How to Flash Kick

One of my all time favorite tricks is the flash kick. A spin (literally) on the back flip, a flash kick is performed with one leg extended and the other tucked. You land on one foot at a time, creating an awesome visual. As you probably know, no trick exists in a vacuum. To do a flash kick, there are prerequisites, and even if you have those, it’s all about practice. As a self-taught tumbler, I’ve spent hours, days, months, and years at the gym perfecting my tricks. My confidence comes from having done something thousands of times. That said, here’s my how-to for the perfect flash kick:

Prep Work

What should you be working on to strengthen your skill set and complete a flash kick?

  • Flexibility is key to a flash kick (and many other tricks) because it improves your range of motion and resiliency. A great way to improve your flexibility for the flash kick is to stretch your legs well and often. For the flash kick, you’re essentially doing a split in mid air. One useful stretch to practice this is the split stretch, which strengthens your calves, hamstrings, and glutes: 
  • start in a low lunge with your right foot forward at a 90 degree angle and left knee on ground.
  • Straighten out your right leg and reach forward to lean over your leg and touch the ground. Make sure your back left foot is flat against the ground.
  • From here, slide into the splits (or as far as you are able to go). 
  • Joint Strength is vital for being able to land a flash kick, because without strength in your ankles and knees it would be almost impossible to safely land as you’re meant to on just one foot.

  •  The Mechanics of a Flash Kick

    A backflip is absolutely necessary to do a flash kick and serves as the base to the trick. This means it needs to be a confident backflip at minimum. Once you feel comfortable in your backflip to the point that you can do a few in a row, the flash kick evolves by slowly splitting your legs before the landing. Over time, you’ll go from landing on two split feet to landing on one foot and then the other.

    As you may know from my other videos, a cardinal rule for traditional backflips is to never throw your head back. This is still a rule for tricks where you’re looking to get maximum height in the air. However, for a flash kick, I break this rule in order to whip over as quickly as I can and see exactly where my foot will land. This is what allows me maximum control when I’m doing flash kicks on super narrow surfaces. 

    Check out the video for my flash kick details and bonus tricks from me and my teammates!