So over the past week or so I’ve gotten pretty consistent with my crank flips though yesterday when I was trying to film them with my dad I kept messing up, I did land a few but not as often as I had been. Upon watching the clips when I got inside I realized that about 80% of the times I didn’t land it, it was because they were over spinning, just under being a double flip. So my question, are there any tips to catching crank flips early or is it as simple as getting your legs in the right place at the right time? I have trouble not over doing the crank flips because even the ones I land are often more like 1.25 flips. Knowing that I’m practically spinning doubles while just going for single, I’m pretty confident that I can pull off a double on my next ride, I rolled my ankle on a failed donkey kick so it will be a few days.
I can’t catch them early either and I have the same problem sometimes. When I do a bunch of doubles then just try a single on flat it is such a gentle tap and it usually flips too much. A lot of the time my doubles are more consistant than my normal flips.
No matter what I think about when flipping a drop it always goes slower than normal so I have been just doing doubles off stuff recently and it works better. Its annoying I can flip up stuff but if I do it off a drop I can only catch them when I hit the ground.
Spencer, I feel the same way. I think if I actually put effort into landing the double I’ll be much much more consistent with those than the single. This makes me wonder why landing the first double flip took so much longer than the single. I mean if I just learned to crank flip and I’m already onto doubles you would think the same would have happened to whoever pioneered the trick.
It was hard for me to learn doubles after singles. I never had the problem of flipping it too much. I learned half flips first so I was always flipping it too slow. Now that I can already double its really easy though.
Could you ever kickflip on a skateboard before hand? I used to skate a lot a few years back and I feel like the ability to kickflip on a skateboard definitely helped me with being able to spin the crankflips.
i can catch them but i cant land them.
just do it off something at least 30cm and flip fast enough so that the flip is done before you hit the ground, put you feet where the pedals are andcatch them, but no tips on landing it, i havent got that far yet
hop that helps a bit
later
Yeah, I think I’m jumping too high off the pedals, though once my ankle heals up I’m just going to go to double flips and hopefully I wont have to worry about over spinning.
Alright, I’m crap at helping but I will try to help. I was in a similar position to you Brian, I could flip them fast. I actually once tried learning up curbs to make it easier.
Yeah, try them up curbs, this will make you land them higher up (curb height), then when you do them on flat, try imagining that you are doing it up a curb, then you may catch them earlier.
As soon as I learnt to catch them early, I took it to a six set pretty quick. They get easier (flips are so easy at the minute).
Spencer, your normal flips sound like my backs, I cannot catch them early and a lot of the time I will spin a single waaaay to fast. My doubles are often more consistant than my singles.
In this vid it took like 3 attempts for a triple and over 30 (yes, I am embarrased) for the single. I need to catch backs early soooo bad.
Ahhh, the good old days… I remember when I joined, when someone who could flip was highly looked upon. And when someone landed a flip, it was a huge deal. Well, these days have passed and same with doubles unfortunatly. Hell, if you triple people would still ask if you could go more tech.
Well then, that just pushes us harder doesn’t it? Whats stopping someone from right now going out and busting a triple or a quadruple flip off a decently high ledge? Is it just fear or the mental aspect of it? I mean if someone can double flip I don’t see whats physically stopping them from letting it rotate a few more spins off something a bit higher?
People say stuff like that bout unispins and stuff. But it is completley different. If you were a few degrees off then you might not land it. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try it though, if I found a nice ledge on a nice ground (at FLUCK eh?) then I will definatly go for the fourth flip.
Oh, and the mental aspect goes pretty quickly when trying a trick like this (on something not too high that is).
Find a drop to grass (so it hurts less). Look for a good sized drop. Double curb is nice, around 12-18 inches. Simply try and gap out the crankflip mad far (well as far as you can with comfort). Spin them sort of fast and kinda pull the unicycle out in front of you (not a lot just to spot the back pedal). Then try and snap the unicycle down when the flip comes around (this is why you’ll need the grass). You’ll probably miss the landing so much because of the agression towards your pedals, you’re basically trying to stomp down the unicycle towards the ground after they flip once. The unicycle won’t like that and it will boot you off. But once you get the feel for having your feet safely on the pedals you can arrange your body and technique and learn to ride away. It helps to kinda spot a spot a few feet out from you and in the air, to concentrate the mid ait catch.
-Shaun Johanneson
p.s. I’m out of triples and stuff like that (though not riding for a bit, lol). A four flip would be cool, however it is just more balls and a bit of a higher ledge. As long as you have a fast flip, only the limit of height the unicycle can take off a drop will say how many times the cranks flip.
