What learning to trick is like

Learning to trick is like lifting weights with only big plates available.

Landing your first cork (a gainer fulltwisting trick) is like pulling your first deadlift with only 100 lb plates available.  The lowest amount of weight you could load on your bar would be 255 lbs, that's a single 100 lb plate on each side plus the weight of the bar (45 lbs) and collars (10 lbs total).  That would be your learning weight. Most people can't pull that much weight without prior training experience, and there is no way to go lighter when all you have are your 100 lb plates.  All you can do is use accessory exercises and keep failing 255 lbs until you finally deadlift it.  So for the cork, all you can do is accessory exercises and keep crashing corks until you finally land it.



The analogy continues.  Since we only have 100 lb plates, the next step is to go from a 255 lb deadlift to 455 lb deadlift.  YIKES!



Now that's a challenge!  Going from a 255 lb deadlift straight to the 455 lb deadlift is like going from the cork to the double cork.  So you could approach your 455 lb deadlift by mastering your 255 lb deadlift so well that you can pull 455 lbs on your first try, and you could approach 455 by failing it over and over again until you get lucky and nail it, and you could train variations (sumo style, double over hand grip style, snatch grip, from a platform, etc).  So what will you do with your cork if you want to move to double cork?  Rep your corks, keep crashing double corks, and train cork variations.

Learning to trick is like learning new grips or angles with familiar weight lifting exercises.

A cork has a lot of variations.  You can hyper it, hyper it with a hook kick coming out of it (boxcutter), swing it, do it with round kicks in the middle of it, land it like a doubleleg, do it with your hands behind your back, and much more.  It would be like taking the conventional 255 lb deadlift and doing it sumo style, double over hand grip style, snatch grip, from a platform, etc.  Each variation is hard or different in its own way but you can still pull that weight with each variation if your 255 lb deadlift is solid and you're attentive.

Learning the biggest tricks is a bitch because...

The biggest tricks are a bitch because they’re like making even bigger jumps. Going from a 455 lb deadlift, which is already hard for most people, straight to a 855 lb deadlift with no way to train the weights in between is unthinkable.



Yet that is pretty much what it's going to be like going from a double cork to triple cork.  Two spins to three spins.  That’s a BIG JUMP! No wonder so few tricksters are hitting the hardest of moves!

The best approach for learning tricks

The best approach for learning tricks is to use all of them of course.  If you want a triple cork you need to land thousands of doubles.  Solid.  Perfection.  And you should train variations that make doubles a little more difficult.  There is no way to half-way from double to triple, so you'll have to crash a lot too when you go for your triple.

Learning to trick can also be scary

Finally we have fear.  Fear is more common in tricking than weight lifting. Moving up in weight for weight lifting isn’t scary in the same way as moving your body upside down in a way you don’t quite understand. It’s okay to fail a 455 lb deadlift over and over again because you can ALWAYS just drop it. It’s not okay to fail a wrap full variation or certain tumbling passes because you cannot just drop it.  Spotters and pits are not always options.  Nope. So you better be sure you’re going to land it before you go for it. You better understand what you're trying to do and know yourself and have practiced the prerequisites to death and visualized it over and over again... unless you want to break a toe or land on your shoulder wrong and be out for a few weeks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecoDU3EHIRE

I didn't know what I was doing when I decided I wanted to try a fulltwist.  I hadn't thought it through...  I couldn't lift my arm above my head height for 2 weeks after this accident.

Learning to trick takes patience

So that’s pretty much what it’s like to learn tricks and to progress as a trickster. It’s like weight lifting with big jumps. One step forward and then you stay put for a long, long time.  You have to be patient.  To make the wait easier, you learn to combo what you can already do to stay interested. Then you try taking it to the next level crashing the next trick up in the ladder of moves, until you no longer fall on your ass.  Some variations are only awkward and some are a little tricky, but all variations are essential for helping you make those bigger jumps. And as for the fear, fear makes you study and pay attention to what you're going to do before you do it.