rex Trick, which was considered a top tier trick when it surprised judges at the turn of 2010. Shortly after it was discovered that the trick was in fact extremely easy to perform and it fell out of use.

Hard Creativity

The opposite of Soft Creativity, Hard Creativity involves training a new concept for extended periods of time similar to Power, with varying degrees of success. It differs from Soft Creativity in that the tricks and unique linkages are usually extremely difficult, or even more difficult than they appear. Hard Creativity pushes the difficulty and complexity ceiling, but it is not guaranteed to be recognized or awarded points due to inconsistencies in judging.

2 Hands

2 Hands is, as the name suggests, the technique of using both hands when spinning. Slow to develop, with early advances by Eriror, Minwoo and Snow, 2 Hands remains a surprising wildcard technique in competition despite a long history of losing to one handed Tech spinners.

Multipen

Multipen is a relatively undeveloped part of the hobby that involves using more than one pen, usually with more than one on a hand. An extreme wildcard technique, it has yet to see successful competitive use outside of its niche and has a history of losing to traditional Tech spinners. That being said, it has recently been considered and run as its own category in the Pen Spinning Olympics 2020.

Standup

Standup or Stage Spinning is the application of pen spinning to a stage setting. Adherents stand up (thus the name) and spin to a front on audience or camera, often incorporating music, other body parts than the hands, and dance.