gestures - which sensor to use? Acc., Compass, Gyro?

Hello,
I'd like to use a sensor to figure out a couple of simple gestures. Pretend an Arduino is mounted at the end of a rod (like a magic wand). Here are the gestures I'd like to be able to differntiate. Assume I know when a gesture starts and stops - I'm actually constraining my gesture to 1 second after a button press.

  • left swipe, right swipe
  • up swipe, down swipe
  • counter clockwise circle
  • clockwise circle
  • stab

I've been reading up on accelerometers, compasses, and gyros. It seems like gyros are my best option, since I don't have to worry about gravity, and drift is not an issue.

Gyros may be fine. Get a sensor and start recording the values for your gestures, then start figuring out how to recognize the gestures from such a list of values.