Has anybody tried setting up a unicycle hockey team at their
university? I really like the idea but not much idea whether it would
work. I know there’s a handful of other unicyclists about, and I’m
going to take up a couple of spare unicycles to lend to other people
interested in learning. But seems to me that would need to get a
reasonable number of people involved quite quickly for it to go
anywhere, because of things like hall hire, and that’s a problem
because people aren’t going to buy a unicycle unless they can already
ride. Anybody got any relevant experience/advice?
Beth Tichborne wrote:
> Has anybody tried setting up a unicycle hockey team at their
> university?
Which university are you at? Does it have a juggling club whose members
might be interested? Is there a juggling club in town whose members
might be interested, or better still a unicycling club in town? Have
you spoken to the Student’s Union about setting up a club and booking
university facilities?
If you can set up a club and get it affiliated to the Student’s Union
then you should be able to book a university hall of some description.
You may also be able to get some funding for equipment.
I was Chairman of the juggling club when I was at university. Part of
the job (probably the most important part, actually, and it probably
should have been the secretary’s job) was to make sure our twice weekly
slot in the dance studio was booked. It wouldn’t have been big enough
to play unicycle hockey, but it was where I learned to ride backwards
(the dance bar was perfect for that).
–
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” - Thomas Paine
My college is much to small. I have met three unicyclists since I got here and one was a professor. There is a juggling club but it only has about 5-6 members and I stopped going cause it ends up conflicting with other stuff.
There is a juggling club, haven’t spoken to anyone there about it yet,
there aren’t very many unicyclists. I hadn’t thought of the town club
though, thanks, that’s a good idea. I’m just looking at all the stuff
about officially setting up, it’d be nice if they bought us sticks. All
quite complicated though…if it fits in with my timetable I might just
travel down to the London club, if they’re still going (anyone know?)
here’s a thread about our ongoing adventures in uni-hoki in South Africa
this is organised thru the existing Juggling Club in Johannesburg
our numbers are so small that distinctions between jugglers and unicyclists are really unproductive, we have however selected some funky names for the different bodies, all comprising more or less the same people. there’s the ‘Balls Up!’ Juggling club, there’s the Gauteng Unicyclist Society (G.U.S. for short) and the Gauteng and National Juggling Association (G.A.N.J.A. for short)
there’s also the ‘Ministry of Jesters’ at WITS university, hence the need for the national body
this is also the body that organises our Annual Convention
we’re quite fortunate in the sense that the In-Line Hockey Club who’s rink we use are just so happy to have a sport around that’s forever going to be smaller than theirs, that they’re happy to let the rink to us at R25 per person playing
spectators free
(R25 is equivalent to an average Macmeal-and-a-bit)
here are some pics showing the idealness of the venue
i’m not really answering any of your questions here, am i?
try n find a venue that will let u pay based on the amount of people who actually pitch
i realise this is unlikely
remember u have the novelty value of Uni-hoki on your side
don’t be scared to use the ‘potential exposure for the venue’ card if it’ll help u secure this benefit
if it’s still a bit dodgy, try n find a tennis court u can use
up to about 3-a-side, tennis courts are great
u can make a plan for goal posts
use the time-honoured ‘between these two jerseys’ if u have to
it worked when we were in school…
basically do whatever u have to do to get a bunch of people out and playing
once they’ve played, they’re about 85% sure of being hooked
that’ll make it a bit easier to organise a ‘proper’ venue
if u can make it to London and have a game with the Luni’s, do so
they struck me as a fun bunch of people who play a mean game of uni-hoki
i don’t know how far u’ll have to travel, but if u can take some doubters along before getting a game going in your area, do so
it’ll help to convince them
In Derby, we (well Roland) solved the hall hire problem by hiring a floodlit outdoor 5 a side pitch. It’s smooth and hard surfaced, well lit and nice and big. Costs £13 to hire, so if we get more than 6 players we break even at £2 a person. Most weeks it’s more than 10 people which covers us if only a few people turn up one week. It’s sometimes nasty weather, but once you get going that doesn’t really matter. It has goals so we don’t need to sort anything for that. If you can’t find something like that, just finding somewhere flat and jumpers for goalposts is the way to go. You don’t need a hall or anything to play hockey, you just need a ball and some sticks.
London is still going, but it’s best to check with them before you go, in case they’re not playing that week due to exams in the hall or something. People play in Horsham too if you happened to be out that direction from London.
i was going to type jumpers and then i thought the UK people might get angry at me for taking the piss 'cause surely they don’t actually talk like that…
fat lot i know
:o
ps. if u haul along a cooler bag with some cold-drinks and sell them at cost+lil’bit, u might just make enough money to help u cover the venue hire on nights when u’re a bit short of players.
if u mark them up enough, u might be able to offer the uni-hoki free, with a two drink minimum
I’m a Freshman at Purdue University. We have about 40,000 students. I was surprised to find that our Juggling/Unicycling club has only one other person who rides even weekly. Several others do know how to ride a little though. It would be interesting to find out how many unicycles we have in the club to see if we might be able to have enough to get a good game together. I have one unicycle that I have been lending out to people so that they can learn to ride. The last 2 people i have lent it to ended up learning and getting their own. I think I’m successfully bulilding the unicycling community here at Purdue and I hope to be able to do things like organize some games. It is just taking time.
> Has anybody tried setting up a unicycle hockey team at their
> university? I really like the idea but not much idea whether it would
> work. I know there’s a handful of other unicyclists about, and I’m
> going to take up a couple of spare unicycles to lend to other people
> interested in learning. But seems to me that would need to get a
> reasonable number of people involved quite quickly for it to go
> anywhere, because of things like hall hire, and that’s a problem
> because people aren’t going to buy a unicycle unless they can already
> ride. Anybody got any relevant experience/advice?
I’m at the University of Nottingham. We have a juggling club in the
university, but as these things usually are it is any “anything juggling
related” club which most definitely includes unicycling. As you point
out, it can be difficult to get enough people together to play hockey -
this is the first year we will be doing it. Significantly I feel, most
of the people that will be playing would not consider themselves
unicyclists first, but diablo/staff/juggler. They don’t have a burning
desire to learn lots of nice tricks and buy expensive unicycle but they
are interested in playing hockey. My point is that you shouldn’t
discount the juggling clubs!
Depending on where you are (if you tell us I’m sure someone will pipe in
with a suggestion of where to look), you might find that there are
enough clubs near by to get a decent game going. I play hockey regularly
(I’ll be playing tonight even, wahey!) but it’s only really possible
because of the people from the university club, the Nottingham Juggling
club and the Derby Juggling club.
As for setting up your own club… There are pros and cons. If you join
the juggling club you get instant access to more potentially interested
people, it is easier to earn money as part of a juggling club (as
opposed to unicycle club), it saves you the hassle of setting up the
club and there is no conflict of interest/time for people wanting to do
both juggling and unicycling.
On the flip side, if you create a unicycle club there is more space for
you all, any grant money you get can be spent on unicycle equipment
only. You control the direction of the club. It will be harder to get
sufficient members and it is possible that the students union will not
affiliate the club if they think it is too similar in its role to an
existing club, ie. the juggling club.
Oh and don’t forget to go to the unimeets! When is the next one?
Just my thoughts,
Cheers,
Roger
Nottingham One Day Juggling Convention
5th March 2005 - 10am-Late
I started one at my uni when I started riding. It was just a few chaps from the juggling club. We played wherever we could, usually car parks. We rarely got more than 5 people truning out so we never got a proper game but it was still fun.
> In Derby, we (well Roland) solved the hall hire problem by hiring a
> floodlit outdoor 5 a side pitch. It’s smooth and hard surfaced, well lit
> and nice and big.
…
> It’s sometimes nasty weather, but once you get going that doesn’t
> really matter.
This is very true. I think it adds a dimension to the game as well. We
had frost last week which meant lots more spills than usual but it was
cracking good fun.
I’m still hoping for snow.
Cheers,
Roger
Nottingham One Day Juggling Convention
5th March 2005 - 10am-Late
When I was at university I was the only student to regularly play judo
in town, the only student to do aikido in town, the only student to go
to the juggling club in town and the only student to go to the unicycle
club in town. It’s a shame, I think students can benefit a great deal
from fraternising with the locals, and of course it’s good for town and
gown relations.
–
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” - Thomas Paine
I’ll definitely get to the town juggling club and lend some unicycles
to some people (already got one person sounding reasonably
enthusiastic). And I’ll try to get to LUNIs at some point in the next
month, is there anyone I can email to check which weeks are on?
And one day I’ll come to a uni-meet… Price of trains makes it a
pretty expensive outing though.
