How to Perform Pencil Twirling Tricks

Pencil spinning tricks are a great way to exercise your fingers and stave off boredom. With a little practice, you can learn a variety of pencil spinning tricks and maybe even invent a few new tricks of your own.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Over the Thumb Spin

1. Hold an unsharpened pencil in your hand by one of the ends. Hold it with your first and middle finger below the pencil and your thumb balancing. Your palm should be facing upward.
2. Slowly rotate your middle finger forward, pushing the long end of the pencil upward. You'll see how the pencil should then roll over the top of your thumb.
3. Allow the pencil to roll over your thumb, and resist the urge to stop its momentum with your first finger. Instead, let the length of the pencil move past your first finger and stop the spinning when the pencil has returned to its original position.
4. Note that you are now holding the pencil further down and more centered than when you began. Return your hold to the end of the pencil and continue practicing until you've mastered this pencil spinning trick.

The Finger Roll

5. Begin with the pencil held between your first and middle fingers and your palm face down. The pencil should be upright with most of the pencil below your hand, not above it.
6. Push your first finger down and slightly behind your middle finger. This pushes the pencil under your middle finger in a horizontal fashion.
7. Place your third finger below the pencil, stabilizing it so it appears to be woven between your three fingers with the first and third finger under the pencil and the middle finger on top of the pencil.
8. Pull your first finger off of the pencil. It will automatically pop straight up and down between your middle and third fingers.
9. Push your middle finger upward and toward your third finger while at the same time looping your first finger back under the pencil so it's now horizontal to the floor but lower down on your hand.
10. Lay your little finger over the top of the pencil and let your most of your finger slide off the end of your pencil.
11. Roll the pencil over and pinch between your thumb and first fingers. Loosen your grasp so the pencil can easily slide back to it's original position and continue.

Tips & Warnings

• This is the same method baton twirlers use. Once this skill is mastered, you can reverse the weaving process to return the pencil, twirling up and back rather than looping back to it's original location.