My Style Evolution 2024
One of the years of my entire life.
2024 was a year of extremes, both for the world and for me personally, and I can see it reflected in my art. They may have a <$10 production value, be shot from limited angles, and have phone camera quality, but I do consider my videos as my art, and as such I take pride in them. There’s a lot of reasons as to why I’m not a very successful influencer, but chief among them is that I refuse to turn out slop. I won’t post a video unless I perform and edit up to my own standards, which is why my posting frequency is not the most consistent, but that does come with the advantage of when I look back at my body of work, I get a full-on catalogue!
Also the video is linked on that image^ if you want to watch seven and a half minutes of me kicking them bags with no music.
Lexicon → Repertoire
When I started out with kicks and bag training in February of 2018 (almost 7 years!), I had already been tricking for at least a good 5 years, so I had somewhat of an understanding of basic mechanics to begin with. For the first two years, I focused on sharpening my fundamental skills until they became second nature, while also learning my way up the skills ladder. This meant not only drilling barebones kicks like rounds, hooks, and side kicks, but also teaching myself to incorporate those kicks into every new move I learned. With that in mind, I spent the next two years learning as many different techniques from as many different sources as I could, aka: expanding my lexicon.
It wasn’t until the fourth or fifth year that I started to really develop my style in a way that allowed for my favorite moves. I actually began trying to see myself as an original fighter in Tekken: what’s my story? what’s my style? what are my signature moves? Analyzing myself as a silhouette helped me bettter define my lines, establish consistent tempos, and highlight the stylistic flair from my background. Since then, I’ve seen both the elements of my role and my very character permeate my fighting and tricking styles, and it feels like I’ve [stylistically] reached my adult form. Now I have dozens of combos and scores of different moves I can call upon whenever I want, this is my repertoire.
What is my style?
Bruh who knows? I think the style of any art is largely up to its critics to entitle and classify. My style is a representation of everything I’ve ever loved, feared, and desired, and different aspects can be seen on different pieces. Like any artist, I build on central themes of my lives, I imitate those I admire, and I make do with what I’ve got. So when I lack the drip of Wong Feihung, grace of Jen Yu, or lifetime of training of Eddy Gordo, I can draw on my power from hybrid training, acrobatics from tricking, and strength from bboying to help me fill in any gaps I encounter.
If you were looking for a less heartfelt explanation of my style, I’d say the breakdown would be something like:
- 35% Tricking
- 25% Bboying
- 10% Capoeira
- 10% Taekwondo
- 10% Bokator/Muaythai/Boxing
- 10% Mystery Meat
So yeah, I managed to develop into what I am today by combining entry level knowledge of like 6 martial arts (mainly off of YouTube), intermediate knowledge of Tricking & Bboying, and a can-do attitude into that mat room. Fueled up with a little preworkout, unchecked trauma, and energy to burn, this was a pretty solid outcome. Do what you want and don’t listen to anyone telling you that you can’t, and if what you want to do is kick things like I do, you know where to go.
