Generally speaking, what are the prerequisites for successfully mastering
hopping? I am only marginally able to idle with my right foot in the down
position. Is this an impediment? What other skills are useful in
attempting to hop?
Thanks, Raphael Lasar Matawan, NJ
>Generally speaking, what are the prerequisites for successfully
>mastering hopping?
None.
I’ve taught some people to hop that couldn’t ride a unicycle.
One tip would be to edge your feet onto the cranks (as well as the pedals)
to stop any rotation, also try and gain the momentum to hop from your
upper body, keeping your legs fairly straight.
Leo White
Hmm, can’t think of any skill that’s a prereq to hopping, but equipment
definitely helps. I never learned to hop (and really thought I probably
never would) until I tried my first 2.6" tire. I just couldn’t do it on a
skinny high pressure tire.
Chris
Raphael Lasar wrote:
>
> Generally speaking, what are the prerequisites for successfully
> mastering hopping? I am only marginally able to idle with my right foot
> in the down position. Is this an impediment? What other skills are
> useful in attempting to hop?
>
> Thanks, Raphael Lasar Matawan, NJ
Raphael Lasar wrote:
> Generally speaking, what are the prerequisites for successfully
> mastering hopping? I am only marginally able to idle with my right foot
> in the down position. Is this an impediment? What other skills are
> useful in attempting to hop?
If you can come to a stop with the pedals horizontal, even for a brief
moment, that’s the spot where you hop from. You don’t need to be able to
idle, but if you can stop and stand still, that helps.
My friend was recently learning to hop and one tip that helped him was to
remind him that you stand up on the pedals when you hop, get your weight
entirely off the seat.
Greg
Past experience on a pogo stick could be beneficial. And strong legs and
arms also help. But I’ve seen BMXers get on a uni for the first time who
couldn’t ride at all but could hop.
Ride up to a stop with your pedals level, grab the front of your seat with
the hand opposite the forward foot. Get off your seat and jump up. Once
you are going up, pull up the uni with your hand. You’ll soon find hopping
does take lots of energy to initially learn, but you’ll spend less energy
and be more efficient once you get your technique down.
As for equipment, a fat tire helps but is not mandatory. Deflate your
tire a little to give you some spring. Experiment with tire pressure but
do not bottom out your rim or you may damage your uni. It’s also helpful
if you do not have slippery all rubber pedals. A Sem seat has little to
hold on to at the front, but other seats, like the Miyata have a nice
little handle.
You should be able to ride, semi stop, hop a couple of times, semi stop
and continue riding. Idling not required. Actually, instead of idling, you
could just learn to hop in one spot until you need to riding again!
Don_TaiATyahooDOTcoDOTuk but I live in Toronto
http://torontounicyclists.tripod.com
Raphael Lasar wrote:
>
> Generally speaking, what are the prerequisites for successfully
> mastering hopping? I am only marginally able to idle with my right foot
> in the down position. Is this an impediment? What other skills are
> useful in attempting to hop?
>
> Thanks, Raphael Lasar Matawan, NJ
Thanks to everyone for their tips and advice. I put them to the test this
evening and had a couple of goes of 6 or so hops. I’d say that the major
bit of help was knowing to hop from the ankles. The major difficulty is
holding the pedals horizontal.
Generally it seems that this trick is in what I call the “guitar”
category, i.e. it is easy to get started and have immediate success with
it, like picking up a guitar and strumming a few chords and feeling
instant gratification. Of course proficiency takes time and practice.
Other tricks, like riding backwards, I put in the “violin” category, i.e.
like playing the violin it takes a while before you can even start to feel
a modicum of proficiency.
Anyway, thanks again for the help. My ultimate goal with this is to be
able to hop and jump rope.
Raphael Lasar Matawan, NJ
> Generally it seems that this trick is in what I call the “guitar”
> category,
i.e.
> it is easy to get started and have immediate success with it, like
> picking up
a
> guitar and strumming a few chords and feeling instant gratification. Of
> course proficiency takes time and practice. Other tricks, like riding
> backwards, I
put
> in the “violin” category, i.e. like playing the violin it takes a while
> before you can even start to feel a modicum of proficiency.
>
> My ultimate goal with this is to be able to hop and jump rope.
LOVE those categories (guitar, violin). I am a professional musician, and
so often when teaching I use lots of sport analogies, and when teaching my
(one) unicycle student the basics, I use heaps of music analogies!!
I would also like to do the jump rope thing (but I dunno how desperately).
A friend showed me how she used a strap to tether the uncicycle to her,
then jumped rope. I find hopping pretty tiring, and I’m not very good at
it, but I am very good at idling. I have focused on idling because it
will many more practical (performance) applications (hopefully) … also I
think I’ve avoided/neglected hopping because I don’t want to bend my
cranks and wreck my Taiwanese unicycle.
Hi Raphael,
I don’t think there’s many prerequisites that will help in learning to
hop. Being able to come to a temporary stand still with the pedals
horizontal and your favorite foot forward is about the only one I can
think of. I wrote up my hopping learning experiences @
http://wobbling.unicyclist.com/HowTo/ICanRide/Hopping.html which might be
of some use to you I hope.
Cheers, Neil
----- Original Message ----- From: <raphael@library.lucent.com> To:
<unicycling@winternet.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 7:48 PM
Subject: Hopping
> Generally speaking, what are the prerequisites for successfully
> mastering hopping? I am only marginally able to idle with my right foot
> in the down position. Is this an impediment? What other skills are
> useful in attempting to hop?
>
> Thanks, Raphael Lasar Matawan, NJ
Hi Leo,
I find that to hop on the spot the momentum to bounce comes from the
ankles rather than the upper body. Only when you come to trying to jump
does my upper body really come in to it. To begin with I was trying to use
knees and launching my body upwards but that only did its best to throw me
off balance when I landed. Only after some time did I come to hop with my
ankles - much less exhausting too.
An alternative to edging your feet on to the cranks is to angle your
leading foot so the heal is pointing slightly downwards and the trailing
foot angled so the toes are pointing downwards. I find this helps on the
stability stakes. If I had my feet on the cranks and had to ride off I
think I’d be eating dirt pretty quick 
Cheers, Neil
----- Original Message ----- From: <leofwhite@aol.com> To:
<unicycling@winternet.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 11:33 PM Subject:
Re: Hopping
> >>Generally speaking, what are the prerequisites for successfully
mastering
> >>hopping?
>
> None.
>
> I’ve taught some people to hop that couldn’t ride a unicycle.
>
> One tip would be to edge your feet onto the cranks (as well as the
> pedals) to stop any rotation, also try and gain the momentum to hop from
> your upper body, keeping your legs fairly straight.
>
> Leo White