Tricking simplified and demystified

Here's a trickster secret for the non-tricksters reading this: all the tricks you’ve ever seen are based on maybe five basic movement types.

• Flip backwards or forwards. (never at the same time)


• Jump spin left or right. (never at the same time)


• Stick a leg or two out, or back, while spinning and/or flipping.


• Put your hand on the ground sometimes.

And that's pretty much it. Combining this crap and dressing it up isn’t complicated.

Consider the hula hoop

Consider the hula hoop. Can you hula hoop? Yes you can! So can you hula hoop with your hands above you? Can you hula hoop standing on one leg? Can you hula hoop on your knees? Probably, it’s not complicated. You just start hula hooping and doing those other things, right?



Here’s the tricking version: can you cork? Oh you can? Can you cork with your hands above you? Then you can M.Bison cork. Can you cork landing on your other leg? You can hyper cork! Can you cork while grabbing your shins mid air? You can rodeo cork!

Cork. Hyper cork. Cork hook. Cork round. Cork switch. Cork gyro. Corkfuso. Corkgasm. It’s all based around the cork!!! All these different things happen, they create different perceptions, but they all boil down to: the cork!!! It’s not complicated. You just start corking and then do those other things. This means at least two things for us.

1) Non tricksters: Tricking shouldn't intimidate you.

Learn the 540 kick. Learn a backflip. Learn an aerial. These are a pain in the ass but once you get them and a couple other basics it’s all down hill. It’s all fun and games after that, and a year after nailing the basics you can have like 100 free tricks if you continue practicing regularly, take care of your body, and care about tricking.

2) Tricksters: Tricking shouldn't intimidate you.

Realize any variation you’re having problems with can be solved by more power developed through continued tricking practice, or by simple tips and suggestions from your team mates and those on the internet. This isn’t linear algebra. If you can 360 kick you don’t need a whole new tutorial for the feilong kick, even though you will find things like that here and elsewhere; all you do is continue practicing the 360 kick until you have enough air time to land it on your kicking leg, and then land it on your kicking leg with the other leg sticking out a bit so it looks like two kicks instead of just one. It’s simple. Most tricks are like this once you get past the basics.

This is tricking simplified and demystified.

You jump spin or flip with your legs sticking out at different times. That’s all tricking is. You initially learn to jump spin, flip, and stick your legs out by training an extremely limited selection of basic tricks. Then after a little learning time, you’re tricking like everybody else in all these crazy tricking videos on the internet. It's not a mystical ability.  Seriously, non-tricksters: we tricksters are not doing something you can’t do if you just come join us.