A Tricking Community has two potential paths to take - do you legitimize, or do you stay underground?
Hi my name is David Milner - I am a Tricking Athlete turned Investigative Journalist, here tryna fight the good fight ! Today I'm writing about my observations about how a community could evolve over time, and that depending on the ethical and moral values of it's leadership, could lead athletes towards integrating properly into society, or cutting every corner and giving itself every advantage even if it means breaking the rules !
What I've witnessed here in Canada from the year 2007, I saw how my heroes developed.
Chris Mark, who was the sensation apart of a team called Team Ryouko that helped inspired the world to get into Tricking, partnered with legitimate businesses at various martial arts schools such as Sunny Tangs, where a Canadian form of martial art called XSD ( Xtreme Skills Development ) would be launched and new learners who wanted to learn to flip would be taught the fundamentals of martial arts, and have access to instructors who were teaching acrobatic classes afterwards. These classes went on for a while, long enough for Team Ryouko to make a big move !
By the year 2008 Chris Mark and Team Ryouko purchased and developed their own gym, Ryouko Martial Arts in Scarborough, where XSD could be taught as well as providing open gym training grounds for trickers who wanted to train at their own pace, or to receive instruction if they need it.
I believe Chris Mark is actually a positive male rolemodel in this regard.
Personally, I did attend Sunny Tangs and I was a student at XSD. I eventually was recommended another gym program by another member of Team Ryouko named Allen Keng, at a gym called Steeles West Gymnastics, where he partnered with to host his gym program which was mostly focused on acrobatics and stunts. Allen's program is called Monday Wednesday Friday Night Madness.
I moved on from XSD and went towards the Tricking program that Allen offered, because it was more specific - I wanted to Trick.
Back then ( this was in 2007 ), I was watching samplers on youtube, tutorials from Jujimufu and then I'd head off to Steeles West and train the skills I wanted to learn.
The bigger issue is that now, my generation, who was not focused on developing our own martial arts or contributing to XSD, would carry on the torch of community building. We organized amateur get-togethers called Gatherings ( A tradition that started in 2003 here in Canada by a man named Shido Xen of Xen Dynasty, one of Toronto's first tricking teams ) and we would naturally develop and eventually become the main body of Trickers by the 2010s.
The previous generation of Trickers like Chris Mark would go on to the stunt industry to pursue a career in acting and action, and other older Trickers would focus on developing their careers - I know I personally kept Tricking has a hobby. The community was left to a group of teenagers and young adults, in a sport that doesn't even officially truly exist !
Most of us had been focused on renting out gyms and hosting gatherings, but it wasn't truly a business endeavor, more as just a social get together. We also did not have battles and prizes yet, that would happen much later. It was a group of like-minded individuals who wanted to participate in sports and this was no different than what other communities all around the world were doing - simply training together - and this is how Tricking as a sport had been getting built. Something like a sport can't just develop perfectly, immediately. It takes time, and development. Also, it's not like we just knew what to do, or even felt the weight of responsibility - Tricking has been pioneered largely by the culture of inspiration that we obtained by looking to eachother's communities and seeing different advancements, and every country is different. Every community develops at a different pace !
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