I have a few questions about the 10 skill levels:
[B]1. Does anyone have any tips on how to hop standing on the wheel?
What exactally is a Pirouette?
What is the difference between Gliding and Coasting?[/B]
If anyone has the answers to the questions, it would be greatly appretiated. I’m only a level 5, but I find it more fun to try levels 8,9, and 10 ticks. Thanks in advance for the help!
-Joe
gliding is with one of you feet dragging on the tire, coasting is about the same but nothing is touching the pedals/cranks/wheel so it is much harder.
The USA web site has a fairly comprehensive description of all the skills from the 10 levels.
http://www.unicycling.org/usa/levels/
This will explain pirouettes, gliding, coasting etc.
For hop on wheel the transitions are the tricky bits. Getting into it is hard and getting out of it is harder.
First practice just hopping on the wheel with out the transitions. Start by standing side on to the unicycle with one hand on each end of the seat. Place one foot on the tyre, right next to the frame. Next tilt the frame slightly in the opposite direction to the side the foot is on. This means you should now be able to put some weight on that foot without the wheel whizzing out from underneath you. If you find the wheel rotating and your foot slipping off it is natures way of reminding you that you haven’t tilted the unicycle far enough.
To get up you push off using the foot on the ground and place that foot on the wheel next to the frame. The wheel is now unable to slip as you have a foot either side of the frame preventing the wheel from moving. Note your feet need to be touching on either side. It is much harder to hop on wheel if you haven’t got both feet jammed against the frame.
Once you can get up try hopping. Eventually you should be able to hop indefinately. At that point it is time to learn the transitions.
The best thing to do is watch someone do them (ie live or on a video like One Wheel no Limit).
Failing that, post again requesting info on transitions in and out of hop on wheel.
Happy hopping,
Peter
hopping on the tyre is one trick that i do know how to do farily well.
i found that just jumping up onto the wheel from the ground was better than starting with one foot on the wheel and the other on the ground,
when you learn to hop on the tyre, remerber what you learned when you could hop on the pedals, standstills- dont just bounce up and down repeatedly, try to stay still between hops. if you get any good at this you can do drops and gaps on the wheel too, as well as just hopping.
i jusat learned it by sheer pig headed determination, it took ages but now i can do it.
hopping on the wheel is actualy far easier than wheelwalking.
once you have learned to transiotin into / out of hopping on the whel youre ready to learn 180 unispins. which are easier than gliding.
Re: Skill Levels
Dang I wish I could say that.
Daniel
steffan (shermanator02) does these by jumping with both feet onto the tire at once. after becoming confident at it he now hops up stairs on the wheel and can do a ‘suicide to wheel hop’ mount which is pretty class. i just can’t get the hang of the damn trick though,
thanx 4 the tips
james
One of my favourite methods for getting into hop on wheel from the ground is a 270 unispin jump mount. The 540 is even cooler but also more likely to result in pain when it fails.
A pirrhouette (sp?) to the best of my knowledge is, technically, spinning a 360 without moving the pedals. Needless to say, don’t do it with a knobby tire, and don’t (well you could but…) do it on the street. Anyway, just go in a really tight circle untill you can use the spinning energy to do a 360 with the tire in the same spot.
The 540 is 1.5 rotations about the seat axis. The wheel would be pointing the wrong direction. You must mean 540+/-90 so either 450 or 630 to get the wheel parallel to a line through your knees. I can see how the 540 would be VERY painful unless the myth about gravity in the southern hemisphere turned out to be true.
Has Tony worn out the stone crank hammer we gave him yet? Do we need to send him another one?
Could he not start with the cycle perhaps pointed in a position other than which you posit?
-C