New Bruises
A life-changing story
Chapter 3: The Trick
presented by
The TerraDome
Sports Science Research Centre
The Trick
The Sneaky-Touch
I’ll be clear with you.
I don’t make The Rules.
I’m subject to them.
Because my heroes live by them.
If you do a trick on video and touch, it doesn’t count.
If you do a trick on video and sneaky-touch then edit it out, it double doesn’t count.
Sebastian Keep knows this.
RodeoPeanut knows this.
FlatBible knows this.
Imagine that.
My choice is an illusion.
I already know what I’ll do.
The only unknown is when.
The Plywood Hoods have a rule: Once is luck. Five times means you learned it.
My Coronation sealed the deal.
Five times. On video. Or GTFO.
No pardon for being 50 years old.
Training is what generates BMX Magick Tricks.
My training starts by asking “Why?”
WHY gives me purpose.
WHY connects me to The Stoke.
The Stoke brings balance.
The Stoke guides The Masters.
Masters like Tony Robbins.*
* Tony Robbins overlooked The Stoke
Right now, I’m mining The Deep Stoke.
For fuel.
To condition myself
to learn The Trick.
The Trick is a quantum leap from Front World to Back World - oppo.
The Trick emerges from The Training.
The Training requires The Stoke.
Stories can demonstrate training.
They work how instruction can’t.
In Rocky Balboa, The Duke tells Rocky what Rocky can’t do.
It’s a long list that ends with one thing Rocky can do: hit hard.
That scene inspired The Trick.
The Trick is designed to be a moat. Too hazardous, too painful, too complicated to be replicated by anyone other than me.
I want The Trick for myself. As something no one in The World will do. A gem. My offspring.
My training formula is clear.
(What I can’t do) = (what I make mistakes attempting).
To (learn to do it) I must (learn the mistakes).
Then correct the mistakes.
Then repeat until I perfect my attempts.
Learning mistakes is part of an honest life.
Studying mistakes frame-by-frame is painstaking.
I eat that pain.
The Trick is quick.
The crux is in two video frames.
One-tenth of one second.
The crux of The Trick is The Take-Off. The Spring.
My mistakes occur in my body after they originate in my mind.
To correct the way my body moves, I must correct the way my mind reflects.
My training method is bespoke because The Trick is novel.
Along my training journey, I’m having an unusual experience.
I presume this is the story of making something new.
I’m telling this story because The Digital World is abundant with content about what’s already-been-done (ABD).
No trick can be learned until it’s understood.
A Master is needed to learn a trick that’s not understood.
I train to maintain the perfect mental state that leads to a perfect Take-Off.
Imagine that.
I attempt The Trick for 2 hours.
Beyond that, I get depleted.
When I’m depleted, my body doesn’t move quickly enough to nail The Take-Off.
My body needs up to 3 minutes of recovery between attempts.
I need recovery when the peg hits my ankle bone.
Or I aggravate a tendon.
Or I get scared by a close-call.
Or to re-catch my breath.
Or to re-settle my heart rate.
Or to re-set my thoughts.
I train to maintain focus.
I make my life a mental game.
Every decision I make with focus.
I use ritual to generate focus.
Every morning, the same routine.
Every session, the same routine.
Every evening, the same routine.
I detect variations in my routine.
I correct the variations.
Within focus, I notice all the connections between all the things I choose to do.
Imagine that.
My mission of choice is to grow.
The Trick is The Evidence of my growth.
The Story of The Mission is the travelogue.
I’m repeating.
Repeating to tell the story of what I learned from Rock & Roll tours.
I’m using the skills I have today to tell the story of what I learned yesterday. And how I use it today.
This is my cycle of learning: Experience. Reflect. Express.
I’m writing the story for myself.
To prepare for my future mission - whatever that may be.
I’m writing the story for you.
The Next Pupil who’ll study with The Masters.
This story is a breadcrumb trail designed to lead pupils to believe that BMX has Masters.
Some of those Masters taught me.
This is a story of life through the eyes of a BMX rider.
Think about Masters.
The idea of Mastery changes the way I see The World.
A Master is one who achieves Mastery of a domain of knowledge or skill.
But, if you ascribe “slave-owner” to the word, you lose the conception of Mastery. Then you become a fool.
If you choose to live in a world where masters exploit slaves, then you live in a prison as a slave.
Do not accept being treated as a slave.
Do not eradicate the concept of Masters nor of Mastery.
Words matter.
BMX Masters confront rivals.
Two such rivals are Oppo-FrogBarz and The Dark Stoke.
They’re symbols of a system of enslavement.
To resist enslavement, I invite you to embrace BMX.
You keep what you make.
Marxism is The State that banned The Frog.
This is clear to me now.
Because my mind got clear while training for The Trick.
Clearing my mind makes The Trick come into focus.
As my mind gets clearer other things get easier, too.
The Trick gets easier each day I focus on it.
Out of reverence for FrogBarz* from this point forward
I rename The Trick
from The TerraDoom
to The Frog.
Imagine that.
* FrogBarz is an alien entity sent to Earth to find and forge fitting humans to be vessels for The Stoke.
I’m on a mission to seek Mastery of a BMX Magick Trick.
My life becomes clear while I’m on The Mission.
My life changes while I’m on The Mission.
My life encounters Masters while I’m on The Mission.
The Masters notice me on The Mission, they appear to me, and they teach me. Then they vanish.
Imagine that.
I’m changing my life to be the person who routinely performs The World’s first no-hand jump from front wheel to back wheel…seven years after I first did it (at age 43).
This video project,
with its social campaign,
and written word is
the anticipatory answer
to the inevitable question,
“What on Earth
were you thinking?!”
I would like to thank my training partners (in order of appearance)
My grandfather
My father
Master Sung Ho Kim
My BMX bike
The Spirit of The Plywood Hoods
My antics hero, Raybo
My trouble-making partner, Zack
My life partner, Angie
My co-founders, Andy Johnson, Scott Nagy, Phil Brunet
My moral compass, Todd Carter
My culture professor, Effraim Catlow
My future team manager, Brett Downs
My coach, Martti Kuoppa
My accountability partner, @flatBible
My sponsor, Chris Young
My sherpa, Claude Hickman
My life-coach, The Human One
Special fanks to The Frog for being in my life throughout my life.
This page intentionally left to be written
