Tricking (martial arts)

Examples of tricking techniques include the 540 kick, the corkscrew (cork), the flashkick, the butterfly twist and the double leg.

A tendency to exhibit techniques that are more flashy and complex was observed in martial arts during the period following the 1960s, predating the current tricking movement.

Especially in taekwondo, an increasing emphasis on spectacular spinning, jumping or flying kicks developed during the mid-1960s with the introduction of international competitions.

Trickers can be divided into different categories of style: some prefer performing mainly martial arts tricks (which almost always incorporate kicks into a trick), others mostly freestyle gymnastics and flips (mainly focus on combining different types of rotations and twists), but most trickers combine moves from both of the disciplines.

A recent, yet unpublished study using motion capture data of over 300 tricking combos from multiple participants found that the horizontal (flip) and vertical (twist) components of the total angular momentum vector are exactly equal on average during Tricking, indicating a high degree of contact twisting.