Moonkick
Moonkick
The Moonkick (a.k.a. “Kick the moon") is a gainer with an hook or outside crescent kick at the end. It can be done from a fully inverted gainer flash or with an off axis slanted gainer (which is my preferred way).
Some trickers approach it like a gainer arabian. The half twist and the flipping momentum gets the hip into the right position for an hook kick. I prefer to treat is as an inverted tsunami (step over hook), that is swung into.
01 Gainer
The most important prerequisite for the moonkick. Try to land comfortably on one foot with not much of an impact, before you move on to learning the moonkick. That will make sure your gainer has enough height and that you have a bit of awareness, while you’re in the air. Don’t worry if your gainer is not fully inverted. We’ll perform the moonkick off axis anyway. You can work on inversion levels as you progress.
Note: You can absolutely learn the moonkick before you learn a normal gainer or slant gainer. However it may be harder to invert and flip, since you're not used to it yet.
02 Tsunami
The tsunami is a step over hook kick. It translates to many other tricks and if you look closely, you could see it as an upright moonkick. Any trick that terminates in a hook or outside crescent kick will benefit from a strong tsunami - especially the moonkick.
03 Swing Tsunami
Use your preferred swing setup and swing into the tsunami. This will give you a bit of sense on how a Moonkick feels. Make sure you turn your body into the right direction for the kick, so you can keep the direction of momentum.
04 Go lower
Repeat progression 3, but this time dip your upper body into a horizontal position. Your swing leg should still swing up and around, so you won’t lose height.
05 swing 2 the side
Try to go even lower with your upper budy kick your swinging leg up and around. If you can't do a gainer yet, you may have trouble progressing from this step. Right now my swinging leg is kicking over my hip. The goal now is to add a flip.
06 swing over
Try not to swing over to the side but rather towards your opposite shoulder. Try to look back instead of to the side. You can also slowly try to invert little by little from the last progression until you like the shape of your moonkick. Try to spot the target as you come out of the gainer, to fire the kick into the right direction. How much you want to invert is a matter of preference. I like to invert a little bit less, so I can fire a better kick.
Tips
You can delay the kick more if you want more flip rotation in your Moonkick.
Learn the Cheat Gainer / Slant Gainer first if you have trouble. The Moonkick is pretty much for free if you can do a clean slanted gainer first.