One of those passes – a Triffus piked (triple front pike half out) to quadruple back tuck – set the world difficulty record earlier this year. It had been years in the making.
“It’s a pass that I’ve been training since 2021,” he said. “The hardest part about that pass is like the mental side of it, just telling yourself to go for four flips in one jump is crazy.”
He attempted it at U.S. nationals without landing one in training.
“You might call me crazy, but I hadn’t landed it,” he said with a laugh. “I ended up over-rotating and almost missing my feet… I wanted some redemption on that, and so Portugal [World Cup] was about a week and a half later. I think I was lucky enough to make it around that time.”
While Padilla says double mini has come most naturally to him, the 24-year-old also trains and competes in trampoline and tumbling.
“I definitely have to work more for trampoline. I feel like I’m a lot more built for double mini. It just comes a lot more natural,” he said.
It’s a difficult balancing act, Padilla explains.
“I train about six days a week, and for five of the days I’ll train trampoline, and one of the days I’ll double mini,” he said. “We’re doing Monday through Friday, and then Tuesdays and Thursdays we’re doing two a day… so it’s twice a week now. So, a little bit more.”
It’s somewhat ironic, then, that his biggest successes to date have come in double mini, a discipline he didn’t initially prioritise.
“Ever since I was young, I’ve trained trampoline as like my main event,” he said. “At that point it kind of like flipped a switch in my brain. I was like, oh, like, double mini is like something I’m good at, I should like work on it more and more.”
He’s excelled at both, qualifying to be the U.S. alternate for trampoline to Paris 2024. It’s an experience that, like his disappointment three years ago at the World Games, has renewed his fire for the sport.
“Just being like right there, but knowing that it’s possible…,” says Padilla, “yeah, came back, trained really hard, and I’m really excited for the next coming years.”