Notes from a beginner (for other beginners)

General
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Notes and thoughts from a beginner for other beginners

This is my attempt at ‘paying my dues’ to this newsgroup. OK, some thoughts and comments from a 40+ learner.

Get a friend or practice partner, much more fun as a social activity. One of you will be better than the other, it’s a chance to develop some skills, show off to each other and encourage each other to practice. They’ll probably be the only ones who really appreciate how excited you are the day you first get a free mount to work !!

Find someone to learn from - easy if there is a club. If not, go to where you bought your uni and ask them (that’s what I did).

Go to www.unicycling.org/iuf/levels and print them out. If you’re a level 1 wannabe like me, use them as a skills progression (when you get that first ever idle you can say to yourself "wow, a level 3 skill). It does help structure things if you want to go that way.

I learnt freemounts by learning a freemount with the uni propped up against a brick (no rock back - go straight forward). I’m a strongly right footed person, so I had the pedals at about 10 to 4 (and I dropped the seat about an inch). Once I could do that most of the time I tried with a medium sized branch, stops some rollback and is a great psychological prop). From there it was a free mount (about 1 in 10 worked initially). With practice
I started to improve, then one day it all fell apart, every time I tried to mount I rolled back and lost it. Then I accidently did a free mount with a rock back.

Buy some protective gear - learning is hard on the body, and if you are older than the average high school student, it takes a while to recover from a spill.

Give it a go, even if you ‘know’ that you can’t do something. Break it down into it’s parts and start working up to it. Don’t stay on something to get it perfect before you go to the next skill (yes, you keep practicing once you’ve learnt it - but that’s because we’re beginners and we haven’t mastered it yet)

Basic exercises I work on -

  • ride with arms crossed
  • ride with arms up in the air
  • move from one to the other
  • distance, I soon got to the stage that fitness was the limiting factor instead of skill
  • circles (initially with a helper so I could lean on a shoulder, then
    around a basketball pole, then just circle work
  • figures of eight -I’m working at around 3m radius on a 20" so I’ve still got a long way to go
  • ride along and take the weight of one foot on the up stroke
  • every practice session I try and do a series of freemounts - have to anyway, I get off often enough
  • freemounts on the weak foot - a long way to go on this one
  • backwards next to a wall - I use our local oval with a walkway and handrail around it
  • I try and vary the riding surface, so footpaths, roads, the oval, paths through the local park, and a mild gravel track next to the creek when I feel really adventurous
  • try and do some mild up and down slopes, fun and it burns the legs a bit until you get used to it

Have fun

Phil

PS Sorry if I duplicated this post

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts here, Phil. I am in my 40’s as well and
still feel like a beginner despite riding for a year now. Got level 1
after 5 months and still not up to level 2 (that other mount!) but I must
admit other things in life keep me from pushing hard. And I seem to be a
slow learner at unicycling skills. I can relate to most of what you say,
be it that:

  • I never used any protective gear. So far, no damage done although I
    have landed full on my wrists a few times (in a gym). Keep my
    fingers crossed.
  • I did not use a brick or branch to help in the freemount. Maybe an idea
    for my “other” mount. What also helped me: find a downslope to
    freemount, then gradually go to flatter road.

Keep riding! Klaas Bil

“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked
automagically from a database:” “White House, NR1, Stinger”

3

Good information Phil. I am 42. I need help free mounting. After starting
to learn Unicycling, it took me a few months to go about 100 feet without
support. I can also turn. I am learning free mounting, however, I find the
progress slow. The technique I am using is to put one foot on the pedal at
8 O’clock position and jump up to the other pedal and try to pedal away. I
succeed once every 15 times; most of the other times I just lose balance
and fall off, luckily on my feet. I sense that I am overweight and that is
one of the problems. I am 5’ 4" and weigh 165 lbs (75 Kgs). I do physical
activity, however, I am not losing weight. Can any type of cross training
help? How about jumping ropes? Or any specific abdomen fitness exercises?
Or maybe I should just keep plugging away…

4

Jay

Some further points - weight isn’t the issue (not for mounting anyway - I’m 6’ and about 250 lb).

Try lowering the seat a touch.

Try the kerb exercise (or a brick behind the wheel). A mild downhill makes it easier. Make sure your dominant foot is down.

Another trick - try mounting using a broom handle as a prtable pole (not great practice for free mounts - but it does mean that you can ride around without having to find a friend or pole to remount).

Warmups - lower and upper leg stretches, and maybe some hip rolls (sign your name with an imaginary pen clenched …).

I have a small back yard - two cars wide and one and a half long, but it’s enough to get in 40-50 free mounts every evening after work.

Are you trying to free mount with a roll back, or do you just go straight forward ?

Have you a friend who can watch what you do and make comments for you ?

Phil

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Jay Shah wrote:

> Good information Phil. I am 42. I need help free mounting. After
> starting to learn Unicycling, it took me a few months to go about 100
> feet without support. I can also turn. I am learning free mounting,
> however, I find the progress slow. The technique I am using is to put
> one foot on the pedal at 8 O’clock position and jump up to the other
> pedal and try to pedal away. I succeed once every 15 times; most of the
> other times I just lose balance and fall off, luckily on my feet. I
> sense that I am overweight and that is one of the problems. I am 5’ 4"
> and weigh 165 lbs (75 Kgs). I do physical activity, however, I am not
> losing weight. Can any type of cross training help? How about jumping
> ropes? Or any specific abdomen fitness exercises? Or maybe I should just
> keep plugging away…

I went through this when I was learning too (a couple of years ago, at 39)
too. I think the best thing you can do to get your freemounting down is to
work on your riding. If you can recover from small stops, etc, then you’ll
find freemounting much easier.

So the best training exercise to help with this is…riding your unicycle.
Just ride around. Your balance will improve and your freemounting will
come in time.

Keep plugging, you’ll get it!

Greg

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Hi,

From time to time I do this: I do a search on the forums page and go back a few years. You will find a wealth of info in those postings. Try a search on free mount or free mounting.

You probably don’t have to go back to far, because in the 6 months that I have been reading the forums page, I have seen this topic come up many times. The advice has been super.

I have been riding for 6 months and only after working on riding backwards for the last two months, has the free mount really started to work. That is only because I have to constantly start after I dump the uni.

Good luck and just keep at it. I will happen.

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Greg House <ghouse@spammenot.southwind.net> wrote in message
news:<lq2y7.669$hW1.510424@nntp3.onemain.com>…
> Jay Shah wrote:
>
> > Good information Phil. I am 42. I need help free mounting. After
(SNIP)
> > should just keep plugging away…
>
> I went through this when I was learning too (a couple of years ago, at
> 39) too. I think the best thing you can do to get your freemounting down
> is to work on your riding. If you can recover from small stops, etc,
> then you’ll find freemounting much easier.
>
> So the best training exercise to help with this is…riding your
> unicycle. Just ride around. Your balance will improve and your
> freemounting will come in time.
>
> Keep plugging, you’ll get it!
>
> Greg

Thanks everyone for your useful advise on freemounting. P.S. I am trying
to jump onto the pedal and not rotating it back and then going forward. I
notice, as someone mentioned, freemounting is not any more difficult on a
24" compared to a 20" Unicycle. (Is this true for a 26" or a 28"
Unicycle)? I sense that the best thing to do is what Greg mentions: keep
practising riding which should improve balance which in turn improves
moving on after the freemount jump. I am also practising riding on grass
between trees in the local park. Because of the uneven and slightly hilly
terrain, this improves balance and forces me to exert more pressure on the
leg muscles. This in turn improves freemounting (I hope). Moreover, grass
Unicycling may even help me get started with Mountain Unicycling! Hey
Scott at www.muniac.com, I might be able to join your team very soon :wink: