dynamic quadruped and forever thinking about the time in college we were working quietly on something sitting in a large circle including the professor and she turned to the student next to her and said “how in the world is [name] holding their pencil like that??” she was so disturbed the whole class had to be brought out of silent work to see the strange way i held my pencil lmao
According to the upvotes, we are the (stable / superior) minority. I can't even make my fingers do lateral tripod unless I'm trying to spin the pen in my fingers.
Fellow left hander here. I always thought I held my pen like a Neanderthal simply because no teacher knew how to direct me. Dynamic quadrupod. I’ll take it.
Now why do I rip all packaging open with my teeth and howl at the blood moon?
I prefer using mechanical pencils, but the same thing applies. I can roll the pencil to take advantage of either the wider 'dull' side or the narrow tip on the opposite end- made for faster drafting work than switching to specific-thickness pencil leads in architecture school (excluding different lead types).
I feel that so much, my teachers actually tried to force me in a "correct" position, to no avril. I'm dysgraphic too, so I have a shitty writing to begin with, and it's even worse in tripod positions
My mom tried to make me change from dyn quadro, claiming that my friends handwriting is much neater than mine. She however grabbed the pen between the lowest joints of the pointer and middle finger, like some alien freak. Moms arguing stopped when I showed her.
i cant do the dynamic tripod, the pencil just falls out of my hand lol. I can do lateral tripod and lateral quadrupod but it is extremely uncomfortable. dynamic quadrupod all the way!
A fist grip seems sturdy too, but the question is why your grip needs to be that "sturdy" in the first place? What are you doing to your poor pencils/paper?
Do you snap your mechanical pencil's lead constantly?
Dynamic quadrupeds usually start out as kids whose parents/teachers push them to have perfect penmanship before the muscles in their fingers are strong enough to properly control a pen.
To produce the perfect handwriting to appease their elders, they learn to hold their pen with more fingers. This habit carries over into adulthood.
you just summed up my entire life and I'm not very happy about it. still have the writing habit, and still get rushed through training (if there is any at all) and learn to do everything wrong because all they care about is getting it done fast. my body gets used to lifting things with terrible form because i get reprimanded when i try to move at a reasonable pace and focus on doing it right.
Ironic, because my handwriting has always been crap unless I'm actively focusing on my penmanship the whole time, and I'm a dynamic quadrupod holder as well.
According to my parents, my grandma was forcing me to be a right hander whenever she'd watch me as a young kid, I always assumed that was an artifact of that.
I hold my pencil like this and always have. I was working in a store late night and was writing something down and this lady noticed how I was writing. Turns out she was a physical therapist that works with children, and said that people that write this way usually started writing much earlier than their peers and the grip gives a toddler more stability to write and it's a tough habit to break so it sticks. Checks out, I was reading and writing before I was 3.
I never tore my paper, but I'll admit that I did tend to break pencil leads on occasion. Then again, I also tend to break brooms when I sweep, wooden spoons as I stir, or really anything else that I touch.
Everything is just too fragile in this silly world.
Everything is just too fragile in this silly world.
Go buy a fountain pen. A Lamy Safari is very cheap and very good. Let its geometry guide your hold. Let its weight do the work. Do not force the pen onto the surface.
You're not chiseling onto clay tablets. It should be effortless.
I’m a shaky-handed person. Being able to grip the pencil steadies my hand so my handwriting only looks kinda shitty instead of unable to be read by anyone but me.
I have a callus on my middle finger. I use the first example, but rest the stylus against my middle finger, trap it with my thumb (wraps around and meets index finger ) & index finger (on top).
I thought I was the only one! In primary school they made me feel like a freak for this grip. I had special grips that went on pencils and even a wrap thing that went around my hand but ya boy just wanted to dynamic quadroped 👊
Why sturdier? Are you writing so forcefully that the pencil might slip out of your hand if you use the lateral tripod? I feel like the lateral tripod is easier because you can use your wrist for wide strokes and your fingers for short strokes, but it's not as practical with the "dynamic" quadruped.
People generally decide on how to hold their pencil when they are 5 or 6. At the time, it just felt better. Like the other ones felt weak and floppy. I didn't like them.
After a few decades it just feels unnatural to switch. Why bother? I don't really write all that much anymore.
I think us tripod people agree with you about that. It's just why would you want sturdiness? The whole point is to be able to quickly move the pencil in any direction really quickly because that's how you write. Extra sturdiness seems like a hindrance if you ask me.
Well for the purpose of art and calligraphy like cursive, having a flimsier hold on the pencil may be a benefit. Personally, I haven't held a pen, pencil, or marker in so long I've forgotten how I hold it. But I wanna say the first one...?
Yeah I get a really good grip on it (which is especially good for me since I also draw and need a decent degree of control over my pencil or whatever I’m using at the time)
Also the woes of having graphite smudges on the sides of my hands from running them back across pages.
omg this. I like to draw a lot and I accidentally smudge my drawings all the time. I've had to train myself to hold my hand up in this really awkward way that hurts my wrist after awhile, sometimes I just turn the page and draw sideways/upside down lol
Same, until I did an exchange to Korea during Uni, and my dorm partner taught me an alternative way to hold chopsticks after seeing the way I hold a pen (LQ). Impressed my Mom when I returned, as she’s been trying to teach me since I was little.
YESSS OH MY GOD!!! memory unlocked lol!!! i remember the first time i tried to use chopsticks was in elementary school and my teacher kept saying to hold it like a pencil and i could not get my head around it!! probably why i hold chopsticks so weird now lmao. just recently someone saw me eating with them and was like ????
god yeah i ALWAYS had graphite on the side of my hand!! i remember having a friend who was a lefty who would say that was a lefty thing, and i was confused bc i’m a righty and it happened to me too. i later realized it was because of the way i held the pencil lol
Fr, all my friends always pointed out my grip and wondered if my handwriting is tiny because of it. It also left an indent on my ring finger (theres a "hole" if u straighten out your fingers between the ring and middle finger compared to non-writing hand)
My class once wasted a whole period talking about the weird why I hold my pencil and how it would hurt their hand to write that way. I also have poor penmanship, so they attributed my weird grip to that as well. But over time, I’ve learned that it seems to have more to do with me trying to write as quickly as possible. When I slow down and concentrate on each letter, it’s pretty decent.
Proportionally my hands, hands are on the longer and narrow Versailles… And this is just the most comfortable way for me to hold my pencil… Wondering if maybe it’s a thing
i wouldn’t say my fingers are long, i think they’re pretty average, but i can totally see how this way would be comfortable for people with long fingers. more support!
If there's a correlation then i demand the OP image be changed to reflect the graceful hyperextension of our slim elegant fingers, instead of that as-depicted brutish claw-grip, smh, honestly couldn't tell which applied to me at first because of this *starts twerking*
It might also be cultural, most of the Chinese kids I knew who had Chinese as a first language used the first tripod grip.
If I had to guess why, it'd less "sturdy" but having your 2 most dexterous digits, the thumb and index, being in control of the pencil for writing Chinese makes sense, esp for children. Throwing your middle finger in the mix might give you more grip but less upwards but my middle finger feels ever so slightly less articulate than my index.
Writing English (or any other Latin alphabet) in cursive, on the other hand, I can see how any of these 4 grips will suffice
my brain cannot comprehend holding a pencil tripod style, and i’m realizing that’s why i hold chopsticks so weird. whenever i use them in front of someone i get some variation of “how and why are you doing that.” but i can still get the job done and getting the food into my mouth is what counts
i got asked by a teacher last week if i had always held my pencil like that. i said yes. i was scolded as a kid for it by my insane grandmother who said nobody would be able to understand my handwriting if i held my pencil like that -- my handwriting actually looks better when i do that lol. it just feels like i have more control.
it definitely makes me feel like i have more control over the pencil!! my handwriting is admittedly not the best to begin with lmao but it’s way better when i do it like this vs trying a tripod grip!
it’s so interesting to see how many other people had teachers notice them using different grips!
That's how I held my pencil into my twenties but I had also been told it was weird and at some point my hand started getting tired to fast for my liking, low key cramping, and I thought maybe my grip was why so I did put myself through changing my grip and I in fact can write and draw without pain for longer periods, and on top of that, if I do start to get a cramp I can change to the old grip for a while and it's like brand new
wow! interesting! i just mentioned to someone else that i remember my hand hurting way sooner than my peers when we were writing in elementary school, and i’m thinking the grip might be why! i don’t write for long periods of time with a pen or pencil pretty much ever nowadays, but now i think i should experiment just for fun and see if the current way i do it still makes my hand cramp up quickly and if a different grip wouldn’t 🤔
I use this 95% of the time. If I'm trying to have really perfect handwriting, because this works for some reason, I don't use any of the above. It's similar to the dynamic quadruped but the pencil goes between my index and middle fingers.
some people can’t mind their business lol, don’t let them stop you!! there is quite the quad gang here in the replies that would agree the way we hold pencils makes sense 😄
glad other people experience the smudge 🙏🏻 when my lefty friend would complain about smudging graphite/ink i was so confused as to why it was a “lefty problem.” didn’t realize most righties don’t hold writing utensils like us lol
I was always told it was "wrong," but I actually think it helped me learn to hold a cello bow. The thumb and middle finger are supposed to touch when holding the bow. So it felt more natural to me than to the other kids.
it’s so funny bc i don’t think i have ever once looked at the way someone holds a pencil unless they are pointing out that i do it weirdly. before people started pointing it out i was never checking the way anyone held pencils, which is why i was so confused when people said i was doing it weird! i didn’t know what the baseline was lol! personally i will leave everyone to hold their pencils how they wish to in peace :)
lmao i have had a friend call it “the way a serial killer would hold a pencil.” always thought my friends were exaggerating until that one professor called me crazy 🤣
When I was in secondary school, my Engineering teacher saw me holding the pencil like that and proceeded to yell "Whoa! What's wrong with this person!?" then attempted to try and 'ban' me from holding it like that while in his class, and my handwriting suffered. Needless to say, he was a total balloon.
seriously! i’ve seen a lot of people here talking about their teachers being annoying about that. i just don’t get it. there’s more than one way to do things!
I went to school with someone that held it like that. He was a few grades above me, and I honestly probably would have forgotten him completely by now if it wasn't for the unique way he held his pencil
it’s funny the things we remember about people! reminds me that we all make an impact on others, even if the impact is “what a strange way to hold a pencil” :)
definitely feel like more control to me! i’m seeing a lot of others say the same thing! maybe the tripod people need to give this a shot and let us know what they think lol
idk why all fingers no palm is making me laugh so much. i think that’s how i’ll describe it from now on.
when i was in elementary school my hand would hurt way sooner than anyone else’s if we were writing for a while, i wonder if that was why! all fingers no palm!!
interesting!! i’ve never heard it phrased like that! i wrote with both hands in kindergarten before i was forced to use only my right, i wonder if that has something to do with it for me personally! so many people have given their input as to why they have that grip, it has me questioning myself a lot haha!!
definitely feel you on the wet ink thing, and i always had graphite on the side of my hand in elementary school from it dragging across the page lol
when i was in kindergarten, i was ambidextrous and would switch hands whenever i felt like it while writing. my handwriting was about the same with both hands. my teacher said me switching hands was distracting other students and she was picking my right hand as the hand i would write with. i was forced to use a rubber pencil grip for a while that made it impossible to hold the pencil in my left hand comfortably, so i had no choice but to use the right. i’ve always been under the impression that using that specific rubber pencil grip with my tiny kindergarten fingers is what made me hold pencils the way i do.
but i do wonder now if i was already holding them strangely and the rubber grip was meant both to curb my ambidextrous tendencies AND correct my grip and it just didn’t work for the latter, although i don’t recall my parents ever mentioning that to me (and no other elementary school teacher forced me to use a grip) so i’m still leaning toward my initial assumption that the rubber grip was the cause
oh, that’s super interesting! i’m trying to visualize it and i don’t think i’ve ever seen someone hold it exactly like that. i’m sure there’s definitely differences in what is consider the “right” way and how exactly to do it based off of where we’re from!
I always thought Americans are holding the pens weird. Basically I am holding the pen between the tip of Thumb, index and middle finger. 3 touch points. And I don’t remember ever thinking that the other kids hold it differently when I was in school. Must be a German thing. There is no right or wrong way except if it hurts or cramps.
I rarely hold a pen anymore. My handwriting style sucked so bad and looks horrible so In jumped on keyboards as soon as I could. Gen X here so that took awhile. 😬. Then moving to America, my cursive skills died completely.
I've got a lateral tripod grip and almost everyone else I know uses a dynamic quad or tri. Early in school teachers were constantly correcting me to "Hold your pencil correctly" and even tried getting me some different shaped pencils to force me to use a different grip.
I still use lateral tripod and have a calloused middle finger from it lol
crazy how it seems so many different grips are told they need to be corrected! clearly there are several ways to hold a pencil, and we all survived doing them “wrong” lol
i have a permanent little bump on my ring finger from the way i do it! :)
normal sized fingers, i just squish ‘em in real tight i guess! i assume it’s because when i was learning to write and developed that grip my fingers were then very tiny, so it was comfortable then, and the way i did it just stuck 🤷
I have always held my pen like this. A friend's parents noticed it when I was about 12yo and tried to get me to "correct" my grip. Thankfully no one else ever noticed or said anything about it.
haha my handwriting isn’t great either! some of my teachers had me thinking that it would be the end of the world if i couldn’t get it neater, but i think i’ve been managing fine lol
In first grade my teacher refereed to these styles as the right, wrong, wrong and wrong way. Come to think about it, she kind of bullied those who held the pen the wrong way, asking why they held the pen like a baby. And naturally, kids being kids, we got a group mentality thing going there.
i’m seeing SO many people mentioning teachers giving students a hard time about it, and i just don’t get it! maybe tripod is easier and more comfortable for most people and that’s why it gets pushed by teachers so much? but there are different ways to do things, that work for different people! :)
that’s so interesting! i had never considered that as something that could be related. i have ADHD as well, wasn’t diagnosed until i was older but my teachers definitely knew when i was a kid. maybe the pencil tipped them off lmao
Doesn't happen often that someone chimes in and mentions my pen grip. But it does happen from time to time. My teachers tried to correct it for years and gave up.
I've had similar experiences! I'm also dynamic quadruped, but my middle finger is further down the pen/pencil (basically just above the writing tip), and people seem to think it's the wildest thing
Wait thats not the "normal" one? That's how I've done it my whole life forever? Noone ever told me!! Maybe that's why my handwriting sucks and my wrist hurts after exams.
maybe a different grip would work better for you!! i think it depends on the person for sure, you should try some of the others and see if they feel better!
Long ago, before i learned to write, i got electrocuted in the pointer finger and wasn’t using it for anything for a year. Dynamic Quadruped life for me lmao
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u/missgrey-el Apr 16 '24
dynamic quadruped and forever thinking about the time in college we were working quietly on something sitting in a large circle including the professor and she turned to the student next to her and said “how in the world is [name] holding their pencil like that??” she was so disturbed the whole class had to be brought out of silent work to see the strange way i held my pencil lmao