[President]

Jackhammer guide. (I believe larger font makes it easier to read and understand)

Intro:
I would first off like to say that you cannot rush through this guide. Read it slowly, read it multiple times if you have to, but read it by sections. If you haven’t mastered one section, do not move to another. Trying to learn it too fast WILL hinder your ability to learn it. Learning moves takes time, so don’t expect to have mastered crickets within a week. Try maybe a month if you’re lucky.

Alright, jackhammers are probably one of the best power moves out there. It’s fun to look at and it gives the illusion of strength, but in reality, there is not much strength involved. If you don’t know what jackhammers are, you probably shouldn’t try it. The move itself is simple, just hopping and rotating your body on only one stabbed arm. To most nonbreakers, this looks impossible, and that’s what I like about it.

Prerequisite:
To start off, to be able to do jackhammers, you need to have your crickets down like cake. The hard part about learning jackhammers is mastering crickets, because once you can do crickets with lots of ease, you’re ready for jackhammers. And since the move is so similar to crickets, you’ll probably get some jackhammers within 5 minutes of practice AFTER you master crickets. If you don’t know what I mean by MASTERing crickets, I mean being able to do normal crickets, crickets forward and backward, crickets sideways, and just being able to screw around while in handglide position. Since the fundamentals of crickets are so important to learning jackhammers, I’ll include a cricket guide too.
This is what I mean by "screwing around"

CCW Handglide position first:
To learn crickets, you first have to master the handglide position. That’s a simple one. Get on your knees and put your left palm on the ground in front of your left knee. Point your fingers back toward your left knee. Now bend your left elbow and lean your body forward so that your elbow is stabbed into your gut. You’re probably gonna have more of your weight above your elbow, so put your right hand down wherever comfortable to balance yourself. Now that you’re balanced, lean forward some more and get your knees off the ground. At this point, the only thing supporting you is your arms (left arm under your gut and right arm outside your gut to balance). Also, bend your knees accordingly to balance yourself. Think of it like a see-saw and you need equal weight on both sides of your stabbed elbow. Get VERY comfortable with this position; you’ll be using it a lot. You should be able to hold the handglide position for 20+ seconds with ease before you start on those crickets. Do not forget to breathe when you’re in this position, that way you will not turn red and pasty. Don’t read ANY further until you have handglide position down. That way, you won’t try anything that you’re not ready for.



CCW Crickets:
Now that you’ve mastered handglide position, it’s a good time for crickets. Crickets are like handglide position except your body hops and rotates around both your hands. Your left arm is always stabbed, and your right arm is never under your gut. To hop, you must pump your left hand. To get the circular motion, your right hand must sweep against the ground to propel your body counter-clockwise. To get momentum, you must swing your legs to the right after your left hand pumps. Do NOT swing at all until you are ready for the speed. Do not forget to breathe.

Start practicing by getting in handglide position and try to lift your right arm and balance only on your left. You don’t need to balance for long, it’s just to get used to the feeling. Probably 1-2 seconds balancing like this is all you need. Just keep lifting your right hand up and down without touching your knees to the ground.

Start out slow if you’ve never done these before.
1. The position. Start out in handglide position. Your feet should be off the ground and your body is supported only by your arms. VERY IMPORTANT: keep your back straight, do not arch it. You cannot do jackhammers with an arched back, and your crickets will be fugly. If this isn’t so, then you messed up.

Handglide pic1
Handglide pic2
Handglide Vid

2. The tap. Use your right hand to give the ground a little tap. The force that your right hand exerts on the ground is exerted back at you equally and oppositely; this means your body should be pivoting on your left arm. The fingers on your left hand started out pointing at your knees, but after your body turns from the tap, your fingers should be facing up toward your face. If they aren’t, then you messed up.


Taps vid
Be sure to practice step 2 before you move on to step 3. Just practice tapping and letting your body pivot. Then you can put your feet down and re-cock your left hand and do it again.

3. The pump. Now, get into handglide position and get ready for step 3. Tap your right hand like you did in step 2. As your body starts to turn, give a little pump with your left hand (this is done by straightening your left arm a LITTLE bit). You don’t need to pump HARD, but enough to get your hand 1-2 inches off the ground. After you pump your left hand, you should bring your right hand down. While your left hand is in the air, turn your left wrist back like it was in handglide position, fingers toward your left knee. The purpose of the pump is so your left hand can re-cock itself while it is in the air. Your left hand should come down shortly after your right hand does. If your legs didn’t hit the ground, then good job, you just did 1 cricket. If your legs DID hit the ground, then you messed up. Try keeping them bent.


Pump vid
Be sure you can do step 3 with ease before you move on to step 4.

4. Continuous crickets. Step 4 shouldn’t be too hard if you can do step 3 easily. The point to step 4 is to keep your momentum; do this enough and you will gain speed. You should now take note of where your right hand lands when it comes down after tapping. You should put it down under the right side of your head so that your arm is bent. This way, you can straighten your right arm a bit to TAP AGAIN and continue your crickets. You should already know by now the step that comes after you tap. Pump with your left. Right hand comes down, left hand comes down. Once your right hand comes down, it taps IMMEDIATELY. Pump it before your left hand comes down.

Starting crickets
Be sure you can do a clean 5 rounds (NOT PUMPS) of crickets without your knees banging the ground and without any fidgety halting motion before you proceed onto step 5.

5. Perfection, fluidity and speed. Practice makes perfect. You should spend as little time on your left hand as possible, and pump it quickly. This keeps you from turning on your hand too much; if your hand turns a lot, you have to pump higher and faster so that you have more time to re-cock your wrist. Pumping higher means more impact on your wrist and you’ll get tired faster. Remember that this move is based a lot on momentum, which means you need speed. If you want more speed, swing your hips CCW as you pump with your left hand. When you swing your hips, your legs should follow. Do NOT swing your legs upward. That will give you too much height and you wouldn’t turn sideways, you’d hop up too high. Make sure to do all the steps (tap, pump and swing hips, right hand down, tap and left hand down, pump and swing hips, repeat) FLUIDLY. Don’t think of it as a step-by-step move, but in one fluid motion. And remember to keep practicing until you can do crickets like it’s nothing.
Clean Crickets

CCW Jackhammers
Once you perfect crickets, jackhammers should be a breeze. The hard part about learning jackhammers is getting your crickets smooth enough. All you need to do is lift up your right elbow while doing crickets. This step comes right after your left hand pumps. Keep your right arm close to the side of your body. Remember that you’re supposed to keep your body as compact as possible. That means: legs are bent, right arm is in, and body is leaning to the left. The video should explain it for you. Remember to keep pumping and use your hips to conserve your momentum, that means keep your hips high/elevated. Now your hips have to turn your body for you, because you don’t have your right arm to tap and make your body turn. Don’t try to do anything special with your head or eyes, just turn your head to the left a bit. All you gotta do is remember to keep going, keep your body in, and keep your legs bent. If you happen to lose momentum, just go back into crickets, which should be easy because those are mastered.

A common problem that I had and some others who have asked me for advice have also had is that after they pump with their left, they forget to re-cock it. If you pump and don't re-cock, you could seriously damage your wrist. It doesn't take much wrist strength to do jackhammers, but it does help to have wrist strength when you mess up. And if you can only get a couple pumps on jackhammers, you're probably not re-cocking your left hand enough. Try to turn it back some more before you put it back down.
Finished product: Jackhammers


I hope I didn’t miss any main points or leave out any details. Any questions just ask.

[bBoY AiRhEaD]

If you pump and don't re-cock, you could seriously damage your wrist.

yepp..... lol

great guide. worded perfectly.

[xbBoYrIcEx]

I like it sir. Good job. I think I should try learning these suckers now. Hmmmm. I'll give it some thought.

[Bboy Du]

great job prez props to ur guide, i can alredy do all those moves but ur Perfection, fluidity and speed column will help alot thanks man propz

[greg_chew]

dope guide! man it was not hard to understand at all.

[Pommy]

Props to you, Mr. Prez .. this'll help me a lot

[Filipino-Breaka]

this is the best guide ive seen out there. its clear, states all the info needed, and got pics and vids to go with it. U should be paid for this prez! helpd me smoothen out my crickets. Thank u so much. WONDERFUL guide man!

[ultraman__26]

props to ur guide.good work.pz

[numbah1aZn]

mAd prop prez......awesome guide

[numbah1aZn]

I have a problem when landing......cuz when i land i always hit my bone in my hip.........is der any way i can prevent from hitiing it.....

[BBoy AuStIn]

MAD PROPS bro, u helped me out ALOT, i just read ur guide, an this is the first time i tried crickets in 3 months and i just got 2 hops! so mad props perfect noobie guide for crickets and jackhammers!

[Cyclotrone]

GREAT WORK Pres.!!
This is the BEST guide I´ve ever read! Step-by-Step method with good vids, couldn´t be better :-)
I actually have been trying to learn this move for a couple of days now, but this guide will help greatly!

More guides like this and we´ll all be masters soon! :-)

Thanx

Peace

[BBoy AuStIn]

OMG!!!!!!! i just did some footwork and went from a knee spin and did 4 sloppy crickets(slow) but this is the first day i have actully got them right. i did 4 cuz i watched all ur vids an read the guide again! president ur #1 guide/vid maker

[theb]

nice shiz!
u can do those like nothin
sounds like a sticky doesnt it?

[OggyNoSh]

dope guide dude... i will learn ´em soon...