Unicycling and soccer

As I’ve mentioned in the past, the Edwards family found unicycling when searching for a method to help Ben and Brad develop better body balance for their soccer play. As I’ve shared this story with others, we’ve been asked many times if we think their unicycle riding has helped accomplish the task. Although many different factors make it very difficult to say for sure, Mary and I believe we are beginning to see some direct correlation between the body balance learned through unicycling and seeing it revealed on the soccer field.

During a concentration of games at a large invitational tournament last weekend, we were surprised to see both boys respectively exhibit a move of two we didn’t expect to be performed at their age level, both boys seem to be catching on more easily than expected to certain drills during practice, and maybe most importantly of all, both boys seemingly have developed a better sense of confidence in themselves and gained a higher level of respect from their peers. I wonder if we took time to sit down and think how many more of life’s avenues we would find positively affected by simply learning to ride a unicycle.

Just a thought…

Bruce

Well I’ve found in the past that soccer and unicycling don’t mix very well, unless one is simply trying to take skills from one of the sports and apply it to the other. I love both sports and divide my time between doing both of them. While I haven’t really thought about it, or made any efforts to notice if it has or hasn’t had an impact, (such as while I’m playing soccer) I’m now positive that it has.
Interesting.