Author: Jujimufu
Published: Spring 2004
I've got a story to enlighten you. The other day I was driving home from school
listening to some of the coolest music on earth. I was obviously engaged in
some serious head banging. Both my hands were lifted free from the steering
wheel filled with the life of the music's rhythm. At that moment I thought of
something. I should do a jacknife today!
This thought would not
have come into my mind had I not gazed into my rear view mirror and noticed
the not-so-obvious jacknife written on my face. I continued on my way home envisioning
myself executing jacknives. When I arrived at my house I prepared for a fun
tricking session. I refilled my glycogen stores, ripped off my shirt, wrapped
on the bandana, emptied my colon, grabbed some water, and ran outside!
When I reached the park I started to warm up. I threw some kicks when suddenly I realized that I had forgotten what trick I was meaning to try. Hmmmm.... Nope, couldn't think of it. Frustrated, I began sticking to stuff I could already do. Suddenly, while executing a standard 540 I noticed my entire leg had markings on it. After the kick I checked it out.
Aerial switch / Reverse gainer
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and
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A, C, C, D, B, C, C, A, A, B
Awesome! Not only did this reminder help me earlier in the day to cheat on that multiple choice Geo science quiz, but it also reminded me of a simple combo I was wanting to try earlier in the day.
After further psyching myself out I started into the combo. Whoa! That was different, glad I was reminded or I wouldn't have thought of trying it! Cool beans! The first reminder I forgot had got me tricking and the second had made my tricking session better anyway. I then finished, went back to my house, and drank some water from the hose in my backyard.
Okay so that's my story. Hopefully you caught the point of the story while reading it. If not I've already taken it upon myself to explain to you the reason I've shared this story with you. Sometimes to succeed you need nothing more than a series of reminders. This is true for tricking obviously as well. There are many ways to apply reminders to your tricking. It can seem insane at times but often it's hilariously fun for a little while at least.
For me I've found that writing them down on a sheet of paper is much easier and more convenient than most of the pointless methods I mentioned above. You can pack a lot more on a sheet of paper too. For instance, I would create a small text document full of moves and combos that come to my mind or wish to try! One of mine could look like this -
>>>> Juji's better reminder <<<<
Notice I separated the moves into various categories. Some days you just aren't meant to flip, while you may still be able to kick. Or it can be the other way around. Basically somedays some moves work better than others, so remembering various styles of that trick and it's variations can enhance that tricking session. Notice I also had listed moves I could be working on or learning. Finally, I listed some combinations. That's probably where this shines the most. There is a limited list of tricks, but combinations are nearly endless. Keeping track of those can be more difficult and beneficial. So there we go, that's what one of my personal reminders would look like. I didn't include the entire library of tricking although I could have. Instead I just included stuff I cared about that could fit on the front and back of one sheet of paper. Print your own out and try if for yourself during your next few tricking sessions. Maybe it'll help you a little bit.
