Tricking Tutorial: A Step by Step Walkthrough (Questions Answered!)
Hey guys, hope you’ve found the tricking tutorial, the step by step walkthrough carousel slides I’ve posted on my instagram useful! I thought I would compile and share some of the questions I’ve received and the answers I gave here into an article, in case any of you had the same questions but weren’t comfortable asking. Through this article, I’ll also be able to elaborate much more on some of the ideas with all of you.
Tricking Tutorial A: 540 Round Kick
Also known as the 360 Hyper, 360 Katana, Bolley/Bali Kick.
Question from @gohyixuan.92
@gohyixuan.92: I’m at step 2, but my weight is a liability on my knees. Thankfully when I land, I’m feeling the strain on my butt muscles and not my ankle or knee.
Yup, there can be quite a load to absorb for this kick. You are taking off and landing your entire body weight off the same leg, it’s quite natural.
But it’s good that he feels the load going into his glute muscles, it means that he is engaging exactly the right chain of muscles.
This is a good thing to take note of when you execute this kick as well.
Absorb the impact with your calves, thighs and glutes, your leg perpendicular to the ground. The moment it’s slanted, the shock will push sideways into your knees. That’s a quick way to find yourself in Strained-MCL&ACL-Town.
@gohyixuan.92: I strained my right inner thigh a little during the practice.
Try and warm up that muscle group sufficiently. It is a good observation, the inner thigh is a muscle that most people don’t use much at all. And in the 540 kick, you need to engage that muscle set rather explosively to pull you kicking leg back towards the ground before landing.
Some exercises to practice are:
Abductor Side Planks.
Go into your Side Planks, place the top leg on a low stool, hold the position.
You should feel the tension in the inner thigh of the top leg that is supporting your lower body’s weight. Hold for 20 seconds at a time.
Side Plank Bottom Leg Lifts
Go into your Side Planks, bring your bottom leg forward 30 degrees, lift your feet toward the ceiling as far as your body allows. Let it down slowly. Repeat for 12 reps and rest.
Side Split Leg Lifts
Lay down back on the ground/mat. Point your feet to the ceiling. Open them in to a side split as far as your body allows. Slowly bring them back together pointing at the ceiling. Repeat for 12 Reps and rest.
Tricking Tutorial B: Pop Hook Kick
Also known as the Backside 360 Hook, White Ranger Kick, Jumping 360 Reverse Kick.
Tricking Tutorial C: 720 Hook Kick
Also lovingly coined the C7 or Cheat 7 by Trickers, or the 540 Hook Kick by traditional Taekwondo practitioners.
They don’t count the rotations the same way that Trickers do. I believe they calculate based on where the chest faces instead of how many degrees the kicking feet travels in it’s arc.
Question from @gohyixuan.92
@gohyixuan.92: This is also called ‘Jack-Knife’ right?
Close, but not exactly. This is the prerequisite immediately before that kick. The Jack-Knife features 2 kicks in the air, this hook kick yes, plus also a round-kick before that.
So the technique will feel like so;
K-step > 540 roundkick > 720 Hook Kick > Land
Both kicks are to be released before the first leg touches the ground.
This is a good kick to learn if the Jack Knife is your final goal! In fact I would say it’s an essential prerequisite.
Question from @jackiewongofficial
@jackiewongofficial: I can do this C7 kick with a single pump, but I can’t double pump.
For those of you who hadn’t heard this term before, the pump simply refers to the act of lifting your knee, also sometimes known as ‘chambering’.
So what he means a single pump is that he lifts his left leg, and then spins around and delivers the hook kick. Meanwhile the right leg stays pointing down at the ground.
And what he hopes to achieve is to lift the left leg, and then the right leg, before releasing the kick on the left leg.
I feel that what could help the second pump, is to practice the prerequisite, Skip Hook, and doing that with a very deliberate intention to keep the right knee up and long as possible before releasing the kick.
Do what they call alternate reps, where you do the Prerequisite once, focusing hard on the thing you want to adjust. And then immediately following up with technique you are working on. In this case the C720.
And then repeating with another Skip Hook each time before another C720.
This way you reprogram your muscle memory to do the thing you want it to do.
Previous Prerequisite Posts
Basic Hook Kick
Also known as the Reverse kick or the Wheel kick.
Question from @cuppykateee
@cuppykateee: I feel like I still need to work on my torso, like lean more to make my kick look more horizontal?
She made really strong and fast progress in just a few days. And have begun not just learning the technique but polishing her forms.
For leaning back, the key is finding your balance. And an exercise I recommended was to hold the wall or a parapet, and lift your leg in a sidekick stance, and do a martial artist’s version of leg lifts that way, and let your body find it’s balance through the repetitions. There are a lot of micro contractions your muscles have to perform that needs to be don subconsciously. And in the repetitions your Central Nervous System(CNS) will learn the calculations and coordinate itself.
@cuppykateee: I want it to look exactly like yours.
This comes down to the topic of style and flavor.
Everyone has a very distinctive method of moving that is very hard to replicate in another. Because we all have very different physical frames and joint formations. And the sports we played growing up affects how our muscles developed into our adulthood.
The joint socket of my hips actually limits the range of my movements, and therefore I move the way I do to compensate my limitations.
I read that Bruce Lee actually had a left leg that is a couple centimetres shorter than the right one. And that’s one of the reasons why he favored the Southpaw stance and adjusted his fighting style such that the longer right leg actually had a reach advantage. And that was the origin of the pendulum step that he pioneered in Jeet Kune do.
All of us can only aim to achieve good technique, but in 2 different bodies, that same technique will still come out looking slightly different.
That’s the reason why we can often identify our colleagues in fight scenes on TV performing in a mask or doubling someone else even if we can’t see their faces.
Because the way we move becomes our signature and watermark in every kick and punch and each work that we perform.
Find your flavor, I’m sure it’ll be gorgeous in a way only you can do!
Skip Hook Kick
Also known as Tsunami kick, Swing 180/360 kick.
Question from @slchua93
@slchua93: I tried but it still looks bad.
She meeting a very common and normal challenge. What was happening was that the kick was coming out as a crescent kick instead.
The main cause of this is because of the hip alignment. If your crotch is facing your target, you’ll end up lifting with your leg upwards with the hip flexors. It should be facing 90 degrees away from your target.
An exercise to try would be to step into the kick, and go for a side-kick instead to get your body used to the side-way contraction. Consider leaning back 30 degrees to let your leg have a wider range to raise.
360 Round Kick
Also known as the Tornado kick, 360 Turning kick, Cheat 360 kick.
Question from @seriousleezh
@seriousleezh: I’m trying to get the 540 through a good floaty 360.
For a floatier takeoff, refer to the 720 Hook Walkthrough above. I addressed how to get more lift from your K-step in there.
I just have to say that his is a very good approach. Most people would rush to get the next progression. But instead you are working on polishing the prerequisite. This is awesome.
And it might just be the best progression approach in my opinion. This way, even if it takes a bit more time and dedication, when you eventually achieve that next kick, your form will be that much better than someone else who just jumped onto the next progression.
The time those people save, will end up being spent fixing their poor technique all over again.
And any coach worth his name can tell you that it is ALWAYS harder to fix a bad technique than to learn it from scratch. I saw his form, and he is on a great path. He’ll be landing his 540 beautifully without needing my help at all. Well done! <3
I hope this tricking tutorial compilation helps give additional insight into each techniques. All the best for your progression, train hard, train safe!
Cheers,
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Peps Goh is a Singapore based Fight Designer, providing Action Choreography & Coordination services for both screen and stage.
He also holds screen-combat & stunt seminars annually for actors & performers. Private coaching sessions up to a group of 4 are available. For business inquiries, you can reach him at PepsGoh@Gmail.com