Getting onto the trampoline, junior Davis Leavitt clears his mind before falling. As he hits the trampoline, he feels the pressure and twists his body to achieve the perfect flip.

“My family got our first trampoline for Christmas in 2009,” Leavitt said. “This was when I was about five and ever since then it’s just been something I’ve always really enjoyed. I’ve had many friends who could do cool flips, so I just thought I’d give it a try.”

Practicing everyday for the past 10 years, Leavitt has learned many different tricks with flips – his favorite being a double back flip.

“The best thing I’ve done would be a double backflip,” Leavitt said. “It took me about three months to learn it and be able to land it on a trampoline. I felt so happy and excited when I noticed that I landed it, almost as if I was the king of the world.”

Balancing school work, basketball and other extracurricular activities, Leavitt has a busy schedule but looks forward to practicing flips.

“I am quite busy throughout the week, sometimes it can be quite stressful, and I don’t really feel like doing much, something like a me day. During a week I go to school, I spend about an hour doing homework, I go to the gym or park, I come home do chores, and then practice in my free time,” Leavitt says. “For practicing my flips, I probably practice around seven hours a week, but it fluctuates every week, it gives me just enough time to learn new tricks, or perfect more recent tricks.”

Refraining from doing the same tricks repeatedly, Leavitt likes to try different styles and improve in all areas.

“I like to learn new flips, even if they are quite hard. I don’t really like anything that is really easy, or really hard. I want that area in between a nice challenge,” Leavitt said. “This is how learning the backflip went for me. It was quite hard at first, but after many tiring hours of practice and consistency, I did it. I learned the backflip.”

Learning his first flip, Leavitt had many struggles, but he was able to overcome his issues and prevail. Leavitt did not have an easy time.

“It took a really long time to build the strength to make the whole rotation and land on my feet. It probably took a year of practice to consistently land a backflip,” Leavitt said.

In his downtime, Leavitt learns from social media and websites about new tricks he can use for his acrobatic career.

“I get inspiration from just about everywhere like Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube,” Leavitt says. “I follow many talented people so I constantly have motivation, and ideas for new tricks and some of these people are FliplikeZ, Jack Payne and Jesse Heffels.”

With his dream job of an entrepreneur, Leavitt continues to practice and hone his other skills.

“Going pro would be really nice, but it isn’t exactly a goal of mine,” Leavitt said. “My dream job would be an entrepreneur so I don’t really have to stick with one thing. I could
do video games, challenges, overnight challenges, flip montages, or more. I just really like the variety I can get as an entrepreneur.”