- Title: THAILAND: Thai schoolboys show how pen spinning can be an extreme hand sport
- Date: 10th September 2007
- Summary: BOY SPINNING PEN
- Embargoed: 25th September 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Thailand
- Country: Thailand
- Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVA9NCP6RHPC16MHH2FI8J95S399
- Story Text: Thai "pen spinners" turn an ordinary writing implement into an extreme hand sport and their club has attracted thousands of online members.
Spinning their pens effortlessly around their fingers, a group of Thai schoolboys gathered to show off what their nimble fingers can do and share tips on modifying their writing implements with other pen spinners.
They are part of "thaispinner.com", a club of young Thai pen spinning enthusiasts, which boasts thousands of online members.
This extreme hand sport has grown in popularity among schoolchildren, especially boys, many of whom spend time in the classroom improving their skills.
Most boys in the club start pen spinning at the age of around ten. They usually start with the basic "ThumbAround", where the pen is spun around the thumb and caught between the index and middle fingers in the position one holds a pen to write.
People walking past the Bangkok Children's Museum, where the club was meeting, were amazed as the group of spinners used their small, simple writing tools to perform different tricks -- many executed at a breakneck pace.
Members of thaispinners.com meet at least once every two months to help each other, swap tricks and have fun. They come from different provinces and different schools.
But apart from passing the time in class, pen spinning has also become a catchy way to grab their classmate's attention.
"While I was studying at school and I had nothing to do or couldn't think of something, I started spinning my pen. It also gets the attention of my friends," said 15-year-old Chatchai Sompong, a grade 10 student who has been pen spinning for just three months.
There are more than 100 ways of spinning a pen around one's fingers but some boys said they knew different styles, which could push that up to almost 200 variations.
Everyone needs to start off with a fundamental trick which is generally easier and will lay the foundations for subsequent and trickier feats.
Among Thai schoolboys, a "NeoBak Combo" is considered the ultimate and most difficult trick.
"The Neobak Combo is difficult and it's easy to drop the pen but if you do it, going this way it will be a bit easier but when you go the other way it will fall easily," said 17-year-old Grade A student Ukrit Tanasanti, demonstrating a NeoBak. "I have to practice more but now I am also studying hard," he added.
It takes weeks of practice to master each trick but some boys manage up to 20 tricks in a few months. To be an expert they need to keep training but this is only really possible when they have time and do not need to study too hard.
The spinners use pens that are around 18 to 20 centimetres long and ones they have personally modified to fit their needs. Two or three pens had had their bottoms replaced with a metal tip, several had double rubber gripping added for extra weight.
Indeed weight is key to both balancing and controlling the pens during a spinning session.
The longest spinner in this group clocked up 20 freestyle tricks in around a minute.
Around 10,000 pen spinners have joined thaispinner.com since it was founded in April last year -- a real surprise for the club's founder, 23-year-old Chatchai Songnapawuttikul.
"Now we have about 10,000 members in the webboard and their skills are quite okay. Thailand spinners are okay. We have opened up the webboard for just one year and some of them are very good at spinning and now the foreigners know about Thai spinners, too," he said.
The good spinners have also been filmed and put their clips on the internet to show their skills to other enthusiasts around the world. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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