Students in a new club on campus are combining back flips, break-dancing and martial arts to perform a new style known as “tricking.”
After a year of easing administrative concerns about the physical nature of his club, junior film major Eurico Senna has finally been given the green light to begin a Cinematic Martial Arts (CMA) club.
Although there are at least five other clubs on campus that focus on martial arts, such as the Shotokan Karate Club and the Cal State Long Beach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Club Senna, who is the CMA club president, said that one thing that sets the CMA club apart from the rest is self-expression.
The CMA style is different because it takes several forms of martial arts and synthesizes them with break-dancing and gymnastics to produce an unconventional style, made up of grand and impractical movements, Senna said.
Senna, who practices Capoeira — a Brazilian form of martial arts that combines dance, music and acrobatics — said martial arts has been a large part of his family for several years.
It was only over the course of the past two years that Senna said he became serious about CMA, or what he likes to call “tricking.”
Chris De Guzman, a senior kinesiology major and treasurer of CMA, said he joined the club when it first opened. He said he grew up idolizing the movies of Jackie Chan and other “trickers” such as Joe Eigo, Steve Terada, and Xin Sarith.
“What started out as a dream to copy what I saw in movies and YouTube finally became a reality when I joined CMA,” Guzman said.
Senna said he and his friends got the idea to form a “tricking” team while they were hanging out at a park one day.
Though the club just started this semester, Guzman said the CMA style has proved to be a popular form of expression.
“The past year or so we’ve been getting a huge wave of members who are interested in ‘tricking,’” Guzman said.
The CMA club offers members the chance to conquer and overcome their fears by providing them with a supportive environment. Senna said fear is what holds people back: fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of anything.
“Tricking is a wonderfully unique way of dominating fear,” Senna said.
Senna said the club also hopes to perform during halftime at a CSULB basketball show in the near future.
“Our eventual goal is to have a thriving community of ‘trickers’ interested in seeking personal improvement in the sport,” Senna said. “And in the process, we would love to get some CSULB community members from our CMA club to eventually do a performance for a basketball game to let the world know about ‘tricking.’”
The CMA club practices every Friday and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. and Monday from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Kinesiology building, Room 64. Members must pay a $15 fee per semester. For more information about the club, visit CMA’s Facebook at CSULB CMA Club.