Do you have to have good balance to be a good unicyclist?

[onetrack]

Impossible to manual while sitting. pedaling = wheelie (+ you can sit).
yeah, thread is officially jacked. topic is done anyways:)

[pedalone]

@agentQ

i saw some show on discovery channel, or something, that was about balance and if some people naturaly have a better sence of balance or if its something everyone can grow…i dont watch tv so it was a little to comercialy and sciency for me didnt watch it through.
…anyway
kirs holm was on it doing some ridding around and stanging on one foot, like a lab rat, for them. thougt it was kinda lame, but fun to see trilas riding on tv

maybe someone else can fill in what they actually prooved haha

I remember part of that show with Kris Holm where they tested his balance by having him stand on one foot with his eyes closed. Because we need visual reference to help us balance, the average person can only do this for 15 seconds. Kris did it for like over a minute.

You can test your own balance the same way to find changes over time or under different conditions. Sometimes sound can help for reference. It’s fun to try.

[leo]

@john_childs

No. You just need an average (or possibly even below average) sense of balance to be able to ride. That’s just for basic riding.

For more advanced riding a developed sense of balance is needed. You aren’t going to be able to wheel walk, ride a skinny, do spins, ride one footed, etc. if you have poor balance.

I hardly ever disagree on you, but now I slightly do:
For riding a unicycle you don’t need no more (or better) sense of balance as you’ll need for walking.
For making a ww you don’t need a better sense of balance than for unicycling at speed of a ww.
It’s more about body-coordination.

@johnfoss

Ever watch a baby who’d just learned how to walk? They move around very similarly to a drunk person, with over-exaggerated corrections.

I believe good balance is learned. A baby learns a lot of it when he/she learns to walk. We add to that when we learn to unicycle, or ski, or dance, or do martial arts. Your sense of balance can be refined.

I agree balance can be refined. But I think the baby example is poor. Or maybe not:
I do think a baby may have the same sense of balance like you have! But the baby simply is missing the muscular power. Ever seen a < 3 year old child balancing on 1 foot > 10 sec.?
Or actually not just only muscular power, I think the over-exaggerated corrections are caused by a lack of the body coordination I’m talking about in above reply to John Childs.

At an older age it’s more about the fine coordination you’ve developped AND confidence you have in what your senses are tellling (so that you can avoid the reflex your brain is telling you to get with both on earth).
Just like it’s pretty hard to fly a plane when you keep resisting to trust the instrument panel.

I think activities ski/dance/horse-riding/surfing/skating/etc. are developping your sense. But you’ll need to have a certain coordination to start those actvities.
I heared parent complaining about their kids losing this same coordination (like the baby is missing) once they suddenly are growing rapidly in their teen years, and repeatly start to hit walls, doors, tables, miss the light-switch when trying to flip it without looking, etc. etc. because of under-exaggerated corrections. Did their sense of balance they had suddenly went bad? I don’t think so.

[forrestunifreak]

@Ducttape

there was an article I saw around onced that I can’t seem to find anywhere but, it said something about unicyclists and jugglers having a higher sense of balance and coordination than pedestrians, who don’t juggle or unicycle. I’ve been looking for it since I saw this thread, I still can’t find it.

That doesn’t mean you have to have balance to learn, it just means that you aquire better balance after learning.

[Andy912912]

@pedalone

I remember part of that show with Kris Holm where they tested his balance by having him stand on one foot with his eyes closed. Because we need visual reference to help us balance, the average person can only do this for 15 seconds. Kris did it for like over a minute.

You can test your own balance the same way to find changes over time or under different conditions. Sometimes sound can help for reference. It’s fun to try.

Hm…I watched that a few years ago too! But when I began uni-ing, I didn’t remember it a lot. And that’s why the concept of extreme unicycling never was THAT weird to me, they(or on another show also on the Discovery Channel) made a unicycle obstacle course I thought was impossible…Uh, anyways, unicycling helped my balance, if I can learn to unicycle, so can about anyone else who wants to.

[skrobo]

@iridemymuni

well

since learning i’ve only noticed two things have changed:

i can ride a lot slower on a bike

i can balance on the back legs of a chair for over a minute now.

thats it

lol
I do that in Theater arts ( im a lab aid) … I sit there on the stool and it rests on the floor funny so that it is just barely off of the ground, i mean the thing can’t be .5 cm off the floor and one time I balanced it for like 10 minuites, it feels so weird, you can balance it without feeling yourself moving

[extremtrialist]

you don’t need a good balance to uni…

i can’t stand one foot more than 10 sec. (with eyes open) and i’m able to ride one-footed, ww, 1 ft ww and soon gliding…

[pinefresh]

This is kind of itheme with the thread so i thought I’d post, cheers.

http://www.unicyclist.org/cont/play.cfm?pi=w320240Discovery_MoreThanHuman

ps the do not attempt anything in this show message is funny:p

[Borgschulze]

@pinefresh

This is kind of itheme with the thread so i thought I’d post, cheers.

http://www.unicyclist.org/cont/play.cfm?pi=w320240Discovery_MoreThanHuman

ps the do not attempt anything in this show message is funny:p

I can stand on one foot with my eyes closed longer than Kris Holm can… I did it the other day when I was in the bathroom and the idea struck me.

[Dumpweed]

i just like to Say i ride the uni 100 times better then i can stand on my own to feet and no i’m not drunk all the time just for some reason i got shitty balance standing but on my uni it’s like mind over mater and well i cant think of what to say
but borgschulze can agree i ride better then i walk

[Borgschulze]

@Dumpweed

i just like to Say i ride the uni 100 times better then i can stand on my own to feet and no i’m not drunk all the time just for some reason i got shitty balance standing but on my uni it’s like mind over mater and well i cant think of what to say
but borgschulze can agree i ride better then i walk

I don’t see you walk often, Haha.

Always on a Bike or Unicycle.

[Dumpweed]

@Borgschulze

I don’t see you walk often, Haha.

Always on a Bike or Unicycle.

well thats cause i can’t walk i’m stuck to wheels if not on my uni or bikes i’m in the wheelchair lol even if its my father u still see me riding it when he;s not looking lol

[grim_reeper01]

article

i was reading and article on uni’s and in japan its actually ciriculum in schools cus it improves balance and concentration
but if find i concentrate less in school cus im always thinkin about uni lol

[SNES350]

@grim_reeper01

i was reading and article on uni’s and in japan its actually ciriculum in schools cus it improves balance and concentration
but if find i concentrate less in school cus im always thinkin about uni lol

You’re just better able to focus on your distraction After learning to juggle (just three balls; I didn’t learn to do more, and I learned three a year and a half ago), I have gotten a bit better at catching high balls (e.g. a fly ball in baseball), but not much, and not noticably better at catching footballs. I believe I took a relatively long time to learn juggling, with little or no percieved difference in coodination.

I took a good two weeks of 30 minute sessions to learn to ride on a 24", and that was awhile after two weeks of 30 minute sessions every other day, not including the time spent clutching a railing just learning to mount supported. I can’t do anything other than ride straight on my 29" now. I have trouble even reaching 15 seconds on one foot with my eyes closed, and during stretching after practice I have some difficulty doing the quad stretch, standing on one foot pulling the other behind me by the ankle. I haven’t noticed better balance since learning to ride.

[Borgschulze]

@grim_reeper01

i was reading and article on uni’s and in japan its actually ciriculum in schools cus it improves balance and concentration
but if find i concentrate less in school cus im always thinkin about uni lol

Me too, Haha.

[Dumpweed]

@SNES350

You’re just better able to focus on your distraction After learning to juggle (just three balls; I didn’t learn to do more, and I learned three a year and a half ago), I have gotten a bit better at catching high balls (e.g. a fly ball in baseball), but not much, and not noticably better at catching footballs. I believe I took a relatively long time to learn juggling, with little or no percieved difference in coodination.

I took a good two weeks of 30 minute sessions to learn to ride on a 24", and that was awhile after two weeks of 30 minute sessions every other day, not including the time spent clutching a railing just learning to mount supported. I can’t do anything other than ride straight on my 29" now. I have trouble even reaching 15 seconds on one foot with my eyes closed, and during stretching after practice I have some difficulty doing the quad stretch, standing on one foot pulling the other behind me by the ankle. I haven’t noticed better balance since learning to ride.

[personaly i don’t think it helps ur balance its just all a mind things, u have the will power to learn u will learn u don’t have the will power will i wish u luck on getting on it and riding the uni… like u said i don’t notice my balance being any better… but maybe thats just all counts on the person

[leo]

@Dumpweed

personaly i don’t think it helps ur balance its just all a mind things

Hmmm, just like I think about patience:
I don’t think unicycling will add to your patience. Every single one got patience. Like (almost) everyone has sense of balance.
You don’t add to your patience. You simply learn to use it, while you always had it.

[Dumpweed]

@leo

Hmmm, just like I think about patience:
I don’t think unicycling will add to your patience. Every single one got patience. Like (almost) everyone has sense of balance.
You don’t add to your patience. You simply learn to use it, while you always had it.

u can’t learn something u already know how to do, hard part is just believing u can do it… we all can balance and be patience, just to use wat we already know to center ur balance on one object such as the unicycle take mind power and the will to want it… but then i could always be wrong, it’s ur say…

[Beth]

How weird. It’s much much easier to idle 1 footed with your eyes shut than to stand on one leg with your eyes shut.

[john_childs]

@leo

I hardly ever disagree on you, but now I slightly do:
For riding a unicycle you don’t need no more (or better) sense of balance as you’ll need for walking.
For making a ww you don’t need a better sense of balance than for unicycling at speed of a ww.
It’s more about body-coordination.

English is vague about balance. The word gets used to mean more than just the basic sense of balance. In common use, balance is used more as a synonym for proprioception.

Proprioception would be the right term for unicycling rather than just calling it balance. And that is linked to body coordination.

So no real disagreement. Just a refinement of terms.

Wheel walking is a lot about learning foot control and proper body position. But side to side balance is more difficult while wheel walking than it is when riding a unicycling regularly at the same slow speed. Wheel walking does require more balance and finer control to maintain that side to side balance. It is still more about proprioception and body coordination though than strict balance.