Thank You very much Chris, the uniquest series is how I learned how to Unicycle, and unicycling has fastly become my new favorite sport!
Thanks for this series Chris! I found your series early on and it has been how I’ve been learning over the last 4 months. I feel like your progressions were spot on for me. Sometimes, I didn’t realize how long it would take to get through them but continuing until I got it and having a few things to focus on always allowed me to make consistent progress where I would see it on one skill or another almost every day (definitely every week). I finally “graduated” from beginner skills about a month ago. Thanks again!
Wow, I didn’t know this thread exists. And yes, as a beginner, I have a lot to say here…
I started learning unicycling half a year ago. I’m a programmer who sits in front a computer 12 hours a day. Before learning I barely do sports, have some spine issues due to long-time sitting, and tremor in my arms due to lack of muscle - just give you a glance of the profile of a beginner at the lower end of the spectrum. It has proven very difficult for me to learn unicycling, but after 6 months now I commute daily on a 26er, I can ride 40 miles nonstop on a 36er, and I can do some basic hopping and twisting on a 20er. My main learning resource was your videos, so I can’t overemphasize how important they are in the process of getting me this far. These videos are hands down the best quality unicycle tutorials existed. Thank you Chris, for making this amazing series.
That being said, I do think the videos can be improved in some ways. The biggest one is, as others already figured out, because you are such a talented and skilled unicyclist, the beginner skills are already an instinct to you and you may not be able to sufficiently empathize with a beginner, to understand their challenges and frustrations.
I kind of think it’s obvious but I’ll still put a disclaimer here, the reviews below are all subjective, IMHO, YMMV etc.
Let’s start with Beginner Level 1.1, assisted mount. As a beginner I found it impractical to use a wall as assistance, but a long handrail is much more helpful. On my first day I have to firmly grab the handrail with both of my hands, letting go one hand and I panic and UPD (well really, there was no planned dismount for a beginner anyways). It was a great upper limb workout that day. Mounting with the pedals at 3 and 9 clock, even if assisted, was proven impossible for me that day, too. It was not until a month later that I realized I have to put some weight on the saddle in order to balance the force of my non-dominating foot pressing the pedal, so the unicycle could stay stationary.
Beginner Level 1.2, assisted ride: again a wall did not work for me, I needed the handrails. The tip of trying to keep weight on the seat is also impossible for a beginner. I was only able to start to get that kind of feeling two months later, after some longer rides (1 miles +) on a 26er. For a beginner like me at that stage, my legs were highly stressed because of lack of muscle, control and confidence; my hips could not help until the legs can be relaxed, which again is only possible much later.
Beginner Level 1.3, assisted idle - this could be my problem, again I was not in a good sporty shape at that time, but practising assisted idle gave me quadriceps tendinitis on my dominating leg, so I gave up on this one. I do feel unicycling puts a lot of pressure on the quadriceps tendon, especially when idling. If this is a common thing, I think it would be great if the videos gives some cautions.
Beginner level 2.1 unassisted ride - I spent around 15 hours to get to this point, much longer than I’d like to admit. Nothing to complain here, it just takes a lot of practise. One thing I’d suggest is, if you can, give an estimated time required to learn each skill, so the learner understands the difficulty, they can focus on those dreary practises, and not to lose patience in those days when little to no improvement is made.
Level 2.4 free mount: I think to many beginners this is the next biggest challenge after being able to ride. I watched all the tutorials on youtube about free mounting, and spent quite some time to get this right. In a hindsight, the key is to put your weight on the saddle, in order to counterbalance the force of your foot pressing the pedal; but for a beginner it’s hard to turn this theory into a practise. Other tutorials have suggested that you can start with the assist of a curb, or imagine the process as a single-foot hop (with the non-dominating foot almost dangling above the pedal), are all helpful. I think this part could be extended, to match the difficulty of this skill.
Level 3.2 ride down curb: I’m not sure about this but I feel it’s better to ride down a curb standing up. Maybe General Level 1.3 (ride standing up) could be moved here, because I feel it’s not very difficult, and again a beginner is already riding semi-standing up.
I think these are all I have for now, I’ll post more as my learning progresses. Once again thanks for these great videos, it’s a real treasure to have these tutorials systematically organized. It works great by outlining what to learn and what to learn next, as well as the key points of each skill. After all a tutorial is like a map which only show you the way, it’s practising that makes them realized. If there is a moral to this story, I guess it’s the more you practise, the less questions you’ll have.