Mechanism in a trick infobox explains how the pen is pushed to spin during the trick. Although it will be very difficult to notate the motion of fingers to push the pen, I, the admin, attempt to describe how to push the pen during the trick using some models and symbols.
This mechanism system depends on definition of the motion of fingers and hands. There are some tricks whose spin types and the appearance are the same but just ways of pushing the pen differ, as in Shadow and Neobackaround, Palmspin and Inverse Shadow, etc. Changes in the direction or appearance of spins can be tracked by the spin coordinate system, then we would require a structure that explains how the pen is pushed during a trick. In fact, as some of you may have already noticed, pen spinning tricks are results of push of the pen, and we can consequently identify a trick by a combination of determination of push style and corresponding spin coordinates.
1, I assume that there are three types of how to move a finger: to lower, raise, and wave, and later in Pen Spinning Trick Directory the following functions are employed to notate the motion of fingers during a trick (Table 1).
TABLE 1 Finger motion functions
In which the motion of fingers is qualitatively modeled, and then we can describe the motion of fingers as a combination of the above four finger motion functions.
2, Not only the fingers' motion influences the motion of the pen, and there will be another factor affecting the migration of the pen: the motion of the entire hand and arm (Table 2). The behavior of the hand and arm is crucial in some tricks such as Backaround and Fingerless tricks.
TABLE 2 Hand and arm motion functions
In which the motion of the hand is qualitatively modeled, and thus we can notate the motion of the hand as a combination of these hand and arm motion functions. Nonetheless, only the motion of the hand and/or arm serving directly to cause some changes in those spins is notated as an element of the push in mechanisms.
3, Some other forces like the gravity, air resistance, friction may affect spins of the pen all the time when you spin a pen on the earth. Mechanisms will not mention those possible effects of gravity, friction, and resistance of air on spins of the pen in order to make descriptions briefer, although it is true that there are several tricks involving some indispensable roles played by those forces.
There are some tricks with no mechanisms denoted in their infoboxes. These tricks seem not to require any intentional control of the pen during or at the beginning of the tricks, in which some other forces, especially the gravity, are considered to drive the pen to spin.
4, Mechanisms notated in conformity with the above rules make more sense by being connected with coordinates of spins.
Again, it is not easy to express in symbols pen spinning tricks exactly and precisely, and it is possible that some people may not agree to some of the translation of analog tricks into digital notation of this website. The same thing can also be said to the current official notation convention of UPSB. We must remember that it is never easy to try to describe the rather fuzzy motion of the pen, as this mechanism system is an artificial model just created to try to better understand pen spinning tricks, as well as spin coordinates. In addition, mechanisms of some tricks may stretch the motion of the pen, fingers, hands, or arms a bit so that we can easily figure out what is going on during those tricks.
This mechanism system works based on the definition of symbols representing the motion of fingers, hands, and arms, which enables us to notate any pen spinning tricks, combos, and hybrids, without introducing new specific trick names on many occasions or interrupted trick notation attributed to existing named tricks for them. Some people who are already very familiar with general trick names such as Thumbaround, Shadow, Charge, etc. may think of combination of trick names and interrupted notation easier to comprehend than this mechanism system. However, the mechanism system functions on the principle of coordinates of spins and symbolization of finger, hand, and arm motion, which also results in a possibility of the new pen spinning world in which video demonstrations or the axiom of fundamental tricks are not always the only ways for pen spinners to exchange information.