Stupid idea #1 - Ankle and wrist weight tricking
I think every 13 year old getting into tricking has considered or tried tricking with ankle and/or wrist weights on. Hell, I tried it when I was 16 years old. I was influenced by DBZ.
In DBZ, Goku trains with weighted boots and in a gravity chamber. Nobody has access to a gravity chamber (can you imagine the training mistake videos that would pop up on YouTube from such a thing?) But all of us have access to buying some cheap ankle weights.
Okay so I put these things on and do just one tornado kick in my garage. One of the pin weights flys out of the ankle strap and puts a dent in the water heater in my garage. Close call. What about windows, bystanders, cars?
The body's joints do not take kindly to shackles like this, it will not forgive you for such a stupidity. Find me a pro trickster who trains their tricks with ankle or wrist weights. Try. You won't find any skilled trickster dicking around with ankle and wrist weights. Why? Because it's a stupid idea. To benefit from any sort of "weighted tricking" , it would be a much better idea to consider even distribution of added weight on your frame, instead of hodge podging it on your limbs and torso... Which leads me to my next stupid tricking idea...
Stupid idea #2 - Trick bulking
May I recommend that tricksters wanting to enjoy the DBZ training experience of weighted limbs and/or extra gravity need merely do one thing? BULK MOTHER FUCKER BULK. Eat more. Get fat. Yep. Your body does a stellar job of evenly distributing weight gained across your entire frame. Eat to build muscle and get fat and the weight just piles on everywhere, head to toe. Nice and even distribution. So gain 25 lbs and trick like that for a season, then rapidly cut the 25 lbs and you should be tricking like you are on the moon? Right? Right?!! Because you've essentially been training in higher gravity and now YOU ARE TRAINING IN LOWER GRAVITY LOW WEIGHT = LOW GRAVITY IT SHOULD FEEL EFFORTLESS!!!!!!111
It doesn't happen this way. Every time I bulked, my tricks have suffered, and every time I continued tricking at the higher body weights and then began trimming down, my tricks usually went right back to where they were before I bulked. No gains. In fact, usually my tricks lagged for a while until I had stabilized at the reduced weight. Look, trick bulking does not work. There is no reason to bulk for tricking unless you merely want to make your tricks shittier with a more muscular frame like I do.
Stupid idea #3 Tricking in adverse conditions for training
Tricking in adverse conditions like snow serves only one purpose: to make cool videos! (Yes, that was Antoine Vaillant!) However, believing that toughing out the elements for an entire season will have you tricking like a master come spring time, is stupidity. Whether it be tall patchy grass, rubble, blisteringly cold winds, or whatever: tricking in adverse conditions will hold you back from improving. Pro tricksters find gyms and trick in them during bad weather or winter seasons. Hell, they trick in gyms almost exclusively it seems.
I've erroneously thought (and for a long time thought this...) that I could tough out inclement weather and come out on top, but all of those training sessions always ended up giving me nothing in return. I've done much better tricking on plyo to improve my tricks. So when faced with adverse conditions: find a gym or do something else unless you are looking for character building or cool tricking footage possibilities.
Stupid idea #4 Tricking in shoes and heavy clothes
Tricking in shoes is cool for getting cool footage for a video, yes, much like tricking in interesting places or bad weather is cool for getting cool footage. But training your tricks in shoes is a little like training in a very mild form of ankle weights. It also disengages your toes from the activity, which help with... a lot. And no! Vibram 5 finger shoes are not the answer to your prayers! They are not the same as being barefoot.
Basically tricking in shoes is a technical cluster fuck, your body likes its toes. You should like your toes. You shouldn't be doing acrobatics in shoes unless you're a cheer leader who must train in shoes, or you do Parkour. And Cheer and Parkour both have something in common here that make them stand apart from tricking in this regard: most of the movements are running forward. Almost everything happens in a tumbling line or a straight path of clearance. This is why these activities are a little more forgiving about shoes. Regardless, haven't you ever looked at the shoes these people wear? Look:
Cheer and Parkour practitioners wish they could be barefoot, but they can't. So why do some tricksters wear shoes? Answer: someone was filming at a gas station parking lot during a gathering. Duh. Just because Danny Graham did some nice Jacknives in front of a 711 gas station doesn't mean you should train your tricks in shoes. He wasn't training, he was showing off. Look, tricking involves a lot of side to side business and in and outs that don't happen along a forward line like Cheer and Parkour skills, tricks happen all over the place; that means it's more dangerous. Why are you training your tricks in Reeboks? Take those fuckers off. Don't fall into the trap of believing that if you trick in shoes for a few months and then start tricking barefoot you will level up. It's not going to happen. This is the same error of thought as the ankle weights. What is more likely to happen is that you get better at tricking in shoes, but when you take them off you will see no progress. Actually, what is even more likely than anything else, is that your tricks will be about the same, but your knees will begin developing some sort of patellar tendonopathy. Enjoy wearing that knee strap below your knee cap off and on for the next 6 months you goof shit.
Heavy clothing is a similarly stupid idea. A thick, heavy, wool hooded sweat shirt might be good for increasing your body temperature for tricking as a means of warming up, but for god's sake, take this kind of garment off when you get into the groove. You're not benefiting from the weighted tricking experience! There is no benefit from any sort of weighted tricking experience!
Stupidity stupidity stupidity:
To get better at tricking, you need to be light. You need to train in optimal training environments. If you're fat, lose weight. Don't wear heavy clothes or shoes. Find a gym to trick in when the weather or terrain sucks. When the conditions are optimal, your tricks will get better. And sure, there is more to tricking than simply improving your tricks, but gosh darn it! Getting better tricks is pretty important!
Hi Thomas. You’ll be okay. I like to think of the whole “barefoot” thing on a technique by technique basis, and a sport by sport basis. I would argue against using a sweeping judgment to push some sort of agrarian agenda (IE – barefeet is “natural” so it’s better for everything!!!) That’s a very elementary mindset.
So take it on a thing by thing basis: most tricks involving side motion = bad with shoes. You could even break it down by trick. A backflip in shoes isn’t terrible, but any cheat setup kick is not a good thing to do in shoes. Most lifts = flat shoes or barefeet are best, running shoes not a good choice. Olympic lifts = get olympic lifting shoes, don’t do those barefoot. Dynamic stretches = doesn’t matter, wear shoes if you want. Running on concrete = get running shoes, don’t do it barefoot it’s faddish and dorky. Running on grass or earth = go barefoot. etc. Take it on a case by case basis. And take every opportunity you can to do something barefoot. Keeping your feet cooped up in shoes all day isn’t good for them, so take every opportunity you can to release them and let them squirm about the way they can.
For this writeup: there is no advantage to wearing shoes with tricking, while some tricks are forgiving with shoes others are not, so there is no reason to wear them for training benefit, they would only be a hindrance in many cases… and never advantageous in any.
Hahaha, I remember when I tricked in shoes and that was one of the biggest mistakes for me when I first started tricking. When I started tricking barefoot my feet felt like they where alive!
The more I am on this earth the more I hate shoes. My feet actually get sore if i wear a shoe with to much padding and a raised heel. Screw shoes. I did the ankle weighted thing, only good for rehab and maybe isometrics. Liked this one a lot Juji. We weren’t born with shoes or clothes.
LOL! When I had just started trying tricks, I thought doing cartwheels with ankle weights would help me get the aerial. Good ol’ times… :D
Nowadays, from my teaching experience, what I observe is that most novices fail to see the inherent technical nature of this sport: you don’t see professional trickers tricking with ankle weights for the same exact reason you don’t see professional runners running with ankle weights. Why!? Because it messes up the technique!
Also, many people (especially young martial artists) train as if there was some inherent hardcore’ness in making things aimlessly more difficult for themselves. They don’t realize their tricks would rather benefit being repped in the most FACILITATING environments possible. (see plyo, mats, trampolines etc.)
To get better at tricking…just watch DBZ!