How to Learn a New Trick

by Crazy Ivan

It occurs to me that I spend a lot of time on this blog telling giving people advice on how to do this trick or that trick, but I've never really written about the basics of learning a trick in general.  I mean, sure, every trick has its subtle nuances and it helps to get specific advice, but there are some morsels you learn as a Myachi Master that really apply to every trick.

The first and most obvious thing is that you have to practice.  There is absolutely, positively no shortcut for practice.  Tricks will vary in how much practice they require and people will vary in how much practice they require for any given trick, but one way or the other if you want the trick, you're going to have to put in the reps.

But good practice habits make a huge difference.  If you practice correctly you get more out of every minute you put into the game.  The beauty of Myachi is that you can really good just by jamming here and there, but if you want to take your game to the next level you're going to have to get serious about your practice time.  There are a few things you can do to start.

Keep a record of your practice.  It's really hard to stay fired up about practicing every day if you don't keep track of your daily progress.  Because some tricks take days, weeks, months or even years to master, it's really hard to see the slow and incremental steps you're taking toward them.

So what should your practice log look like?  Well, all I can do is tell you what works best for me.  I pick between 4 and 10 tricks that I really want to learn.  I write them down on the left side of a paper and then I do each one as many times in a row I can do them without a drop.

Every day, I'll try to beat my previous record.  I don't beat my record on every trick every day, but I usually best at least all but 1 of them.  Then, after a week or two, I can look back at a trick and see that even though I could barely manage to do it 3 times in a row 10 days ago, now I can hit it 12 times or even 20.

Of course, the practice log works best if you practice every day.  Now, there's a difference between practicing every day and jamming every day.  If all you're doing is the same tricks that you've already mastered you're not going to learn anything new.  Sure, you'll polish your Clipper Delay like nobody's business but it'll take a long time to get to the River Dance.

A good rule of thumb is that (for the purposes of this entry) if you're not dropping, you're not practicing.

Now obviously a lot of your success will be based on motivation.  If you're motivated to practice you will and if you're not, you won't.  It's as simple as that.  There are a lot of things that you can do to stay motivated and keeping that practice log is only one of them.

Another good idea is to practice to music.  When you've got your favorite tunes going in the background practice time goes much quicker and you have a lot more fun with it.  If you're not having fun with it you won't do it for very long.

Music also helps to tune out your conscious mind... you know, the voice that likes to tell you stuff like "you'll never get that move," or "we could be playing XBox right now."  If you drown that voice out with some familiar lyrics it helps a ton.

You'll also want to set aside time to practice.  If you practice at the same time every day it will quickly become part of your routine.  You should also be sure to stretch before you practice and wear comfortable clothes.  If you're working on really strenuous tricks (and let's face it, all of them are strenuous when you're trying to learn them), be sure to keep plenty of water on hand.

Alright, so you've got your practice log, you know what tricks you want to do, you've got free time and you're wearing your practice sweats.  Now the key is to stay at it.

To be honest, that's only tough for a couple of weeks.  If you keep at it and keep challenging yourself you're going to start mastering some pretty awesome tricks.  The reward of mastering something you've been working at for weeks will be enough to keep you practicing after a little while.

Just be sure to keep challenging yourself.  Let's say one of the tricks you wanted to master was the Toe Stall.  On day 1 you could only get 2 in a row.  Now you've been practicing for two weeks and you've gotten 20 in a row and even then you only dropped because your leg was getting tired.  So now it's time to make the trick tougher.  There's really no point in hammering at the same trick once you've mastered it.  Now try a variation like a lefty Toe Stall, a Crazy Ivan or a Toe 360.

Remember, there is no end to the challenge.  You will never master everything so make sure you're having fun along the way and savoring every new difficulty.  I would never recommend giving up on a move once you've started to learn it, but I will give you one warning and this is one of the most important points I'll ever make to you:

Don't bite off more than you can chew.  There is a proper order when learning a trick.  If you've been practicing the same trick for a month and haven't made any real progress on it it's probably time to go back and master a simpler version of the same thing.  Nothing is too tough for you, but there are things that might be too tough all at once.  Obviously the Crypto is going to be easier to master if you already have the Step Over.  It's not that you can't learn the one without the other.  Heck it probably won't even take any longer.  The difference is that if you go in order from easiest to hardest you (a) learn more tricks and (b) don't get as frustrated along the way.

One final piece of advice before I send you on your way.  Practicing is a lot more fun if you do it with someone so never forget to STWAKOJ.