How To Hold A Kendama (Kendama Trick Tutorial)

Three main types of Kendama grips

There are three basic and popular methods to grab or to hold a kendama.  These are by no means the only ways that you can handle a kendama but they are by far the most popular and will be the best for you to start out with as you learn to get familiar with the toy.

The three methods are the ken grip named after the portion of the toy that you are holding onto, the pen or sara grip named after the way that it looks when you are holding it, and the tama grip also named after the portion of the toy that you use to handle your tricks.

Ken Grip

The ken grip is when you use your three fingers, pointer, middle, and ring, along with your thumb in an over hand type grip onto the handle part of the kendama, the ken.  You grip the ken just underneath the cups.  This hold is the most versatile type of position to allow a large variety of tricks from simple to advanced.

Pen Grip

Another type of grab is the sara, pen, or pencil grip, and it is performed just like you would think.  It is performed the same way that you would hold a pen when you are writing.  During this grab the main big cup will be facing the sky and the smaller cup will be faced directly down to the ground.  This hold is from the opposite side of the side that you grabbed with the ken grip.

Tama Grip

The last and final type that you should know before you get started with kendama is the tama grip.  This grip is performed by grabbing on to the ball or tama part of your kendama.  You want to do this by using the tips of your fingers  as this gives the greatest precision when performing more technical tricks.  One thing to remember is that when you are in this type of hold you want the hole in the tama to be facing directly up at the ceiling as you will find later will be very helpful with certain types of technical tricks involving the spike.

Get Creative

Like was mentioned before these are not the only ways to handle the kendama.  Make sure to get creative, just because youve never seen it done a certain way doesnt mean that it shouldn’t be. Everyone has their own unique style and specific ways of doing certain things.  Start building your own style from the beginning.  Create your own unique tricks and hand holds!