I am not a great uni rider; maybe a level 2 on a good day. But… I must be a decent uni rider teacher. I have taught maybe 10 people to ride.
Over the holiday my 10 year old nephew amazed me by freemounting on day two (about 6 hours of practice). He went through the same stages, but only about a zillion times faster than I have seen. He was riding 10 or so pedal revolutions after 2 hours.
Which brings me to a question that I am sure has been asked before:
I’ve seen a few people learn in less than 2 hours, an old school friend did it in about half an hour and a few people at Ox uni hockey have learnt in 2 slightly-less-than-an-hour sessions. It’s pretty rare though.
My friend Eric could freemount and ride about 2 revs after about 20 minutes but he was stuck on that for some time.
I learnt to ride the length of a sports hall in exactly two hours. I was 11 though, which I think is the relevant factor.
I’ve seen quite a few children learn pretty fast at our juggling club, I don’t know if it’s quicker learning skills or just that they go for it more without worrying about people watching or hurting themselves. But just as they start to get interested in different mounts or wheel-walking someone bloody teaches them to juggle and they’re lost to all hope of acheiving anything worthwhile.
What we need is children with no arms. Or at least no hands.
… you forgot that someone might introduce them to contact juggling, head rolls. Then there is all the balancing stuff 
I remember seeing a one armed juggler at BUC in Exeter in 1990 doing 4 Balls and 3 clubs, not at the same time though …
a couple of the kids on the block got unicycles for christmas, one of them was able to ride the thing half decently in a matter of a few hours. I was impressed. They keep coming to my door to ask if I can come out and ride with them. Before they got their unis, anytime they saw me out riding they’d be out there in a matter of minutes to watch.
isn’t it a great feeling when the ones you are teaching finally “get it”.
tell us your teaching method? are most of the ones you have taught children or adults?
-eric
I could ride in about 3 hours… it was at a unicycle club, each meet was l2 hours. i couldnt ride very well. i have my arms going crazy. an i taught 1 person to ride… but i dont know why this sport isnt more popular cuz everyone that learns LOVES it…
I gave my 21 y.o. stepson a 20" Torker about a year ago. After about 2 hours of practice he could ride all the way down our block. Rotten kids 
It took me at least 80 hours:(
It is a really great feeling!
I taught 2 adults; the rest where kids. Kids are easy because they are not smart enough to be afraid of getting hurt.
Here’s is what I do:
It seems to work well. For me, the biggest problem I had with learning was ‘learning to pedal’ on the uni. I know it sounds crazy, but I thought if I had somebody (something) to hold me up I could learn. But, since I was a lone wolf I didn’t have the option.
Personally, I think amost any method would work with any person that really wanted to learn.
To me, teaching somebody to ride is more fun than learning myself.
i learned in 30-45 min top! i have witnesses also. i could ride forward and almost mount on my own, but not quite
