Trick Priming

advanced tricking

Imagine you want to alter your gainer flash so it looks more like an aerial. So you would get your gainer flash going, rest a few minutes, then do a set of whippy aerials. Rest, then go back to the gainer flash, this time THINKING and FEELING whippy aerial while you do it. This will give the trick a different effect. The training process is trick priming.

More examples:

  • Whippy aerials before axe2aerials to emulate and improve dipping speed in the axe2aerial.

  • Laydown 540s before hyper corks to facilitate a more prominent kick in the hyper corks.

  • 1080 spins before double b-twists to simplify the spin component of the double b-twist.

  • Raiz before Ch.720 twists to facilitate the stall necessary for the best Ch. 720 twists.


A lot of this is simply drilling prerequisites while working on a higher tier trick. But not all of it is, because a lot of it is chemistry: Trying to emulate the thought and feel of an unrelated trick into another trick of interest. Also, speaking of prerequisites, you can reverse your trick priming by drilling higher tier tricks to improve your lower tier tricks.

Examples:

  • Drilling 540 gyros before tornado kicking to improve your tornado kick.

  • Drilling double leg hooks before double legs to improve your double legs.

  • Drilling j-step triple corks before single corking to make your single corks batshit crazy.

  • And trick priming is also the smart way of working towards moves you cannot do.


Progressing using Trick Priming


Selegiline synthesis

Knowing what prerequisites you need for a goal trick is a little helpful, but often you still get stuck. For example, having a 540 kick and then trying to throw a hook after it over and over again trying to turn it into a Jacknife: Slow progress. It's like a chemical reaction without catalysis: Slow progress.

540 kick, Jacknife tricking prerequisite

With trick priming you introduce a catalyst. Something you already can do that you can throw into the mix. How about a narabong?

540 kick, Jacknife tricking prerequisite, Narabong

And for a rant: I cannot understand what the lack of hyperswipes in the tricking world is all about? So many tricksters hypertwist like no tomorrow, but why no hyperswipes? Just throw your aerial in there for god's sake, it's not that hard!

Hypertwist, Hyperswipe, Aerial, Tricking

So the keyword here is: RESOURCEFUL. See what else you have in your toolbox of moves that can facilitate your learning process. You don't need to doggedly crash the next tier up over and over again; Try seeing if you can do a little chemistry and use another, unthought of trick to help speed up your learning processes.

And to sum everything up, here's a mess:

Birth of the Homunculii, James Quinn

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  • AidenBloodaxe on

    It’s kind of like post-activation potentiation for tricking.

  • Traindom on

    Aiden! I remember you. How goes it, brother?

  • AidenBloodaxe on

    Haha, I remember you too. I’m doing well. I’m actually going to start tricking this summer, after all these years. What’s going on with you?


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