so I don’t know if this has already been said or not, the search came up empty but I thought it was worth saying. I’ve been working on wheelwalking on and off for awhile and nothing i tried really worked. So yesterday during one of my usual trips around town i came to a fred meyer parking lot. thats when it hit me. hold on to a shopping cart while practicing. you’re still moving, it teaches you feet movements and speed control, and the better you get the less pressure you put on the cart. it worked for me, in an hour I could already go roughly 20 feet unassisted compared to the 5 or so feet I started with
That seems like a good idea, I’ve been trying to learn how to wheel walk for the past few days. I think tomorrow I’ll go to one of the stores by my house, grab a shopping cart and try it.
I think that I would make you lean too far forward, and leaning back is (IMHO) the most important part of WWing.
agreed.
leaning back is more important than you might think.
A wall, fence, or rail can offer similar support, just like when you are learning to ride. You reduce the amount of falls while increasing the practising of the correct motion, even if you don’t get the full feeling of balance.
I learned wheel walking on a 24x3" tire. At first I wore a helmet because I felt unstable and sometimes slipped. I felt my biggest breakthrough came when I started practising on grass. It just seemed more forgiving somehow, maybe it was cos I feared falling, but perhaps it suited the tire. I remember thinking about John Childs’ “Heel, toe, heel, toe” mantra after reading this thread, and found it to be useful too.
I don’t know what you were searching for but there are heaps of threads…
Wheel Walking question
Wheel Walking
How to learn Wheel Walking
What am I doing wrong? ww
I see what you were searching for maybe- I found this old thread while searching for shopping trolly, though learning to ride was being discussed instead of learning ww. Wheel walking is probably a more suitable trolly activity. A hand or two is another moving substitute for a crutch, but not as stable for heavier/older people.
In the end you just have to break free and go for it! You figure out what went wrong when you fell off, and try and do it better next time.
Congratulations on going so far unassisted! Practise some more so you can work on getting your feet back onto the pedals- that might be something you could work on with the trolley. I like to do the transition by putting my favourite mounting foot on the back pedal and doing one last push with my wheel foot.
It’s funny that you mention shopping carts, because I’ve pushed a few around in Wal-Mart’s parking lot on my unicycle. I don’t know if shopping carts would help me in practicing anything new or not, but I might just give it a try. 