how to change your pen grip

Firstly allow me to reaffirm the advantages of holding the pen properly

- Potentially more pen control

- Write at the same, or faster speed, with less fatigue. Hence you can keep up the same speed for 2h if you want.

- Following on,  it is possible to be relaxed when writing. This means it's gonna be really hard to cramp up or build up that burning sensation.

- The table is less likely to shake when you write.

- Press lighter and save more ink!!

- It takes 2-3 weeks and yes you will have to write more in order to change it.

I will cover

- What is the correct pen grip

- How to force yourself to change the pen grip

- How to know when you're converted

By the way I am not asserting that my handwriting is the pinnacle of success, but it's legible (except to the special 1%) and since I've converted I have never walked out of the exam room clutching/shaking/otherwise nursing my wrist. I also recommend reading the whole post first before trying to undergo the miraculous change into handwriting freedom.

What is the correct pen grip?

It's called the tripod grip.

I'm quite sure what I do is pretty much the correct tripod grip but I can't be 100% sure so correct me if I'm wrong. All I know is that it works well enough for me. I will now go into a really indepth explanation of how it sits in your hand because it took me a goddamn long time to match what it looks like in the pictures because I didn't know how it was meant to feel. Btw if the explanation is not clear enough for a certain part of the hand, please ask (Y). Clickity for larger photos.

 Here's how to form the tripod grip:

1) The pen should rest on your middle finger. This is on the fingertip side of your last knuckle. Hence, it should be crossing the middle finger about where your fingernail joins the rest of the finger. Obviously this is not set in stone, and it should just be wherever the pen tends to rest if you hold it as I've shown.
The back end of the pen lies in the crook of where your thumb and forefinger joins. If you were to make a pistol V with your fingers and let your pen roll down, that should be where it lands.
The pen is bridging the gap between the valley between your thumb and forefinger, and the little finger-groove in your middle finger.

2) The forefinger will come straight down onto the pen. It will be slightly on the outside (as in, about 120 degrees from where your middle finger and the pen are touching). It should be mainly with the tip of your forefinger. You see how the little bump in the middle of your fingerprint separates the pad into two slopes? Well the slope that is closer to the tip of the finger should lie flat on the pen in the position I described.

3) Close the grip with your thumb. This should be on the tip-side of the slope on your thumb as well. All together, you should have three contact points, evenly distributed (120 degrees each) around the circumference of the pen. Everything in your hand should be very relaxed right now. If you were to measure all your joints, they would form obtuse angles. There should be absolutely zero tension in your hand right now. Like if someone told you to relax your hand the pen should not move at all. Allow me to show you an undesirable hand position now.

While this appears to follow the rule of where the pen is place inside your hand, it is definitely not relaxed and within a few minutes your palms will be bloody destroyed. See how the last joint in the forefinger is hyperflexed, and also the first joint in the forefinger is bent almost as far as it will go. If you were to completely relax the muscles within that pen grip then it's quite likely you'll end up with the proper one.

Okay so how do we write?

4) The main writing motion is coming from your forefinger. The middle finger is being carried along by motion of the pen. The thumb rarely pushes by contracting muscles, it just acts as a spring to bring the pen back to neutral position. The pen does not slide relative to any finger. It rolls slightly along its longitudinal axis. This DOESN'T mean that you are grabbing the pen, you are holding it. The pen is 35 degrees off the paper (yes I freaking measured for you). As for where the pinky and ring finger go, I've seen 2 different configurations, both of which seem very viable.

This is how I personally hold it. The pinky is lightly pressed into my palm, and the ring finger is hanging pretty loose and lightly brushes against my palm as my hand moves to write. I put the weight of the hand on the first knuckle of the pinky, and on the bulgy part of the blade of my hand. The knuckle where the pinky joins the palm also rests slightly on the paper but there's no real pressure. This is pretty much two points of contact with the paper and it's quite light and reduces friction for me.

This one has the pinky on the outside, the ring finger stacked on top of it, and then the middle finger resting on the ring finger. This one (I think) shifts the weight to the first knuckle on the first finger, and the bulge where the wrist joins with your palm.

How to force yourself to change the pen grip

Okay so I did it in like 3 easy steps or some shit. Call 0422-XXX-XXX for your free trial now, etc ec.

1) Change your pen.
While this may seem strange, I don't think I could've done it quickly if I didn't change my pen. Well to be honest I didn't change my pen, I added a squishy grip to it. But the fact is you have to change how your writing implement feels, for the duration of your conversion period.
Why is this? It's because every time you pick up the pen it feels slightly unfamiliar. And each time you go "wtf this is a pen" you will also realise "wtf I'm holding it wrong" and FORCE YOURSELF TO CHANGE TO THE CORRECT GRIP.

2) Practise holding your pen
Pick up your pen, practise getting the right finger positioning, then drop it and do it again. Burn that shit into muscle memory!

3) Write
There's no real easy way out. You have to break yourself into the muscle memory, and this is done by surprise surprise, writing. It takes a while to get used to the fact you have to press lightly.
Do not expect instant results. You will of course write slower with this grip, initially. I promise you if you use this grip for a total of somewhere between 2-5 hours you will regain your previous speed, if not faster.

How to know when you're converted

There comes a time when you will pick up the pen into the tripod grip without thinking about it. That's the first step.
Then you forget how the hell you held the pen before. I just tried to grab my pen the way I used to (I remember I used to cover my forefinger with the tip of my thumb) but it feels retarded. The range of motion is so limited and I derno how I managed to write like that before.
After that you are truly in the club of the tripod grip, no pain writing. Enjoy!