im having trouble with the whole hovering thing, and i was wondering of you guys could give me sum tips? thanx in advance
-travisI’d like to learn to hover as well. Then I might not fall down as much. 
What is hovering???
maybe he means idling?
We could ask him… gasmaster, by ‘hovering’ do you mean idling, stand-stills, or something else all together?
Idling is with pedals vertical, hovering is horizontal…or so I’ve heard.
Oh, I thought he was talking about actually hovering above the ground. I was gonna give some tips, but oh well. I learned to hover about a year ago.
john
hovering
Well, I haven’t got it down yet, but I’m inching closer. Whenever I go out on the uni, I spend time riding really slowly while trying to maintain smooth control. My idles have gotten much smaller and slower, and often I just ease into a horizontal position with the cranks and try to maintain a hover with small, slow rocking movements. It requires more finesse than idling. Not having seen this skill performed in real life, I’m just assuming that this is what I actually should be doing, and that sooner or later I will be able to maintain this position for a more protracted length of time.
RE: What is hovering???
stand still, idling, rocking, there are several words for it, but it all boils down to going back and forth to stand still, which is what im having trouble with. by the way, thanx for the suggestion, elmer. i’ll have to try that.
Re: RE: What is hovering???
a still stamd is completely different than idling. in a still stand you balance in one place withouhg moving the wheel. for idling you rock back and forth. my best tip is to practice transitioning from forwards to backwards and vice versa. so ride forwards, stop, ride backwards. this will help you get used to the motion required to idle. then practice by increasing the number of times you rock. so go forward, rock backwards, then ride forwards again. then go forward, rock back, rock forward, and ride backwards. you get the idea.
Re: RE: What is hovering???
Hovering is generally recognized as the UK version of idling (or rocking).
I like the idea of using “hovering” to represent the form of idling where the cranks are horizontal. This method usually involves minimal wheel rotation, as it’s intended to aid in a quick getaway, such as in basketball.
To learn regular idling, start near your handy wall or other support, and get used to having one foot go back and forth in the bottom part of the pedal stroke. The forward-backward part is pretty easy. Try it slow and fast. Notice to do it slow, you have to wait until you start to fall in the opposite direction before moving the wheel back the other way.
Once you’re comfortable with the rocking motion, you start to add in side-to-side corrections. Try to keep them subtle. If you’re making massive twists to stay aligned, you’re losing it. You’ll know you’re getting close when you don’t make much turning motions (to the sides). Eventually you’ll be able to start letting go of the wall.
That’s one approach. I recommend combining it with out-in-the-open practice as well. First try riding, stopping, then continuing. Getting used to making a stop while staying balanced. Then try stopping, and making a half-rotation backward before riding away. Timing is important here. You can’t rush it, the timing has to match the location of your balance point.
Re: Re: RE: What is hovering???
Hmm, yeah, that does sound like a good word for horizontal idling. Reminds me of a bird or bee or spacecraft: essentially staying in one spot. This rarely happens in a regular idle.
What level skill would estimate this to be? No hands, no feet, no rear. No contact with any moving or stationary parts of the unicycle. Shouldn’t you at least be holding onto the uni, or is that an invisible uni across your knees?
nice trampoline, zach
Re: hovering
johnfoss wrote:
>>*I like the idea of using “hovering” to represent the form of idling
>>where the cranks are horizontal. *
iunicycle wrote:
> Hmm, yeah, that does sound like a good word for horizontal idling.
> Reminds me of a bird or bee or spacecraft: essentially staying in one
> spot. This rarely happens in a regular idle.
Except that, as John mentioned earlier, ‘hovering’ is already the
accepted English word for what the Americans call ‘idling’.
Since the creation of rsu and with the spread of the internet, ‘idling’
has become popular among British riders with internet access. But
‘hovering’ is still the most common term among people who don’t read
rsu. If we started using the same term to mean different things on
opposite sides of the pond it would just become unnecessarily confusing.
–
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” - Thomas Paine
Re: Re: hovering
But we already do. Over here, pavement is the stuff the road (or sidewalk) is made of, the subway is where the train goes, if a car has a boot it’s a fabric cover for something, and “lorry” is a girl’s name. 
Plus, three different words to mean the same thing is already confusing. The IUF does not use rocking or hovering. But the Standard Skill list has a skill called Twisting, which is not exactly what hovering is, but nobody uses that name anyway. If the IUF were to add Hovering to the Standard Skill list it would be an “internationally accepted” skill name, even though you could still use it for idling in the UK.
Plus you could come out with a UK translation of the IUF Rules if you wanted, I guess… 
Re: hovering
I wrote:
>>*If we started using the same term to mean different things on
>>opposite sides of the pond it would just become unnecessarily
>>confusing. *
and johnfoss responded:
> But we already do. Over here, pavement is the stuff the road (or
> sidewalk) is made of, the subway is where the train goes, if a car has a
> boot it’s a fabric cover for something, and “lorry” is a girl’s name.
> 
Yeah, I was trying to think of an example and for some reason just couldn’t.
I hear that ‘Robin’ and ‘Jamie’ are girls’ names over there as well,
whereas over here they are quite definitely boys’ names.
> Plus you could come out with a UK translation of the IUF Rules if you
> wanted, I guess… 
I was going to post a link to a guide to English for Americans that I
saw somewhere a while ago, but I couldn’t find it. This is good, though:
<URL:http://www.poisonedminds.com/Flash/English/English.html>
–
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” - Thomas Paine
Re: Re: Re: hovering
If the IUF were to add Hovering to the Standard Skill list it would be an “internationally accepted” skill name, even though you could still use it for idling in the UK. [/B]
[/QUOTE]
And once “horizontal idling” or, as I’ve heard it called “circus idle”, gets a cool name like hovering, it might catch on more. We might even get a few who can do a one foot hover.
eat my flotation
that’s not even me anyway… i can’t hover yet.