Two or three times a week, a little before 8 p.m., a navy blue Toyota Sienna pulls into the parking lot of the Bay Area’s only tricking gym: Loopkicks. Senior Taita Nakayama is driving and his brother, freshman Keita Nakayama, is riding shotgun. Along with other trickers from all over the Bay Area, they are here for Loopkicks’ nightly open gyms where they have access to the gym’s trampolines and tumbling mats.
Tricking, a sport rooted in taekwondo, gained popularity in the early 2000s after going viral on the internet. In the 1960s, taekwondo masters started incorporating nontraditional moves that made their performances flashier, which eventually led to the creation of the entirely new discipline.
“It’s less of a martial art now,” Taita Nakayama said. “The base comes from martial arts. It’s like this Brazilian martial art called capoeira and this Chinese art called wushu. It just got combined into this more dynamic sport, but it’s completely different.”
Through a combination of gymnastics, martial arts and acrobatics, trickers compete one-on-one and in a dance battle-style. Since tricking has so many different components—kicks, flips and spins—trickers can transition into the sport from a plethora of other sports like gymnastics, martial arts or dance.
For example, the Nakayamas come from a karate background. Both brothers practiced karate for many years, Taita Nakayama for 11 and Keita Nakayama for six, before switching to tricking during COVID. Keita Nakayama explained that part of the reason they made the transition was because during the pandemic, karate was on Zoom and they were getting bored of the classes.
Taita Nakayama echoed his brother’s sentiment, adding that they were looking for a more exciting way to move their bodies after being stuck indoors for a while. In the four years since they started the sport, they have earned a number of achievements and titles. In 2024, Keita Nakayama won second place in the Youth Division at the Battle of Little Saigon tricking tournament, and in 2023, Taita Nakayama won the Rose City Gathering tournament in Oregon.
“That (win) was huge for me (because) I won the whole tournament bracket,” Taita Nakayama said. “It’s one of the biggest (tricking gatherings) in the world right now, so (winning) was insane.”
After four years of tricking and participating in tournaments, the Nakayamas have come to love the sport because of the freedom of movement and expression it allows.
“For me, (tricking) felt like I had more freedom to do whatever I wanted,” Taita Nakayama said. “I could literally turn myself upside down. It’s a form of self-expression. Recently, I’ve been trying to see it as more of a movement art. There’s this certain skill (level), where once you achieve it, you feel like you’re so free. Every time I trick, I feel like I’m flying.”
The tricking community is another reason they love the sport. According to the Nakayamas, its small size allows for a tight-knit community and contributes to a sense of camaraderie and mutual support.
“It’s crazy how close you can be with someone just because you trick, because it’s such a rare thing,” Taita Nakayama said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, you can do a backflip off one leg? You can just crash at my place.’ It’s always really comforting to know that there’s other people that trick and that connection is instantly there.”
The Nakayamas did, in fact, “crash” at trickers’ houses on a trip to Japan last summer with a Loopkicks teammate. They organized the trip by messaging famous trickers on Instagram and traveling across the country to live, train and hang out with trickers from Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe and Osaka.
“We met so many trickers, and we traveled alone, just us three without our parents. We stayed at trickers’ houses,” Keita Nakayama said.
The Nakayamas were able to practice with some of the world’s best trickers, including world champion Zen Kajihara. To both brothers, the opportunity to learn from them was inspiring.
“(They) gave me a lot of advice and tips and really pushed me to do harder tricks,” Keita Nakayama said.
Despite their successes and positive experiences, like with all other sports, trickers must overcome challenges. According to Keita Nakayama, trickers sometimes lose the ability to do tricks that they used to be able to do.
“There’s a trick called a backside twelve, and I did it in one session many, many times,” he said. “It was really consistent, but the next day, I kept on falling. I lost it and haven’t been able to do it since.”
Taita Nakayama agreed with his brother, adding that certain tricks are harder than others.
“Some tricks naturally make sense to you, and some tricks just don’t make sense to you,” he said. “It takes a long time to build up that (body) awareness.”
For now, when looking into the future, the Nakayamas are looking down different paths. As a senior, Taita Nakayama is still uncertain what role tricking will play in his life. Most tricking gyms are in California and the West Coast. However, many of the colleges he wants to go to are on the East Coast.
“I don’t think I’m going to go professional, but I’ll definitely continue (tricking) and continue going to tournaments,” he said.
Meanwhile, Keita Nakayama’s next immediate goal is landing a new trick.
“Right now I’m working for a triple full,” he said. “It’s basically a backflip with three spins.”
Keita Nakayama hopes that one day tricking can become more popular and he’ll be able to talk more about it with his friends at school.
“Right now it’s just me and (my brother) at Gunn. My friends are all like ‘What’s tricking?’ I hope more people can get into it.”
