Tricking, anyone?

So I've been doing freerunning and Shaolin kung fu for the past... 2-3 months or so. This has recently bought up an interest in tricking.

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I'm very much a beginner at this - I can just barely do a 540 and just barely do an aerial (I suffered [and am still suffering from] a foot injury from lack of height). Plus I'm trying to get over the fear of the backflip and everything.

Anyone out there doing it? Any experiences here?

 

I don't want to be disrespectful, but why isn't this called gymnastics?

 

It's a little too err... "rough" for gymnastics because of the heavy martial arts influence. But it isn't for self-defence either. Hence, "tricking".

 

OMG BLACKDRAGON UR AVATAR MAKES ME SALIVATE EVERYTIME! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

anyways, a few of my friends do tricking. in fact, im in the process of learning. that shit is dope!

but ummm one time, i landed on my head doing a front tuck and i was out of commission for like 15 minutes str8. i got this injury last month and the pain still lingers on my neck area after bboyin a couple of hours or so. but that doesn't stop me from still trying. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

you gotta see my friend do this. its fuckin unbelievable. the kid's got MAD HEIGHT!!!

 

I used to freerun when I was a kid. Grew up country with no TV (and no wont for a TV)and athletic friends - we made the town our playground. I loved it and when I was in University I did much the same with a group of like minded individuals.

When I was in High School I was taking Ballet, Tae Kwon Do and Karate and we used to do "one ups" which was a lot like Basketball's "HORSE". do a trick kick or sequence and the next person had to do the same then evolve it - repeat until failure. nothing as advanced or gymnastic as what tricking has evolved to but competitive and fun for us.

I still appreciate tricking but dislike when people think that what they do is keeping with their martial art since it has zero practical application beyond conditioning/strength training/body awareness. It was always hard to have those people understand that gymnastics and application of a fighting art weren't the same thing. That said, it is always amazing to watch what people can do with their body and it takes a great amount of dedication to achieve that skill set.

Freerunning still rocks.

 

I disagree that it is "rough" or any more rough than regular gymnastics which is very punishing. the particular set of moves and postures in Tricking have their influence from Martial Arts but that's where the similarity ends (and you seem to appreciate the difference). Tricking is a fine classification, but it's root is gymnastics more than it is martial arts.

 

I've tried it when I trained TKD. It was just natural to try this kind of things.
I can only do one hand carthweel, I'm too affraid to try aerial. (I guess I feel too heavy for that - almost 210lbs)

As for 540... well, the guy in the video does a 360 with landing on the kicking leg, and that one I can do. That's NOT 540 unfortunately and it's common to confuse them. With 540 he'd have to turn 180 more with a kick before landing.
The best way to practice is doing a 360 kick, then 360 landing on the kicking leg, then 360 back roundhouse (ura mawashi geri/ti dolyo chagi... spelling might be wrong).
After that You should be set to try 540. The catch is to not only jump properly (high) but also generate enough torque to turn fast in no more than a second.

Damn... made me want to try all this again /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

Here's what I call a 540 kick
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And here, when I trained tkd, I liked wathcing this clip once a week /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
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I wish I would find the place to learn this art of tricking. I bet it takes great strenght to learn. That looks like that can hurt someone.

The Taekwondo kick was massive!