Hi There.
So, I recently made a few new trials obstacles for practice on. One is a 6x8" piece of lumber standing up so the top is slightly more than 2' off the ground. It's supported adaquately enough that it doesn't really need anchoring to be a safe, stable obstacle. Another one is of the same make, except the 6x8 is replaced by a 4x4 that's missing some chunks so it's more like a 3x3. Both of these are made so I can put them on the sidewalk in front of my house whenever I want and unicycle on them.
Today I got my first chance at jumping and playing around on them. The car was in the garage, so I didn’t have any way to drag out my massive trials boxes (rarely used anymore, as I can now hop high enough that they can tip when I land, so now they’re only used as platforms to go along with other obstacles, such as my balnce beam). I decided I’d start by doing a basic, quick warm-up of hopping up three stairs in front of my house inn one hop. This is about a 22" hop that I have a pretty easy time with. After two of these (it was warm out, so I was already mostly warmed up), I opened the garage and got out the 6x8 obstacle.
First some background: My first ever experience with precision in my pedalgrabs was pedalgrabbing onto a pole about 32" high and 10" in diameter (A video of Me or Mike Middleton pedalgrabbing it may be in Zach’s video). I got this within a week of learning to pedalgrab. My second ever atempt was some >30" high 6x8 poles set in the ground. They were at a convenient gapping distance. I had an easy time getting the first part, but I never even tried going to rubber. I haven’t returned yet, so I still haven’t landed them.
Because I chickened out on this, I decided to practice these sorts of pedalgrabs. I’ve never even come close to falling doing a pedalgrab onto the top of a small surface such as a 6x8. Still it took me a few minutes to get up the guts to try to pedalgrab the top of my 6x8 pole. Once I got it, all fears were gone and I can now do it easily.
After that, I decided to break out the 4x4 version. This is slightly less stable because I used sections of a slightly rotted out 2x8 to support it. Still, I pedalgrabbed it without any trouble, although I only caught about 3/4 of my pedal on the 4x4, the other 1/4th of it missing off the front. After a bit of no-dab adjust ment, I made like I was gonna go to rubber. After about 2 minutes of acting like I was about to go to rubber, I stepped down. I was psyching out on it. i kept looking at how it was smaller than my Snafu pedal. It literally fit between the pins on it. Because of the size, when on the 4x4 I can’t actually see what I’m attempting to go to rubber on. This has given me renewed appreciation of the line Ryan Atkins made and then landed at Toque. I tried again to build up the guts to go for the 4x4, but I never got myself to do it. Oh well, I said to myself, I hadn’t expected to be able to do that yet, anyways.
So, I continued on to the final move i wanted to land that day. I wanted to go straight to rubber on the 6x8. This wouldn’t be a first, I landed a ~2’ hop onto the top of a 6x8 embedded in the ground near my house about a week ago. I’d also landed a hop onto the top of a 22" tall fire hydrant when I was extremely tired, although I psyched out on that for a while, too. Still, even though I knew I could do it, I was a bit more than nervous. I set up, preparing to hop, encouragiung myself. Then a thought crossed my mind, “I haven’t even landed a 2’ hop today! The biggest I did was 22”, and that was up stairs! Can I even do a 2’ hop in this situation?" Suddenly my meager confidence was replaced with a brick wall of doubt. Rather then being able to see myself land the hop perfectly, I was seeing all the ways I would fall were I to try it. I even doubted whether I could still hop 2’, although I now warm up on most rides with a series of 25" hops (when available, they seem to loosen me up and boost my confidence).
Anyways, after that evil thought crossed my mind, I just couldn’t get myself to go for the hop. Try as I might, my leg muscles would not fire to get my tire onto that 6x8. I gave up and retrieved a hunk of wood from my basement that would act as a riser to reduce the hop to 18". My shaking legs finally gave in and I hopped. My tire landed square in the middle of the 6x8, exactly where I wanted it. I jumped off, partially relieved. Just to check, I did the hop again, this time with much less doubt and a lot more ease. Clearly, I could still hop, and I could still put my tire where I wanted it. This eroded a bit of that doubt, but it was stil there in force. I removed the riser, and made like I was going to finally go for the 2’ hop. After a few reassuring pedalgrabs and one more 18" hop with the riser, I prepared to go for it.
Then, i chickened out. I just could not get myself to go for that hop.
I find that I am faced with situations where I ethier know I can do something or think I can but still get nervous more than I like. Mostly it’s on moves that are high up off the ground or very big and precise, such as big hops onto the thin edge of a 2x4. Still, it’s annoying to be mentally blocked when you have the physical capability. Today, I was unable to get past the mental aspect twice, as the above story relates. This was disheartening and downright shameful to me, no matter how much I appreciate the difficulty involved in the moves I both did and didn’t do. I would much rather have my limits not be psychological, but physical. So far, during both trials and muni, I find that my mind often is the restriction factor to my body.
I’m sure other riders encounter situations where they “psyche out”, ethier on stuff 1/100th the difficulty or 100x the difficulty of what I describe above. So, please, do share these stories, and how you overcame the obstacles involved. I would like to hear your techiniques for dealing with mental blocks on the uniycle.
Thanks for reading.
