Fine, but all I’ll say is that all 8 people I helped to learn to ride could not hop until I figured out that there legs were bent therefore one foot had more pressure on it, instead of them being straight.
Beginner style, obviously! Why do you think he believes vertical-crank hopping might be superior to the way all the experts do it? A little more practice and experience and he’ll figure it out. It’s called the “dead spot” for a reason. In other words, doing hops that way is cool as an alternative, but it’s definitely harder and a less useful (less controlled) way to accomplish it.
There is a natural tendency, when learning to unicycle, for one foot to go to the bottom and lock there. But as you ride more you’ll see that having the pedals level is where your control is. It’s not really that easy to stop with one foot down. If you try to do it quickly you’ll notice that foot always goes past the bottom and then rocks back. Your greatest stopping power is against a pedal in the back. Your greatest acceleration power is with a pedal in the front. Your point of least leverage/power is with the cranks vertical.
hippy fwiw one thing that helped for me when it came to stopping then hopping is to lean the unicycle back just as you brake with the back leg. Do it, and do it with some intent, it helps cancel out the forward movement of the uni and crank, and you can easily bring the uni back to upright.
Also, maybe try braking with the other leg. Even though I’m left handed and play sports with a mix of left and/or right sides, from my mountain biking days I always preferred to hop with my right foot forward, which feels the most natural for me on the unicycle too. So that means I generally brake the uni to a stand still mainly with my left leg just as the left pedal starts coming back up around, leaning back a little at the same time, stopping the cranks ~ horizontal, with my right foot in front.