Size influences hop height.

[skilewis74]

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"I jump about 10 cms sideways then fall off that side "

Pull up harder on the handle so your feet stay firmly on the pedals and/or pull the uni under you as you jump over (w/ your right leg if going to the left). If you do the first and land ahead of the uni, you’ll have to do a correction hop to get the uni back under you.

Mostly it’s just practice. Ride everywhere and hop up/down everything of reasonable height along the way, esp stair sets.

@johnfoss

Same applies to leg length in racing. Some fast riders are short, others are tall. We will never divide riders by leg length, only age (and gender).

The fastest sprinter on my high school track team was also the shortest. He ran SO SMOOTH. If you could only see his head (like a fence was obscuring his body), it would just glide by as he passed - no bouncing up and down, like practically everyone else I’ve seen.

[patsandy100]

@skilewis74

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"I jump about 10 cms sideways then fall off that side "

Pull up harder on the handle so your feet stay firmly on the pedals and/or pull the uni under you as you jump over (w/ your right leg if going to the left). If you do the first and land ahead of the uni, you’ll have to do a correction hop to get the uni back under you.

Mostly it’s just practice. Ride everywhere and hop up/down everything of reasonable height along the way, esp stair sets.

The fastest sprinter on my high school track team was also the shortest. He ran SO SMOOTH. If you could only see his head (like a fence was obscuring his body), it would just glide by as he passed - no bouncing up and down, like practically everyone else I’ve seen.

Thanks for the advice it all helps. Unfortunately cant ride atm cause I snapped my crappy uni’s seat in half Seat in front snapped it LOL. Waiting for my kh20 I hope it lasts longer

[Crizzzz]

Practice practice practice!

Don’t worry about your height and strength affecting how high you can hop, those two things will come naturally over time so the only thing you can really work on at the moment is your technique. your height will obviously increase as you get older, and strength will come naturally as you practice jumping (gaining muscle) and also as you get taller.

I would say you still have it in you to jump up to at least 5 pallets, if you keep perfecting your technique (this is before strength and height limit how high you can hop)

[nickvb123]

Its interesting that you should bring up body types.

Consider Stefan Holm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVZ3ZcorTF0

His high jump record is 2.40, only 3cm shy of the indoor record. “Holm has the distinction of jumping 2 m or higher in six different techniques. With his height, being only 1.81 m, he shares the unofficial World Record of height jumped above own height (59 cm).”

Also have a look at this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IclEQA48IOE.

and this one speaks for itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSGOZb2qwtM&feature=related

Height alone will not give your legs the ability to lift yourself off the ground, especially like in that first video. Its a combination of technique and physical training, both of which take years to master. The physical side involves building up strength and speed. This could often involve loading the muscles against increasing resistance to build up foundation strength (weighted squats, deadlifts etc) and then doing plyometric exercizes (eg box jumps, depth jumps, broad jumps, hurdles) to increase the power output of the legs.

Its also important to remember that jumping isn’t just a lower body activity. A lot of the upwards drive comes from the arms and core strength is vital in ensuring effecient energy transfer between the upper and lower body. Its this whole body technique that allows people to achieve great heights (so to speak). Consider the physique of a sprinter:

needless to say there is a lot of muscle mass in all parts of the body, which clearly shows the importance of energy transfer between all four limbs and the torso.

Now to the ‘you will get better at something by just doing it’ approach. Theres alot of truth to this but its important that you might not be maximising your performance increases and you will eventually reach a plateau. Do you think that this jump was soley achieved by practising that exact movement? At an olympic level, the training involved becomes more and more specific depending on the event the athlete is trying to master.

Of course there is no such professional standard for unicyclists. There are no coaches and no training programs. I’ve never actually ridden trials, but the basic theory seems the same. Practise the jumping movements over and over again. And don’t always just practise hopping close to your best height, practise everything. Its not just about increasing the strength and speed of your muscles, its about learning how to use your muscles in the way that will give you the best output. Over time you will develop muscle memory that will enable you to execute given movements in a better manner.

I’m sure there’s a lot of room for improvement for most riders, a bit of patience and hard work goes a long way. Eventually there is a plateau that will be reached. Part of the reason behind this is that unicycling only involves a given resistance - bodyweight and unicycle weight. In order to further progress strengthwise, you need to work your muscles against more resistance and repeat jumps near your max height to increase your power output. Then you will reach another plateau, where your body is just physically incapable of getting better and your technique is perfect. And THATS where steroids come in.

So in short, height or any other physical quality is no excuse. Ryan Atkins isn’t that tall is he

[skrobo]

ok, everyone hits boundaries and gets stuck for a while, then they get better, its how you ride, mostly your form and timing… practice hopping and you get better, don’t worry so much about the form and timing though, those come with practice.