What Is Tricking? Flips, Kicks, and Freerunning Explained

So, What Exactly Is Tricking?

Tricking is an acrobatic movement sport that blends kicks from martial arts, flips and twists from gymnastics, and the flow of breakdance into one continuous, freestyle discipline. If you've seen someone throw a spinning kick into a back handspring into an aerial — that's tricking. It's flashy on purpose, but underneath the showmanship is a serious athletic skill set built on body control, air awareness, and timing.

How Tricking Differs From Parkour

People mix these up, but they're different sports with different goals. Parkour is about moving efficiently through an environment — vaulting, climbing, and landing to get from A to B. Tricking is about expression and aerial skill in an open space, usually on a spring floor or air track rather than over obstacles. Many of our students do both: parkour builds the strength and fearlessness, and tricking channels it into flips and kicks. (Curious how parkour compares to gymnastics too? We break that down here.)

What Kids Actually Learn

At Bolt, tricking starts on the ground and builds up — always progressions, never shortcuts. Early on, students drill the fundamentals: cartwheels, round-offs, handstands, and basic kicks, plus the air awareness to land safely. From there they layer in skills like aerials, back handsprings, and spinning kicks on our spring floor and air track, where a soft, forgiving surface makes learning big skills far safer than a hard floor.

Who It's For

Tricking starts at age 5. Tricking Basics is for ages 5–7, and classes are grouped by age from there. Our Tricking classes are a natural next step for kids who love the flipping side of movement, and a great fit for athletes coming from gymnastics, martial arts, or dance.

Is Tricking Safe?

In a coached gym, yes. We teach on padded spring floors and an air track, cap classes at an 8:1 ratio, and never rush a student to a skill before the foundation is solid — the same safety-first approach we use across all our programs. Students earn each new skill step by step, with a coach spotting until it's consistent.

Try a Class

The best way to understand tricking is to watch a kid land their first aerial. Bolt Parkour is North Bethesda's original parkour gym, serving families across Montgomery County — Rockville, Bethesda, Potomac, and Kensington. View the class schedule or reach out to find the right starting point for your child.