Now that I am arguing with two people, I should probably give up, since you are
both better riders than I. But I am still not convinced about where to put the
weight, and this list has been dead for a while, so I will continue.
Forwarded message:
> From terry@santafe.edu Mon Nov 29 01:57 EST 1993 Date: Mon, 29 Nov 93 00:00:24
> MST From: terry@santafe.edu Message-Id: <9311290700.AA25670@wijiji> To:
> unicycling@santafe.edu Subject: learning…
>
Stuff deleted; it is reproduced below.
> I disagree with two of the above points. Yes, fear is something that must be
> overcome (especially on giraffes :-)), and it is overcome as control develops
> - so far so good. Now you say
>
> Beirne> When the weight is on the seat, the rider can control the pedals
> Beirne> better and feel more connected to the unicycle.
>
> I think this is true, but it’s not at all clear to the beginning rider. Try
> convincing a new rider to put nearly all their weight in the seat - it’s hard.
> The instinct is to put a lot of weight on the pedal as that seems to be the
> way to have the best controll of them. Maybe this is a minor point.
Sure, but they aren’t going to want to keep their backs straight either. They
may also want to mount with their first foot on the forward pedal rather than
the back pedal. These are not good things either.
>
> The second thing you said is that
>
> Beirne> the major portion of balancing is done with the pedalling motion
>
> which I completely disagree with. At least for me, the major portion of
> balancing comes from sitting up straight and keeping my body positioned
> correctly with respect to the wheel. Even with new riders, the major portion
> of balancing is done with the body - sudden twists of the hips etc.
>
> Think about your comment from the point of view of someone walking the wheel.
> They’re not even using the pedals. Or people who coast (no feet on wheel or
> pedals), here balance is maintained completely by body position.
Yes, but how do you move your upper body around with respect to the wheel? You
speed up or slow down. The speed differences may not be drastic, but they are
how you do most of the balancing.
>
> When I teach someone to ride (I guess I have taught about 15 or 20 people), I
> teach them to try to do 4 things at once. Many tricks require that you do some
> number of things well simultaneously and you can’t do the trick until you can
> do them all at once. For example, learning to juggle 4 balls - you need to be
> able to do 2 in each hand, you need to be able to make the balls do
> inside-outside circle etc. Until you can do these things simultaneously, you
> wont be able to keep 4 balls going for more than a few seconds.
>
> Anyway, back to unicycling. The 4 things I tell people are:
>
> 1) Sit up straight
> 2) Keep your weight on the seat
This is my point!
> 3) Lean forward
> 4) Pedal fast
>
I deleted the rest because it is good advice and I agree with it.
Beirne