10 years ago I randomly decided to interview Manny Brown.
Upon research into Battles for Tricking, I discovered that Manny Brown was infact the first ever ( in the history of the entire sport ) winner of a Tricking Battle !
( XKC 2000 in Atlanta at CLN )
Congrats !
Hi my name is David Milner and I do a lot of research and investigation into Sports Corruption as related to the sport of Tricking ! As a former Champion, I can't help but want to continue to explore the world of tricking and sometimes going back in time I find treasures here and there .. I forgot I messaged Manny on facebook to ask him about Tricking !
Here is the interview:
( For the purpose of simplicity, I've heavily edited my section of the questions and have simplified it. It was an informal interview at the time ! Manny's answers are a direct quote however, so none of his answers are modified/altered. )
David:
Question:
Hey Manny, could you tell me who were the key players of Tricking at the earliest point of the sport?
Manny:
"Hi, David. I will tell you what I know/can remember, but please don't just take what I say as gospel. Here goes: Tricking seemed to start to form around the late 80's/early 90's in the American sport karate scene, when elements of Chinese wushu, Capoeira, and gymnastics began working their way into open forms. Some of those responsible for ushering in these movements were the likes of Kim Do, Mike Chat, Jon Valera, Keith Hirabayashi, West Coast Demo Team, etc. Toward the mid 90's, others on the circuit began to take these movements even further and began to add more advanced gymnastic elements. People like Carmichael Simon, David Douglas, Jimmy Pham, Eboni Adams, Butch Marks and others represented a newer crop of competitor who were not doing round-off flipping techniques, butterfly twists, 540's, etc. Then the late 90's/early 2000's ushered in the likes of Anthony Atkins, Mike Garelli, myself, Daniel Sterling, Matt Emig and it was at this point that the extreme movements in forms began to be assigned the term "tricks", but were still more considered to be a part of forms as opposed to being it's own complete entity. Then in 2000,a former competitor-turned-tournament promoter Charlie Lee decided to have the first Extreme Kicks Contest at his tournament in Virginia. This was pretty much the first time that the movements were recognized without having to be a part of an open form. It was probably around 2003 that people began practicing these movements exclusively without the inclusion of traditional martial arts punches and kicks. West Coast Demo Team still had students such as Chris DeVera, Chris Balualua, Jeremy Marinas and there were many other NASKA competitors like Marc Canonizado, Daniel Graham, Sammy Vasquez and others who were at the forefront of this new thing now called being called tricking. It was also around this time that Anis Cheurfa stated to become known as a popular tricker and became very influential with his strong twisting ability. Other popular trickers at this time were Sesshoumaru, Florian "Flo" Leoty, Jamie Colon, and others. Over the next few years, tricking began to spread all over the globe thanks to the internet. Soon tricking began to be practiced even by those with no martial arts background, giving rise to the "backyard tricker" and further establishing tricking's identity from the sport karate tournament scene with which it was so closely identified. You also are beginning to see trickers creating tricking teams in which they would meet up with other trickers to train and encourage each other. A decade later tricking has advanced and you have strong, well-rounded trickers such as Michael Guthrie, Vellu, Nelson Zuniga and a host of other trickers from the USA, France, Korea, Australia and other parts of the world who continue to push the limits of physical expression in tricking. Remember, you may get info that I haven't given you from other trickers such as Sesshoumaru or Chris DeVera. I hope that this gives you some idea of the history of tricking as I remember it. Does this help you?"
David:
Follow Up Question:
When would you say that Tricking began to include exclusive transitions and took on it's own form?
Manny Brown:
"I would say that combos began to surface in forms in the mid to late 90's with Carmichael Simon and Jimmy Pham and David Douglas.
I had a few words with Manny just expressing appreciation and respect after this basically .. but yeah, here was a short interview from Tricking's first Champion !
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