To see the grace and power that an underground sport can birth, look no further than Vellu Saarela. For those viewers that aren’t familiar, Vellu is one of the best athletes that the underground sport of tricking has to offer. I’m not going to bore you with any more introduction because I think the interview [...]
To see the grace and power that an underground sport can birth, look no further than Vellu Saarela. For those viewers that aren’t familiar, Vellu is one of the best athletes that the underground sport of tricking has to offer. I’m not going to bore you with any more introduction because I think the interview reveals the kind of guy Vellu is, and why he is such a crowd favorite. Be sure to like Vellu Saarela on Facebook, and check out more of his videos on his YouTube page. If you’re wondering where you can get those cool Penguin Unito shirts he’s wearing, check out their Team Facebook Page.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItKJgUYVmeg&feature=related
Q) What year did you start tricking, and what was your motivation? How did you become involved?
A: I started tricking in January of 2005. My neighbor showed me Team Ryouko’s “Friday Night Madness 3” sampler and my mind was blown! I just wanted to learn that crazy stuff on my own so I went back home and started to search the internet and I ended up finding a Finnish tricking forum. That’s how I got started
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkitFN42aGI
Q) There are rumors about your training history. Did you really trick multiple times per day?
A: Yeah there was a period in my life around 2009-2010 when I used to train 3 times per day every now and then. Once before school, second time after school, and the last time in the evening after all homework and other stuff. That didn’t happen every day but I still did it once or couple of times a week. I was training 12-14 times a week but that was way too much. In the end it turned out that neither my body nor my mind couldn’t handle that much training all the time. I burned myself completely which resulted in being stuck at the same level in tricking, being tired all the time and break up with my ex girlfriend.
Now I’m training 4-6 times a week and through years of trying everything, I’ve finally realized that this is the best amount of training for me. By training 4-6 times a week I progress faster than training more or less than that.
Q) Did you have trouble adapting to tricking three times per day? Some have a hard time tricking two days consecutively.
A: It was a long process. I don’t remember how it happened so I can’t give you any specific info how to do it. Just try by yourself. I just remember that I have always been tricking a lot. I can’t remember when it turned to hard, regular training from just playing around and flipping outside with my friends every day on trampoline, to water and so on to. It just happened little by little. If you want to increase the amount of trainings per week, do it really slowly! Don’t rush it, you do have time. You just have to be patient.
Q) Have you ever done any martial arts / gymnastics?
A: Well. At the time when I started tricking I also started doing gymnastics for one year because that was the only way to get to the spring floor to train in my city. But all we were taught there was cartwheels and rolls and stuff so it never really helped me to learn tricking except that I was allowed to train at the gym on my own after gymnastics trainings were over. I also used to play football for couple of years when I was around 10 but actually I was just a little nerd when I started tricking and still in my early years of tricking
Q) Do you do any training outside of tricking?
A: Lately I’ve been too lazy with training outside of tricking. I still do some conditioning like sit-ups and push-ups and stuff at home every now and then. In the future I’m going to start to go to the gym to lift some weights to get more power. I’ve always had periods in my life when I’ve worked out more and periods when I’ve been just tricking. Now I’m going through period when I’m mostly just tricking.
I used to love playing ice hockey and football with my friends and I still try to find time to do some other sports than tricking. Sports like cycling, baseball, volleyball, skiing and downhill skiing are examples of other sports apart from tricking which I really like.
Q) There are a lot of your peers out there that would vote you the best trickster. Did you ever dream of reaching to this level when you first started?
A: Thank you. When I started tricking I had really hard times learning backflips because I thought they were too scary and risky. I decided to learn all the moves which are not going backwards. That pretty much tells how far I thought I can go when I was in the really beginning. After learning more and more I’ve always started to dream bigger though. But it’s not dreaming about winning some battles or being better than someone, my dreams are about winning myself and going further than I thought my limits would allow me to go.
Q) What kind of mentality do you take from training session to training session? Specifically, how do you deal with upper level moves that might appear ‘risky’ or ‘scary’ to others?
A: Most of my training sessions are just about working on basic tricks and combining them together. I try to make my moves cleaner and more powerful. I train to make it easier for myself to build up new combos. When I’m going to those kind of training sessions I don’t have to hype myself up before. I can just go to the gym, warm up and start drilling. After I find out something which is working for me well I start working more with it and try to combo it in different ways. Sometimes I find stuff which I find really hard that day and try to work with it to learn it better and make it feel easy and look good.
I go all out only couple of times a week. When I go all out I have to hype myself before and at the session. Usually that happens by watching samplers from other trickers and by listening to music. I really want to challenge myself and that’s why I love the sessions when I go all out and try to get the big moves and combos. I would love to do it every day and be insane every day but just working on power moves would make me look sloppy and it would be too rough for my body.
Q) What’s a typical week for you like, tricking schedule and all?
A: There hasn’t been too many typical weeks for me recently but I can try to describe the average of typical weeks or something like that.
I go to school from Monday to Friday. My schooldays are usually around 3-5 hours long, depending on which kind of period I have at school. I can affect to my schedule by myself so I can make easier periods around gatherings and shows and then do some extra when I have more time.
After school I usually stay at school for couple of hours, trying to do my homework (even though I usually just end up chilling there with my friends) and after that I go to Nääshalli=the batcave. That is the gym with judomats. After training there I go to Anssi’s place. We usually play videogames or watch samplers, make food, hang out with our other friends and just do whatever comes to our mind. At the summertime we used to go skateboarding and swimming a lot and just chilling to the town at nighttime. If it is Tuesday, Friday or Sunday we go to the plyogym in the evening.
I sleep at Anssi’s place probably more than I sleep at home because it takes 30 mins by bus from the center of the city to the place where my parents live and it’s hard for me to find time to visit home anymore if I want to keep training hard, doing shows, working with Unito and keeping up with school.
Also answering trickers questions takes a lot of my time nowadays. I dedicate a night or two every week when I answer everybody. I want to try to respond to everyone because I want to help everybody. If my words or my advice will inspire and motivate someone I really feel that it was worth my time to answer him/her.
We did around 50 shows with Unito this year. That means average of one show per week. Part of my week goes to training for shows and doing the show(s). I try to and I usually train tricking 4-6 times per week but sometimes it’s not possible because of work or school.
9) Any words of wisdom for those just getting into the sport?
A: Don’t rush. If you want to learn tricks too fast you’ll end up with having sloppy style. Keep working on basics. Try to gather as much information about tricking and training as you can by yourself before asking other people. Go to gatherings and get to know other trickers, they will help you to motivate yourself when going through hard times. Train hard but never forget to have fun while tricking! Don’t give up
Thanks for your time, Vellu.
EXTRA: Vellu is apart of Team Unito. They are going to be releasing footage more frequently in what they call Unito TV. They just released a video, check it out below. Be sure to visit everyone from their team, great bunch of people.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ca7r5wXxgA