I’ve only had a uni for 3 months, and i’m also into juggling. Although I can now progress and idle for as long as I like, I can’t juggle for more than a few seconds. I think this is due to the fact that I rely on swinging my arms and shoulders to keep balanced. I’m led to believe that if I can learn to uni with my hands behind my back, Its then only a few short steps to having my arms free for other activities.
My question is this:
If I continue to practice unicycling normally (arms swinging), will I naturally develop the ability to keep my arms still, or do I actually become more and more reliant on swinging my arms as a crutch, thereby moving further from my goal of juggling while uniing.
Spunky, our resident juggling unicycler advises:
Practice idling with arms crossed in front of you. Or: put your left hand on right shoulder and right hand on left shoulder and idle until the cows come home.
Arm usage needs to be independent of idling balance.
(Its 11 o’clock. Do you know where your cows are?)
Re: newbie question on technique
Joseph wrote:
> I’ve only had a uni for 3 months, and I’m also into juggling.
> Although I can now progress and idle for as long as I like, I can’t
> juggle for more than a few seconds. I think this is due to the fact
> that I rely on swinging my arms and shoulders to keep balanced. I’m
> led to believe that if I can learn to uni with my hands behind my
> back, Its then only a few short steps to having my arms free for
> other activities. My question is this:
> If I continue to practice unicycling normally (arms swinging), will I
> naturally develop the ability to keep my arms still…
Yes.
thanks
Thanks for the answers: Memphis: I spent so long last night practicing what you advised that I forgot to bring my cows home, they’re shtill abroad in de field.
Scott: I was hoping someone would say that. Got a juggling convention in my home town this weekend, hopefully get to try out some other uniists’ equipment.
Re: newbie question on technique
if u don’t purposefully teach yourself to balance without swinging your arms, your progress toward this goal will be very slow indeed
while riding/idling, there is no incentive for u to keep your arms still
u have to focus on it
an important realisation in juggling/idling, that i only had very recently, is that your arms and legs have to work independantly
i tried for a long time to get this skill under some semblance of control while trying to match the rythm of my juggling with the rythm of my idling
not a good idea
using the occasional stilstands to maintain balance on the uni while still juggling is also very usefull and a bit of info i got from this forum
if u r into passing, try some of it right away with a friend who is standing on the ground
it helps to break the legs/arms connection
i’m still trying to get to 100 throws
let us know how u go