Clues for better tricking practice

Be ready

Clue #1 Feel good before you trick and make yourself feel good by tricking.

Clue #2 Become lean, light footed and light hearted.

Be clear

Clue #3 Try a trick because you want to try it, not because you want it.

Clue #4 Determine what you wish to get out of tricking, not just what you are seeking in tricking. To do this, reflect on your last four years of tricking. Compare what you wanted then, and what you expect yourself to want four years from now, from the present moment.

Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age. - Einstein

Clue #5 The kid who wants to catch all the Pokémon loses to the kid who is obsessed with powering up his Alakazam and Beedrill.



 

Be attentive

Clue #6 Kicks working today? No. Flips? Yes. Then do flips.

Be persistent

Clue #7 Thirst for all the lame prequisities and crashes.

Clue #8 Don't try something twice and then get distracted by Giygas! Beedrill your tricks! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!



Clue #9 Acknowledge that ten quality reps for a new, scary, or highly technical trick could take up to an hour's time for all the focus you have to put into it.

Clues #8 + #9 = Quality and quantity!

Be playful

Clue #10 Stop crashing tricks the same way over and over again. Change something each attempt. Go read my page on universal tricking tactics and read about this special trouble shooting trick.

Clue #11 Stop drilling tricks the same way over and over again. Change something.

Clues #10 + #11 = Always experiment!

Be thoughtful

Clue #12 Everytime you do something, reflect on it for a moment. It doesn't matter whether you've nailed it for the first or the four hundredth time.

Clue #13 Understand why you're doing what you're doing the way you're doing it. Why do you dip on a b-twist? Why do you spot your target before kicking? Why do you waste your energy showing off in front of the same stupid children at every Saturday open gym session?

Be uncomfortable

Clue #14 It's too easy to become distracted or seek instant gratification through tricking these days. We end up following the herd to fit in or continue doing what we've always done because these paths are comfortable. Don't be comfortable. Be Dr. Wily.