UniNats long-jump rules and results...

General
1

I’m desperately trying to attend UniNats 2003 in Australia. The only thing stopping me doing so is exams at school so I’ll have to see what part of the term the 4th to 6th of October is. I’m interested in a few competitions but I have a question about the long-jump. Can anyone please tell me whether or not you’re allowed to hop sideways for this event? I find it heaps easier to hop sideways than forwards which I’m sure is pretty common. There’s one more thing, does anyone know what the usual winning distance is (roughly of course) for my category (17 years old at the time of the competition)? They seem to encourage anyone to just have a go in these events which I think is great beacuse it’ll mean it’ll be less embarrassing for those of use who may not do too well. Even so, I’m going to do heaps of training in the events that I choose to compete in. Training on a unicycle is easy because it’s so fun!

Does anyone know of any links to results of any of the competitions (but preferably Australian ones)?

Thanks,
Andrew

2

At the UniNats 2001 all of the top long jumps were done with the side hop technique. I did about 1.3m and placed 3rd or 4th =. The competition was run in an ‘elimination’ sytle. There were 2 parallel broomsticks on the ground at the set distance. You had to clear both markers and ride away to complete the distance. When all riders had attempted twice, those remaining got to jump again. Distances were increased in 5 or 10cm increments.

As for results of the UniNats, they were emailed out to the participants after the event, but I don’t think they’re posted anywhere online. Try emailing Chris Vevers to get a copy –unicyc@afmagic.com .

The most common technique for long jump at UNICON XI was the rolling hop. Zach set a world record 2.25m with this technique.

Tony

3

Side hopping is a perfectly acceptable method. Most long jump competitions require you to approach the jump in control and ride out in control. Being in control is usually defined as 3 revolutions or staying on for 5 seconds. This means you can happily ride up close to the line, hop to prepare yourself and then jump sideways.

The Oz records are probably comparible with the old USA records (which haven’t been updated for a while)

http://www.unicycling.org/usa/competition/records/

Note that the ceiling for a side hop is around 1.5 to 1.6m This should be enough to place at the Uninats unless people have improved radically. Try learning the forward hop technique as you will eventually be able to go further.

4

Jacinto Ayuso Castillo, from Puerto Rico, broke Zach’s long jump record with a forward jump of 2.45m. He is the current Expert Long Jump Champion. Here is a photo of Jacinto doing his jump.

Carlos Medina

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5

Re: UniNats long-jump rules and results…

I thought someone had beat Zach’s jump, thanx for clarifying. Jacinto is rad.

Dylan

6

Jacinto got some mad ups!!!

7

Thanks a lot for all of that. You’ve answered all of my questions very helpfully. That’s also great news because I can sidehop about 1.2m at the moment and I’ll have my new unicycle by UniNats with a much bigger tyre and rim. I’m also planning to do heaps of trainging before then which isn’t at all hard because training on a unicycle is fun!

Could you please explain to me what you mean by the ceiling? I’m assuming that you don’t mean the roof.

Thanks for that picture too.

Thanks a lot,
Andrew

8

ceiling. I would say that is the highest you can go, using the sidehop

9

Is that a limit that they have set or are you saying that nobody can go any higher. Did you really mean the highest or the longest? I’m still a bit confused.

Thanks,
Andrew

10

here’s what i’m thihnking:

you take a jump. your length is 2 metres.
the highest you were during flight, would be the ceiling.
(probably measured tfom the bottom of the wheel to the ground)

11

I think he meant “the ceiling” as in the furthest distance do-able with that technique is 1.5 - 1.6 m. I know this is false because at unicon, i did 1.9m with that technique, but rolling hops are definately the way to go.

-Ryan

12

Ryan,

What place did you get at Unicon with that massive 1.9m hop? Nice work! At the moment these are the distances I can hop in each style…

Side Hop: 1.20m
Forward Hop: 0.90m
Rolling Hop: 1.00m

I’ll try to improve my rolling hop and see if that’ll work best for me for long jump. Have you got any general tips for rolling and side hops?

Thanks,
Andrew

13

I d’ont know what i placed, not in the top five. I was relatively new to unicycling then, I was probably 7th or 8th or around there.
Again, rolling hops are the best. I can now almost jump the width of a parking space with this technique. As big as 1.9m sounds, it was pretty puny compared to 2.45!!

good luck at the competition.

-Ryan

14

at unicon I did 2.11 meters on a roller, key is to get going as fast as you can, line it up and crank it out.

15

I did indeed mean that 1.6m was the maximum achievable distance using the side hop technique and you couldn’t really push that technique further to get more distance. Obviously I was wrong! A 1.9m sidehop is rather an impressive achievement. Has anyone broken two metres yet using the side hop method?

I was basing my judgement on all the jumps I observed at Uncion and the last uni nats. Obviously I missed out on seeing a couple of people break the 1.6m barrier.

I still believe you will be able to get more distance using the forward hopping technique as it allows you to use all your momentum built up in the run up.

As to the best high jump technique that remains a question in my mind.
It astounded me to see Dan Heaton break the 80cm mark in high jump using a forward hop technique. Up until that point I though side hop was the way to go, now I’m not so sure.

16

Re: UniNats long-jump rules and results…

>As to the best high jump technique that remains a question in my mind.
>It astounded me to see Dan Heaton break the 80cm mark in high jump using
>a forward hop technique. Up until that point I though side hop was the
>way to go, now I’m not so sure.
>

Dan tells me he finds sidehops way harder than forward hops. I find it to be
the opposite, as I assume many others do.

Dylan

17

I think that for high jump, seat-out-front is the way to go. Now, i can break 80cm and haven’t tried any higher (i cleared 80 with some room) I think it will be interesting to see which method prevails to give the highest height. Only time will tell…

-Ryan

18

For me on the high jump I can get up to stuff a few inches higher than I can jump over. because I roll onto stuff, and use the momentum to pull me up onto it.

19

Tony,

I’ve emailed Chris and he said that he’ll be able to send me a copy of the results some time after Christmas.

Thanks,
Andrew

20

For the high jump, I think the winning technique in the near future will evolve into a side hop with a tiny unicycle. It will have lots of tire, pumped up high enough to give you a good bounce, and a small wheel to keep the weight down. If such a small wheel is used, it will have to be a side hop.

For a not-so-small wheel, I can picture forward-hopping with the seat in front. It should be possible to build up some speed with seat in front, and hopefully this will make it easier to clear the bar when you reach the necessary height.

I think the reason Dan Heaton prefers the forward hop is because he has polished it and been doing it for a long time. But if he focuses on side hopping, I suspect he can get higher that way.

The competition event name is High Jump. This is because you can say high jump and everyone who ever watched a track and field competition knows exactly what you’re talking about. If they’re not sure, you can tell them it works the same way as an Olympic high jump. That’s why we call it the high jump.

For a jumping competition where you don’t have to clear a bar, a different name can be figured out, but it won’t correspond to any track & field event I’m aware of.

We call the Long Jump the Long Jump for the same reason. Side-hopping in the long jump is not going to be the way to beat the forward speed hoppers. There’s a limit to how far you can do a side hop, and even a slightly smaller limit to what your wheel and tire will hold up to. I think the best results in this event will be high speed forward hops.

The best unicycle for this event needs to combine three relatively incompatible features. You want speed, which means a large wheel and/or short cranks. You want a good jump, which means some bounce in the tire, which suggests a high air volume tire. And you want the cycle to be as light as possible, to keep it in the air. That’s a tough combination.

If it can be found, possibly a 24" wheel with a fat tire will work well in this event. Then you’ll need a great technique and timing, to match your higher speed with a perfectly timed jump and series of movements to land you, riding, on the other side.