It's just too much!

General
1

Forwarded message follows:

> On 14 Dec 1994, Chuck Boody wrote:
>
> > Subject: Anyone home?? 12/14/94 7:40 AM
> >
> > I haven’t seen any activity out here for some time. Am I still connected?
>
> Yep.
>
> _______________________________________
> John Peekstok johnpeek@cyberspace.com "If pro is the opposite of con, what is
> the opposite of progress?"

Let’s face it guys and gals - this just isn’t what we wanted to read when we
subscribed to a mailing list about unicycling. I’m not the only one to notice
that this is turning into a typical wibble-full usenet group. It’s unfair to
expect a single person to moderate this entire list, so it’s our responsibility
to others to exercise a degree of self-moderation ourselves.

Whinge over…

ObUnicycling:

Tricks I don’t hear about much: pirouetting (and spin variations). I
learnt these a year or two ago basically by trying to turn in really tight
circles - and it’s way the most impressive trick (from an audience point
of view) I can do.

Practise doing tight circles, developing a smooth style, not the typical
disjointed version when corners are first learnt (you know, when one foot
alternately lunges forward at each stage of the corner). It’s really important
to concentrate on keeping the feet moving round continuously. Start with wide
circles and get smaller. A side effect of this is that cornering becomes fluid
and looks/feels much better.

!Practise both directions! !!Very important!!

At some stage it’ll get so tight and you can just lock the pedals and the
unicycle spins on a point. This takes a while but is so exciting the first
time! Practise on a wooden gym floor or similar. I can only just do it on
concrete myself (can you say ‘New tyre, please?’).

Once you feel confident try starting the spin with your arms out and tucking
them in sharply just as you hit the pirouette. You’ll get about 4 revolutions in
under a second (and a big round of applause from passers-by). It’s hard not
falling off though (or getting dizzy).

I suppose you could work up to the ballerina style where you try to look in one
direction for as long as possible and then whip your head around. I’ve tried
that and it’s pretty difficult.

Further variations include riding out backwards; do this smoothly, and increase
the size of the circle while going backwards and it looks awesome.

Hope this helps. I’m happy to rattle on ceaselessly about other tricks if
anyone’s interested…

Cheers, Paul.

PS, can anyone do a rolling 180 degree hop? Ie forwards into hop, coming out
backwards nicely.

2

RE: It’s just too much!

Yes, people do perform a riding 180, the offical term would be
something like “riding 180 hop twist” and many people do it. A level
seven skill is to do a 180 hoptwist, rolling or not. Actually, there
are several people who also do a 360 hoptwist, and although I am not
one of them, i know that it is almost impossible to do this without
riding into it. You need the momentum to do it. Karl

3

RE: It’s just too much!

Paul Makepeace wrote:
>Practise doing tight circles, developing a smooth style, not the typical
>disjointed version when corners are first learnt (you know, when one foot
>alternately lunges forward at each stage of the corner). It’s really important
>to concentrate on keeping the feet moving round continuously. Start with wide
>circles and get smaller. A side effect of this is that cornering becomes fluid
>and looks/feels much better. !Practise both directions! !!Very important!! At
>some stage it’ll get so tight and you can just lock the pedals and the unicycle
>spins on a point. This takes a while but is so exciting the first time!
>Practise on a wooden gym floor or similar. I can only just do it on concrete
>myself (can you say ‘New tyre, please?’). Once you feel confident try starting
>the spin with your arms out and tucking them in sharply just as you hit the
>pirouette. You’ll get about 4 revolutions in under a second (and a big round of
>applause from passers-by). It’s hard not falling off though (or getting dizzy).

This is an excellent description of how to get into spins and pirouettes. Yes,
if you practice outside you will eat up tires like never before. If this becomes
a problem, look for a harder rubber tire. generally these are the ones that mark
up floors, so don’t use one if you ride in & out. I believe that learning to
spin does more for your overall riding than just improving turns. Beware of the
high speed pirouette. If you actually do 4 revolutions in under a second, the
subsequent fall will probably be HARD! Rather than spin super fast, of course,
it looks better to be able to ride out of it.

>I suppose you could work up to the ballerina style where you try to look in one
>direction for as long as possible and then whip your head around. I’ve tried
>that and it’s pretty difficult.
>
I also have not had success with this method. It has never made me feel less
dizzy, so I haven’t stuck with it. Yes, I do get dizzy!

>Further variations include riding out backwards; do this smoothly, and increase
>the size of the circle while going backwards and it looks awesome.
>
If this is fun, try riding INTO the spin backwards. This will keep you busy for
a long time, and make a vast improvement to your backward riding! If you get
frustrated, try riding into a spin with one foot. If you hit the center (and
start to pirouette), get that other foot on because you may have to pedal in
either direction.

>Hope this helps. I’m happy to rattle on ceaselessly about other tricks if
>anyone’s interested…
>
>Cheers, Paul.
(what other tricks have you got?)

>PS, can anyone do a rolling 180 degree hop? Ie forwards into hop, coming out
> backwards nicely.

This can be done in a fairly straight line, but doesn’t look very good that way,
due to the amount of arm flinging needed to get the twisting momentum. If you do
it in a curve, it’s a little easier to build up some twisting power and flow
through the motion. More difficult is the hop back to forward riding. If this is
fun, try a 360 jump. this is what I call an “axle” jump, where you ride forward
(in a curve, usually) jump in the air, spin all the way around, and land more or
less riding in the same direction on the curve.

Send your questions to:

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone (stage name) President, International Unicycling
Federation unifoss@cerfnet.com