I saw some of Jeff Lutkus’ unicycling videos today and thought, “that young punk. Look at him kick-up mounting and hopping up stairs. I should be learning new skills…it’s raining outside so I’ll hit the basement.”
I need to learn to ride one-footed to pass skill level 4 so I figured I’d get started. I ordered a 20" Torker (has a flat crown) from Unicycle.com (among a host of other things) specifically to learn to one-foot. It doesn’t arrive until Friday and I couldn’t wait. So, I employed a tip I picked up from Alan Tepper and the Panther Pride team and taped a piece of rubber sheet to the round crown of my 24" Zephyr. Here is what worked for me to learn to idle one-footed. I assume here that if you’re going to try this you already are able to idle with some proficiency. I’m not that hot so you don’t need to be a pro to do this.
I set myself up as far away from a wall as possible while still able to touch it . I free-mounted into an idle and reached out and touched the wall. I stopped idling, then I lifted my weak foot up onto the rubber strip. I started one-foot idling while applying some force to the wall. I gradually lifted my hand from the wall. As I did so, I noticed that I immediately began applying a force to the frame with my weak foot. Of course…that’s why it’s on the frame. That surprised me and I fell off (can you believe it?) I set up again this time applying some force to the frame with my weak foot. I let go and started one-foot idling. It was a breeze. I quickly learned to go from two-foot to one-foot idling. Then I free-mounted to one-foot idle. I couldn’t believe how easy it was just noticing that one point. It took 15 minutes to do all of this.
Other points to ALWAYS remember: weight on the saddle, focus far away, don’t chicken out…fall instead.
Now I have to figure out how to get up enough initial momentum to roll past the first wheel revolution and ride.
That’s very interesting. I was just practicing riding one-footed and
decided to try idling. It felt virtually impossible to me. It seems to me
that one-footed riding is much easier that one-footed idling.
Michael Grant wrote… > >“harper” <forum.member@unicyclist.com> wrote in message >news:9uucpb$75o$1@laurel.tc.umn.edu… >> Now I have to figure out how to get up enough initial momentum to roll >> past the first wheel revolution and ride. >> > >That’s very interesting. I was just practicing riding one-footed and >decided to try idling. It felt virtually impossible to me. It seems to >me that one-footed riding is much easier that one-footed idling.
That is very very surprising, and I have a feeling that few if any will
agree. One-foot idling is, well, easy, once you use your weight properly
and get into the right rhythm…
You know, I know someone who larned how to ride backwards before riding
forwards and he thus thinks that riding backward is “easier”. I can easily
imagine people learning to wheel-walk before riding and thinking it is
“easier” too!
So where do we draw the line? What makes sense to me is establishing
degree of difficulty based on the skill levels and the standard skills
point system, which have been drawn up by the world’s best and most
experienced unicyclists. Individual deviation from these are interesting,
but cannot be used to objectively establish ease or difficulty.
Stay on top, Jack Halpern Executive Director for International Development
International Unicycling Federation, Inc. Website: http://www.kanji.org
Ok, so I guess I’m wrong. It took several sessions of concerted effort for
me to learn to ride one-footed (I’m still sorta shakey) but after reading
that most would find idling easier I’ve been practicing that. I’m now able
to one-footed idle (right foot down) about 10-20 times. I’d keep
practicing tonight but I’m inside and I scratched my wood floor when I
dropped the uni so I’m not allowed indoors anymore.
Thank you harper for giving me the motivation to try.
p.s. I feel like I’ve made tremendous progress today. For the first time
I did seat-in-front jumps. My jump height is still low but
improving. I also tried one-footed riding on my Coker which was
surprisingly easier than I expected. The momentum of that big wheel
makes it easier to make it over the “hump”.
The one thing that I am disappointed about is that I wanted to learn to go
from seat-in-front hopping to standing on wheel hopping but I kept
chickening out at the last minute. Anyone want to offer some suggestions
(besides not-chickening out)?
-mg
“Jack Halpern” <jack@kanji.org> wrote in message news:mailman.1007863869.25740.rsu@unicycling.org… > Michael Grant wrote… > > > >“harper” <forum.member@unicyclist.com> wrote in message > >news:9uucpb$75o$1@laurel.tc.umn.edu… > >> Now I have to figure out how to get up enough initial momentum to > >> roll past the first wheel revolution and ride. > >> > > > >That’s very interesting. I was just practicing riding one-footed and > >decided to try idling. It felt virtually impossible to me. It seems to
me > >that one-footed riding is much easier that one-footed idling. > > That is very very surprising, and I have a feeling that few if any will
agree. > One-foot idling is, well, easy, once you use your weight properly and > get into the right rhythm… > > You know, I know someone who larned how to ride backwards before > riding forwards and he thus thinks that riding backward is “easier”. I > can easily imagine people learning to wheel-walk before riding and > thinking it is
“easier” > too! > > So where do we draw the line? What makes sense to me is establishing > degree of difficulty based on the skill levels and the standard skills
point > system, which have been drawn up by the world’s best and most > experienced unicyclists. Individual deviation from these are > interesting, but cannot
be used > to objectively establish ease or difficulty. > > Stay on top, Jack Halpern Executive Director for International > Development International Unicycling Federation, Inc. Website: > http://www.kanji.org
ok, so i think i learnt all this stuff different to everyone else. i could idle before i could ride and i can one foot idle both feet but can’t one foot ride. can anyone help me with moving from one foot idling to one foot riding?
The Coker must be easier to one-foot ride…it practically goes by itself once started. Where do you put your foot? The top of the fork is so high that it seems impractical especially with the arthritis in my knee preventing me from bending it too far. I’ll have to try that outside when it’s dry and light…my basement ceiling is too low to accommodate me atop the big boy.
Codified difficulty levels are usefull for competitions… and as some sort of vague indicator to the novice. Perhaps, if you find something difficult that others proclaim “easy”, this can be a clue that you’r missing a concept. On the other hand (I have an umlimited number of other hands), people are wonderfully different. By not limiting our expectations to a skill of a particular level of difficulty, we are free to learn a “difficult” skill in an afternoon (or in my case, try, anyway).
I would imagine that attaching some kind of foot-rest with tape to the frame would facilitate this. I think I, too, would rather try this now than rake leaves. We are here to risk the injuries.
I hold my foot next to the frame just above the topmost point of
the pedal.
-mg
“harper” <forum.member@unicyclist.com> wrote in message news:9uv046$bas$1@laurel.tc.umn.edu… > > > Michael- > > The Coker must be easier to one-foot ride…it practically goes by > itself once started. Where do you put your foot? The top of the fork is > so high that it seems impractical especially with the arthritis in my > knee preventing me from bending it too far. I’ll have to try that > outside when it’s dry and light…my basement ceiling is too low to > accommodate me atop the big boy. > > > Michael Grant wrote: > > I also tried one-footed riding on my Coker which was surprisingly > > easier than I expected. The momentum of that big wheel makes it
easier > > to make it over the “hump”. > > > – > harper Posted via the Unicyclist Community - > http://unicyclist.com/forums
> ok, so i think i learnt all this stuff different to everyone else. i > could idle before i could ride and i can one foot idle both feet but > can’t one foot ride. can anyone help me with moving from one foot idling > to one foot riding?
It’s real hard to start one foot riding from idling. It’s much easier
(though scarier) to start from riding. You basically have to go for it.
Not so long ago Jorga (12) got idling down reliably. Yesterday she said,
“Oh by the way, look I can idle one-footed, it’s virtually the same as
two-footed because you really use only one foot anyway”. At the same time
she has been working for weeks on one-footed riding, making only slow
progress. So I tend to agree with harper: one-foot idling is easier than
one-foot riding.
> >“harper” <forum.member@unicyclist.com> wrote in message >news:9uucpb$75o$1@laurel.tc.umn.edu… >> Now I have to figure out how to get up enough initial momentum to roll >> past the first wheel revolution and ride. >> > >That’s very interesting. I was just practicing riding one-footed and >decided to try idling. It felt virtually impossible to me. It seems to me >that one-footed riding is much easier that one-footed idling. > >-mg > >
–
“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked
automagically from a database:” “SURSAT, SC, credit card”
What John says I found to be true today. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get up enough momentum starting from the one-foot idle. I did, however, gain a sense of how to control the uni with only one foot on a pedal and one on the frame. So I bit the bullet and went for it. After two unplanned dismounts I had 4 revolutions. Then 10…then 30. I quickly discovered that the slightest incline makes a big difference but I continued to practice both directions. I am able to make small corrections to keep going straight down the sidewalk but as of yet am unable to make turns. Even going backwards I can only make the widest of turns. What’s up with that? Apparently that’s why riding backwards and one-footed in a circle are in the higher skill levels.
By the way, I admire the signature. I also have a great fondness for the first ten amendments, both the even and the odd ones. I tend not to be too picky there.
I just learned one-footed riding two weeks ago, so thought I’d post my thoughts on it.
I learned how to one-footed idle about a year ago by my friend saying “I bet I can do this” and me saying to her “I bet I can too”, and I think neither one of us wanted to give up. That time it was pure confidence.
However, I usually ride solo now, and it’s a huge jump to go from idling one-footed to riding one-footed. Even when I got to the point of feeling like I could idle with just my right foot for practically forever, I still couldn’t get up enough momentum to swing the foot over and ride one-footed.
So then I tried hanging onto a wall and riding…
… but still couldn’t get my foot over.
So I finally just grit my teeth and began the process of riding, taking off my foot, falling off after half a pedal. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I think in two evenings time with probably about 50-100 upd’s, I got good enough where I could ride 5-10 pedals.
I’m still not very good, but these are my final thoughts on what helped me start to get the hang of it:
Familiarity with one-footed idling
Watching other people (in my case, no other riders around, so watched videos from the net). This visualization helps me immensely.
A willingness to fall. It wasn’t until I wanted it bad enough that I really broke down and started to learn.
(Note: This reply isn’t just to you, but to anyone else who wants a couple tips on riding one-footed).
Yeah. This is what John Foss said and this is what I found out yesterday. I was somewhat luckier and only fell a couple of times. I had several upd’s when I failed to maintain momentum while trying to ease off on the single pump and smooth out the ride with more control. But I quickly (within 5 tries) got to the point where I could go 30 revs.
I had read that there were two approaches to one-footed riding with the idle-to-ride approach being one of them. Even when I became confident with the one-foot ride I still couldn’t get there from idling. I am convinced that the “go for it” approach is the fastest way to learn to ride one-footed. Idling one-footed first (which the majority considers easier) gives one the sense of how the unicycle behaves with one foot on a pedal and one on the frame so it seems a logical introduction.
I’m impressed at the “quickly got 30 revs” part. I don’t think I’ve ever grasped a skill so well that once I got it I really “got it”. I think I usually pound on it for a couple weeks before I’d ever try it on the way to class in the morning… especially if it involves trying it when large flocks of females are floating about. I guess I figure that since I’m half of the unicyclist population on campus, they don’t really know how much harder riding one way is from another.
But again, kudos to learning to fast and well. That blows me away.
I always thought that a large flock of females was a good place to have an excuse to fall. And just because I could do 30 revs fairly reliably yesterday, that does not mean that I will be able to do it today. This is a heavy ibuprofen day and it is raining outside again.
