Hi, a quick poll. Sorry if this has been covered before, but I’m interested in what other people’s dominant foot is when riding a unicycle?
Left-footed
Right-footed
Ambipedal
Cross-dominant
0voters
Personally, I am left-footed on the unicycle. That’s unusual for me because I would kick a ball with my right foot and I’m ‘regular’ with a skateboard. It just felt most natural to use my left foot for unicycle though.
By left-footed, I mean that my left foot is the first to contact the pedals when mounting and I idle with my left foot in the down (6’o clock) position.
I’ve not learned to idle with my right foot yet. I guess I’m left-footed cross-dominant on unicycle. I’m interested to hear other’s experiences. Feel free to elaborate on your answer
I believe that the unicycle community may have developed an alternative meaning for “dominant foot” by telling people to mount by first placing their “dominant foot” on the rearward or downward pedal.
But if you think about it (for example in relation to a static mount), the foot that is placed on the rear pedal does not have to do anything much at all, except keep a steady pedal loading, whereas the other foot has to push off, quickly fly over to the forward pedal, hit that pedal even as it moves slightly during the mount, adjust that position as soon as possible, and provide the initial balance and forward movement force needed to complete the mount.
So, if someone does a static mount with left foot on the rear pedal, I assert that they are almost certainly right leg dominant and would typically kick a ball with that right foot.
Possibly there are cases where someone kicks balls etc. with their right leg and also starts of a static mount with their right foot on the rear pedal, but surely this is not the easiest way, and is probably a result of being told to put their dominant foot on the rearward pedal to start a free mount.
That’s a good observation about the unicycling community possibly having the definition ‘backwards’. I actually thought the same thing as it certainly feels like my right foot is giving fine control when idling.
Normally i’m left footed but when unicycling i’m right foot down.
Originally I started left foot mount/down. While I was learning to idle, my unicycle had a wobbly left crank so I worked on everything right foot for those weeks. After that, everything felt more natural right footed.
A month or 2 later I moved on to bigger wheels and stopped focusing on learning tricks/skills so the right dominance has stuck. It’s possible it could be reduced or reversed with consistent skills practice but doesn’t harm my ability to ride.
I think we’re taught dominant foot down on mounts because freemounts lead to idling and while idling, the control foot is definitely the bottom foot.
My right foot is certainly dominant, but it is the question if I use my dominant foot as expected. When mounting, my right foot is on the pedal and non-dominant foot on the ground.
Same as with EUC. This week I saw a few EUC tutorials and in some they say you should put the non-dominant foot on the wheel first when mounting, where others say the opposite.
When idling my uni, I would have the non-dominant foot on top for the sway,
I have always been left footed in the sense that I feel more comfortable with my left foot on the bottom, for idling and mounting. I am getting more comfortable with the right foot though.
I think another topic that can be covered here is the hand you use for unicycling. When writing, I am right handed. When mounting, I often put my right hand on the saddle bumper. But as soon as I begin riding, for Muni or jumping, I put my left hand on the saddle. Also with ice hockey, I use a ‘left handed’ stick.
I freemount with my left foot down (practised the right foot and can freemount up to a 29er, but feels awkward). Idling is similar left and right, but riding one footed (both with the other foot on the frame or out) or idling one footed I‘m better when the right foot is down, even though I naturally prefer the left foot to be down…
What about hopping? I can barely bunny hop with the right foot in front, but am very comfortable with the left foot in front. I have the suspicion that some of the handedness and/or footedness is in reality related to the body having a twist due to some asymmetries.
The link to EUC is interesting. While I have never ridden on, I can‘t imagine mounting it with the right foot first.
you ride very much like me and hop for that matter. My right foot is in the back when hopping. When riding to a stop and then hopping, my right foot needs to be at the back, also when dismounting off the back.
As for hands, my right hand holds the seat and the left may brake, though I hardly use a brake. While riding I alternate between left and right hand on the seat or just letting them hang by my sides. Sometimes I have my arms crossed on my chest. Basically my hands are always in the way. When there are kids around, I use them as wings and start flying, which puts a smile on their faces.
That sums it up nicely, except on the 36er (T-bar) and the muni (one hand constantly holding the saddle handle and the other flailing). When riding on an even surface I usally let the hang or have them behind the back. That’s where they are best out of the way, in my opinion.
As for Hands it’s right hand all the way. for me I ride my unicycle like a bike, When I ride I’m not doing tricks and I only hop on my 24 and once in awhile on my 26. I idle on everything up to the 29 the same way with my right foot dominant. I mount every thing the same and I have touring bars on everything but the 24. On 29 and 32 i ride mostly right hand on and both on straight aways.
I go way out of my way to make sure that I don’t have a dominant foot. I change up all of the time. If I’m weaker on one side, I practice more. Juggling: slightly right handed, writing/tool-use: heavily right handed.
I do find that when I know cyclists want to overtake me, I try to hold the seat with my left hand. There are a few uneven bike paths in the forest near where I live, then in stead I have my right hand in the air. At some point a biker behind me was teasing saying that he thought I was about to turn right, when there was no road on the right. Bikers are such nice creatures.
for freemounting I put my right foot on the rear pedal and use my left foot for jumping to the front pedal. I use my left hand to hold the saddle. I heard that I am a “cross-lateral” person: I use my right hand for some purposes and my left hand for others (I am not ambidextrous).
I don’t think the wheel size matters. I’m “left-footed/left-handed”, I’m left and right-footed in soccer/futball, left and right-handed in basketball, but 100% left handed in throwing and writing. From day one on the unicycle, I have felt more comfortable mounting the unicycle with the right foot in the rear and the left foot up front. I think that’s is because I would normally hold onto the wall or fence with my left hand, so I would mount right foot first. That has translated to my everyday riding/mounting style. The size of wheel does not seem to make a difference.
For me it pushed me to use the right foot rear and left foot front always.
I am left footed and left handed.
When l learned freemount on the 20’’ i preferred to have the left foot on the pedal in 6 o’clock position. But i tried and learned both sides with the time. When i tried standard mount it quickly turned out that i preferred starting with the right foot rear, but i still learned both sides.
Since i ride the 24’’ i am in a learning process to mount in different terrain situations. I still have to improve mounting on bad and/or narrow pathes especially uphill and especially with my 27,5 ‘’ uni. So to improve the mount with right foot rear is much more important for me than mounting with left foot rear. So i do standard mount now always with right foot rear.
