invincible tricking magazine - issue 2

MAGAZINEIssue 2

Welcome to Issue 2 of the Invincible Tricking Magazine! It’s been a little while between issues and a lot has happened since; the pros have been signed, new tees, hoodies, snapbacks and tricking shorts have been launched, the website has undergone a major overhaul and improvement, we’ve travelled the globe visiting gatherings, and a truckload of clothing has been delivered to name a few things!

Through all of this we’ve learnt a ton and are using every bit of that knowledge to make Invincible Tricking bigger and better for you all! In this issue you’ll find interviews with trickers from all four corners of the globe, articles on tricking health, injuries, favourite tricks, gathering talk, recovery, how to define our beautiful sport, and a lot more.

So enjoy this issue, it’s packed full of incredible ideas and thoughts put forward by some truly amazing people!

- James Daly Founder, Invincible Tricking

WELCOMETO ISSUE TWO OF THE INVINCIBLE TRICKING MAGAZINE

Invincible Tricking Magazine

CONTENTS

FIVE TRICKERSTalk about their favourite tricks!

58

BERGENKim tells us about hosting last year’s Bergen Gathering, poop, and his tricks this year

10 BAGELS PAYNEAn interview with Bailey Payne!

1821

BEN CAUVYWe talked to the fantasically French Ben Cauvy while he was here in Australia this year

22

THE ART OF TRICKINGOr ‘The Ramblings Of A Worn Out Tricker’ - Heikki Järvinen

14

24

MACKENSI EMORYMackensi visited and we had a grand old chat about some things

PERFORMING TRICKSHeikki shares his views on tricking performances

28MICHAEL SCALCODiscusses his injury and how he came back

TRICKING DOCTORSAn excellent article on tricking-specific medical care


32 BACK COVERFarewells and info on the next issue

KIM/STEINSLANDAND BERGEN GATHERING


My name is Kim and I’m from Bergen Norway. I’m the host of Bergen Gathering, and I’ve been tricking for almost 5 years, on and off because of injuries. But yeah, 5 years.

As everyone that’s tried hosting a gathering knows, it’s kind of shit hosting gatherings. There’s a lot of work and a lot of things to prepare, there’s so much to do. But I think we got through Bergen Gathering 2012 alright. We made it easier to host without it affecting those who came to the gathering.

I think the entire gathering was a success. There wasn’t any serious accidents. Actually, except for one that everyone who was there last year knows about! And yes, we’re having another gathering but please don’t repeat this!

...it was the poop in the shower thing.

That was bad. Because we ended up picking that up ourselves. Actually it was Fosse, he had to do it. I was at home. But back to last year’s Bergen. It was the first year Invincible Tricking was there and we’d love to do the same this coming year.

Everyone who’s been to Bergen Gathering before knows about Fysak where we stay. They now have a full plyo floor, which is going to make it so much easier to host Bergen Gatherings. The gymnastics people who have hired out the full plyo to us in the past are not very easy to deal with, but now we get to host the entire gathering out of Fysak which is going to make things so much easier. And I really want to thank Fysak for doing this because they didn’t really have to, and they’re working very hard for us trickers in Bergen and to make sure Bergen Gathering actually has a future.

Something that was also a huge plus for last year’s gathering was the Xswipe Eurotrip that went around to pretty much every European gathering and was hosted by Ash and Xswipe. That was a giant event and took so much work, I know Ash had so much to do and I’m so glad he did everything he did as I got to meet a lot of my friends and a lot of new people. We’re talking with Xswipe for this year as well but we don’t want to spoil anything, but we’ll keep you posted!

This year, because we don’t have to deal with the other gymnastics clubs, we’re aiming on making it a lot cheaper to come to Bergen. Hopefully the gathering is going to be free, but we will most probably have to have a small fee to cover t-shirts and things like that.

The secret to success when hosting a gathering, talking more as a gatherer rather than a host, I think is that it’s really important not to have too much of a planned day. There has to be some freedom as people are traveling great distances to see other parts of the world so they need some time off. But we’re also trying to get some more lessons and seminars for the younger people and newer trickers for this year’s gathering, totally optional and at no extra cost.

Outside of all talks about gatherings and Bergen, my own goals this year have started out fantastic. I’m here at ATG and so happy to meet all these people and to travel this far and meet trickers that are just as amazing and hospitable as all other trickers I’ve met. I’m amazed time and time again by trickers.

For the rest of the year I’m obviously aiming on going to Loopkicks, and a lot of other travel as well. Hopefully I’ll be coming back to Australia.

In terms of tricks, I want to land so much. I have such clear goals for myself but I don’t want to spoil it too much. I have been hurt since last year’s Bergen Gathering where I almost tore my achilles, and just an hour ago I did my first gainer swing and it feels really good getting back into it. I’m going to train harder than ever before and I’ve never been this motivated and I’ve never had so many friends able to help me, as well as never having the time and money to go so many places and meet so many people.

We sat down with kim at atg

in january to talk bergen

gathering, poop, and his tricks


Devon Ingraham-AdieRight now my favorite trick to do is a rodeo cork, the kind that you land on one foot, still grabbing your leg. It feels pretty great to stick that move - my body whirls through the air then lands frozen in this water-fountain-statue stance. I'm still working on it though; I need more back arch. What helps me with this move is making sure I set before twisting over and grabbing. Most people just grab right away and don't make any use of their swinging leg. I think it looks awesome when you swing up like a gainer flash, then twist after you've gotten a little front kick in. Cork variations look so much better (and go higher) when you really make use of the swinging leg. Swing through like you're trying to cut down a tree with your swing! It doesn't matter if your foot hits the ground! The ground cannot stop you! Neither can gravity! WOOOO!

Mogwai

My favorite trick would be the moonkick. I like the way you can vary the way its done but still it would be the same trick. Like doing a small fast one that turns fast so you can do wrapthru from it, or big high ones where you are just focusing on one massive kick. Some times I try to make the first leg (swinging on) look like a roundkick before turning into the hook of the actual "moonkick". I learned this trick long time ago but I never stopped trying to improve it, I was watching a lot of samplers of people who had different ways to do it like Geo, Mads(MEM), Jamie Colon, KJER, Crazy asian, etc. After that I just tried out different ways to do it and saw how much power I could put in the hook without slamming so hard into the ground that I could not land it properly.

SesshoumaruI love Hyperhook the most (HH). To me, it's just the epitome of what tricking is...it takes techniques from multiple martial arts [wushu/capoeira, tkd] and forms it into a new skill. Visually, it's also extremely appealing when it's done well; and it's as powerful as it is beautiful.Learning it took me to really focus on what made the trick work, or at least work well. Btwist + C7 = Hyperhook, and the better you can do each element high and quickly...the stronger the HH.

Jaime ColonMy favorite trick is aerial axe! I love landing on one foot with the other slicing through the air. It's good for miss leg's and carry through's. It's a beautiful move, and it feels so destructive! While learning it, I found staring at your toes (of the non landing foot) helps a ton! And to think of it as a cross between a webster and an aerial, somewhere in between. So instead of bringing the axe directly over the top, or horizontally like a hook, you'll chop with an axe diagonally when landing.

Dan PitlockI have 2 favorite tricks! One of them is cart double full s/t anything. This was my first big trick I had ever learned. I did my first cart double full back in 2002. My second favorite trick is a newer trick I have been doing lately. HYPER AERIAL. The power I get out of it is such a cool feeling. The over rotation make this trick so perfect for doing creative combos.A tip for hyper aerial is to put your back leg behind your other leg in the figure 4 position. Purposely try and over rotate your aerial. Aerials are easy, fun tricks that don't take a lot of effort, so drill them! There are so many variations to aerials that are yet to be explored. Grab a friend (non muggle) and do some AERIALS!!!!

FIVETRICK[ERS]


BAILEYPAYNE

Tricking isn’t just something I do everyday for fun, it’s shaped me into the person I am today“

“


Let’s begin with your training schedule. How do you become so beast!Well since I’m on the cheer team I can pretty much use the gym whenever I want, like any day of the week except weekends. I train about 2-3 hours a day, and when I train I mess around on the trampoline for a bit, and then actually go for an hour or an hour and a half on spring floor, and that’s actually trying to land things and do hard stuff, and I go every day of the week except Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes it’s a serious session and sometimes it’s just screwing around, trying just dumb stuff.How do you approach a serious session?Well if it’s a serious session I get the right music on, I make sure I have the best spot on the floor, warm up with a couple dubs or dub-dubs, something like that and I just try like new setups, or double corks or triple corks. I’m starting now to train harder kicks too; cheat 10’s, cheat 12’s, from scoot and standing, as well as like wrap 10’s. I’m just trying to expand my trying so that I can have a variety of stuff to try.Haha dub-dub is a warm-up!Haha I dunno like, I mean wrap dub swing dub is like...I dunno. Just so easy!What about a fun session?A fun session! Well basically the fun sessions are a little bit similar to a serious session because the fun stuff turns into ‘woah, that could be landed, I could actually do that!’ Like my wrap full punch double back - that was just a fun session that turned into something serious. I was like ‘dang, I could actually land that’. And wrap full swing triple cork, that was like a fun session, I was just screwing around with hyper double corks. I just try stupid stuff for fun and it turns into a serious session. If I go into a session not as serious, or not having the mindset of trying

Do you plan these new combos and variations beforehand, or just see where each session takes you?I don’t really plan stuff before I go, when I do a combo I have my ending trick in my head, and nothing before that. I just go. So that’s why some of my stuff looks sloppy, but I know I need to start thinking beforehand what to do. But it’s hard sometimes, I’m so hyped!How do you supplement your tricking training?

new stuff, and like really hard stuff, then I do better than just saying ‘Alright, I’m going to go into the session and do this and this and this.” When I do fun stuff it’s where I get more new stuff, like, I try different combos and new variations within combos.

I think cheerleading is really what gets me in shape. I practice Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays from 7:30 to 9:30, and we just stunt, tumble and run the routine. But that’s all I do aside from school, like, my life is just cheerleading, tricking, and school. And then, for a diet, I honestly just eat crap food. I come home and eat just chocolate, peanut butter and ice cream. I mean, I don’t want to lie, i guess it works! I’ve seen Vellu, and people like Nick Vail, and they have this diet plan, but it just takes too much time. I don’t really care what I eat, I just eat. It’s kind of bad but I just eat junk food and candy. Before I started saving for my car I used to eat McDonalds every single day.How did you first discover tricking, and what made you want to get in to it?Well, I was at open gym one day and I saw a couple of guys go to the spring floor and back flip with a spin, I didn’t know what the tricks were at the time but he did a btwist, a scoot, and I was like ‘woah’. I was kind of an awkward guy, like I’d go up to them and say ‘Hey, what are you doing man? That’s so cool!’ And it ended up us being really good friends! That

session ended up being 2 or 3 hours long, and that night I learned a scoot and a gainer flash. That was the beginning of December 2010, but I didn’t really get serious then. You know how some people just do small parts of something to be well-rounded and get the experience of doing something? That’s what I did with tricking, I thought I’d just mess around with a couple of scoot gainers, and a week later I got a cork and thought ‘well this is pretty fun, but tumbling’s a lot more fun than that.’ Then I got this random invite on Facebook to this thing called OMG 11 and thought ‘what on earth is this!’. It was this gathering in Ohio with John Vanek, Towels and all them, and I was like “Whoa shoot, I wish I could go to this, this looks pretty cool.” You know when you go out of state or country and it’s a vacation? That’s why I do cheer, you get to travel for competitions. But this looked sick. So a week before that I watched my first sampler and it was Teddy. He was the first tricker I ever saw. I was like “DANG this is ridiculous stuff, I will never do this stuff, this is like crazy. I would probably try it, but there’s no way I could do it.” So I went to OMG and right when I walked in I saw Guthrie do a j-step triple cork, and I thought I was watching a sampler, it felt like a dream, like there was no way it was real. And they all said hey and I was shocked that they knew us, but they had all seen me tumble. So that gathering I just tumbled the whole time. But I got pretty seriously into tricking the summer of 2011, when Scott came down to OMG - Summer Down Under. That’s when I got serious, when I thought I could actually get pretty good. I still tumble, but not as much, and up to this day I don’t ever just tumble in my free time, I just trick. Outside, at school, during PE, during lunch. I mean I just try to trick whenever.


Where do you see yourself and your tricking heading over the next couple of

In the next 5 years I reckon I could be doing triple cork swings, insane kicks, like I’m not flexible, but I think I could become pretty flexible by then. I take stretching seriously. I plan on going to more gatherings like Loopkicks until my mum can see me getting a career out of this. If she can see me going to foreign gatherings like ATG! That’s my freaking dream gathering, that and GIGA! I’d probably do the stupidest stuff and get hurt, but I don’t even care. The only out-of-country gatherings I can think of wanting to go to would be ATG, GIGA, Bergen Gathering, stuff like that. I honestly just want to travel around the world and trick, but at 16 years old it’s kind of hard.

And how do you see the community changing in the future?Hmm. Well you know the Facebook group Trickers Worldwide? Hopefully that will change! Aside from that, I guess Guthrie’s tricks now will be standard in the future. And Danny Etkin’s dubdub at 12, like

that’s just ridiculous. If we want to get young kids to get to Mike’s level they have to train younger, and we have to get tricking out there so that they can train younger. Not like NASKA, they don’t try anything crazy. We need people inspired by like Scott, and Phill, and Mike. Even me for example. When I trick I honestly don’t care about the outcome. In my mind it’s just like ‘at least I tried it’. There’s some people in cheerleading for example who won’t even try a full, they need to get over the mindset of not trying things. I know there’s fear of getting hurt, but I dunno. Learning how to fall

What changes would you like to see in the community?I’d love to see more advice given, especially if someone’s new they should ask for a LOT of advice on Facebook and forums, and even the older or more experienced trickers. If someone asked how to do something I’d want to see people just be nicer, or friendly about it. I want to see them be more Australian about it! Instead of sitting around and just messing with people or showing their own tricks. People then start thinking that they can’t

ask questions. I also want to see people just be more like crazy about their tricks, instead of

Thanks for doing this man!Nah it’s been awesome, thanks for interviewing me!


Bailey’s 2013 Tricking Sampler

MACKENSIEMORY


Who are you and where are you from!

I’m Mackensi Emory, I’ve been tricking for four years, and I live in California!

What gatherings have you been to?

I’ve actually not been to a lot of gatherings, more so the same ones each year. A lot of times karate tournaments overlap tricking gatherings, and I go to NASKA tournaments, and the thing is if you start out with tournaments you want to continue throughout the year to get points, so usually I’ll just go to the tournaments. This [ATG 2013] is my first international gathering, and it’s been really awesome, and I’m definitely coming back next year. But I’ve been to Loopkicks Camp, I went 2008, 2011, and 2012. So three times. but that’s pretty close to where I live, only 2 hours away, so I grew up with them and Loopkicks Camp 2008 was my first gathering. I’ve also been to DREDNT 2010 and 2011. I think those are the only gatherings I’ve been to.

What are your dream gatherings to attend?

Probably anywhere in Europe! That would be really cool, or does Vellu have a gathering? Yeah, Tampere, there! Probably something over there. Or a gathering with Ott.

How do you approach a training session?

I keep a journal of all of my tricking goals, my NASKA goals and just general goals for the year, and I keep it pretty organised. So I open up my journal for tricking, and I have lists of tricks that I want to accomplish, so

I’ll go down my list and work on anything there. If it’s an exception like snapu, or something I’m really close on, I’ll probably drill that a lot. Especially with snapu; I was close to that for a really long time so any time could have been the landed one. So usually I just practice the biggest trick on my list that I’m closest to landing.

What are you working on at the moment?

My biggest goal right now is swingthroughs out of moves, like double cork swing, which is my next goal. I’m pretty close to double cork swing cork, I’m almost there. I also almost landed hook carry-through snapu just inside as well, but you missed it. It was recorded, don’t worry. So anything swing-through. I want to be able to do what the guys do, how they swing, wrap, swing, cork, swing gainer, so I want to be able to do it like that and have it on lock. And just getting all my kicks really strong and powerful and improving everything. I want EVERYTHING!

What are you going to take away from your trip to ATG and Australia?

Well all the trickers taught me how to twist better, so I’ll probably be working more twisting now. For a while I was working more kicks to get them better, but now I’ll probably be working on a lot of twisting. And just having more fun with tricking. Obviously I have a lot of fun as it is, but certain things people here gave me advice on to try I’ll be working on. And to make better samplers, more intense, with more funny things. Like you know Phill’s samplers, and Jordan!

MACKENSIabout her australian trip, her

training mentality and tricking goals

we talk to


Mackensi’s ‘Perfect Dream’

BEN CAUVYAn interview with


Who are you and where are you from!

My name is Ben Cauvy, I'm 23 years old and I’m from France. I’ve been tricking for 5 years now. I'm not really part of any team anymore but my heart stays with my Happy Family and XSwipe. I started tricking after watching a Kalman Csoka Bilang sampler; I remember going to the beach right away to try some arabians!

Who are your tricking inspirations?

I like trickers who move past their limits, and push themselves harder and harder! We don’t have an official term in french for that, but we call it "se fumer", which literally means to smoke oneself!So I'm not gonna lie, Michael Guthrie is a huge part of my inspiration, as well as all of the Invincible Athletes. Dan Pitlock as well, and all the NTBS trickers, as well as AlexD, Nick Vail and a lot of others. I appreciate also creative trickers like Tpow, Sessh, Manny Brown, Mogwai... It changes and depends through different periods of time! But I confess those who can really make me train for days are my close friends from Paris (now also from Brisbane), and especially my forever training partner Vivien Youlou.

How would you personally define tricking?

For me tricking is not an end in itself, its just a tool to reach a goal. It helps me to be a better person, to forge my body to stay in shape and my mind to always give the best of myself and to move past my weaknesses. Tricking doesn’t exist by itself, you have to create it by doing it with your own body controlled by your own mind. Actually it is not just doing. What i think trickers are looking for is sensations; sensations of freedom, happiness, sharing, and love! So in fact tricking is all about sensations, your own sensations when you are practicing and beyond. Of course it’s also kick flip and twist, terminology and techniques, but to me this is only the visible part of the iceberg.

How has tricking affected your life?

Tricking has brought me a lot of adventures, a lot of joy, but also a lot of pain. It made me meet so many lovely people who have had a huge impact in my life; from my closest friends to trickers that I've not met yet! Tricking made me travel a lot as well, especially these past 2 years. I discovered amazing countries and cultures. But the most wonderful life changing moment that tricking gave me is paradoxically a really bad injury on my left ankle 3 years ago. I broke it in two pieces, so I had surgery, screws and everything, and 8 months off practice with 3 of those stuck on my moms coach! HahaAt this point I was sad and depressed, all of my little world was falling apart. I was very far off realizing that it was to be the first fruits of what I can call now my spiritual journey. I guess the stillness I experienced during those endless weeks gave me the room in my mind to work on my purpose not only as a tricker, but mostly as a human being. Since then I’ve tried to use tricking as a tool to keep working on myself and maybe inspire others to do the same. I'm truly grateful to tricking for this.You know, nobody will be able to trick forever, even trickers who can the hardest skills will die one day, so I reckon we should use it as much as possible to improve our all full person through the practice.

What’s your favourite move?

Without any doubt cheat 900!

Where do you see tricking going over the next 10 years?

Tricking is about to expand. I don’t know how fast it’s gonna happen but I'm sure it’s gonna be big one day. I would love to watch tricking gatherings in 10 years like I can watch the X-Games today. I just hope that the actual community spirit will stay alive.


Ben’s Last Aussie Session 2013

Heikki Järvinen


What is Tricking, and who am I to describe this form of art?

You are a tricker I presume, or an individual who is interested in tricking and if you are reading this, it means that you are seeking to understand more of this undefined thing we do.

I am one of the 4 founders (of which only one still tricks and he isn't me :)) of the martial arts tricking team Unito. That is one of the main components that has been defining me for the last decade.

I started tricking when I was 17 years old, I am 26 years old so I've been tricking for 9 years now. The scene was really small back in 2003 and as the years have gone by, I've seen a lot of my tricking friends and idols quit and move on to other things, but then again, I've gotten to trick with Emil and Iikka my whole tricking life and I have seen a certain Vellu growing from a scrawny kid to the man he is today.

I think you all know the definition of tricking; aesthetic blend of this and that. To me tricking is foremost an artform. The careful weight shifting and balancing from setups through transitions to enders. The way of using your arms to gather and control momentum through multiple twists, at the same time expressing your own style you've built through countless hours of training, if that isn't counted as art, I don't know what is.

Tricking to me is most of all flow. Don't get me wrong, I love triplecorks and dub-dubs and I'm constantly chasing the latter but when I watch tricking, the only time I rewind samplers is when I see a transition that I've never seen before, they usually make me go "whaaat, how did he come up with that".

But luckily, tricking is what you make of it, if you are a person who is more impressed by "How did he do that", pushing the physical limits of tricking, that's really OK. I myself am trying to find the golden mean of tricking: Try to think of new ways of doing things and the same time trying to do as advanced tricks as my body can handle.

And that is the second most important thing to me. I've had a whole heap of injuries these last 9 years and I've went through the recovery process so many times that I want to trick as safe as possible. I didn't get it for a long time but as I'm growing older, I start to notice that we only have this one body, and the injuries we gain through tricking will be with us the rest of our lives. Trick hard, trick safe. It's so much more fun that way.

Thirdly, tricking to me is my friends, my idols, the community and you. Tricking wouldn't be without the internet or you and me. I always urge people to give out to the community, give back to tricking, tricking is so awesome cause we define it everyday.

- Heikki Järvinen

THE ART OFTRICKING

Or the ramblings of a worn out tricker

PERFORMINGTRICKS

I get asked a lot to help with tricking performances and to give advice on how to start performing with tricking.

Unito started performing late 2006, you can still find our very very first gig on youtube, if you have superior googling skills. That was a time when I had been tricking for little over 3 years, I was asked if we would like to do a performance for a university party in a night club of sorts. We decided that we'd do the show

I can't really remember how we trained for the show, but the emphasis was on the tricks of course. Problem was, we weren't that good trickers back then, so the structure of the show was kinda: some tricks, a fight scene, some breakdancing and then free trick(which we still love to use)!

When I watch the show back, I can't help feeling nostalgic and kind of embarrassed at the same time. But that was the foundation we started building on, we contacted a performance agency in Tampere which lead us to the fire group flamma who we've been working with since.

But less history lesson, more tips!First of all, you should have a solid foundation of tricks. This sounds simple, but the audience rarely sees the difference with a double full and a triple full (they usually will see the difference between a full and a double full however). What they definitely will see, is if you are performing the tricks with good or bad technique. Even if the audience doesn't understand the finesse of transitions and over-technical ultimate

maneuvers, they are going to see your flow, flexibility and technique. Remember that when they think of kicking and martial arts, they think bruce lee, jet li and jackie chan, not a yellow belt with bent leg kicks. That's why focus on foundation, that will also help with the wear and tear of tricking on hard surfaces.

Secondly! Tricking and combos are tiring, when you are doing a performance, you are not going to be tricking the whole time, you'll need time to rest, recover from combos, move to a new place. The whole time, the audience's eyes will be on you. As a performer, you have to have stage presence, charisma and hopefully a secondary and maybe a tertiary skill you can use while performing, it could be martial arts with handcombos, dance, driving a unicycle or doing stand up comedy, but you can't put up an interesting show with just tricking moves alone, unless the show is really really short.We have been joking around that we want to do a tricking performance where there is not a single trick, just movement.

Thirdly! Have something to say. People wan't to be entertained, they want to feel what you are feeling and they want to hear and see the stories you are telling them. That doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have a plot in your performance, but you can have themes on your show or something resembling a plot. If you are tricking and so 'expressing yourself', doing performances is the best place for it!

Next time I'll write about tricking choreography!

- Heikki Järvinen

Heikki Järvinen

SCALCO;


AND COMING BACK FROM INJURY

My name is Mike Scalco and I tricked for 2 years straight, then took about a 2-3 year break due to a knee injury. I discovered tricking through my martial arts school. I went to join the demo team and at the time Mike and John Maguire were running it. They were my superiors at the dojo. When I went to the tryouts I could do a very sloppy back handspring. When they saw me do it they invited me to join them in an open gym session at this gym where team FS trained. I knew nothing of tricking until I saw Team FS at that gym, and from that day I fell in love with tricking.

I love thinking about the old times! My first gathering was the New York Gathering of 2005. EVERYONE was there! And we all slept in the gym too! I got to meet soooo many tricksters early in my tricking career. I had been tricking for about 5 months before this gathering. There were too many people to name that I met, but they were all fantastic people. It's what truly made me fall in love with tricking. The people are the greatest I could ever imagine. I didn't have too many set goals in tricking. I just wanted to have fun and I pushed myself all the time because I just enjoyed experimenting. I've always been with Team Arashi. When we first started and till

now, I always will consider myself an Arashi member :)

My injury happened at the FS gathering in 2007. I was in Massachusetts and the gym really was in the middle of nowhere but it was one of my most favorite gyms. Not to mention the gathering was held by my most favorite Jaime Colon. It was early in the session on the first day. We were all really amped up and throwing crazy stuff. At the time I had only landed one hyper snapuswipe in my life and I wanted to land another. So That's what I decided I would do. I'm no holy man, but before I would ever do a hyper snapuswipe I would pray to myself that I would be safe after. I threw the hyper snapu and I committed so hard to the landing. That commitment led to my knee dislocating on landing and tearing my ACL and PCL ligaments. Along with very severely spraining the MCL ligament. I also tore at my meniscus as well. My knee was all wiggly hahaha.

My mindset was a few things when preparing for the trick. One thing I would do is close my eyes and picture everyone getting excited after I land it. That would excite me as well. I would go through everything I need to do for the trick and then right at windup, I often say in my head "FLY", and I jump. After I take off, there's nothing left. I forget everything and I'm just flying in the air. It is the greatest thing ever.

After the crash I actually had no idea I hurt myself. Once I hit the ground I got right back up. It was only when I went to take a step on my right leg that it completely smushed under my weight. I'll have to say that was the strangest feeling in the world. Having that feeling of your leg just not working and it was a complete surprise to me. I fell on my back and saw my sideways leg. I remember the first thing I said was in a whisper "I broke my leg". I thought I broke it. I honestly thought it was just a broken bone hahahaha. But woe is me, it was much more than that.

Recovery was quite a road. And no easy one at that. The hardest part was being home right after the gathering. I was laying on the couch with my leg up and it just really dawned on me. I won't be able to trick again. I can't practice my martial arts. I'm a naturally very active person who loves to dance, climb things and all that jazz. So this was all very difficult to take in. I cried a lot. I had to go to physical therapy immediately after the injury, and go through it for about 6 months before I had my actual knee surgery. I was in my last year of high school going to physical therapy 3 times a week. Doing numerous exercises to strengthen it up. Eventually


surgery time came and it went pretty well. I woke up in a bed and didn't want to move a muscle. I was drugged like it was no ones business. It was orthroscopic surgery, so they used tiny little toys inside my knee to operate. I had ligament graphs placed. Meaning I got a dead guys ligaments to replace my puny old ones. They are drilled in with screws and bolts. After surgery I had a lot more physical therapy to do. Getting my range of motion back was very difficult. Having someone pushing your knee to bend further than it wants to is a painful feeling haha. I finished my last year of college feeling pretty good. I had spent about 9 months recovering from the surgery. The only thing was the surgery wasn't a 100% good one. My knee was still a little loose, and that wasn't from weak muscles, but the ligaments placed were a little loose. During the summer I was playing around with very simple tricks and kicks. I decided to run on the wall for fun, and when I jumped off I landed funny and popped my knee again. I re-dislocated the two ligaments. That feeling wasn't so fun because I realized how stupid a mistake I had made. But it was probably the best mistake I ever made. I had to go through the same recovery process again. But this time the surgery was a lot more solid and it had my knee a whole lot better than the last time. I spend about another 9-10 months recovering after a second surgery. And after all of that I wasn't sure I should get back into tricking. I told myself not to for a while because it just didn't seem like the smart thing to do. So instead of tricking, I exercised a lot and got my leg as strong as I could. After a while I started noticing people were actually mentioning me on the tricking forums and there were videos being made with my old footage. I was amazed people were still watching my tricks. I then realized that I had to comeback. So I did :)

I actually disappeared much in the community after the surgery. Watching samplers and other things made me miss it too much and at the time I really felt I would never trick again. So it was hard to look at without getting sad.

I began considering a comeback sampler in the early spring of 2011. I started doing very basic tricks and slowly gaining my confidence again (still doing it). After a while I was starting to throw some stuff I felt really good about and realized it was time to start filming for the comeback sampler! But I didn't want anyone to know haha. I knew


everyone thought I was dead so I wanted to come out of nowhere and that's what I did!

It’s greatly changed my tricking ways. I'm much more cautious now. I have to avoid certain tricks just because of the way the landings are on my right leg. I always have to mentally prepare and be ultra aware of my body while tricking. It's a great way to train and it has allowed me to develop some cool combos. I'm glad for what my injury has brought me :)

The future is not my worry. If someone suggests a gathering and I can go, I will gladly do it. Particular tricks or combos? Nope. I trick because I just love to fly through the air and I love the people. I honestly could not ask for anything better in the entire world. Just the thought of how amazing tricking is always brings a tear to my eye. It's just amazing.

- Scalco


Scalco’s Welcome Back Samp

TRICKERS &DOCTORS

Trickers increasing in numbers throughout the years will need a special breed of doctors and physicians.

Let's start with the "why": it's just hard for a doctor to understand what is causing you difficulties/pain. You'll need a doc who understands when you say: my knee feels pretty normal, it's only when I do gainer switches that it starts to hurt. I realized the importance of this when I was taping a friend of mine, Patrick, and he said: "It's so awesome I have a physical caretaker who actually UNDERSTANDS what I am saying in tricking terms!" And you know what: it IS! Every tricker needs, no, DESERVES a special qualified person, who deals on tricker TERMS! A person, who will help us recovering and preventing injuries, and increase output and performance levels, just like in any other high-level sport.

I have to stress one thing here the most: No one can tell you better about your own body than YOU can! Period! Sure, you'll have to learn to listen to your body, but eventually, not even a doctor cannot tell you how you feel. He can't put himself in your body. A doctor mostly uses your pain to tell him what's wrong on your end. If a doctor says: "that's odd, this x-ray shows your ankle's fully recovered, you shouldn't feel any pain", but you still DO, that's a FACT! And if any doctor tell you shouldn't be moving around much, but you just feel it's beneficial, you should. You probably recovered faster than he anticipated.

The best (assumed) advice your average doc gives you on any tricking-related matter is: "quit". Yeah, I know, right? But who can blame him?

Tricking looks superhuman, impossible to do even, so it must be a tremendous amount of stress to the body. Also, if he advised you to anything else but to quit, he could have to take responsibility for the consequences.. Imagine you get hurt again and saying: "But the doctor said I could keep tricking." Doctor=screwed. The matter is, doctors tend to give the same exact advice on many related matters, even down to every-day activities. Torn ACL from skiing: "Quit skiing". Inguilnal hernia: "Don't lift anything heavier than 5 kilograms. EVER AGAIN!". I heard similar ridiculous advice. Instead of focusing on recovery, and bringing the level of strain and activity back up slowly, doctors choose to not take any risks, and advise against activity. Take for instance a "herniated vertebral disc": It's (mostly) a result of strain on the vertebra, where the vertebral body directly presses on the disc below it. As a result, the disc gets thinner and thinner, resulting in a hernia, or a so-called "slip". The pain is not only mind-numbing, but this injury can leave a numbness in regions of the body up until no feeling in limbs at all. Strong back muscles help prevent a hernia in the discs, yet doctors mostly advise against straining the area ever again, really just making it easier for another hernia to occur. That disc tissue has barely any chance to recover. The only thing that would help preventing another hernia would be training the muscles of the back. But for that, you would have to take initiative. get active, and get a helper who works out and guides you through a healthy building program. This is just an example, you can imagine long-term injuries other than a slipped disc.

- Kenan Karic


Nowadays, more and more people find it worthwhile to get up, and not only do proper recovery training, but also take prevention measures. So why not have a qualified helper to go along?As a tricker, one usually becomes a nutrition expert of his own, a physician of his own, and a bodybuilding expert too. Basically that's admirable. But there's two weak points in there for me.

1. The information you obtain can be wrong. If you read in an article that you should cut all fats in your diet to lose weight and improve performance, you're likely to fail both. It's okay to get informed, but check your information and check your source.

2. It just costs a lot of time to acquire everything on your own.


To get back on the matter, I think that in time, tricking will produce specialized physicians, who will be just like Trickers are: loving, free and awesome. I personally strive to become one.

- Kenan Karic

Well that’s it guys! I hope you enjoyed reading Issue 2 and all of the ideas and discussions put forward within. If you’d like to write something for the next issue send it over to [email protected], and head over to our Facebook page and Twitter page if you want to continue the discussion started in any of these articles and interviews!

We’re heading on tour later this year! So we’ll see you in Europe and at Loopkicks over June and July. Our next issue will be the World Tour Edition packed full of experiences, memories and adventures from tricking around Europe and USA.

See you soon!

James DalyFounder Invincible Tricking

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

invincible tricking magazine - issue 2

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