I’ve been trying to teach my friends to ride a uni but non of them want to cause it’s to scary or to hard. I had one friend that got on like 3 times but then just stopped but I tried with a new friend but idk how long she’ll last lol l I think I traumtized her 
it’s so weird taking a photo with another unicyclist
I can’t be the only one who tries to traumatize their friends to ride a unicycle
(I covered her face just cause idk if she wants her photo on here)
So far she can mount with help of a wall and go like 2-3 feet with both hands on the wall- she’s doing great!
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Glad you had a good intro session with your friend!
My own cautionary tale about getting over-eager to give a lesson to a friend - I tried giving a visiting friend a quick intro/lesson, and unfortunately it ended with the wheel slipping out forward, he couldn’t get his feet off the pedals in time, and him landing on his tailbone. Months later it’s still sore and I’m pretty sure he’ll never touch a uni again 
Broadly I think I was in too much of a rush and not well enough prepared. More specifically I made several mistakes:
I think the biggest one is that I should have spent more time helping get comfortable getting on and off the uni. I pretty much just had him step on and up and start going along a wall. When I learned I had a teacher who had me put one foot on and step over the uni a few times before even trying to get the 2nd foot on; in hindsight I think this is a pretty valuable drill to start with. Maybe stepping up and then back off would be a good one too. Probably also should have given a bit of a primer on bailing, including letting the uni itself drop.
At the time my smallest wheel was a 26, so that’s what I had him on. Maybe not a dealbreaker on its own, but definitely didn’t help.
I was having him go along a wall with one hand on the wall. I offered to let him hold my hand/arm with the other hand and he declined. He probably could have saved himself with some support on the other side; instead he tried to lean against the wall, twisted awkwardly, and went down. I don’t think support on both sides is strictly necessary starting out but it might have overcome the other factors in this case.
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So with my friend in the pic I asked her if she wanted and I waited a couple months til I let her get on. I always make them start on my smallest uni wheel (20inch) and taught her how to mount with me helping then with a wall. After that I had her just sit on the saddle while me holding her so she could get the feeling. I would stand on her side and have one foot in front of the tire and one foot on the back of the tire. Then when she got comfortable, I taught her how to dismount safely. when she was learning to dismount I would put my foot in front of the tire so it wouldn’t slip or fly forward as she was getting use to the feeling. because even if she were to fall she might be able to still “save” herself a little bit. She wanted to try to ride on with the wall and I said prolly not today, she was still getting use to just mounting. I made sure to stay behind her or on her side to catch her if she lost balance.
I don’t normally recommend having support on both sides just cause you edventually need to get use to riding without it but because it was day 1 of getting on i jsut wnat her to get comfortable getting on
My sister learned how to ride one and taught me, she taught me how to get on and then said to just go for it. I would go for it bad fall and she was like “just keep peddling” girl how am I supposed to keep peddling if I’m falling? But anywho I learned eventually but not the best advice for someone starting out.
My other friend she was really tall (5’8”- just to compare im 5’0”) so I had her start my 24in but it was really hard for her so I put her on my 20in and she was more comfortable on that one.
Idk how long she’ll last, (the one in the pic) she had a good time but not a lot of people who are still learning follow through -(at least the friends I’ve had) it is a hard thing and it takes time, patience, motivation, self discipline, and a high pain tolerance lol
Anyways I hope your friend is ok, I hope they didn’t break their tail bone. It’s so hard trying to start out because once you get hurt pretty bad, you don’t wanna continue learning. But once you know how to and u get hurt you tend to jsut shrub it off and keep going. (I broke my wrist a week ago on my 36 er and literally bought a mountain uni, the doctor said to not ride my 36er for a month but he didn’t say I couldn’t ride a mountain uni lol) oh and already rode my 36er yestuday and today now.
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Awesome - sounds like you have a very methodical and well thought out approach to teaching, unlike I did 
My friend is pretty sure he didn’t actually break his tailbone, though I don’t know if he ever got an xray. He and I are both in our 40s, so you kind of get used to things just not healing very fast 
Hope your wrist heals quickly, and that you’re successful in recruiting this friend and more into the hobby!
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Thanks, I wasn’t gonna go get it checked out (my wrist) cause I thought I just sprained it - I also have a very unusual high pain tolorence but my mom made me go get it checked out and it turned out a small fragment of bone broke off but I was laughing the entire time -the nurse asked me how it happened and I said I was riding a uni and she gave me this look of ru drunk or high?
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hey I started a new thread for people who want to help teach others to ride a unicycle, just from my own advice but people can put their own advice/tips to in there to help teach others! you actually gave me the idea to start that thread, idk if there is even one started for helping teach others but thanks for the idea!
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