List of flips

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Tricking is a discipline that focuses almost exclusively on flips.

[edit] Positions

There are 3 positions often used in Front Flips and Back Flips and they are as follows:

• Tuck Technically, in gymnastics terms, Tucking is to bend at the hips and the knees.

• Pike Technically, in gymnastics terms, Piking is to bend only at the hips.

• Lay Out Technically, in gymnastics terms, a Lay Out is to have no bending at the hips and no bending at the knees either. (You are actually supposed to maintain a Hollow-body position, meaning a llight curve to the front by keeping the shoulders curved foward and head tucked in.)

(For instance, if you did a Front Flip that's Tucked, it would be referred to as a Front Tuck. If you did a Back Flip that's Laid Out, it would be referred to as a Back Lay Out.)

All these positions apply to breaker's doing flips as well. Tucking is generally the best position to use with many flips, though it may not be as impressive as a Layout for example. To Tuck, you basically bring your knees towards your chest. To Pike, you bring your legs towards your chest but you have no bend in your knees as you would when Tucking. To Lay Out, you have no bend in your in your knees or hips.

[edit] Other important terms

• Step Out A move done from a step out is a move done with one foot in front.

• Front Hand Spring Stand up straight with your hands raised over your head. Skip with your right foot and extend your left leg in front of you. Throw your hands onto the ground (like a handstand, but you aren't stopping), and push. Remember to keep your hands pretty close together. This helps with the pushing. Also, try to keep your body straight. Now if you pushed hard enough, you should land on your feet.
  • Head Touch Front Hand Spring This is a Front Hand Spring in which you touch your head to the ground before you spring off your hands.

• Front Head Spring This move is very difficult and dangerous if you don't attempt it carefully. The move is just as the name applies. It is a front Hand Spring but without touching your hands to the ground, instead, you spring off your head. The way you do this is to transfer your head to the ground since really quickly. You don't really jump on to your head, but you hop on to it very gently and when it's already about an inch to the ground. You go down quickly so that you have a lot of momentum and you go on to your head and force your legs over and try to pop up using your head the best you can. It must be doen quickly so that you don't lose momentum. Having good Kip Ups and No Handed Kip Ups can help since you can learn how to usee your legs and how to pop up with your head real well.

• Front Flip A frontwards 360 degree rotation in air.

• Webster A Front Flip done from a Step Out and you land on the kicking leg first followed by the jumping leg.
  • Cheat Webster A Webster in which you land on both legs at the same time.

• Loser A Webster done while running backwards so that you actually gain backwards distance (or lose forward distance if you will, hence its name) when doing it. It is somewhat antonymous with a Gainer.
  • Cheat Loser The same as a Loser except done with a Cheat Webster.

• Front Half Twist A Front Flip with a 180 degree twist. The Front Flip starts first and then the 180 degree spin.

• Arabian A 180 degree Front Flip in which the twist starts before the flip.

• Back Hand Spring Straighten your body horizontal with your hands up in the air, swing your hands down really fast, while swinging your hand and you about to bend down try to imagine that you about to sit on the chair then legs push down really hard, launch up your hands and extending your shoulders through the rest of back handspring. That's how you push your hands on the ground and push yourself over.

• Back Hand Spring Twist A Back Hand Spring in which you do a 180 degree spin before you hands touch the ground. Sometimes it may help to attempt a 360 degree spin because you'll spin faster this way and by time you reach 180 degrees you will have an easier time putting your hands to the ground to continue the move. When your hands reach the ground your legs lag behind a bit so you have to learn how to control them so that you force your legs to keep twisting all the way through. If you don't continue to twist your legs through when your hands reach the ground then the move turns out very messy. It is a very difficult move to do properly.

• Back Head Spring This is similar to a Front Head Spring except going backwards. This is much harder than a Front Head Spring. It requires similar technique but you also need great back flexibility and strength. You need to be flexible enough to get your head an inch to the ground and you need the strength to get it that close to the ground without falling over. Practicing bringing your head to the ground heading backways is required to develop the strength needed for this move. Back flexibility training is likely also required. Though, having the strength and control is likely more important than flexibility is. Being able to bring yourself down quick enough that you have good momentum but still maintaining good control is difficult.

• Back Flip A backwards 360 degree rotation in air.

• Back Whip This is similar to a Back Layout. It is often said to be a no handed Back Hand Spring. To do a back Whip, you'd basically want to do it the same way that you'd do a Back Layout but instead of a smooth rotation over, you need to, well, whip your legs around. You've got to force your legs around rather than just letting them go around naturally.

• X-Out A Back Flip done with the legs straddling in mid air. The arms can also straddle along with the legs to emphasize the formation of an "X".

• Flash Kick This is a Back Flip in which you kick in mid air.

• Back Half Twist A Back Flip with a 180 degree twist.

• Back Full Twist A Back Flip with a 360 degree twist.

• Gainer Technically, a gainer is a Back Flip in which you gain forward distance with. There are a few various ways this can be done but the most common (and likely the most impressive) way to do this is as follows: you jog forward, not too fast or it will take away from the jump (25% of max speed is generally a manageable speed to jog with that has an impressive effect on the gainer). Then, you jump off one leg while your other leg is swung to help give you momentum. You, of course, also swing your arms to help give you momentum with the jump. Tucking your knees to your chest after jumping is practically mandatory with a Gainer (though there are exceptions).

• Cart Wheel This move got its name because it is similar to the way a cart wheel moves. You go in a side to side motion. You put one hand down to th side of you followed by the next, then one foot goes down followed by the other and all of this occurs in a side to side motion. Think of trying to go into a Hand Stand, but getting into it from the side of your body instead of the front and then follow your legs through. Your legs should be straddles apart, not together.

• Aerial An Aerial can be done frontways or sideways. The term Aerial is usually described as a no-handed Cart Wheel. That description better suits a Side Aerial, although, using the term Aerial by itself generally refers to a front Aerial.
  • Front Aerial An Aerial that is in a forward motion. It must be from a Step Out. A Front Aerial takes a lot more technique than a Side Aerial does.
  • Side Aerial/Aerial Cartwheel An Aerial done in a side to side motion. Also known as a Cart Wheel performed without touching your hands to the ground.. The aerial and the one handed cartwheel are totally different.

• Side Flip A flip sidewards. This should not be confused with Aerial nor Double Leg. In a Side Flip your body is more crunched together which is completely unlike an Aerial. In a Side Flip, your back is not parallel to the ground which is unlike a Double Leg.

• Double Leg A Double Leg is somewhat similar to a Side Flip except your back is completely parallel to the ground throughout the move. A Double Leg requires a great deal of arm momentum to carry you through the move.
  • Single Leg (540) This is a Double Leg except after jumping you keep one leg extended while beding the other at the knee. It forms somewhat of a kick out of a Double Leg.

• Butterfly Twist/B Twist This is one full horizontal 360 degree twist in mid air. It is more commonly called a B twist rather than a Butterfly Twist.

• Corkscrew This is a 540 degree horizontal twist in mid air. It is somewhat similar to a B Twist but you actually swing through with one leg and jump off the other in order to get an extra 180 degrees to the twist.

• Wall Flip Any type of flip done off a wall. Many think of a Wall Flip as doing a Back Flip off a wall, but actually there are numerous kinds of flips that can be done off a wall, for example; Front Flip, Full Twist, Arabian, etcetera. There are even numerous ways to jump off the wall, for example; 2 steps, 3 steps, using both legs rather than just one, facing backwards instead of forwards, etcetera. Even with the growing popularity of Le Parkour and Tricking there is still not an official system used to clarify what type of Wall Flip is performed. Therefore, how specific you want to be is up to you. Just for your knowledge, saying you did a Wall Flip is generally thought of as just doing a Back Flip off a wall using 1 step. One more thing to note is that Tricksters and Free Runners generally think of a trick done on a wall that's not completely vertical as not an official trick. This is because doing a 4 Step Wall Flip off a 100 degree wall is dramatically easier than off a 90 degree wall. Anyway, the most common way a Wall Flip is done is by running up to a wall (probably around 50% speed) and then jumping onto it with just one foot, and then jumping back off of it and doing a Back Flip from that jump.