Have you ever seen a freak athlete jump and think, “Man, if that guy started tricking, he would easily destroy worlds!”  Take anyone who is remotely athletic and they will be able to learn any single basic trick.  They are strong enough to do so.  But as we see all around, strength alone is not enough to make a decent tricker.

There are a lot of strong trickers out there.  A lot of really powerful MF’s.  It’s true that tricking is a power sport and you’ve gotta be decently strong to trick well.  Fortunately, if you are tricking in any capacity, you are probably doing okay strength-wise.

The most valuable power source for a tricker is not strength, but rather momentum.  No matter how strong you are, you are achieving a very small fraction of your potential power if you are relying on pure strength.  If your combo is continuously stop and go, you are literally working twice as hard—stopping your momentum takes energy, then starting from nothing takes energy.

An object in motion wants to stay in motion

An object at rest wants to stay at rest

For those Avoiding Momentum

Many trickers are strong to begin with and momentum throws them off.  It is easier for this tricker to rely on that strength and completely avoid momentum.   Momentum control is then never trained and it never gets better.  Fortunately, being able to build and capitalize on momentum is a very learnable skill.

Imagine two people practicing round off backflip.  The first one is the athlete with no background aside from jumping high and learning a flip at some point.  The second is a tricker, gymnast, etc.  What does the athlete do?  Probably a long, disjointed run, followed by an egregiously high hurdle into a far-fetched semblance of a cartwheel with feet together.  Stop.  Standing backflip.  The second flipper will use a shorter run that accelerates into a low, fast hurdle, followed by an efficient roundoff rebound that sends him soaring upwards into the flip.

The athlete has more power going into the hurdle, loses power in the hurdle, completely absorbs the energy in stopping after the roundoff, and then starts up again in the backflip.  The tricker uses a better, more efficient technique.   It is more efficient because it builds momentum, maintains momentum, then releases the momentum upwards into the final skill.

Yes, yes, very funny, comparing an amateur to someone who’s trained that specific skill.  What if we’re already decent trickers with decent backflips!!?!!one!!!?  Momentum Control is principal all the way through the highest levels of tricking.  

Take the best power trickers in the world.  The best trickers build, conserve, and capitalize on momentum.  No exceptions.  Think Johan and Ilya with switches: No matter the combo, if they get to switches, you know trip C is in the bag.

All tricks can be done in such a way as to increase momentum—Composers take note!   That said, some tricks lend themselves particularly well to momentum control.  Round-off back-handsprings are ubiquitous in almost all flipping sports due to their profound efficacy in building momentum.  Sideswipe>TDR and palm kick masterscoot are popular setups for a reason.   Gainer switches and corks in particular are noteworthy because they can be repeated endlessly and the back skills make the set for the next skill incredibly intuitive.  In essence, they are perfect candidates for building, maintaining, and capitalizing on momentum.

• Those who can effectively build momentum will able to combo effectively and recover any combo
• Those who can effectively conserve momentum will be able to combo efficiently and produce the biggest power combos
• Those who can effectively capitalize on momentum will gravitate toward the biggest tricks

Put ’em all together and you’ll be headed to the top of the game.

Momentum Control at the Highest Levels

Building momentum

Chris builds the momentum for a triple tuck from standing.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUYQwuCAMES/?taken-by=thejacobpinto1

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUYVqwQg0ud/?taken-by=ilyavtorin

Each one faster than the last.

Conserving Momentum

Austin Nacey demonstrates how it is possible to conserve momentum through the big skills with his 3 double and miller pass in competition.

This wild 3 dub display from Kojo demonstrates great conservation in swings.

Capitalizing on Momentum

Jay taking full advantage of his momentum with this pass.

Tim makes good use of his momentum to pull off the infamous snatch-cannon.

When you’ve got all three down

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Yo.

Johan somehow conserves momentum through 3 dubs, then hits switches to build up for the big 3.

Dude does NOT slow down.

 

Practicing Momentum Control

Building Momentum:

From the very beginning, trickers must be learning to build momentum throughout tricks.  The best way to start working on building momentum is repeating small segments of 1-3 tricks.  The goal is to start slow and allow the tricks to pick up momentum.  Easier said than done, but a worthy goal!

scoot cartwheel, scoot flash, scoot backflip, scoot gainer, on repeat

Practicing scoot TD flash and TD raiz TD flash to better utilize the momentum in the transition.

Maintaining Momentum:

Maintaining momentum is a little more difficult for beginners to practice, but at an intermediate level and beyond, it is about hitting a trick at full speed and trying to maintain that speed through the following skills.  Through the highs and lows, you don’t want to be fighting your momentum, you want your momentum to be working for you.

Tricking/tumbling downhill can get you familiar with moving with your momentum.

Capitalizing on Momentum:

Capitalizing on momentum can and should be worked on separately.  You take your favorite power setups and go for maximum height or twist or flip.  Start as fast as you can control and try to build the tolerance for that set.  The goal is to be able to handle your full running power into the set of your power tricks.  In tumbling, this is referred to as working on “dismounts” to your pass.

It took a while to be able to make use of a decent run into the cart setup.

Tramp and fast-track tricks accentuate any inefficiencies by giving you a lot of excess momentum.  Gaining control of that extra power gives you a huge head start in capitalizing on momentum.

Key Notes in Training Momentum Control

• When trying to build momentum start with little power, and try to accelerate through the skills.  Ideally each trick should be faster than the last.
• When trying to conserve momentum, get upwards of ~80% speed quickly and try to stay there.
• When trying to capitalize on momentum, work up to as fast as you can control, aiming for maximum height, flip, or twist.

Guidelines to  Training Momentum Control

I posit that momentum control should be worked in cycles of the following order, which mirrors the order for learning elite power tumbling:

Beginning: Pre-flips or a couple single flips

1. Momentum building in longer combos with the easiest tricks (low power setup)
2. Power setups to dismounts
3. Momentum building combos ending in dismounts

Intermediate/Advanced: Any two flips/twists by any transition and beyond

1. Momentum conservation in combos with medium tier tricks (high power setup)
2. Power dismounts (low power setup)
3. Momentum building in combos with harder tricks (low power setup)
4. Power setups to dismounts
5. Momentum conservation combos ending in dismounts (high power setup)

Note that Int/Adv has the same structure as for beginners but starts with momentum conservation and power dismounts first.

Here is an example with taking a tricker with 2 swings to several to dub:

1. Improving swing count from a powerful setup with either just switches or just corks.  In this way, we train the proper momentum conservation through swings.
2. Low power setup into corks or switches will improve strength to build momentum.
3. Low power setup into cork chains or switch chains will test your ability to build momentum
4. Power setup into dubs, variations, trips help you train capitalizing on momentum
5. Power setups into swing chains that end in dubs, variations, trips etc

You can always working on all of them as you please, but practicing things in this order leads into a cycle of exponential growth.