What Are You Afraid Of?

It’s common for beginner tricksters to be afraid of most tricks. I used to think one handed cartwheel were dangerous. I was terrified of an aerial. Horrified of a backflip.

But even then I didn’t doubt my physical ability to land those tricks. They were easy — or so everyone kept telling me — and I knew with practice they could be done. Truthfully, most reasonably athletic people can learn how to backflip in one day. It doesn’t take crazy vertical jump ability, or insane technique. It just takes guts.

I’m betting most tricksters afraid of single tricks are confident in their ability to perform them. Hang around others long enough and you’ll start to be convinced that backflips and gainers really aren’t difficult. In fact, they are some of the easier tricks from both a technical and physical standpoint. But they are the most mentally taxing for beginners.

So when you do swallow your fear and actually chuck these tricks, what continues to hold you back? Once you do them once, you proved to yourself that you have the kinesthetic awareness to survive an end over end flip. Yet some people continue to fear it. They’ll put flips—or whatever tricks that scare them—last in training sessions, and not give them much focus. But you already proved that you can do them without hurting yourself. So what’s holding you back from mastering them and progressing?

Is it a fear of the trick in question, or is it a fear of what’s to come?

So even though you proved yourself that you can survive a backflip, you’re afraid to get better at them because you know that it never ends. Fear at backflips means fear at flashkicks and fear at gainers. You know that once you can backflip, you’re going to pressure yourself to do even more difficult—and frightening—tricks.

But it’s important to live in the present. Backflips — or any other trick for that matter — may scare you, and from the perspective you have right now it’s future variations scare you even more. But once you prove to yourself you can backflip without consequence, don’t shy away from it. Just because the future seems scary doesn’t mean the present has to be.

For a while I put of flips and their variations because of this. I could backflip easily, but the thought of more advanced flips turned me off. Instead of spending time mastering and getting extremely uncomfortable with the backflip — to the point of doing it anywhere at any time without any psychological arousal — I would practice them here and there without much focus. But I only did this because I feared the future, not the present.

So if you’re putting off the tricks that scare you, even after landing them safely, ask yourself if you’re afraid of the trick, or what’s to come after the trick. If it’s what’s to come, then don’t even worry about it. Live for the “now” and master that tricks that you can do that cause the butterflys to rumble a bit. It will make “what’s to come” seem all the less scary when it’s at your doorstep.

While I’m using tricking examples, this also pertains to every facet of your life. Often times, when confronted with big decisions, people get hung up on what’s to come. But you can only control the present. Don’t let “should,” “would,” and “could” define you. Don’t let unknowns rule your life.

“Never let fear determine where you are. Never let where you come from determine where you are going.”

-Dewey Bozella