okay, i can stand up on my unicycle just fine but when i try to put the seat in front I always fall because i no longer have any more balance, is this normal for learning?
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Thats pretty normal when you first try it. Here is some help on sif from unicycle.2ya.com
Riding Seat In Front
This is riding with your feet on the pedals as normal, but with the seat held out in front of you.
There are three parts to this skill. It’s probably best to practice 2 first and then learn 1 and 3.
Taking the seat out from under you.
Stop briefly, stand up tall on the pedals and pull the seat out. I find it easiest to pull the seat out with one hand, then grab the side of the seat to hold on to with the other hand.
Riding along with seat in front.
Hold the side of the seat with your hand and ride along. To start with hold the seat so it is in front of you, but still touching your body. When you get better, you can hold it further away. You need to make sure you’re not putting more pressure on one pedal and try to pedal very smoothly.
Putting the seat back under you.
Stand up tall on the pedals, quickly push the seat back under you and ride off before you fall over.
Anonymous
Try riding with no weight on the seat, all your weight is on the pedals. The seat is still between your legs but is just there for balance, you are not being supported by it. If you ride with your seat set reasonably high it may be beneficial to lower it for this exercise.
One of the things that makes seat in front difficult is that as the wheel rotates the amount of pressure each foot exerts needs to change to keep your balance. Riding an ultimate wheel is the same, only more so. You need to become accustomed to varying the force on each foot as the wheel turns.
Another good exercise is stomach on seat. This gives you a little practice in the feel of getting out and into seat in front without all the weight being on your legs.
To get into stomach on seat, reach down and grab the front of the seat with one of your hands and stand up on the pedals (so no weight is on the seat). Pull the seat out from under you and lean over. It may help to push the seat from behind with the other hand the same time you are pulling it forward. Getting out of it is pretty much the reverse.
Getting into seat in front is very similar, instead of leaning over though you hold the seat in front.
Now for the important bits.
When learning seat out in front hold the seat AGAINST your body. Also make sure you are holding the BACK of the seat. Note that when you pull out the seat from under you you’ll be holding the front. The easiest way to grab the back is to use the other hand to grab the back of the seat. You can then let go of the front hand and use it for balance. (some people find it easier to hold onto the seat with both hands, use whatever works).
Really pull that seat into your body and lock your arm. To begin with try and make it a part of you. Holding it against your body gives you a lot more stability and the seat won’t flail around from side to side as much. As you get used to riding like this your body will figure out for itself how to vary the pressure from each leg so that you can ride forwards without the wheel madly wobbling. At this point try moving the seat out from your body a bit. (Just a little bit). Gradually move it away as you improve. Eventually you should be able to ride holding the seat with one arm fully extended. You can then work on holding the seat with one finger and finally drop the seat completely to do a seat drag.
Peter Bier
In the case of riding with the seat out front, you want to be able to stand as tall as possible to make it easy to push the seat in and out. Having the balls of your feet on the pedals will give you more height than your heel or the center of your feet.
As a general issue, you have more control of the pedals if the balls of your feet are on the pedals. You can then do the fine adjustments with your ankles, which are easier to control, rather than using your legs, which is what happens when you put your heel on the pedal. There are obviously some issues of degree here, but the farther the pedal is away from the balls of your feet, the more flat footed you will ride and control will be stiffer and more awkward.
Beirne Konarski
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