A stall is done by keeping the mod still, in a certain slot, without movement. The vast majority of the times, that slot is an unstable slot (i.e. pen is over some fingers rather than between them), while hold is used otherwise. The notation (finger) stall is used to indicate where it sits still, for example: index stall. The pen can be placed either horizontally or vertically the fingers, the latter requiring more skill and effort to maintain the pen balanced. Thus, the name horizontal stall and vertical stall have been used lately to distinguish them

History

Variations

Horizontal Stalls

On the back or palm of the finger.

Usually, it is done with 1 finger but it is also possible to do it with multiple fingers. These type of stalls can be classified into two variations depending where the pen is placed on the finger.

COG Stall

These stalls have the finger be placed on the center of gravity of the pen. Since these stalls are relatively stable, they can be held indefinitely.

Copper stall
Devil’s Horn
Spider Stall
Fist Stall
Fuck you

Non-COG Stall

These stalls have the finger be placed near the edge of the pen. These stalls are usually held up by momentum and thus, they can only be held for a limited period of time.

Pesp Ladder
Starbust stream
Izumi Reflect
Stop and Go

On the very tip

The pen is placed directly on the tip of the fingers. Nails are often utilized to make the stall easier to maintain.

Devil Stall

Vertical Stalls

The mod is in equilibrium on one of its tips. The tricks derived from this variation are more focus towards a motion as opposed to the spinless nature of the tricks in horizontal stalls. The motions/tricks in this category can be summarised as follows:

Bounces

This is a general term that refers to when the pen is bounced somewhere. In this context, stalls are usually performed after some form of bounce. It was first done by Spinnerpeem before being popularised by DarKT. There are three variations of Stall Bounces as of writing:

Stall flip

A stall flip consists on, while doing a vertical stall, to throw the pen into the air so it does at least 0.5 revolutions, after which the vertical stall continues. The prefixes frontwards, backwards or sideways are sometimes added to specify how the pen rotates

Stable Jump

It consists of throwing the pen into the air while in a vertical stall. It has no revolutions

Upside down flip

An upside down flip is a sideways stall flip that goes under the hand. The trick has 1.5 revolutions

Metronome

In a metronome, the pen keeps changing direction due to the push of the thumb. Between pushes, it’s suspended on one of its tips on the palm. The stalls are performed during this suspension.

Windshield wiper

Unrelated to wipers, the pen goes from the back to the front of the hand by changing the hand position from palm down to palm up

Swing

To do a swing/lever, while palm down, hold the pen between two fingers. Then, an extension of the fingers or a sudden wrist movement is performed so that the upper tip of the pen touches the back of the hand, and the rest of the pen becomes suspended. Due to gravity the pen falls back to your fingers, where it’s caught.

Tutorials