Now my way would be tough on 10 foot rods
, but it works like a charm on my 8 footers and shorter. I wrap a band of masking tape about 2 feet down from the tip. With my left forearm extended in front of me, with my palm up facing the ceiling, I place the rod on my forearm with the butt to the left. The masking tape is usually just off to the left of my arm, so most of the blank is suspended. I'm holding the rod tip between my tumb and forefinger of my right hand, with the blank resting on my left forearm. Now as a bump the rod into the air slightly with my left forearm, I give it a good hard spin using my right hand. Now the blank isn't leaping into the air a foot, just enough to take it off my arm so I can give it a good hard spin. My right hand flattens out to allow the tip to spin freely on my right palm, while the blank spins and rotates back and forth easily on my left forearm. It will come to rest on my forearm and the spline will make it set up in the same position every time. I will use a fine pointed permanent marker, and mark the top of the masking tape, to indicate the spline facing the ceiling. I will make subsequent spins to fine tune it and then make a wider mark. When a friend showed me this method, I tested it against the standard and the one your using and it worked the same. I switched over, because I use shorter blanks and it's quicker for me.