Learning Guidelines	Last Updated: Nov. 15, 2002

After many years experimenting on the field of pen spinning, I've noticed that there are often many things to keep in mind that help me learn new tricks. I believe these guidelines often apply to other areas of learning as well (whether you are learning a new subject at school, learning a new sport, or getting trained for a new job position). In this article, I'll list these guidelines and tell you how you can make your learning easier and more enjoyable.

1. Cultivate Interest
The most important guideline for learning is to have interest in the subject you are learning. Whether it's pen spinning or something else, you'll find that it's a lot easier to learn something that you find interesting. Also, you'll find things that interest you are more enjoyable to learn.

In the case of pen spinning, you're probably already interested in the subject (no one is forcing you to read this, right?). But in other subjects, the same may not hold true. If you already have interest in the subject you are learning, great! But if you're learning something that you may not like(take some subjects in school, for example), then you'll have to work on cultivating your interest towards that subject. For example, when taking a class that I may not have interest in, I always try to relate it to something that I like. If I'm taking an English class, I remind myself of how the subject is going to improve my ability to describe pen tricks on my this web site (by now, I probably don't need to tell you how much I enjoy pen spinning, do I?). When taking Physics or Math, I try to see how the formulas can be used to describe or explain the movements of a pen when spinning. You get the picture...If you just make an small effort to make the subjects you are learning more interesting, you'll save a lot of effort when trying to learn it.

And this applies to pen spinning as well. If you are getting frustrated and starting to lose interest in pen spinning, remind yourself of why you wanted to learn pen spinning in the first place, or how it can be used to improve other areas of your life (such as motor coordination).

2. Be your own instructor
There's no one better to teach you pen tricks than yourself. Although experimentation may not be always possible on all areas of learning (you can't afford to try things out when you are learning, for example, brain surgery). But in pen spinning, experimentation is the key. You can read and develop as many ideas about pen spinning as you wish (and that will help you somewhat), but you'll never learn a pen trick if you don't get a pen and try it several times for yourself. Of course, you'll drop your pen a few hundred times, but pens are relatively cheap compared to someone's brain and life ;) And when you are trying out a trick, make sure to pay attention to what you are doing. It's true that, after a lot of practice, you'll get to the point where a trick is so natural that you won't even notice you are doing it. But before that, you'll need to know what you are doing if you want to learn the trick. Only by paying attention is that you'll be able to see your own mistakes and correct them properly.

There's a real simple method I use to correct my own mistakes. If I do something that seems to be correct, I pause for a second and try to remember the "feeling" of what I just did (this is because the first time you do something right, you probably can't tell what you did. But if you remember what it felt like, you'll know later when you do it again). If I do something wrong, I simply ignore it and keep going. Of course, sometimes the same mistakes keeps happening and simply can't ignore it. If that's the case, I try to make the mistake even worse (this will help me find what factors contribute to the mistake). If I can figure out what causes the mistake, I'll be able to correct it by doing the inverse of what I was doing. This really sounds simpler than it is. It's not easy to spot your own mistakes, and one of the good things about pen spinning is that during the course of your learning, it will teach you how to spot your own mistakes (not only in pen tricks, but in other things as well).

3. Know your learning curve
Everyone knows that mistakes are part of the learning process, but we often forget how important they are. There are many subjects out there that are so easy to learn that we often forget about the mistakes we made throughout the process of learning (Math seems to be one of these subjects for me, but it's probably not true for everyone). Pen Spinning (like juggling and other manipulation arts) is different because you'll be constantly reminded of your mistakes. These are art forms that require a lot of motor coordination and practice, and it's natural that you'll drop your pen when learning something new. Every time your pen falls, you'll think that you made a mistake, but your mistakes don't necessarily mean that you are not improving. If you made the pen spin a little smoother than before, you are going up on your learning curve.

But even when you are not improving, it's always good to remind yourself that no one can expect constant improvement through the entire learning curve. Sometimes you may have just practiced for too long and your hands are tired (or your brain can't absorb more information). Everyone has their ups and downs on their learning curve. You just have to remind yourself not to be too hard on yourself when you are not improving.

4. Be open minded
Sometimes patience and a lot of practice isn't enough to learn something. If you ever came across something that tried to learn for a long time (and you put a lot of effort into it), you probably wondered why you just couldn't get it. Well, we often fall for the trap of believing that if one way of doing something is working (and had worked for a long time), it must be the best way to do it. This can often blind us to see better (and sometimes necessary) ways of doing the same thing. For example, you probably know how to tie your shoes since you were very little. You parents probably taught you when you were a kid, and the method has worked ever since. But is that the best or only way one can tie his/her shoe? Probably not. If you put some thought into it, you can probably come out with a dozen ways of tieing your shoes (some of which are more efficient than the method you are using). In the case of Pen Spinning, we often have done the same trick for years the same way (and it has never been a problem). However, when you start learning a new trick that is based on the old trick, you may find that your old way doesn't work anymore. If you keep trying to learn the new trick using your old methods, you'll never be able to learn it. Sometimes it's better to forget about your old method of doing a trick and try something completely different (but always applying the knowledge that you have acquired by learning the first trick). The key is to never get caught in the trap of not seeing that there are other methods (sometimes better ones) to accomplish things.

Well, I really hope these guidelines will help you learn new pen tricks as it has helped me. And remember, you are not just learning how to spin a pen. The things you learn in pen spinning can often be applied to other situations in your life.

written by Fernando Kuo (Kam)
on November 15, 2002