I’ve been out rollerblading a couple of times recently and when I came back I
went straight out on my uni. This seems to have improved my balance loads more
than just doing uni practice. Everything I was working on suddenly seemed so
much easier. This was after a pretty long road skate and lots of skating
(falling over) in the park learning spins.
I reckon it’s probably something to do with learning using the upper body to
control balance better.
Anyone else find other stuff helps unicycling (or vice versa)?
Unicycling has certainly helped me with balance in other sports, like cross
country skiing… I am the undefeated “scooter-skier”! (skiing balancing on one
leg down a hill).
I’m just curious, has anybody here tried to unicycle on a set of bicycle
rollers? it took me a bit to get the hang of it, and I am not sure how much it
has helped with other unicycle skills, but it is certainly an interesting
experience!
> I’m just curious, has anybody here tried to unicycle on a set of bicycle > rollers? it took me a bit to get the hang of it, and I am not sure how much it > has helped with other unicycle skills, but it is certainly an interesting > experience!
Are you saying you can uniccyle on rollers without holding on? That’s quite a
feat of balance as you lose the forward-backward ability to adjust your balance
on the rollers.
“I didn’t know popcorn was a diet… No wonder I weigh what I weigh!” – Brett
Bymaster (6’-4" and 160lbs fully clothed) on the concept of popcorn as a
volumetric diet
No, but I have ridden a unicycle wearing roller skates. Though I didn’t put a
picture of this on my Things not to do page
(http://www.unicycling.com/things/default.htm), I highly don’t recommend it. As
soon as you forget you’re wearing the skates, you’re going to wish you
hadn’t…
“I didn’t know popcorn was a diet… No wonder I weigh what I weigh!” – Brett
Bymaster (6’-4" and 160lbs fully clothed) on the concept of popcorn as a
volumetric diet
I practice aikido several times per week. It’s improved my unicycling LOADS.
Likewise, my unicycling has helped my aikido. In fact, when I’m having a bad
time trying to throw someone, I pretend that I’m on my unicycle and can often
throw them right away. Likewise, on my unicycle is where I find that I can get
the most work done when I am practicing by myself. The relationship I believe
lies in the fact that in both unicycling and in aikido there is a huge emphasis
on creating a straight vertical line and manipulating the force of your entire
body towards a specific focal point somewhere around you (in front, behind, to
the side, etc.). I’ve also found that different aikido exercises (no need to
list them here) allow me to stay lighter on the seat of my uni and ride over
more extreme terrain (deep mud, for instance) if I practice them while riding on
the terrain itself.
>I’ve been out rollerblading a couple of times recently and when I came back I >went straight out on my uni. This seems to have improved my balance loads more >than just doing uni practice. Anyone else find other stuff helps unicycling (or >vice versa)?
I just sit on the back 2 wheels of the rollers, and can do it for about a minute
or 2 with the occasional dab on the wall. the hardest part is not to slow down
once you let go of the wall… and I found that backwards is actually a bit
eaiser than frontwards. It helps just to focus on one point which is in a direct
line of the wheel to keep from flying all over the place. It also hurts less to
fall from a uni then clipped into a bicycle. This is something I just mess
around with if I’m really bored though (and feel like getting more bored by
staring at a wall), so I’m not as good as I would be if I practised more.