Need help with wheel walking!

Okay, first of all, I’m trying to wheel walk. I am doing kinda well, and I was wondering if anybody has some tips. To show you how bad I’m doing, and for you to see what I’m doing wrong, I posted two movies on my movie page. They are about 1.5 Megabytes, and won’t take more than a minute to load. They are the last two on the page, and the captions just say “Terrible attempt to wheel walk.” So, check them out and tell me what I’m doing right or wrong…PLEASE!!! :astonished: Here is the album address: http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albux44

You’re going too fast, and leaning too far forward. That’s the mistake most people make when first trying. Go very, verrry slow, and lean waaay back.

Sorry, no time for a detailed reply but there are tips at www.unicycle.2ya.com

Good luck,
Andrew

you need to lean back more (i know its been said) it will feel quite unnatural at first, but you will gradually get used to it. also, when i was learning, i would concentrate on how my feet were pushing, i would go right from heel to toe, so you get a bit more distance and control with each push. it also helps to go slow…

Here’s a thread with some wheel walking tips: I need help wheel walking.

Your video shows that you are only using the back part of your feet on the tire. You need to use your entire foot for each push of the wheel. Think toe heel, toe heel, toe heel,… Start with your toe on the tire next to the crown then continue pushing until just your heel is on the tire. Keep your heel on the tire until the toes of your other foot are on the wheel. Toe heel, toe heel,…

You always want to have at least one foot in contact with the wheel. At the end of the push you’ll have the heel of one foot and the toe of the other foot on the wheel. If mess up and don’t get the toe of the other foot on the wheel soon enough you’ll end up with no feet on the wheel. The wheel will shoot out front and you’ll land on your back.

I just want to say that posting a video is a GREAT way to help us figure out what you are doing wrong and therefore help you properly.:smiley:

It’s a brilliant idea. It’s great to see someone in the process of learning something new. And to read the helpful comments. Very educational for MANY people. We should do this more often.

A less scary alternative to leaning back (because that feels very scary, doesn’t it?)

If you go up a slight incline, you will have to lean back less, and also I think you can apply more easily as you are pushing your legs more downwards than forwards

You might want to wear wrist guards (if you’re not already) because if you do fall back its pretty easy to try to catch yourself and end up braking your wrist.

That helps alot a good incline is a wheelchair ramp, then you have a rail right there to hold onto to get going.

To work on the toe heel idea that JC mentioned, I found it very helpful to wheel walk while using a wall on one side for balance. the wall helped me to slow down and concentrate on the toe heel.

Disclaimer - at present my best wheel walk is about 30 feet.

Bill

Thanks soooo much, you guys (and gals)!!! As I sat there reading your posts, I definitely felt that those techniques would help! I could almost imagine myself doing it, and in about 5 minutes I’m going to go out and try! THANKS AGAIN!!! :smiley: BTW, when I get outside and practice a bit, I’ll post another movie of what I’m doing different. Thanks for the nice comments about the movie idea…I do think that more people should do that. I just made the movies with the “Movie Mode” feature my little 2- Megapixel digital camera (Olympus D-390).

Wheel walking and storks :slight_smile:

I totally agree with just about everything that’s been said. :slight_smile: My wheel walking days are rapidly aproaching… we’ll see how I do :slight_smile:

By the way, does anyone feel like a stork when they roll with one foot? I’m doing it with an old trainer that dosen’t have a nice convenient place to put my foot, so I have to hold it up there against the seet post. I was amazed at how much it helped, both with balance, and motor control.

Somewone should hold a stork gathering :slight_smile:

When I was learning, I realized with each push, i was gaining uncontrollable momentum and could not regain balance if i lost it and i couldnt stop. When learning, you should push slowly and with alot of control. At the end of the push your foot should stop the wheel.

Going up an incline never helped me,for some reason. :thinking:
It worked better for me on flat.

I held on to a wall while wwing untill the end of the wall then kept on going after the wall ended.that helped me alot.

also,lean back! :roll_eyes: It helped me to not lean back completly,but just lean the seat and your butt back,with your head and upperbody forward a little.

Put your seat as high as you can.

And RELAX YOUR STOMACH.

This may sound strange, but it takes a lot of core strength to keep both feet up high and pushing off the tire, and everyone tends to tighten up the gut too much when first learning ANY trick.

A lot of keeping the WWing going is the ability to do little juke moves to correct side to side balance (front to back balance is controlled by your foot on the tire), and when your gut is clenched, it’s hard to do these subtle corrections. 1 foot WWing is actually less strenuous than 2 footing since one foot is on the crown.

Lastly, if possible, practice on a dead flat surface. Streets are usually crowned to allow water runoff, and the convex surface makes learning new tricks much harder. An outdoor basketball or tennis count is good, a gym even better.

JL