Fidget Slider Tricks: 11 Moves, Easy to Hard (2026)

Slider tricks are hard to learn from video. As Fidget Focused says at the start of his Fidget Sliding 101, once sliding is second nature it's hard to say what your thumb is doing. This page writes it down, move by move. Names are the ones the community uses; where a name is one creator's own, we say so.

Everything below assumes a two-piece magnetic slider: two plates held together by magnets that you can push off the end, turn, and walk around each other. If yours rides on a rail, read the section on which sliders can do tricks near the end first.

Practice over a bed. justanotherpxrson gives that advice in his beginner tricks video: you will drop the slider, and he still does.

Beginner

1. Up and down

How: Rest the slider on your ring finger. Brace the top of the back plate with your pointer finger. Push the front plate up from its bottom edge, then push it back down from its top edge. Let the base of your thumb ride along the plate.

Common mistake: Getting pinched. Fidget Focused says that is either magnets that are too strong or a thumb placed where it gets trapped between the plates. Check where your thumb is before you blame the slider.

This grip sets up the next three moves, so drill it.

2. The ladder

How: Push up so the front plate sits at the top. Shift your thumb slightly toward one corner and press. The plate drops down beside the back plate. Push it back in and repeat. justanotherpxrson's version: at the top, give the corner "the tiniest little nudge" and it should fall. Next, learn a sideways push from a spot between the top and the middle. Then chain the two moves.

Common mistakes: Pushing too hard; done right, your thumb barely looks like it moves. If the plate stops at the top and won't drop, Fidget Focused says the magnets may be too strong or the plates dirty. Wipe them on your shirt. Some sliders just need you to guide the drop.

3. The backside ladder

How: Same idea, but you work from the back. Your thumb slides the front plate one way while your pointer finger comes around from behind and pushes the top down. justanotherpxrson calls this backwards ladder one of his favorite basic moves. Once both directions work, you can combine them: the first half of a reverse ladder, then down from the back.

Common mistake: Squeezing the back plate so hard it can't move. Hold it with enough grip to keep it, not to lock it.

4. T-slide

How: Rotate the top plate 90 degrees so the two plates form a T, then slide up and down in that position.

Common mistake: Blaming yourself. Fidget Focused notes it works best with equally spaced magnets; on newer layouts that aren't, it feels lumpy. That's the layout, not you.

Intermediate

5. The Sexton slide

How: Dynamic Inertia has a whole tutorial on it. Cup the slider with your middle and ring fingers on the back plate, resting on your pinky. The pointer finger is optional. Put your thumb on one corner of the top plate and push. The plate swings about 180 degrees down in a half circle. Keep contact on the same spot of that corner the whole way round. To reset, pinch the plate back to the top.

Common mistakes: Using force. He describes using almost no force at all; on his slider the plate "almost just wants to fall that way." justanotherpxrson adds that how easy it is depends heavily on the slider and its magnet strength. Dynamic Inertia points to a three-click, 4 x 2 setup, says he can do it on most of those, and finds it easiest on a hybrid magnet setup.

6. Up and over

How: Hold the slider with your fingertips bracing the far side. Push the top plate across with your thumb while you gently turn your wrist, bringing it up and over. With practice, the thumb does almost all of it.

Common mistake: Moving the wrist too fast and flinging the plate. Keep it slow until you find the right amount of force.

7. Down and around

How: The same motion in the other direction, but it needs room. Hold the slider far out on your fingertips so there's a gap between it and your palm. That gives the plate space to rotate.

Common mistake: Clipping your palm. Fidget Focused says to push with enough force that a light brush against your palm won't stop it. If your hands are small, a smaller slider makes this easier.

8. Swing shut

How: Slide the top plate out to the side, push it up, then let it swing closed. Fidget Focused added it as an extra because it's his favorite move on one particular slider.

Common mistake: Forcing it on a slider that doesn't want to swing. This one depends on the slider more than most, so try it on each one you own.

Advanced

9. Around the world

How: Hold the slider in your palm with your fingers bracing the back plate. Push up on the top plate a little off-center, not at the edge. With enough push, it pivots on the back magnets, travels round through your hand and comes back to the top, "almost like a roller coaster," in Fidget Focused's words. justanotherpxrson's key detail: move your thumb out of the way as the plate comes round, and use a small push rather than a real flick.

Common mistakes: Pushing from the edge, which justanotherpxrson says is what most people do; the plate just gets stuck. Leaving your thumb in the path, so the plate can't finish. Flicking too hard, which sends it flying. Once one direction works, learn the other. With a grippy slider you can eventually walk the plate around the whole edge.

10. Reverse around the world

How: Around the world in the opposite direction. Push slightly diagonally, up and out. Give a small backwards flick from the wrist and move your thumb sideways so the rotation can finish.

Common mistake: Your pointer finger blocking the plate. justanotherpxrson changes his grip to more of a pinch so the plate has clearance to rotate. He says he's still learning one direction of it, which tells you where it sits on the difficulty scale.

11. The shuffle

How: Slide the top plate up, let it drop, slide it up again, let it drop, and keep that rhythm going faster. The trick is pushing diagonally rather than straight up. That sends the plate right into the corner every time. Hold the other half so the moving plate can travel freely.

Common mistakes: Expecting it to come quickly. justanotherpxrson says it clicked for him only after months. On an ordinary slider the plate tends to jump to the top. He says "flare" style sliders with a wider magnet setup are much better for learning it. He also admits "shuffle" is just his own name for it. A related move takes the plate up to a corner and flicks it back down. He found some sliders do that well and others don't.

Free-floating slider moves are a separate discipline

Multi-plate "free-floating" sliders have their own move list. NXEDC's tutorial covers ladder, retrieval, Butterfly, Reverse Flick, Side-to-Side and Up-and-Down Tail Wag, Grand Loop, Inertia Push and 3D Hover. B Eight's beginner combo video teaches Step, Butterfly and Swing on a titanium slider with a 6+8 magnet layout. Both teach by video, so we won't guess at the steps here.

Which sliders can do these tricks

Magnetic, two-piece and open-ended: yes. Every move above needs the plate free to leave the track and rotate. Fidget Focused's rule of thumb: strong magnets in the corners and weaker ones in the middle give easy fast pushes and let you "whip it around" without the plate flying off. He tunes a slider by changing the middle magnets first and the corner magnets last. Hybrid sliders, with stronger magnets on one plate than the other, can overswing or skip when held the wrong way up. Some trick sliders add magnets across the middle for a smooth glide, which costs you clicks.

Mechanical, on a track: mostly no. Rail and ball-detent designs keep the plate on one line. GAO's Kickstarter slider, for example, uses "the highly effective ball-bearing slide" to position the beads. Good for a crisp push; no ladder, T-slide or around the world. Our magnetic vs mechanical guide explains how the two builds differ.

Best fidget slider for tricks: what to look for

If you're not sure what to buy yet, our guide on how to choose an EDC fidget slider walks through the decision.

When the click is the point, not the trick

Some people never care about around the world. They just want a good click under their thumb during a call. echoPi is a slider we're developing for that: real clicks you can program, with a note on each one. You can hear the sounds in the play area and join the list for launch news.