From "The Spectator":

An amusing trick for bored readers: stretch out your right leg and draw circles with your foot in a clockwise direction, and then, while doing that, draw the number six in the air with your right hand. You’ll find that your foot magically changes direction!

Gareth

Creepy.

Took me a minute to decipher ``rotate your right foot''. I thought you were trying to get me to pull a pedal Linda Blair.

Stranger yet...it wasn’t working for me. So I tried my left foot (since I am left handed) and it works!! Doesn’t matter which hand I use, both make my left foot reverse directions.

AS point of clarification, I first thought you meant "rotate your right foot'' while its flat on the ground. From 12 o’clock to 3 o’clock - then I realized you mean in the air like an ankle stretch.

Yeah, there were comments about that on other forums while I was searching about it. I have modified the original text to make it a little clearer.

Gareth

If you draw the six on its side, with the "open" part facing down, so that the curve is always clockwise, then you can do it.

Even when I try really hard not to concentrate I can't make this work for me. My foot just keeps going the way it's told until I tell it to stop.

Shouldn't this be normal?

My foot just keeps going the way it's told

Same with me. I tried every possible combination of left and right, feet and hands, and I can still do it without changing direction.

I'll bet it's a key ingredient in being able to syncopate. Those who have no trouble with it, do you play drums or piano?

Hm, I play drums, but this one still gets me. I think it's because the act of making drum strokes or tapping pedals isn't circular, whereas this thing is. I have decent (though not quite Peart-esque) 4-limb independence on my kit, but when I try this, I find it really hard to avoid switching directions without staring at my foot when I do it. Of course I also have to concentrate on my surrounding cube area so I don't have a cow-orker walk by and see me gyrating like a coked-up orangutan.

Yes, I play the piano. Good reasoning Tony.

Not entirely. I quizzed another piano playing friend and he cannot do it.

I've seen something like this before, except you put your foot parallel to the ground and moved it in circles and then tried to write your name.
Some people give hilarious results (i.e. writing their name like they just learned how (or haven't yet) ).

Is your rotation pivoting at the ankle or at the knee?