Your intuitive reaction to that question might be to say "Hmm, well this entire website is about the technicalities of tricks and having a full and accurate understanding of Tricking techniques and their consistent applications...so the answer is 'Very Important'."

Actually, it's not particularly important at all, usually. Or should I say, essential.
Now, just because I'm saying it's not important doesn't mean that it doesn't make you smarter, a better teacher, and generally more credible. But when it comes to the grand Tricking scheme of things, knowing even a book's worth of Tricking technical knowledge isn't necessarily going to help. Of course an understanding of some technical things is essential. But is the level of technical knowledge that is, say, present on this site, needed to become good at tricking? No.

If you look at most of the popular "favorite" trickers out there, who are capable of so many tricks and combos, you'll see most of them don't really know many deep technical details about their techniques. Of course, they're performing the deep technical details as they do tricks, but they don't have to know it to do it.
So just remember to have a balanced view of technical Tricking knowledge. It will most likely help you improve faster, yes. Is this necessary to improve? Not really.

So you may ask, why make a site like this then? Just because it's not essential doesn't mean that the knowledge isn't there. To illustrate, it's basically like any other form of science, physics, for instance. Every action you take is governed by the laws of physics. Do you have to know the theory and mathematics of the physics of the universe in order to live life? No. Do you have to study physics and understand the scientific principles behind life in order to live a meaningful live in this universe? No. But can you study physics to increase your understanding of the universe and perhaps benefit your life in certain areas? Yes.

More than that, there a whole lot of misconceptions in regards to Tricking techniques out there. Some people teach invalid concepts, or some people might just not understand what they're doing wrong, or why they can't land something. To that end, knowledge is always better than misinformation. So, this site hopes to cover as many bases as possible in regards to technical Tricking knowledge. I am a personal advocate of the proliferation and intake of knowledge in all aspects of life. Some people just aren't like that, and that's quite fine for the most part. So use this information however you see fit.

Tricking is very much like science. In it's most basic concepts, science is about cause and effect, empirical observations, etc. If you put in certain variables or conditions, you will always get the same result. If I mix baking soda and vinegar, they will always have a chemical reaction and fizzle. It's the same with math. If I multiply 5 and 6, it will always equal 30.

In tricking, if you do particular steps in a particular way, you will always get the same result. That's just how it is. What does this mean? If you can't land a trick, you will keep not landing it by doing the same thing over and over. For some reason, people seem to think that they can get a trick simply by drilling and drilling and doing it over and over, crashing again and again.

Let's think about this rationally for a second. If you keep doing the same thing, why in heaven's name would you get a different result? Why do you think people are able to get consistent tricks? It's because they keep doing the same correct thing over and over. So if you keep doing the same incorrect thing over and over, are you somehow going to land the trick by doing the same thing that made you not land it? No way!
Even when someone does become able to do a trick by "drilling" it, it's usually just because they've been slightly changing stuff as they drill. While this is work, it's not quite as efficient, and can lead to bad habits.

So what's my point? When you're trying to land a trick, and you keep crashing, make drastic changes each time. Change the way you think about it, change key parts of the technique, change your timing, change certain movements in different but logical ways. If you change the variables, you get different results. Sure, you may crash again haha, but you might crash differently. Could be for the better, could be for the worse! But if you keep doing the same thing over and over, it's not going to get you closer to your results. So when you're practicing, change something big! Try the trick a few times the same way, if it doesn't work, mix things up. You will not land a trick by trying the same failing thing every time hehe.

When is drilling appropriate? After you've learned to land a move. If you keep trying it, not only will your body find easier ways to do it without you having to think about it as much, but what you are doing will get ingrained into your muscle memory.
If you keep crashing a move by doing the same thing over and over, your body finds easier ways to make yourself crash. ;)

Keep it up guys!

Not very different at all actually.

This is a very basic and somewhat obvious principle after you think about it, that can be applied to many things. And make some things a lot less difficult. Often times, people new to tricking fall under the misconception that horizontal or even flip twisting tricks like B-Twists, Corks, Cheat 720 Twists, etc have some sort of special 'horizontal twisting' technique, and they have to be done like 'horizontal twists' or whatever else. But it's not true. People will try to do their twists by aligning themselves horizontally, then doing some awkward circular upwards swinging side to side motion in their side. It can work sure, but if you're thinking about that in your head, and telling yourself to do that motion, it's just not as efficient.

Horizontal Twists/Spins are just Vertical Twists/Spins. The only difference is that the body is horizontal for "Horizontal Twists." What does this mean? Approach the spinning components of any twisting trick the same you would for any other spinning trick, like a Pop/Cheat spinning kick or just jumping in the air and spinning haha. The same arm/shoulder/body motions and coordination can be applied. And isn't it easier to just do regular vertical spins than to try to force some horizontal spinning mess? So just visualize the technique of a vertical spin when doing the twisting part of any horizontal trick.

Remember though, you need to make yourself horizontal still. They're vertical spins (after all, you always 'twist' around the same axis, no matter your bodies orientation) while the body is horizontal. So do whatever motions make your body horizontal while you spin vertical. The emphasis here is to NOT try to use the twist/spinning motions to get horizontal. Getting horizontal or flipped is a result of different motions in general. So do the twist of a trick like you'd do any other twist or spin vertically, and rely on the other aspects of the tricks technique to get your horizontal or inverted or whatever. Get what I'm saying? Yay!

While it's usually recommended that individuals learn Aerials from a standard, stepping forward setup, or even a straight side to side setup, many try it from the Butterfly Setup, that they do their B-Kicks from and such. And yeno what, this works! Ha! Sometimes they can do it from a B-Kick setup well, but not very well from a regular Aerial setup. Why? (Also, note that the B-Kick position generally is just pivoting into what would be the side to side setup for an Aerial. Important? Not really, but just noting this, so one can draw up similarities.)

Simply enough, the Butterfly Setup helps people with Aerials simply because of the dip. Many beginners try dipping as they takeoff into the Aerial, or just dip at a point that's generally bad timing for the technique. I talk about this in my tutorial for Aerial and a few guides: the fact that in an Aerial, the dip needs to come only during the setup.

And, obviously enough, the Butterfly Setup features a (often times exaggerated) dip, done well before the jump. So when people do the Butterfly Setup into an Aerial, they're doing the sequence of events that they should be doing in an Aerial Setup: dipping earlier, then jumping up into the trick. So, if you fall under this circumstance where you can't do a straight forward Aerial well, but you can do it from a Butterfly Setup well, what do you learn from this?

Of course I'm not gonna just throw that question out there and not answer it, haha. It means for your regular Aerial setup, emulate the key components that make the Butterfly Setup work so well for Aerials: emphasized dip during the setup, body jumping up during the takeoff, no dipping at all during the takeoff. Maybe you don't have a problem with this, but it's a nice little tidbit to know why anyways, take care!

It's been quite some time since I've put an entry in here, oh shoo. I've picked up a couple tips throughout my travels, even though I haven't tricked in a couple weeks, and before that I hadn't for a couple months, minus random intermittent sessions.
Try not to treat the Raiz (and it's subsequent variations) like a Cheat move. You don't want to turn your body towards the side like you would a 540 or whatever. You want to have it so your body tilts in the direction you're going.
Doesn't that makes sense? When you do a Raiz, which way do you land? Facing the direction you came from. When you land any swing through move, what way are you facing? With your back towards the direction of your momentum. So you don't want to try to do a side to side motion with the Raiz, as if you're doing a Tornado kick but leaning back or whatever. You want to treat it almost like you would a gymnastic Aerial. Or, as I always say, like a Flash Kick or Gainer Flash, from the step in. Step towards the direction you are going, tilt your body slightly towards the direction you're going, then do the Raiz or the Swipe. This makes you invert your Raiz or Sideswipe at any height, and basically is the best and most efficient.
Hmmm...what else can I talk about...for Butterfly Kicks if you have a bit of trouble with an awkward looking twist, when you come up for the twist think about looking in front of you, in the direction you're going. Sorta like a B-Twist Round with no kick. It can help for swing troughs, provided you're comfortable enough with your B-Twist.
Also, treat the wrap for the B-Twist the same as you would for uhh, if you were standing there spinning, or a pop spin, or whatever. You open your arms up side to side, then pull them in side to side. It just so happens that when you do this, your body is also horizontal. But the B-Twist is still a "side to side" twisting move, it's just done with the body horizontally. To that end, you can gain maximum efficiency by treating it like a regular spin or twist...because that's what it is!
This is getting long, hmm I can't remember anything else. Ok, have fun!
Oh yea, contrary to popular belief, Aerials are totally inverted B-Kicks. If you wanna argue, I don't really care haha. I'll provide evidence for this thesis later, it'll give me something else to write about.

For pop spinning kicks, dig quick, and as you dig hoooold your arms back and wind them up. Then as you jump, pull towards the front while turning, then once you leave the ground, wrap HARD and FAST like a mofo. And try to hold that wrap throughout, this is sorta common sense, but you need to break down the move to do it well.
Think of different methods of visualization between similar moves like 720s and 900s though, or you might end up screwing one of them over. Just think hard of what leg you want to land on and which one you want to kick with, shift your weight over the one you want to land on, etc.

I'm just getting back into the swing of things now, my shin feels like it's not cracking under pressure anymore haha, so I should be ready to go full out soon.
Anyways, keeping your chin UP during an Aerial setup helps too, I just found this out after trying it a few times, works great. This was a tip I picked up from Terada's Aerial tutorial. Sorta how keeping your chin up during a Raiz helps that out as well, funny how such a little thing can make a big difference in ease, huh?
Yesterday I was working with Cheat 720s/900s again, yay me. After my big break I had to make sure I could still do them well, so I refined them again. Anyways, yea, same things as always, direct your energy around while still jumping up. Also, especially for Cheat 900, don't wait to twist too much. Sure you don't want to spin around too early, but if you can already do it, practice spinning around quicker and quicker, and doing the actual spin hard and faster. Remember, it's not that hard, you're just spinning around once, so just ZING spin. The more you commit to the spin, the better and easier then C900.
Remember, unlike C720's where you just need to turn over and kick, in a C900 you actually need to do a full spin around into the kick, although wrapping hard into the C720 helps a lot as well. Just wrap like a mofo!

I was playing around with high Raizes (and subsequently) Sideswipes, and I found one little important tip: keeping your head (chin) up as you setup/dip. Who woulda thought? But it makes sense! It keeps your head higher during the setup, so when you go into the move and rotate around your head level, it's higher. Plus, when you keep your head back, that means when you arch back to look at the ground, your head is already close to being tilted back (or tilted back already), which means your head doesn't have to whip backwards, which means more float for you, sweet!

This tipline will be tips from a collection of sessions I've had for a while. A few basic principles that I'll briefly explain:
- In any pop spinning trick (720,900,etc) and in any cheat spinning trick above cheat 720 (cheat 900, etc), it is ESSENTIAL that you do not throw your arms up. Do not get into a habit of this. You don't want your arms to pass more than a little above your shoulders in fact. You want to keep them outwards, so they can flow aroooound. You don't want to lift them up above your head and then try to wrap them down when you get in the air, that never works. Keep your arms looow and shoulders relatively neutral as you jump so you can get a nice spin, after you flat spin. Oh yea make sure you flat spin a lot too.
- The key to a good Hypertwist (or any variations greater than one single 1/1 rotation on a butterfly) is to stall. Ok, not many people like that word now haha. Delay, wait, I dunno, just don't twist fast. You want to really wait until you're off the ground until you twist. If you twist fast, your leg whips around back to the ground, which is good for swing throughs yes. But get this: if it whips around fast and almost straight for a swing through, how could you possibly rotate the twist anymore? You can't. This is why you need to wait until you are clearly off the ground before you twist. I want to say wait as long as possible, but you don't want to wait too long. Just make sure the twist comes after a distinct jump.
- With double legs never try to get horizontal by leaning back or any crap. Just look over and try to lift both your legs up straight waaay up high ahah. Just do a pumped up 360 crescent with both legs, and instead of only kicking, pull your hips up as well.

Yuppp that's all the good stuff for now. Keep those in mind.

Today and yesterday I just felt like try to soup up my Butterfly Twist.
As you may or may not have noticed, my lifting leg straightens out as I twist, I basically rotate around it, so it's like the axis of the rotation. I want it to be able to stay bent in automatically like most other people, this seems to help with variations and such, especially hypertwists.
After doing lord knows how many b-twists today, probably over 50 haha, and trying little different tweaks each time, I've decided that it's just dumb ahaha. My b-twist was fine before I started and it wasn't until very late (just a little while ago actually) that I realized I can already do their variations well lol. Idiot. Last week at the gym when I was playing with B-Kick Gyros, I incidentally did some delayed Hypertwists, probably the best looking Hypertwists I've done.
Unfortunately I didn't realize this until after a day of strenuous work. Oh goodie.
So this means, along with some of my attempts and failures today, that to do a good Hypertwist, delay BOTH the twist and the switch. Don't rush them by any means.
Other than that...the lesson? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I was too worked up with trying to make my b-twist the most perfect standard thing ever that I probably screwed up my muscle memory, and now I have to fix it back up.

For more powerful Cheat 900s, you need to really power the flat spin and the kick spin. But always remember, the two spins need to be two completely separate motions. The moment they become complimentary, the spin and subsequent kick fails. So when you do a Cheat 900, come spinning off the groound faaast with your arms open, then as soon as you leave the ground quickly add another firm spin in their and BOOM kick that sucka.

I am terrible at pop tricks ahah. I just don't get it, it just doesn't click at all with me. Actually, maybe it does. Once again, I was trying a new approach to them. A new useless approach. This screwed that over. I actually learned a crappy Pop 900 with it though, but then I probably screwed that over. But it doesn't matter, because it looked awkward and ugly anyways. So I will never do it like that again anyways. I got frustrated with it so I tried reverting back to my old 360 Crescent takeoff from a couple months ago (which was verrrry good), and I got it back in a few tries. Next I'll try emulating that same takeoff, then using a spin kick instead of the 360. If that doesn't work, I'm giving up on all spinning pop kick tricks and going to 720 Doubles lol.

My weekend was strewed with bad sessions. Saturday just wasn't my day, so I concluded early. However I got close to relearning my lost Cheat720Twist, and I think I figured out my problem. Basically my leg was all circling around when I would jump up, so when I just started to twist it would be outwards and slightly under me instead of in front of me. So I need to fix this by leading with my chest more and pulling my leg up and not as much outwards in the wheeling compasso Raiz type motion.

And Cheat900s, as I got them as I said in my last tipline entry, then I lost them ahaha. And now after lots of work and tweaking and repetitive jump spinning, they're back. The most important things which I lost the feel for which I had to get back are these: 1) focus on staying upright and in the same spot. Simply telling yourself to do so as you do the move helps. 2) Make sure you have flat spin coming off the ground, don't spin too fast/early and then jump after you've finished turning, because then you have no flat spin which means your second (real, in the air) spin has to be completely forced and initiated in the air. And finally 3) don't loose commitment with the wrap. Every single time you do it, tell yourself to jump up, and the do the forceful wrap. You want the turning as you jump and the spin before which you kick to be two distinctive arm motions in your mind, use your arms to torque your shoulders and give it all you got while using your visionary focus to help you time when to switch your legs and lock on to your target.

During this session (last night) I was mostly experimenting with my b-twists. Although they look nice, it seems I've gotten into a few bad habits with them, in terms of arching and whipping them, which are hard to break now. I kept trying to twist with my back straight so my head would be facing forwards towards my body, like so. At the park I couldn't get it too work that well without arching my head back at the end, so it wasn't until I got home that I thought "why not just look in front of me." Tada, that seemed to work, now I need to try working with that back in my training environment. Most people don't have this problem though.

I decided to start learning Cheat 900s, and I got them in a few minutes. I will create an entire tutorial for them soon enough, but what I learned is the best way to approach them is by building up with each separate step. Do your cheat setup then jump but don't spin or anything, just use the "flat spin", and stop. Then do that but add only a spin, calmly, and spin around landing on the leg you kick with in a C9, like you would a Cheat720. Get used to that, then practice switching your leg at the end of the spin. Get used to that, and the kick almost wants to throw itself out. Then guide the kick out with more power. It's a very calm, VERY upright move. And it's fun.
My Aerial Twists are suffering now because I'm not committing enough to the Aerial part of the trick. I need to practice visualizing the Aerial more before twisting, my stall is alright now but I'm still cutting the Aerial motion short. Will update when I work on this too. Hope some of this helped.