dizziness

General
1

After 3 or 4 tight circles I end up pretty dizzy, which makes it difficult
to do anything other than continue circling until a dismount occurs.

I’m curious if the dizziness problem goes away with experience. Are you
able to spin without getting dizzy? Or do you just learn to compensate?

–
Mark Newbold Montpelier, Vermont USA http://dogfeathers.com Alternate
email: manx@sover.net

2

> I’m curious if the dizziness problem goes away with experience. Are you
> able to spin without getting dizzy? Or do you just learn to compensate?

With a name like Uni-Cyclone, I should know. But my prognosis is not good;
I still get dizzy. I think not as much as when I was learning though.

Over the years people have suggested spotting to me, but I have never been
able to make it work. This is where your head points in one direction,
then whips around to point that direction again. But when I watch skaters,
they just spin their head & body, so they must have worked something out.
I do notice, however, that these spins usually occur at or near the end of
the performance :slight_smile:

Bear in mind that when you’re learning this spinning stuff you will be
spending a lot more time on it, so you will definitely get more dizzy.
Once you know how to do it, you’ll spin, then go onto the next cool thing;
less chance to get dizzy.

When I learned to jump rope on the uni (without being strapped down), my
legs got real raw because I would do it for a solid 15 minutes at a time,
or more. But in a show it’s over in less than 30 seconds.

Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com

“Our time is a most precious commodity, but it’s how we spend it that
makes us rich.” - John Foss

3

How about explaining what your doing and ask about spinning in
“rec.sport.skating.ice.figure”?

They would probably be very helpful.

Doug Massey

“Mark Newbold” <mark@dogfeathers.com> wrote in message
news:3C0AC4B2.65E85EBE@dogfeathers.com…
> After 3 or 4 tight circles I end up pretty dizzy, which makes it
> difficult to do anything other than continue circling until a
> dismount occurs.
>
> I’m curious if the dizziness problem goes away with experience. Are you
> able to spin without getting dizzy? Or do you just learn to compensate?
>
> –
> Mark Newbold Montpelier, Vermont USA http://dogfeathers.com Alternate
> email: manx@sover.net

4

A couple of suggestions, based only on my experience as a juggler learning
pirouettes:

  • don’t look up or down too much
  • try to pick a point at or slightly above eye level directly in front of
    you, then keep your head and eyes pointing to it as your body swivels
    beneath you, then when your body is nearly facing backwards, flick your
    head around and focus on that point again
  • keep your body and arms tucked in tightly - don’t let your arms flail
    because it will slow you down. Use your arms to lead into it though -
    keep them out wide then bring them in to get speed
  • pump up your tyre a lot (spin faster)

Like John Foss said, I think that if you practise this for too long you’ll
always start feeling dizzy, no matter how good at it you are. This is
pretty much because the orientation and movement information sent from
your ears will conflict with the information from your eyes and your brain
won’t appreciate it. Keeping your head relatively parallel to the ground
makes a bit of sense because your ear’s semicircular canals, which are
resonsible for detecting movement and orientation, are oriented roughly in
X-Y-Z coordinates. If you can upset only one of the sensors rather than
all three, you’ll be helping yourself out.

FOr more info, I think there’s been a thread on this subject in
rec.juggling quite recently.

nic

On Mon, 3 Dec 2001, Doug Massey wrote:

> How about explaining what your doing and ask about spinning in
> “rec.sport.skating.ice.figure”?
>
> They would probably be very helpful.
>
> Doug Massey
>
>
> “Mark Newbold” <mark@dogfeathers.com> wrote in message
> news:3C0AC4B2.65E85EBE@dogfeathers.com…
> > After 3 or 4 tight circles I end up pretty dizzy, which makes it
> > difficult to do anything other than continue circling until a dismount
> > occurs.
> >
> > I’m curious if the dizziness problem goes away with experience. Are
> > you able to spin without getting dizzy? Or do you just learn to
> > compensate?
> >
> > –
> > Mark Newbold Montpelier, Vermont USA http://dogfeathers.com Alternate
> > email: manx@sover.net
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> ___________________________________________________________________-
> ________
> rec.sport.unicycling mailing list -
> www.unicycling.org/mailman/listinfo/rsu

5

Dizziness is part of the fun of it is it not? It makes for good “during /
after the pub” riding practise anyway :wink:

Seriously though, trying to keep you gaze on a fixed point at eye level
(further away seems better) helps a bit. I haven’t quite ever rememebred
to try puliing my arms in close as yet but the harder the tyre the easier
the spin is my current finding.

Cheers, Neil

----- Original Message ----- From: <mark@dogfeathers.com> To:
<rec.sport.unicycling@kildrummy.co.uk>; <rsu@unicycling.org> Sent: Monday,
December 03, 2001 12:17 AM Subject: dizziness

> After 3 or 4 tight circles I end up pretty dizzy, which makes it
> difficult to do anything other than continue circling until a
> dismount occurs.
>
> I’m curious if the dizziness problem goes away with experience. Are you
> able to spin without getting dizzy? Or do you just learn to compensate?
>
> –
> Mark Newbold Montpelier, Vermont USA http://dogfeathers.com Alternate
> email: manx@sover.net
>
>
>
>
_________________________________________________________________________-
__
> rec.sport.unicycling mailing list -
www.unicycling.org/mailman/listinfo/rsu

6

–part1_b2.2ba875c.293cfa52_boundary

And, of course, let us know what you find out. I’ve go the same problem :slight_smile:
Thanks. Joe Merrill

In a message dated 12/2/01 9:22:53 PM Eastern Standard Time,
dvm@mmcable.com writes:

> How about explaining what your doing and ask about spinning in
> “rec.sport.skating.ice.figure”?
>
> They would probably be very helpful.
>

–part1_b2.2ba875c.293cfa52_boundary Content-Type: text/html;
charset=“US-ASCII”

<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>And, of course, let us know
what you find out. I’ve go the same problem :slight_smile: Thanks.<BR> Joe
Merrill<BR> <BR> In a message dated 12/2/01 9:22:53 PM Eastern Standard
Time, dvm@mmcable.com writes:<BR> <BR> <BR> <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE
style=“BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT:
0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px”>How about explaining what your doing and ask about
spinning in<BR> “rec.sport.skating.ice.figure”?<BR> <BR> They would
probably be very helpful.<BR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <BR> </FONT></HTML>
–part1_b2.2ba875c.293cfa52_boundary–

7

Suggestion from a layman at spinning: is a subsequent spin in the other
direction an option?

Klaas Bil

On Sun, 02 Dec 2001 19:17:54 -0500, Mark Newbold
<mark@dogfeathers.com> wrote:

>After 3 or 4 tight circles I end up pretty dizzy, which makes it
>difficult to do anything other than continue circling until a
>dismount occurs.
>
>I’m curious if the dizziness problem goes away with experience. Are you
>able to spin without getting dizzy? Or do you just learn to compensate?
>
>–
>Mark Newbold Montpelier, Vermont USA http://dogfeathers.com Alternate
>email: manx@sover.net
>
>
>

–
“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked
automagically from a database:” “Perl-RSA, rhost, NSP”

8

Klaas Bil wrote:

> Suggestion from a layman at spinning: is a subsequent spin in the other
> direction an option?

Maybe spinning in the opposite direction cancels the original dizziness
for a second, but it’s hard to tell because I immediately become
oppositely dizzy.

I would like to transition quickly and smoothly from left-spin to
right-spin and vice versa. But it takes a couple of turns to straighten
out from a spin once I am dizzy.

As some people have pointed out, it is kind of fun to get dizzy. You are
in your own private “reference frame” while spinning.

It strikes me as odd that I don’t experience the dizziness until I
STOP spinning.

–Mark

>
> On Sun, 02 Dec 2001 19:17:54 -0500, Mark Newbold
> <mark@dogfeathers.com> wrote:
>
> >After 3 or 4 tight circles I end up pretty dizzy, which makes it
> >difficult to do anything other than continue circling until a dismount
> >occurs.
> >
> >I’m curious if the dizziness problem goes away with experience. Are you
> >able to spin without getting dizzy? Or do you just learn to compensate?
> >
> >–
> >Mark Newbold Montpelier, Vermont USA http://dogfeathers.com Alternate
> >email: manx@sover.net
> >
> >
> >
>
> –
> "To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been
> picked automagically from a database:" “Perl-RSA, rhost, NSP”

–
Mark Newbold Montpelier, Vermont USA http://dogfeathers.com Alternate
email: manx@sover.net

9

> As some people have pointed out, it is kind of fun to get dizzy. You are
> in your own private “reference frame” while spinning.
>
> It strikes me as odd that I don’t experience the dizziness until I STOP
> spinning.
>

Some ideas:

  • try spinning around in a circle (just on your feet, not on the uni) and
    then try and mount up. It’s amazing how bizarre it is when you lift your
    foot onto the pedal and suddenly fall over sideways. This is especially
    good next to major roads because people have no idea why you keep
    twisting sideways.

The reason you only get dizzy after you stop spinning is that when you’re
spinning, all the fluid in your semicurcular canals (balance receptors in
your ears) is spinning as well, so your brain perceives (correctly) that
your head and body are rotating. After you stop spinning, the fluid keeps
on turning in your ears, so your brain perceives (incorrectly) that you
are still spinngin. THis is what causes the dizziness, because the natural
reaction is to turn in the other direction to counteract the fact that you
feel like you’re turning. I love this effect and spent most of last year
studying a simlar phenomenon.

If you’re bored one day, get a friend to sit with their eyes shut on a
spinny chair. THen turn them around and around at a constant speed for
about 30 seconds. Then stop them (not too suddenly) and make sure they
don’t open their eyes (or else they’ll throw up - seriously) if you
look closely at their eyelids, you’ll see their eyes flicking backwards
and forwards underneath their eyelids. Same kind of reflex that makes
you dizzy.

nic