Mercenary Tricking

Foreward: I’ve been in and out of online tricking forums since 2006. Terminology comes and goes, evolves and devolves. With regards to the rotation discrepancy in vert kicks, I was a big proponent of “who the heck cares”. I kept up with the lingo, learned and studied TKT to maximize accuracy, but realized it just didn’t matter to those tricking since practitioners agreed that a 9 is a 9.

My buddy, fellow Seattle tricker and local kick gun himself, Spicy Aj kept bringing up how vert terminology sucks and is completely disengaged with reality. I would try my best to explain the unwritten rules of tricking lingo and why things are the way they are, but only ended up convinced that there’s gotta be a better way. A lot of Aj’s ideas end up here in what I call the Grand Unified Theory of Tricking Terminology, #unifiedtricking. Enjoy.

– Jared, Mercenary Tricking

Making Sense of Tricking Nonsense

Intelligent design: The theory that life, or the universe, or TRICKING TERMINOLOGY cannot have arisen by chance and must surely have been created by some intelligent entity.

“Hyper aerial” don’t normal aerials land in hyper?

“Snapuswipe” what do we call a snapuswipe with another swipe??

“CHEAT 1260” isn’t that somewhere between 720 and 900 degrees of rotation?

“540” isn’t that somewhere between 180 and 360?

“semi double cork” does that have 1.5 or 2.5 spins again?

“SNATCHCANNON” ok this one is is golden. Still! We’re going to have to rule out intelligent design to tricking’s past nomenclature. Instead we have more of an evolution.

Evolution: the gradual development of something, especially from a simple to a more complex form

Let’s look at a possible evolution from a single accurate vert kick to everything getting jumbled into what it is today.

1. Good ol’ Pop 360: tkt frontside pop180 hook, “turbo” hyper is implied, adding an additional 180 back to frontside
   1. mainstream name: pop 360
   2. actual rotation: 360
   3. off by: 0
2. Enter Pop 720: frontside pop 540 hook, there is no hyper, unless specified
   1. mainstream name: pop 720
   2. actual rotation: 540
   3. off by: 180
3. Enter Cheat 720: similar to 540 hook, but 180 happens on the ground
   1. mainstream name: cheat 720
   2. actual rotation: 360
   3. off by: 360
4. Enter Cheat 900, which would be cheat 720 + 180 to get from hook to round
   1. mainstream name: cheat 900
   2. actual rotation: 540
   3. off by: 360
5. Enter Backside 900: Cheat 900 minus the cheat step, but still minus the 180
   1. mainstream name: Backside 900
   2. actual rotation: 540
   3. off by: 360
6. Enter Inside 900: Backside 900 out of inside stance, roughly 90 less than backside
   1. mainstream name: cart 900, aerial 900, flash 900, depending what it comes out of
   2. actual rotation: 450
   3. off by: 450
7. Enter Fake “Frontside 900”: 90 less than Inside 900 looks pretty much the same, so is also called 900 mistakenly, producing the largest possible error
   1. mainstream name: Frontside “900” (tkt pop 360 round)
   2. actual rotation 360
   3. off by: 540

Great, we’re up to speed on why vert is the way it is. Now let’s agree to fix it!

“It’s unavoidable, it already works and can’t be changed even if we wanted to change it, just look at TKT”

Blah blah blah. TKT was “pioneering” in the day but it died out because it is unhelpful to most. It did not solve the problem of teaching beginners. In fact, it made it even more tricky when so many terms were reused. It did not unify vert and invert, nor does it lend itself well to aiding understanding. It is correct in the most literal sense, yet is near unusable as a means of conveying tricking to newcomers and seasoned veterans alike.

The Mistakes of Mainstream AND TKT Vert Terminology

1. Subtractive math: “cheat 720 is like pop 720, but 180 is on the ground”
2. Naming by literal rotation: cheat 720r vs cheat 540r where 7 and 5 are the same with a different setup and bs360(round) vs fs360(hook) where 3 and 3 imply a different kick with the same amount of rotation.

Why subtractive math sucks

Subtractive math is pointlessly confusing, flying in the face of naming convention.

• First take full hyper. It’s a full + extra to get to hyper.
• Next let’s take full mega. It’s a full + extra to get to mega.
• And now take Semi double full. A double variation? SIKE! It’s a full + extra to get to semi.

Big deal, why not just call it full semi, correcting the position, and restoring order to the universe?

The problem, dear internet tricking troll, is implied subtractive math. Semi literally means partial or incomplete. Semi double full at its conception is literally correct, but poos all over naming convention in a way that is at best confusing, and at worst MISLEADING.

*Side petition to start calling the position where you can swing raiz “Ultra” i.e., aerial ultra swing raiz rather than aerial semi swing raiz, for the reasons listed above.*

This subtractive math problem is heavily compounded in cheat and backside vert kicks. It is accurate to say that you cheated your 900 (which was already 720), however, there’s an even bigger problem there that TKT only exacerbates by attempting to quantify literal rotation.

Literal Rotation is Literally the Worst

Don’t get me wrong, I geek out on rotational measurement just as much as the next guy, HOWEVER, I would much rather know the relative rotation of tricks which is magnitudes more informative.

The big mistake that TKT makes is attempting to quantify each specific skill, rather than utilizing the base + twist + variation naming that we employ for inverts. If you increase the number 90 degrees for every stance change , you’ll end up with something looking like TKT.

• cork 360 (single)
• cork 450 (hyper)
• cork 540 (mega)
• cork 630 (ultra)
• cork 720 (double)

Looks good at first glance right? But what if you wanted to transfer to atwist, which is nearly a half rotation less than cork? Let’s try it out:

• atwist 180 (single)
• atwist 270 (hyper)
• atwist 360 (mega)
• atwist 450 (ultra)
• atwist 540 (double)

Yikes, cork 450 and atwist 270 both mean hyper. Worse, cork 540 means cork mega, and atwist 540 means dub :facepalm:. It’s misaligned. Its fine you say, as long as you specify the cork and the atwist, you can figure it out.

True. This is precisely how TKT works—if you ponder long enough to specify whether your trick is backside 720 round or frontside 540 round (without messing up your stance or rotation) I will be able utilize my cognitive ability to determine they are both 9s! :groan:

But did you notice: cork, atwist, btwist, fulltwist all imply a single twist, and the landing position (or variation) already imply additional rotation? Trying to count the literal rotation is both useless and redundant.

This is where invert terminology really shines. You inherently know that scoot full and wrap full have slightly different rotation, but we call them both full, understanding that there’s slightly less rotation in the wrap, BECAUSE OF THE BASE. With that in mind, we get variations that make sense in rotation AND are also applicable to OTHER TRICKS.

• full shuriken, full dleg, full round, full swipe, full hyperhook, full hyperhook turbo are all based on a single full

without laying down a precise number, we know their relative rotation, with some being a little more rotation than others

Additionally, knowing a single twisting variation in any one base allows you to predict the same variation in any other base!

• full round, btwist round, cork round, tak full round are all singles, all finishing with the same variation

Key note: all unvariated singles, doubles, and triples land in complete. With this in mind, variations and modifiers to all singles will create a similar, predictable effect.

ya see where I’m going with this?

The Grand Unified Theory of Tricking Terminology

It might be a little egotistical to conflate unifying vert and invert terminology with unifying Classical mechanics and Quantum field theory, but hear me out. This unification makes tricking (and ESPECIALLY KICKING) far more accessible to beginners, makes bigger vert kicks easier mentally than they are currently, and swings the doors wide open for VERT variations. Here we go:

• Naming convention: (Base + rotation) + variation
• Invert rotations: (Base), single, double, triple
  • single, double, triple without variation end in complete
  • full and twist imply inverts
• Vert rotations: (Set up), 360, 720, 1080
  • 360, 720, 1080 end in frontside without variation (where round usually comes out)
  • numerical degrees imply verts
• Starting point: The single is the starting point: the first amount of rotation where similar moves start to all land in the same position. From there you move on to doubles and backtrack to find the base.
  • inverts: btwist, cork, wrap full, raiz twist, scoot full, cart full, etc
  • verts: stepover 360r, swing 360r, wrap 360r, tornado 360r, bs 360r, pop 360r (all 9 equivalents in mainstream)

Beyond that I guess we’ll see where the community takes it. Personal asks incoming:

• Cheat is replaced with tornado: Get rid of it. Subtractive math sucks.
• Semi is replaced with Ultra: for the love of god. Remove the subtractive math.
• Swipe is now inversion neutral: Round hyper is now swipe, regardless of inversion. Tornado swipe is the new 540 (seriously, who counted rotations here???)
  • Hyper is a landing stance. Swipe works to say the kick you get when get from the round landing classically in “round true hyper”
    • subtopic: classical 360 hyper can easily be replaced with shuriken lol
• Illusion, Hyperhook Turbo is replaced with Turbohook: illusion twist is subtractive. Hyperhook turbo is clunky.
  • Trying to say classic pop 3 landed on 2? fs turbohook
  • how about classic pop7 hyper landed on 2? fs 360 turbohook
  • Trying to say shuriken hyperhook turbo? shuriken turbohook
  • Trying to say dub b illusion? Btwist turbohook

That’s the gist. From there, treat everything like the usual invert variation, hyperhook, scissor, CA, shuriken, dleg, rodeo, tuck what have you. Attached below is the master list for a reference chart (unneccessary once you start looking at it as zeroes, singles, doubles, and triples), as well as some common examples to get you going.

• 540 = tornado swipe
• cheat 720 = tornado hyperhook
• pop 360 (tkt fs pop 180 turbo) = fs turbohook
• pop 7 hyper (tkt pop 540 turbo) = fs 360 turbohook
• pop 360h = fs pop 360 shuriken
• feilong = fs pop 360 feilong
• swing 9 = swing 360 round (like cork round)
• backside 1080 = bs 360 hyperhook (like full hyperhook)
• cart 7 true hyper = cart 360 shuriken (like cart full shuriken)
• pop 720 double = pop 360 shuriken hyperhook
• cheat 12 = tornado 720 round = (like dub round)
• jacknife = tornado knife (or still just jacknife lol)
• cheat 9 knife = tornado 360 knife
• cheat 9 whacknife = tornado 360 whack

Application of Unified terminology

• Visual counting
  • If something looks like a single full or twist variation, call it a 360 variation
  • If something looks like a double full or twist variation, call it a 720 variation
  • If something looks like a triple full or twist variation, call it a 1080 variation
  • If something looks like less than a single full or twist variation, just call it the setup + the variation
  • With inverts, it’s pretty self evident from twisting speed, in air time, and context clues, just thinking of it as the invert variation makes it intuitive to know 360, 720, 1080, or just a base variation
• Vert/invert continuity
  • swing single hyperhook
    • swing 360 hyperhook (swing 10) = cork hyperhook
  • cart single round
    • cart 360 round (cart 9?) = cart full round
  • aerial to single shuriken
    • aerial 360 shuriken (is that 3 hyper or 7 hyper again?) = aerial full shuriken
  • envergado punch double round hyper
    • envergado punch 720 swipe (1260 hyper?) = envergado punch dub swipe
• Teaching
  • current terminology forces noobs to learn 3 new languages for variations (invert, mainstream vert, tkt vert) whereas unified terminology will reduce it to just unified.
  • drawing parallels from cart 360 round to cart full is a lot more intuitive than cart 9 to cart full, even though it’s the same thing
  • continuity of variation:
    • once you learn any variation, you can reference it in both vert and invert contexts
    • btwist hyperhook is analogous to cork hyperhook, cart 360 hyperhook (cart 10), tornado 360 hyperhook (cheat 10) and so on

• Makes vert more fun
  • Any variation you do with invert, you can add to vert
  • If you aren’t a martial artist or figure skater, you’re probably better at invert twisting. Convert your dub full swipe to 720 swipe (12hyper) by fighting inversion.
    • And of course convert your envergado dub full hyperhook to envergado 720 hyperhook (envergado 14)
• Higher rotation vert kick becomes more approachable
  • Anyone think bs1800 is possible?
  • In Unified terminology, it’s bs 1080 hyperhook, the equivalent of triple full hyperhook. Bs 1080 hyperhook is decidedly way more likely than bs18 in my mind, even being identical.

The movement toward unified tricking terminology: How YOU can help TODAY

For ONE week, use unified terminology whenever you see vert kicks. Post it, or don’t. Just try it out. You’ll be surprised with how simple it is. Tell your friends to read this, or explain it to them, it’s simple enough.

If it looks like a vert version of a (single + variation), call it a (360 + variation) instead.

The gray area between basehyperhook turbo and single shuriken will undoubtedly be the trickiest scenario, but I believe in you.

#unifiedtricking when naming your vert kicks online. No it’s not a brand, it’s kind of a catchy slogan for a movement terminology movement.

Some shorthands to experiment with:

• 360, 720, 1080 can imply rounds I guess
• 3, 7, 10 still work
• if you’re lazy and you don’t want to say the base/transition every time. I support you
  • just say 3hyperhook, and we’ll know it was a “10” or more accurately, the vert equivalent of a single twist hyperhook
  • just say 3 and we’ll know it was a “9” which is just a vert equivalent of a single twist round
• The main takeaway is this: If it looks like a full or single twist variation, call it 360 with the same variation. If it looks like a dub variation, call it 720 with the same variation. bada bing, bada boom.