I just started riding and I am looking for a little help or just a tip on learning how to turn or doing something new. Right now I can ride straight for a good distance up or down hills and can make gradual turns but nothing sharp. Is there a trick to making sharp turns.
try leaning into the curve slightly. also, until you have better control of your balance, waving your ‘inside’ (inside in relation to the turn) arm in circles (arm straight), in tune with your pedal strokes (hope this makes sense) helps, until you can do sowithout any arm movement.
One balance tip to work on…you can ride in a straight line, but can you ride in a straight line with your arms crossed behind your back?
Ride some grassy downhill, that will challenge you and it’s FUN. carjug
I just realized that I did not answer your question, I assumed that challenging riding would improve your turning. Now go ride down some grassy hills and see if your turning gets better; it will! Wheee! carjug
For sharp turns, I find this helps:
If you are turning right, time the turn so that the right pedal is just starting to go down.
If you are turning left, time the turn so that the left pedal is just starting to go down.
Slow almost to a stop, wait for the peal to be just past ‘top dead centre’, then make the sharp turn.
The turn is made with the wheel, not with the body. By this I mean that you don’t need to contort your body and wave your arms. However, you will find that it helps to turn your upper body (and especially your head) comfortably in the direction of the intended turn. Then let the unicycle turn underneath you to realign itself with your body.
And yes, you need to lean.
It’s amazing how far you can lean a unicycle. It is possible to catch the pedals on the floor if you really go for it. 
It is a bad idea to practise in one direction only. For turns, you should be able to turn each way with equal confidence.
Another thing to work on as a new rider is slow speed control. It is tempting to scream about the place at high speed going for maximum distance/speed. Instead, try things like riding around cones/sticks/marks on the floor, doing figure 8s and circles.
Good first trick; the still stand. Stoop the uni as the back pedal is rising. Stop quite abruptly. Then as the cranks are horizontal, stand right up as tall as you can. You should be able to stand still for a second or two, then drop your weight onto the front pedal and ride off. Also, try riding whilst standing up onthe pedals. All these things develop balance and skill.
Mikefule wrote:
"Good first trick; the still stand. Stop the uni as the back pedal is rising. Stop quite abruptly. Then as the cranks are horizontal, stand right up as tall as you can. You should be able to stand still for a second or two, then drop your weight onto the front pedal and ride off. "
This is a good one. Next, evolve this to the 1/2 crank backwards, then ride off frontwards. This branch of Uni skills spits into two helpful branches: hopping/jumping… or could lead eventually to full crank back then forward ride-away, idling, 2 cranks back…, 3 cranks back…, riding backwards. Weeeeeeeeeeee!! Much happiness.
Ride indoors! (that’s just a hint)
The smaller the room and the greater your determination, the quicker you will learn to turn.
Once I was teaching one of friends to ride in an open lot. He caught on quite quickly and soon I was yelling commands for him to do things. SEED UP! SLOW DOWN! He looked very funny trying to do these things, but he always tried and sometimes succeeded. When I told him to turn I could see him trying, but he was just not able to do it. Until this one time he was coming up to a fence very rapidly. To his and my surprise, he pulled off a better then 90-degree turn. Actually, it was closer to a 180.
The moral of the story is, ride fast straight into a wall, and you will find out how well you can turn. Then you just have to remember what motions you made to do it, and repeat them with out the wall.
Daniel
The cost of replacing expensive furniture is also a good incentive to improve rapidly, I find…
Phil