Balance practice

[gpickett00]

Do any of you have any good tips for improving balance besides just riding a lot? For example any specific exercises while riding. Im about level 2, cant quite master the figure 8 yet.

[yoopers]

Hey GP,

This was our question several years ago prior to discovering unicycling. We were trying to find a way for the boys to work on body balance in order to improve their soccer skills. We had several ideas but the best two were slack rope or a unicycle. We decided that slack rope would be pretty boring so we went with unicycle. I imagine slack rope is still a pretty good idea for balance practice, though. We were planning on stringing a dock rope, say, from a large boat, between the two clothesline posts. From there, the boys would attempt to simply stand probably one-footed on center the rope and work on balance. We may still pursue the exercise only now to improve uncycle skills.

Bruce

[gpickett00]

Thanks Bruce. I can stay pretty balanced while riding, but when i turn is where i lose it a little bit. I guess I meant to ask how should i go about improving turning. Ill put some videos on here pretty soon, but Its not letting me open the page that allows me to use my webspace.

[chirokid]

GP, one tool that can help with balance is a wobble board. This is a flat circular platform (big enough for both feet) mounted to half of a ball, like a bowling ball cut in half. Then, you attempt to stand on the platform and keep it level. Then you make it go back and forth, regaining your balance after each movement.

But it is a lot more fun to just ride more. --chirokid–

[UNHicyclist]

Hey GP.

When i started doing really tight turns, or turns at a relatively fast speed, i was aurprised how much i had to lean into the turn to stay balanced. You may want to experiment with this, especially if your tendency is to lose balance away from the direction of the turn. Hope this helps!

                       -Josh

[gpickett00]

thanks a lot for the help, keep it coming!

[toddw9]

Originally posted by yoopers
[B]Hey GP,

This was our question several years ago prior to discovering unicycling. We were trying to find a way for the boys to work on body balance in order to improve their soccer skills. We had several ideas but the best two were slack rope or a unicycle. We decided that slack rope would be pretty boring so we went with unicycle. I imagine slack rope is still a pretty good idea for balance practice, though. We were planning on stringing a dock rope, say, from a large boat, between the two clothesline posts. From there, the boys would attempt to simply stand probably one-footed on center the rope and work on balance. We may still pursue the exercise only now to improve uncycle skills.

Bruce [/B]

Take the tire off the uni and combine the 2.

[GILD]

Originally posted by chirokid
GP, one tool that can help with balance is a wobble board

the Rola Bola will do your balance no harm either
this link has some info about making your own
and this thread discusses some of the more modern variations of the rola bola now available
these can all help but nothing will improve your uni’ing like, u guessed it, uni’ing