SIF, left hand, right back foot jumping right, prehop to 1/4 rev. I initially learned to pedal grab with my front foot and then switched to the back foot.
When I am in the air my right foot comes off the pedal so when I land the pedal is on the ledge, and my foot is still in the air, as a result most of the time I miss the pedal. If the pedal doesn’t end up on the ledge, my foot still does. My left foot says on the other pedal while the one I need to be on the pedal comes off!
I pedal forward 1/4 turn mid air so that when I land my cranks are vertical. To go to rubber I then get my cranks horizontal and just hop up static, no swing.
Somehow I actually lift my foot off the pedal as part of the 1/4 rev. On smaller ledges I don’t/can’t use the 1/4 rev. It’s only a problem on high (for me) ledges.
Also, I did Seat in exclusively until about a month ago, I do sif now, but I still have little or no “tuck”.
What can I do? Do you notice any other problems/areas of improvement from watching the clip?
I think you should try to land on a flat surface ( like a picnic table )
and your foot that is not on the side of the object, dont put it on the pedal, it will helps you have more control after you land on the object
I think your trying to hard to get the height so you aren’t pulling the unicycle up far enough. Practice on something flat and work on pulling the uni up and not letting your foot come off.
you need to pull the unicycle up harder, and press your feet down harder…that’ll kind of lock your feet into the pedals which will prevent either of them from leaving.
it looks liek you’re trying to rotate the wheel to get the crank to the “12 o’clock” position. don’t. Jump normally and land with the pedal at 9 o’clock and then let the uni drop a little.
yeah keep your cranks straight, try something thats flat, and try something a little lower. the foot thing is because your trying so hard to get up your foot goes up instead of the whole thing…its a subconcious thing.
That does make sense guys, I’ll have to see what I can do, I’ll not try to 1/4 rev quite so much and just pull up more. The reason I do a ¼ rev is that gets the pedal 5” higher then if they were level.
Unfortunately, another non sloping ledge isn’t an option. This might sound weird, but its winter and that is the only ledge I can find that doesn’t have snow burring it. There is one other, but it is on Main Street and it’s a fragile looking flower bed box, I don’t want to become a public vandal.
pete66: Wow that would explain why my pedal grabs don’t work very well! I’ve been trying to figure out why I keep falling back off the ledge even on a good grab! No wonder if I am normally that far off the balance point!
What can I do to get myself in balance? Also, where should I start “tucking” It seems I always get the “tuck” wrong when I try SIF.
In your video it looks like only the right half of your body is tucking… your left leg stays locked… that’s not helping you. Markf’s advice was good. Jump normally (with pedals at 3 and 9 o’clock) and concentrate on hopping, the pedals will take care of orienting themselves once you’ve made the grab.
First practice high hops in place SIF. Tuck your entire body (get your knees into your chest if you can) and pull up on the seat. Pulling on the seat won’t work if your feet are pushing down on the pedals… and tucking won’t work if you don’t pull (your feet won’t stay on the pedals)… the tuck and the pull depend on each other to work. Once you have the in-place hops down then go back to the grabs.
As to when you have to tuck, it’s the same as a rolling hop or a seat-in sidehop. Tuck just as soon as the tire leaves the ground.
Getting yourself in balance depends on the distance you start away from the obstacle. You’re going to have to dial this in yourself… try different distances and see what’s easiest. If you start too far away you’ll launch yourself off your uni… too close and you’ll have problems sticking the grab. Once you found the right distance, you’ll be in balance when you stick the grab… it shouldn’t take much work to stay in balance.
Good luck… show us another video when you’re sticking 'em!
Forgot to mention before, and this might help, try not to lean your uni away at such an angle coz it makes your job a whole lot harder. Looks like you’re doing something a bit weird where the more you lean into it the more you lean the uni away so just get you AND the uni up and onto it. Or even better, just do what Atkins does!! Good luck!
still looks like your not leaning into it enuff. i still say to find something flat…and you say all the flat suff is burried??..why not just uncover it.
I’d rather not have to dig and uncover a picnic table, we have over 3 feet and to prehop I need hardpack, that would mean I’d have to dig right to the ground.
One thing I thought of would be to pedal grab the side of the bin. That way the ledge wouldn’t slop down, it would just be at a angle. I haven’t done it yet because the snow is mushy on that side so I can’t prehop.
I’ll keep looking, it is true that something level is easer.
without a doubt grabbing onto something level is easier…i just watched ryan atckins video and he hops onto a bin exactly like that one…enven he levels it out by putting a 2x4 under the lid try that just level it out by putting a block of wood under the lid of th oblect. and i said befor it looks just like your seat in vid…your left leg still looks locked when you attempt the grab.
It looks good but you aren’t going to get on that bin like that… the tuck in your video will do good for smaller hops, but if you try to go any higher the seat is gonna hit you in the ribs…
Look again at the picture pete66 put together (good job on the frame grabs BTW!)… Ryan is holding the seat out in front of him, not to the side. You’ll need to do that… pull up on the seat but pull it out in front of you… that way your pedals will stay parallel to the ground. The way you’re tilting your uni in the pic, you’re angling your pedals such that you’re making it harder to land the grab.
Keep practicing the tuck… with just a little practice you should be able to double your height!
Edit: I just watched the Tuck video again… try and tuck your upper body more, too… you’re doing a good job getting your knees up but you should also try and get your torso down at the same time. That’ll help you get a bit more height.
i agree with maestro…you need to push the seat more infront of you when you hop rather than to the side…your gonna break every rib youve got if you keep that up.
Good luck!
The link works fine. The vid just doesn’t play.