UPSB v3
General Discussion / Starting a Pen Spinning Club
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Date: Tue, Aug 5 2008 16:07:39
Hey everyone,
I was thinking about starting a pen spinning club at our school and wanted some feedback.
Negative positive anything.
Oh and some ideas for the meetings.
I was thinking I could go over the fundamentals, show them resources for pen spinning such as upsb.
Then pass out free bic pens so everyone can make a bictory one day.
Oh and I was thinking about a group pen wish order so we can have like a pen modding day
Well I know at least 8 people who might be interested in coming, so any thoughts or ideas?
Feedback would be much appreciated. -
Date: Tue, Aug 5 2008 17:30:42
First of all you must find people that are interested. After that you must find nice place where you can sit down chill and spin and make some pens. If you think you could host your group events at someones house then you must be sure that your/his/her mom won't come in and say: ''Mike why the fu** you haven't do your homework/or somethin else - fast get the fu** out of this room and do your homeworks!'' That would just ruin your event. And you must be strong becouse noobs are noobs and they will have maybe stupid questions and lots of explaining.
Good luck from me!
P.S. This is only a suggestion.
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Date: Tue, Aug 5 2008 17:39:25
the thoughest part will be too keep them interested, also never say they fail
and try too keep them entertained as much as possible and also give them free food it helps -
Date: Tue, Aug 5 2008 19:20:46
I did a similar thing with yo-yoing in grammar school. I ran a club with like 40 kids going to it and taught them tricks and linkages.
If there is an interest by other people, go for it. -
Date: Tue, Aug 5 2008 19:47:25QUOTE (patte @ Aug 5 2008, 10:39 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>the thoughest part will be too keep them interested, also never say they fail and try too keep them entertained as much as possible and also give them free food it helps
sounds pretty expensive if you have to give them food. basically you pay them to teach them...
i dunno -
Date: Tue, Aug 5 2008 19:56:23
Well, as far as starting the club goes, good luck.
Some of the meeting ideas are pretty good. I have some more:
-Try showing one short collab each meeting and everyone can discuss it and pick out a combo they like and try to discuss how to achieve that combo.
-Have like a show and tell of each person's recent achievements. Kinda like a live Pen Spinning Journal.
-Host like a booth during some kind of international festival and build pen spinning around different cultures and whatnot. Sounds like a stretch but it's these little things that also contribute to culture.
Hardest part is to get people outside the club to take y'all seriously.
Remember to keep the meetings spontaneous. Never have the same meeting twice.
Good luck!
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Date: Tue, Aug 5 2008 21:09:47
what u can do in the beginning of each session is to ask ppl if they have specific problems with the trick/combo they're doing. also u need to manage ur time well because it takes maybe 15 min. top to teach a trick, but can take up to hrs to learn it. u can probably give like 15 min. in the end also just for every1 to practice i suppose
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Date: Wed, Aug 6 2008 02:09:08
actually found a group yesterday at a school orientation who pen spin, and there again today, I asked if they had a club, I was told they were going to start one but didn't get around to but during the school year when it starts soon we're going to try to do something
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Date: Wed, Aug 6 2008 03:22:24
The way my one hour pen spinning workshop worked out I think is roughly the way a club should work out. I had a small group of people from ages 15 - about 50 some not knowing tricks and some knowing a few. I think this is roughly how your club's group will break down, at least initially, in terms of skill.
I found it was best to demo some stuff first, varied stuff. Basic combos with Sonics, Baks, fingerarounds, Fingerpass etc and the people that can do some tricks spot the ones they can do used and also the varied stuff, aerials, Elbows catches, bounces, rolls, some 1p2h and 2p2h freestyle etc and a few nice tricks like Thumbspins. People will probably be asking questions and stuff and just answer them while you spin.
Then show the people who can't spin how to do a TA, really quickly, in like 30 seconds. They will ask you questions if they struggle and be sure to answer and to show anyone who wants to see again and again and again from whatever angle they wish, but watch every single one of them. As soon as you see someone hit their first one congratulate them!
Once you have all of those who can't spin yet trying TAs, show some fresh tricks to those who can already do some tricks, but nothing they won't hit soon. Something like Sonic or Indexaround is good as people can usually fluke this within a few minutes and once they fluke it they see they can do it. People may ask about tricks and provide descriptions so try to do these tricks and then teach them to whoever asked if it's plausable to learn (if they ask about something like Ringaround first then don't try to teach them something like this first or too soon).
If anyone is in the position of being able to do a couple of tricks, teach them to link them. All the time however, you must focus your attention across everyone. It is not okay to just leave someone their practicing TA on their own! They are not at a club to sit and practice on their own! They are there for help and support, for company while spinning. Watch everyone out of the corner of your eye and comment on what they are doing. if someone nearly hits a TA a simple 'oooh close you're getting there' does wonders.
If you get past this point and you reach a time at which you have several members who are capable of several tricks at least, then you will have to go past this point. At this time you will have to go more into teaching combos and less on individual tricks to them. You may also be able to play games and such.QUOTE-Try showing one short collab each meeting and everyone can discuss it and pick out a combo they like and try to discuss how to achieve that combo.
This is only ever going to work if you have skilled spinners there. Don't do this when you have people still trying to learn the fundamentals because it just won't interest them or they won't understand properly.QUOTE-Have like a show and tell of each person's recent achievements. Kinda like a live Pen Spinning Journal.
I don't think it should be a show and tell format. People will just turn up, chill and chat. Don't make it formal. Don't make this club like a lesson. People are not coming to this club for an extra lesson.
I think it would be fine to simply show up with a pack of unsharpened pencils for everyone to use and use one yourself. I wouldn't introduce the idea of mods until people are doing several tricks.
Good luck!
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Date: Thu, Aug 7 2008 00:41:35
Cool
Thanks for all the feedback you guys.
I will definately keep all these ideas in mind.
Yeah I was worried that people would be bored at the club...
It is a school club so there needs to be a teacher present I believe, and I think most of the members would be beginners, so more ideas for beginners?
I hope if we start in October - April, the spinners would be proficient enough to string combos. That time frame would give them 7 months, and I have been spinning for 6, so that should be plenty of time?
Yeah I think the pencil idea would be better then maybe introduce pen modding.
and Mats, about keeping it informal, how could I achieve this?
So thanks again for the ideas, and of course, any more would be greatly appreciated
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Date: Thu, Aug 7 2008 02:25:02
Excellent idea man, I didn't really tried doing this to my school, but since 90% of my school are Asians, a lot of them got into penspinning. Making a pen spinning club like this might depend on luck (Or if you wanna call it another thing). But you will always have to be prepared for criticism.
During Oct 07, two of my friends (Imagm, FangKing) found UPSB. They learned the fundamentals and some intermediate tricks, and started spinning in class. Soon me and my other friend got interested and started learning tricks. At the beginning, a lot of them called us 'no lifers', 'losers' etc.
You know it's not pretty nice to just call people those names, but we didn't care, cause WE LIKE PEN SPINNING. Guess what happened few months later? We got like a whole table of people spinning during History and French class (XP).
So starting a club like this is all about how interested are YOU to show,teach others about pen spinning. Always encourage your friends to keep trying whenever they can't master a trick, they'll feel like they're being supported and soon once they get this feel of mastering a move, they'll definitely be into pen spinning (that's what happened to my friends xP).
Always be an active spinner, always show them cool videos of pros so they'll be encouraged to get better in spinning. Be helpful, help them make mods, if better GIVE THEM MODS (Rsvps, bics...etc) Don't be afraid that your club members will be bored when having a meeting, cause if they do get bored, that means they really aren't interested and you can't really force them.... It's all about interest...
The above crap might not make sense cause I'm horrible at explaining stuff xP
But best luck to you and hope you can get a lot of people spinning! -
Date: Thu, Aug 7 2008 02:47:53
nice man
im thinking about making one too
itll be a tough process with all the management and making of the constitution and stuff
but the result might be just awesome
i wish i had more spinners at my school since i think im the only one...
;
and also you can check out the 2 other threads that are also about making a penspinning club.
peace -
Date: Sat, Aug 9 2008 07:36:01
Oh wow, someone other than me will be making a club at their school.
I ALWAYS spin in class, and one of the staff said I should start a club when the year starts. However I doubt anyone in my grade is gonna go because I already showed most of them pen spinning and they'll just shun me if I make a club.
But screw them, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna do it. And the free food idea...I don't think any student running a club would be willing to do that. -
Date: Sat, Aug 9 2008 08:46:06
free food is just something to gather kids...
actually a number of people in upsb r trying to make a club...
me, the thread maker, u, etc...
ps- how do u plan on doing community service? i think its required...
pen spinning show?-.-