Lately I’ve been practicing my one footed riding and I finally got at it! I can go for pretty much as long as I want, and put my foot back on the pedal. My only problem is turning. How do you turn while riding one footed? Since I take off my left foot, my right foot is using all the weight and turning me to the right. Any tips on how to prevent this? Or does it just take time?
Congratulations on riding one footed Jax. I find it to be quite an easy skill after practising it. At first it seems hard, but it gets much easier. Practise is all it takes to be able to turn, before long you should be able to do figure eights one footed. I don’t have any special advice on how to turn, it is very similar to turning two footed, some people say it is in the hips, you might find flailing your arms helps too. I just think of a direction I want to go and lean a bit and I (usually) go there. Snapping your axle also helps because you are then forced to ride with only one foot.
On a MUni I find one footing easier with my leg extended, with one hand on the seat. On crappy 24" or 20" unicycles I find one footing easier with a foot on the crown, and both arms extended or ready to flail. I find it is best to get a big spurt of speed going before taking a foot off the pedal, that way it is a smoother continuous motion so your direction is not difficult to maintain. If you go too slowly it tends to speed up and slow down in bursts.
If your arms aren’t flailing too wildly, you might like to try using them to turn. It’s really fun riding along one footed and pointing to where you want to go and automatically going there. Just keep one hand on the seat if you need to and use the other to either go across in front of your body or out to the side. Good luck.
Andrew