If I could go back and help my younger self, what advice would I give?
At the time of writing this ( April 6th 2026 ) I'd be 34 years old, and have already completed my career as a Tricker, focusing on the preservation of history and encouraging positive development to the sport.
When I was a kid, I had no idea about life - I purely trusted my parents, and everyone around me, really. As a teenager ( when I found tricking ) I think I started to test boundaries, and became rebellious to some degree. It was about fitting in, I think, working on insecurities, and pursuing my interests. As a young adult, I had to take on the responsibility of paying my bills, and gaining independence. As a 34 year old, I'd like to think I'm a middle level of adult to some degree. I think it's unfair to be an adult at 18 and be held to the same standard as a 34 year old, considering I'm an adult technically at both stages, but my experiences and education are worlds apart. Biologically, I think we technically finish developing around age 25. Maybe the word "adult" should be applicable to people who are beyond 25? Anyways, let me get onto the point I'm trying to make with Tricking.
Prevention is the best medicine. As I got older, I began to learn life lessons that are not taught in school - as I had to reflect on the rationale as to why I make decisions, the values that guide me, I've learned that in some cases there are short cuts, there are easy options, or there are more respectable ways of trying to achieve a goal. It would be cheap to fight an easy opponent, but somehow claim to be the world champion - all while knowing there are true tough opponents out there. Wouldn't a World Championships mean so much more if the two best proven Trickers meet in the finale and perform their best with one coming out the winner? It's so much more definitive. We live in a world though, where not every contest is necessarily going to be setup properly, and we do live in a world where people could create bias, limiting who could even compete. If you aren't willing to fit in with others, you could possibly lose out on a black market sponsorship. The industry is run at this time by large collectives, who essentially want to maintain control over people & the sport, and to control the narrative and public perception. This is what makes being a truth-seeker so dangerous. Journalists have been killed for reporting on facts in some parts of the world, bringing the public the truth about what's happening in conflicts. When people are willing to hide, or if they feel as though they're losing power or control, desperation could lead others to commit wrongful acts.
Tricking is a very competitive sport, and people who love to be loved and want to fit in could be willing to adopt whatever views their rolemodels impress upon them.. but Tricking needs a neutrality to it.
Administrators of a contest need to ensure neutrality, and coaches need to protect the rules, no matter how much they want their athletes to win, it can't come at the cost of good sportsmanship.
( I forgot to write the .. "hey my name is david milner" part .. darn ! well .. it's late but, here it is ! I write about ways we could fix the Tricking Industry ! )
Professional coaches aren't just people who are good at tricking and that they're willing to take your money to let you hang out and learn from them. A professional coach has a blanket legal obligation and responsibility for a few reasons:
1) Professional coaches are business owners - which means they are regulated by the same laws as all business owners in any country
2) Coaches deal with vulnerable individuals, including children & those who could be impaired in some way
We live in a world where some people do not care if they are fighting an easy battle .. like the old saying goes "taking candy from a baby". Some people would find the most vulnerable person, and commit an act to harm that person, or exploit that person, because they happen to be an easy target. I'm not condoning this type of behaviour, but I recognize that it's an animal instinct we all have - we can all perceive vulnerabilities in others, and some people may be driven to act.
This is why there are rights and protections in developed countries such as Canada. The rights of vulnerable or minority groups are recognized, and it's understood why a group of people might team up on just 1 person - Canada is a place where we try to make sure that people play fair in society, which is why all peoples are recognized and all groups are protected.
There are some concepts that a younger did not know about though - personally, I never thought in terms of "grooming" or "human trafficking" as a teenager or even young adult. I had to undertake an education on this particular aspect of life and see the bigger picture, about how groups of people work together to get a system going, which could involve raising children to be redirected to the sex industry or to be deceived and exploited by trusted persons.
Tricking is a sport afterall, and people have different outside influences that they may want to bring into the sport and affect trickers with, but the reality is, coaches need to recognize when people, even other trickers, are here to promote a non-tricking related purpose, especially financially motivated ones, and do the appropriate thing which is to address and properly manage it.
My personal belief is that parents should be 100% completely aware of what their children are doing under the care of a community leader or tricking coach. If there are influencers or individuals that intend to re-direct athletes into secretive groups and to perform secretive activities, these are all very concerning red flags that there needs to be a course and education to prove that coaches are trained to recognize and defend against because in an unregulated sport such as ours, people & groups with these intentions can and have made their way and it's the responsibility of everyone who cares about Tricking to make sure that parents and community is aware of what is going on.
We do live in a world where there are some concrete laws, and others are still in a grey area and/or are under constant reform, and Tricking itself is in a grey area, but that doesn't mean it should be exploited.
Part of feeling like a winner is choosing the harder option and being big enough to take on a tough challenge, rather than taking the easy way, & lying about it.
It takes a lot of courage to go in the right direction sometimes, and it can be cowardly to simply join a crowd.
I think that the primary focus of the educators in the sport should be to understand their full responsibilities as coaches, and to fight to protect the rules.
I think in the long term, it will only do good to represent a community & prevent harm.
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