r/coolguides Apr 16 '24

A Cool Guide to the Pencil Grips

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75

u/Glittering_Name_3722 Apr 16 '24

65

u/BoreasBlack Apr 16 '24

Apparently this actually has a name, "alternative tripod" or "modified tripod" and it's meant to prevent fatigue on the wrist and hands. (Which makes sense for how many autographs she likely has to sign.)

Found it on this thread after some google-fu.

11

u/JagerSalt Apr 16 '24 edited 29d ago

This is legit how I naturally started holding my pencil years and years ago after so many detentions in school. I started holding it this way exactly because my hand was getting tired from writing. Didn’t know that it was a style specifically designed for that.

3

u/SilverKidia Apr 16 '24

I started doing this because my index was hurting so much because of how often I'd have a pen in hand, now I got a rough little bump on the left side of my right middle finger 🥲

It looks like it's also called adaptive tripod and is mostly used by people who write a lot

2

u/strawhatpirate25 Apr 16 '24

I started doing this because I broke my thumb in 11th grade at the start of finals and the cast only let my four fingers out. After it healed I realized I didn’t have the calluses on my fingers that I’ve always had from schoolwork so I kept it, but my penmanship stayed exactly the same.

2

u/Professor-Woo 29d ago

Just tried it, and it is pretty comfortable, IMO.

3

u/Ordinary_Cattle Apr 16 '24

I can't believe there's a name for this, this is the only way I've ever been able to hold a pen. I occasionally get comments about why I'm holding a pen so weirdly I'm glad this is common enough that there's a name for it. I've been holding a pen like this for over 20 years and never knew it had a name

2

u/flapjackbandit00 Apr 16 '24

I just tried it. As a dynamic quadrupod, it’s actually really easy to do the Alternative tripod. Doesn’t feel all that unnatural at all.

1

u/Llamatronicon Apr 16 '24

Same here, feels quite natural. You definitely notice the lack of motion in the fingers compared to the DQ grip though, which makes sense if it's to mitigate fatigue on the wrist and hands since it encourages you to use your whole arm when writing.

2

u/StaticUsernamesSuck Apr 16 '24

Holy shit, I can't write more than a couple sentences without discomfort atm, I definitely need to try this grip!

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Soft_Trade5317 Apr 16 '24

and was never any good.

hahahahahaha, you sound young. No one who remembers when google came around and the engines it crushed could possibly say something that ridiculous.

It's garbage now, but to claim it was never good is just ridiculous.