Re: Re: Circus Idle
I’ve been working on this and I really don’t find that to be true. It’s all in the ankle and foot motion by then, and those small motions are easy to make. There’s no power, but you don’t need power. Any small stone, though, knocks me off the uni.
I never heard the term “circus idling” until today. I don’t give it any weight as a unicycle skill name. The closest equivalent in the Standard Skills List is called “Twisting.” Doesn’t anybody actually read that list?
But twisting is a little different, in that it’s built around a twisting motion rather than pedal motion. When idling with the pedals horizontal, the only name I’ve ever heard for it is “Horizontal Idling.”
My understanding of the term “hovering” is that it’s another word for “idling,” though it might also be broadly used to cover what we have known as Twisting or Horizontal Idling in the last 20 years or so.
If it were up to me, I’d like to think of hovering as another name for horizontal idling, as it visually looks more like hovering.
Re: Circus Idle
johnfoss wrote…
>
>I never heard the term “circus idling” until today. I don’t give it any
>weight as a unicycle skill name. The closest equivalent in the Standard
>Skills List is called “Twisting.” Doesn’t anybody actually read that
>list?
>
>But twisting is a little different, in that it’s built around a twisting
>motion rather than pedal motion. When idling with the pedals horizontal,
>the only name I’ve ever heard for it is “Horizontal Idling.”
I agree with all the above as it fits my eperience.
>My understanding of the term “hovering” is that it’s another word for
>“idling,” though it might also be broadly used to cover what we have
>known as Twisting or Horizontal Idling in the last 20 years or so.
>
>If it were up to me, I’d like to think of hovering as another name for
>horizontal idling, as it visually looks more like hovering.
The trouble is that adding a meaning like that wold cause confusion.
“Hovering” is already more or less established as a synonym for “idling”.
My impression is that it may strictly British, but I would like to confirm that.
Can anyone tell me if it is fairly common in the U.K.?
>
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>
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Of course, but circus idle was the topic of discussion, and that skill is not covered, and twisting wasn’t the topic of discussion.
I’ve heard of circus idle all of my long unicycling career of about 17 months. Where the heck did I hear it first?
Hmmm…
Here, I suppose… but I’m sure elsewhere too, but Google doesn’t help.
In contrast,
this calls it horizontal idle. There’s no real reason that I can think that it would be in the Standard Skills List, but then I have a long way to go…
I’m surprised that the horizontal idle (circus idle) is not in the standard skills list. It seems like a skill that should be in there.
I first heard it called the circus idle. I can’t remember from where, but it was a long time ago. Does anyone have a copy of “The Unicycle Book” by Jack Wiley? Maybe I saw it called the circus idle in there. But that’s a long shot. I don’t have the book so I can’t check.
Thanks for the link to the horizontal idle on unicycling.org
<http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/hidle.html>
I didn’t know there was a description of that type of idling there (otherwise I wouldn’t have started this thread).
If horizontal idle is the accepted term I’ll start using that instead of circus idle.
Remember, the Standard Skills List is not an attempt to list all skills, but rather as the “menu” to choose from for a Standard Skill competition performance. Too many similar skills or variations could start to get boring, or possibly make it hard to define the difference between one and the next.
I think there are a wide range of “easy” skills already on the list, hence no need for horizontal idling. Though it does lead to problems like us pondering what these skills are. 
Twisting is probably about the same difficulty level as horizontal idling. Both are useful in unicycle games, such as hockey and basketball, keeping your feet near horizontal so you can take off on short notice.
I think it’s a clearer term, and that old page from Dennis Kathrens shows it’s been un use at least since 1996… But now I’m also curious about the origin of the term “circus idle.” I don’t remember reading it in The Unicycle Book, but I haven’t looked at it in a long time either.