How to Brandy

A brandy is a no handed roundoff. It is an advanced aerial variation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIGw5_rS5vA

What you need before the Brandy:

How to Brandy step by step:

Specific problem advice:

The most common problem you can encounter is a "tangled" feeling during the middle of the trick. The cause of this is that your upper body did not open up completely to allow your legs through; Your legs went up and could not come back down because the hips and shoulders were not facing forward. More momentum is the best remedy for fixing this problem.

Another problem that is common is "landing short", with your feet nowhere near getting completely underneath you. The cause of this is that you did not block your momentum; You have to pop up into the brandy with your momentum, kind of punch the ground while moving out to direct your legs up. This block will help your body to dip down quicker, and help your legs to shoot up quicker.

Think about what happens if you sprinted as fast as you possibly could and tried to brandy with that momentum, visualize it in your head: You would dive forward, your upper body would drop down slowly, and your legs would rise slowly; So slowly that they wouldn't make it through and you would crash very short, that's if you were lucky! More likely I would slaughter your pet guinea pig and BBQ him and eat him in front of you. I would even weigh him on a scale so I knew how many calories and grams of protein I was getting from the meat.

Fixing either of these two problems alone will lead directly to the other problem.

• If you are opening up your body but are not controlling your momentum: You will land short.


• If you are controlling your momentum but are not opening up your body: You will tangle.

So the trick is to train in a fun way with a few different variations until you achieve OPTIMAL BALANCE.

Training tools for building a better brandy:

• Do your aerial with a running takeoff as in the above slides.


• Try some axe2cartwheels and axe2aerials.


• Try any reverse aerial variation.

Axe2aerials and reverse aerials are awesome training tools for learning to open up your body quicker and more completely. Try them out, even if you have to put your hands on the ground to do them.

• Learn to roundoff really well.


• Work on running aerials trying to cover a big distance.

Trying to cover a big distance with an aerial is one of my favorite training tools for the brandy and for all aerial variations. It's also a lot of fun! Also, I think doing it into a sandpit or a foam pit or onto a mat or off a cliff is a very productive way to train it if you can't land it on normal ground.

• Work on the brandy into a sandpit or foam pit or mat.

The sandpit was my best friend when I began working on both the brandy and aerial switch on my bad side; It helped tremendously and was a fun way to train these tricks.

My experiences:

I don't remember much about learning this trick for the first time because it was almost ten years ago. All I remember is that I landed it on plyo floor for a few months before I took it to grass, and that was it. However, I experienced some difficulties recently when I decided to learn it on my other side.

My biggest problem was a lack of sheer force: I was "Over-technique'ing" the trick for months without realizing it; I kept trying to outsmart it. One afternoon I got pissed off at it, and just started doing it with a reckless amount of force, I wasn't thinking about it anymore. And that's when I began to nail it over and over again on my other side.

As I've gotten more experienced in tricking, I've had a tendency to believe that with that experience has come technical wisdom that would have been of value if I had known it earlier. However, I know better now, that if I had known that technical wisdom too early it may have riddled me with hesitation and doubt. When I was first learning many tricks, I wasn't trying to outsmart any move, I was just blindly going at it with sheer force. This netted me my entire foundation.

I think as we get more experienced in tricking, there's the possibility to develop this tendency of braining your tricks instead of brawning them; This is counter-productive. Here in the brandy, and other technical aerial variations, and all tricks, know what you're doing and why, but don't forget to put some might into it! And don't forget the Ammonia inhalants!