Defining what "master"ing a pen spinning trick means for you.

As a beginner starting the peculiar hobby of penspinning back in 2010 December, I never particularly had a guide or asked anyone for guidance for it. More specifically, I never knew where to find the resources, as I never had the thought to google something on a search bar. All there was for me was Collaboration Videos and complilation videos of tournaments (prominently by Ellusion67).

Now, times are different: in almost every social media platform (YouTube, Tik Tok, Twitter, etc.) it is rather easy to find resources that can help you 'guide' to improve your own pen spinning. Examples include lists of tricks to learn, combos to learn, demonstration videos and tutorials.

It may be for that reason, but I feel beginners improve at alot faster rate than beginners 5-10 years ago, at least faster than the rate that I improved. This was apparent when I moderated UPSB and also in Penspinning Discords. I am honestly jealous to see these people learning faster than I ever had in my career, but I digress on that point. The topic I want to discuss about is what I often see/hear beginners say when he/she talks about his/her progress in: 'master'ing a trick.

To speak the grand conclusion first, the degree of mastery of a trick differs within each person. Everyone has different standards indeed, relative blah. However I do feel that depending on which stage you are in your pen spinning career, this definition of 'master'ing a trick differs as well. In other words, as you progress and develop your own spinning, your way of understanding of 'master'ing a trick is different.

I was personally interested in this because I often see discourse between a beginner and an experienced spinner about what it means to master a trick. To beginners, being able to do a certain trick multiple times in a row, or perform individual trick consistently is considered 'master'ing a trick. For experienced spinners, including myself, some might feel weird with this. This post would like to bring, to some degree, light into the potential misunderstanding. (It might as well be myself being dellusional). In the argument between both parties, they are both right, but the way one party looks at progress is different from the other. As a result, it creates a discrepancy in the definition of 'master'ing a trick. 

In Hobby's Beginner's Guide post, the definition of learning a trick is as follows:

If you’re just starting out, if you can land the trick 5-10 times in a row, then you should be pretty ready to move on.

Usually there isn’t a rule, it’s more about if you feel confident you learned it and you think you won’t mess the trick up as often.

This definition is easy to understand. Though I do also see cases where people say the moment you land the particular trick is also considering 'learning' or 'mastering' a trick. I might be mixing these two words synonymously when they technically may be different. However, I feel the nuance it brings when people do use these terms are often the same.

When you reach to a point of when you try to develop your own combos/links and even a freestyle, this definition of 'master'ing a trick often changes. The premises is you are already able to do a particular trick consistently, but doing a combo of which includes that particular trick consistently is a differently story.

To give an example, for me, if I have 'master'ed trick A, I would be able to use trick A at any moment available while performing the combo/link or freestyle. There is quite a disparity between the ability to be able to implement trick A into your spinning comfortably, and being able to do this one particular trick multiple times in a row. Although one could argue, that the example I have gave means to learn/'master' a combo, not a trick. Surely, there are overlaps between learning a trick and a combo.

However, let's say you have link A which consists of Trick A-> Trick B -> Trick C. You have 'master'ed all tricks, but when you do this particular link A, you seem to struggle on Trick B, could you say that you have 'master'ed the trick?

Some people might say yes, some people might say no. As mentioned in the beginning, the standard is different for each person and what stage they are in of their pen spinning career. I could also bring the idea that it also depends on what sort of goals each person has for pen spinning. If one person wants to learn a certain trick not to develop a freestyle, but just for spending time on the trick alone, then being able to do that particular trick multiple times is already 'master'ing a trick. Whereas for experienced spinners who want to learn a trick to implement into their spinning, it might not be the same. 

Here is a provisional simplification of what is discussed.

Defining 'master'ing a trick

Beginners: Being able to do the trick once, or multiple times without dropping it.

Experienced: Not only being able to do the trick alone, but able to perform the trick comfortably into his/her spinning without any hinderance while spinning.

*Bonus For Aes: Able to not only do the trick and implement into his/her spinning, but characterizes their own way of performing that trick. -> Like twotemper's man cont. backaround.

Lastly, considering the different mindset you will have when you are experienced is something you cannot attain unless you invest some time into pen spinning itself such as watching other's videos, or participating in a competition. Personally, by understanding this, it could widen your enjoyment of pen spinning more than learning particular tricks. And in order to do so, enjoying not only the tricks alone but the act of connecting those tricks into one combo/freestyle would be key to your understanding of this hobby.

Just some thought I had randomly, but I am glad to be able to write it in words. Probably will not make sense when I read back to it.

Til Then.

Tigres