February 12, 2005 Tricking

Updates: February 28, 2005

March 2, 2005

March 9, 2005

March 23, 2005

Goal:

Get the gainerfull back.

Problem:

• During a gainerfull attempt, I am doing several things that are turning my gainerfulls into corkscrews. From all of the videos that I have watched and compared it seems that the motion of my right arm is the primary problem. When I do a ‘gainerfull,’ in reality a cork, my right arm swings up and slightly out to the right to gain airtime. My arm is fully extended. From this point, I throw my right arm across my body in order to initiate the spin. Furthermore, I spin much too early, I should be spinning once I am inverted, this way I will maximize my airtime. The origin of this problem is non-sequential training.
• I learned a solid gainerfull before learning a solid moonkick or gainer-flash. This is analogous to learning a full twist in gymnastics before learning a solid layout. So, when I went back to learn a solid moonkick, my gainerfulls began to deteriorate. During my original, solid gainerfulls, I would throw my right arm diagonally across my upper body as if to grab something behind my left shoulder. This created immense torque in addition to sending me upside down. Videos show even when I had less than 75% extension in both legs, I could easily land a very solid gainerfull using this technique. In a moonkick, my right arm swings up and slightly to the right. Once I become inverted, I grab the lower part of my right hamstring involuntarily. After learning a floaty moonkick, I went back to try gainerfulls, and this is where the problem started. I swung my arm out and to slightly the right. It begins to reach for the lower part of my hamstring, as in a moonkick, but then I throw it across my chest to create the spin. Instead of going straight to the opposite shoulder, my arm now goes out to the right and then all the way across my chest. This takes a lot of time and is extremely inefficient. In addition to corking the move, this makes it extremely low. This is why the best gainerfulls I have ever landed were done during the early parts of the school year, just before I learned the moonkick. Video analysis from the end of September shows progressive decline in gainerfull quality as moonkick quality improved. The ultimate loss of the gainerfull came after attempting several gainer540s. That day, I put too much emphasis on the spin, and not enough on the inversion. I threw my right arm across my body well before I gained decent height, thinking that this would speed up my spin. When I went back to do normal gainerfulls, they were completely corked and very low. A lack of extension in both my kicking and non-kicking leg is also causing a lack of height/speed.

How/Why it will change:

• The key to fixing this problem is sequential training. Instead of learning a gainerfull, I will be learning a proper moonkick, and then a moonkick-twist. This is much like learning a proper layout, and then a layout-full in gymnastics. Once I fix this problem, my gainerfulls will be better than ever before. This is because:
  1. I originally learned gainerfulls with very little extension. I would take off with my kicking leg bent at a 90-degree angle and very little push off the non-kicking leg. On my moonkick, I extend much more with both legs than in my old gainerfulls. If I learn a ‘moonkick-twist’ I will be extending much more with both legs than ever before.
  2. I am now on a training schedule involving weights, plyometrics, cycling, and various forms of stretching. Furthermore, my diet is much more refined than before. When originally learning a gainerfull, I was tricking once a week for exercise, performing static stretching three times a week, and eating like a slob. I am in much better shape for tricking now than when originally learning the move.
  3. I have a much better understanding of the move.
• Keeping all these things in mind, my moonkick twists should be flawless once I learn them. This will make it much easier to learn the gainer double full and gainerfull swing through gainerfull, two tricking goals I have had for a while now.

Fixing it:

• My technique must be changed in order to accommodate the moonkick twist.
• There are FIVE key changes that I will address:
  1. Full extension in both legs: I will kick higher before leaving the ground with my kicking leg. One technique to help this is to try and look at my foot for as long as possible before flipping over. This should raise my kicking leg to roughly shoulder level before I leave the ground. The second part of this is punching more off of my kicking leg. This will be accomplished by visualizing myself punching a hole all the way through the ground with my leg while taking off. Also, I will concentrate hard on full extension all the way through my tiptoes. Update March 2, 2005 point the toes of the kicking leg, this helps to straighten the entire leg and loft the move higher.
  2. Changing the location of my arms: Instead of throwing my right arm up and slightly to the right, then grabbing the back of my hamstring as I turn over, I will torque both of my arms extremely hard up and front of my head, clasping them together. I will freeze them once they are parallel to the ground. This will loft me high up into the air. My arms will remain here for the entirety of the move. This will make it SIGNIFICANTLY easier for me to torque over when I want to spin. Instead of my arm going from my lower hamstring across my chest, it will now go from roughly one shoulder to the other, a much quicker path. Update March 2, 2005 during a twisted moonkick, arms go from together in front of the chest to the left shoulder. The head will look in this direction too. Keep the body tight.
  3. Approach: The best moonkicks I have ever done are usually from a 2-step 180-degree half turn approach (videos support this). Recently, I’ve been doing a 2 or 3 step and then 3/4ths turn or ¼ turn. I can harness the most momentum if I take a couple steps to get some speed, then immediately turn it over with a jump half turn (j-step).
  4. Delaying the Spin: After returning to gym on February 28, 2005, I did several moonkicks that were among the loftiest I have ever done. However, when I went to try gainerfulls, they turned into low, nasty corks. This happened because I began my spin much too early. To fix this, I will first do several floaty moonkicks to get the feeling for them, then try moonkick twists, concentrating on becoming inverted before spinning. Update March 2, 2005 – Do a several floaty moonkicks, and after becoming inverted, physically say “inverted.” This will help my mind recognize when I have inverted myself i.e. WHEN to SPIN.
  5. Frequency: When I land a moonkick twist, it is often after doing 2-3 solid moonkicks. The move starts becoming more of a cork after doing several moonkick twists with no moonkicks in between. This often throws off my alignment, a very bad thing. To address this, I will do at least 1 solid moonkick for every moonkick twist, and never do two moonkick twists in a row.

Additional note: Try floaty reverse gainer-flashes and only spin once I have started the move. I.e., don’t try to do gainerfulls, try to do flawless reverse gainer-flashes, and decide to spin in mid air if it feels clean. Don’t forget, tucking can be useful for a variety of different reasons.

• After addressing all of these points, my moonkicks should be extremely high and easy to spin. With my natural twisting ability, twisting a moonkick with this new form should be no trouble.
• Update March 2, 2005 – Moonkick quality has drastically improved since the start of this tutorial. I am now floating higher and landing softer than ever before. However, I am still having trouble timing the spin and getting the arm motion correct. Training thus far has been successful, as I do inverted gainerfulls more frequently than before. Additional Note: Moonkicks, even when not twisted, often end up facing the other direction. The only thing left is a half twist. The height has been addressed and corrected. The only remaining element is the spin. However, this has been addressed in the updates under the “Fixing It” section. The future looks bright for the gainerfull.
• Update March 9, 2005 – Moonkicks are now perfect. I can now execute a moonkick literally higher and cleaner than anyone, professionals included, I have ever seen. This is a huge accomplishment. On top of this, I have now landed several inverted gainerfulls, or moonkick twists. These are executed at the same height as my moonkicks, which is excellent. This will help immensely with gainer doublefulls. The only thing left to work on is gainerfull frequency, but this shouldn’t be a problem. Points D and E in the fixing it section should completely correct this.
• Update March 23, 2005 – Highest moonkick…ever. The best thing to do for height is to look at the kicking leg for as long as possible. Keep the arms very close to the body in an “L” shape – do NOT grab the back hamstring of the kicking leg. Really emphasize the L shape of the arms and block them while going up, my arms are out in front of my body much farther than Anis’, they should be closer, this will be accomplished by bending more at the elbow. This will also make me go higher. During a gainerfull, Anis does not pull his arms back and then in, he simply throws his right arm towards his left shoulder while turning over, then slightly brings his arms in. So, take off with the arms closer to each other, making sure my hands are very close to each other. Move both of them towards the left shoulder as they go up in order to spin. Don’t lean back so much either, and come into the move straighter, not at an angle, kick straight as well.

Routine to fix the gainerfull:

1. Gainer-flash x 2
   1. Look at kicking leg for as long as possible- Kick HARD.
   2. Keep arms close to the body (bend at the elbow) and each other. L shape – Torque HARD.
   3. Full extension in non-kicking leg. Take off from toes.
2. Moonkick x 2
   1. Follow steps A, B, and C.
   2. Instead of bringing arms straight over head, bring arms towards the left shoulder, keeping the rest of the technique unchanged.
3. Gainer-full x 1
   1. Follow steps A and B from moonkick, but pull arms in once inverted.

Additional Notes:

Keep arms close together and close to the body.

Do not spin until inverted.

Execute all moves with full power.

• Update March 30th, 2005 – I now have the gainerfull back; this document was successful. The main trick was the arms, as mentioned in the March 23 update. I did about 5 extremely solid gainerfulls tonight, one that was among the best I have ever seen. The only thing that could make the move even better would be more extension in my kicking and non-kicking leg. So, I will try to stay on my toes more during the move. For the most part, however, I’m extremely pleased with the results that this process brought. Now it is time to work on hypers and doubles.