FMX Tricks
Freestyle motocross returns to international action as the 10th year of the Red Bull X-Fighters is back – with new locations, new riders and a whole bag of new tricks!
The world’s top FMX athletes have spent the winter working hard on their of bag tricks to try and get one over on their competitors and pull off something really special.
Over the years, FMX tricks have grown in both size and complexity. Take a look at some of the tricks we are likely to see at the Red Bull X-Fighters and other top 2010 freestyle motocross events.
CLIFFHANGER FLIP
One of the sickest tricks – Backflip plus Cliffhanger.
BACKFLIP
The rider completes an entire backward rotation along his vertical axis while performing a Backflip.
CLIFFHANGER
The rider leaves the bike, only to catch the underside of the handlebars with his toes. Most riders nowadays perform the trick slightly differently to the original trick. They also catch the bike with the inside of their foot at the fork for better control. The hands are raised above the head and the rider tries to lift his body as far as possible from the bike.
HEELCLICKER FLIP
The Heel-Clicker Flip was one of the first ever backflip combos. The rider performs a Heel-Clicker during a Backflip. The Heelclicker is where the rider raises his feet above the handlebars, then – with his hands still on the grips – wraps his legs around his arms and ‘clicks’ his heels together above the front fender.
SWITCHBLADE
The Switchblade is a trick that is generally credited to Mike Metzger, who began rotating his legs backwards when doing No Foot Can-Cans in the late 1990s. While the rider is in the rotated No Foot Can-Can position, he kicks his legs out like the blades of a pair of scissors. The trick is known as the Switchblade because the legs resemble a switchblade knife as it opens up.
CORDOVA FLIP
With his hands on the grips, the rider brings his feet up underneath the bars, presses his knees to his chest, then contorts his back so that he is looking – upside down – out over the back fender. All this, by the way, while he pulls a huge Backflip! Adam Jones was the first rider to land this trick in competition.
TSUNAMI
Similar to a handstand in the air performed over the front of the handlebars while keeping the bike horizontal and level.
DEAD BODY
A Dead Body consists of the rider taking his feet off the pegs and extending his legs through the handstand up over the handlebars. Once in this position, the rider straightens his body completely.
COFFIN /LAZYBOY
The Coffin is performed by extending the legs out in front of the bike and below the handlebars and leaning back on the seat as far as possible. The Lazyboy is the same trick, only the rider lets go of the handlebars and extends his arms back over his head. The further a rider extends his arms and legs, the more points he will score.
LAZY FLIP
The rider performs a Backflip and lies back flat on the seat with his arms extended during the rotation. While he is upside down, his entire body is parallel to the bike – as if the rider were lying on his back on the floor.
WHIP
A Whip is when the rider whips the bike sideways in the air so that the machine swings out to form at least a 90° angle to the rider’s body before straightening out for the landing.
WHIP FLIP
The Whip Flip is a Backflip performed while whipping the bike BMX-style.
KISS OF DEATH FLIP
A Backflip with a Kiss Of Death. The rider performs a handstand on the bike, lowering his head to the front fender as if to kiss it while still upside down.
ROCK SOLID
A Superman Double Grab during which the rider releases his hands sideways. For a moment he is totally detached from his bike and flies above it in mid-air. The rider then catches his bike using the grab-holes to pull himself back onto the saddle.
UNDERFLIP
An Underflip is a Backflip during which the rider turns the bike up to 90° while in the upside-down phase of the trick. The more horizontal the bike is kept towards the flying direction during this phase, the more points the rider scores.
9 O‘CLOCK NAC
A double footed Nac-Nac where both feed are facing to the side, as if both feet were pointing to the number 9 on a the face of a clock.
9 O‘CLOCK NAC INDIAN (INDY)
The Indian Air is a variation that can be added to several leg tricks. Indian Airs occur when a rider extends his legs during a trick and then crosses them in a scissor-like motion. This trick can be added to any trick like such as the 9 O’Clock, Backflip, or Hart Attack. The further a rider extends his legs in the scissor phase, the more points he will score.
Hart Attack
Named after Carey Hart, the first rider to perform the trick, the Hart Attack, is performed with both legs pointing straight up in the air. One hand is positioned as if performing a handstand on the seat, while the other holds on to it. If the rider faces backwards while performing the trick, it is called Lookback Hart Attack.
Double Hart Attack
A combination of a Superman Double Grab and a Hart Attack. The same principles apply as when performing the Hart Attack. To score more points the rider can add a Lookback.
BACK FLIP SUPERMAN (SUPERFLIP)
The rider does a Backflip, lets go of the bike with both feet and then kicks them straight back. Riders score higher execution marks by getting further away from the bike. The main problem here is getting back onto your feet against the rotation. That is why many riders mount special flip levers in front of the handlebars in order to exert counter-pressure.
RULER
The Ruler is a Kiss of Death style trick taken to the extreme. The rider comes off the ramp throwing his feet straight towards the sky and also throws the rear end of the bike down. The ruler name comes from getting both the rider and the bike in a straight position from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock. Straight like a ruler.
Flintstone
The rider swings both legs to one side and ‘walks’ next to his bike while taking his hands off the bars. The name refers to the car used by cartoon hero Fred Flintstone.
Oxecutioner
A One Handed Seatgrab where the rider’s other hand grabs his feet. To reach his feet the rider has to bend his lower body forwards to face his head. The Trick was invented by Metal Mulisha rider Jeff "Ox" Kargola.
Shaolin
The rider performs a Barhop by jumping over the mid-part of his handlebars and then spreads his legs apart in a V-fashion.
Shaolin Flip
The rider takes off with a Backflip and, while he is upside down, performs a Barhop by jumping over the mid-section of the handlebars. Once his legs are over the bar, they are spread apart in a V-fashion.
Double Backflip
By doing a Double Backflip, the rider makes two entire rotations along his vertical-axis. However, it is almost impossible to show this trick in a regular contest run, as a certain ramp set-up seems to be necessary in order to perform this trick. Cam Sinclair is until today the only rider to have performed a Double Backflip during a regular contest run using a ramp which was not set up solely to perform this trick.
Superman Indy
Like a regular Superman but with the legs kicked out in a scissor-fashion (the ‘Indian Air’ part of the trick).
360
For the 360 the rider carves off the ramp as if he is going to whip the bike. At the apex of the ramp the rider pulls back on the bars and looks over the left shoulder. The head position is the biggest difference in the execution of the 360 versus the Backflip. As the bike leaves the take-off, it follows the direction of the riders head and rotates in a flat spin. When the bike is past 270 degrees of rotation, the rider spots the landing and takes the bike from a flat spin into an up-right position (similar to the second part of a Backflip).
