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A little progress report and some questions...



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 8th 05, 10:46 PM
tylercox
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Default A little progress report and some questions...


Well, I'm doing much better on 1 ft WW, and it's getting to the 8 or 9
times out of ten point. I have also gotten better at backwards 1
footed, and I can go about 10 feet doing SIF backwards, I can do Seat on
Side perfectly in a straight line now, and I am still up against a wall
with backwards WW. Any tips on bkwrds WW? I also need tips stand up
WW, anything will help. I can't wait to get tips tomorrow at the uni
meet. I know JSM can help me out a ton! Thanks in advance!

Tyler


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  #2  
Old April 8th 05, 10:53 PM
unicycleboy
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My advice for stand up ww would be just to practice just standing up
ther for ages watching tv you soon get the control to stay up.

Backwards WW would be just try and get your feet sorted out more than
anything. also to lean about / as well when your doing it.

Trev


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  #3  
Old April 8th 05, 11:27 PM
tylercox
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forward that much?!?! when I tried it I would totally fall it I leaned
that much. Don't you think this much - / - is an exaggeration?


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  #4  
Old April 9th 05, 01:15 AM
tylercox
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Any more ideas, peoples?


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  #5  
Old April 9th 05, 02:14 AM
drewation
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tylercox wrote:
*Any more ideas, peoples? *



switch to trials or muni?


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  #6  
Old April 9th 05, 04:08 AM
jsm
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"/" may be a slight exaggeration, but you do lean forward lots for
backward wheel walk.

When you first start learning backward wheel walk, I recommend doing it
barefoot and in a open room with a ceiling against which you can brace
yourself. The advantage of working with a ceiling is that you can get a
feel for the motion while still being able to steer normally, whereas
with a wall you will be unable to go off in the direction of the wall.
If you are uncomfortable with barefoot riding, use some flexible shoes
that are not very bulky. When you are working on backward wheel walk,
your feet get tangled up very easily and it's hard to get a good grip on
the wheel. Doing it barefoot helps solve this problem.

The posture for backward wheel walk is a lot more forward than regular
wheel walk. I try to lean my upper body forward, but lean my lower body
and the seatpost back, so that I will have more room for my feet. For
backward wheel walk, you generally hold your arms straight out to the
side. Its hard to say why this helps, but it does.

Backward wheel walk is even slower than forward wheel walk. Try to move
your feet in small circles, closely following each other, and push the
wheel mostly with your heels. Use your whole foot if you can, but you
might find that if you try to use more than the heel, your feet will get
tangled up.

If you are having trouble getting into backward wheel walk from idling,
concentrate on making the idling smooth and as straight as possible. On
the last stroke before moving your feet to the wheel, idle out faster
and farther than normal. When the wheel rolls back, it will have some
backward momentum which is very useful when getting started. You can
also get into this skill from forward wheel walk by coming to a stop,
leaning back slightly and holding still for a minute, then reversing
direction. Getting out of this skill is pretty straightforward.

Stand-up wheel walk is riding, standing on the frame with one foot, and
propelling the wheel with the other. It has an IUF skills list value of
5.0, but it's not on the skill levels. Before learning it, you should be
fairly steady with one-footed wheel walk, and prefferably also be able
to glide a little. You need a unicycle with a good sized square fork
that you can stand on comfortably, and also a good-sized seat you can
grab well with your knees/calves.

The first step in learning this skill is to figure out how to get into
it. While holding onto the seat with one hand, and some sort of support
with the other, transfer your favorite one-foot wheel walking foot so
that it is on the fork and the wheel. Put the other foot on the fork.
Position this foot carefully, as it will support most of your weight. I
find it works best to put my instep on the fork, not my heel or the ball
of my foot. Now lean back a little, and stand up carefully. When you
feel steady, move your driving foot down so that it touches only the
tire. Turn it in a good ways, so that you are somewhat pigeon-toed. You
should be able to move your foot freely. Practice moving along a wall,
or while being guided by a spotter until you have some idea how to make
the wheel move. Now try to move away from the wall. Make sure you stand
up straight; don't hold the seat, don't look at your feet. The motion
for stand-up wheel walk is a bit different from one-footed wheel walk.
You don't just use your leg to move the wheel; you should try to move
the wheel with a kicking motion using your whole body. Different riders
do this skill different ways; some push more with the foot, while others
use mostly a full body motion and changing of pressure. The first is
more stable, while the latter is faster and easier to balance sideways.
In either case, you do short stand-up glides between steps. This can be
scary, but it's necessary for learning. This is a very satisfying skill
to learn, if only because of the extra height it gives you.

As for the transitions, there are several ways to do it. You can ride,
idle or hop, then jump onto the frame, with or without holding the seat,
and possibly doing a 180 or 360 unispin on the way up, or you can plant
your feet on the fork and stand up from riding, idling, one-footed wheel
walk, or gliding. To get into it from riding, ride along slowly while
holding the seat, then when your driving foot is near the top of a
cycle, plant it on the wheel and fork and brake, leaning back a fair
amount. Now in one swift motion, transfer the other foot to the frame,
stand up, move your driving foot down, and start taking quick steps. You
need to go really fast for the first couple steps. The main thing to
remember is to lean back and do it fast. Getting into it from gliding
works basically the same way, except you take a long time to brake the
wheel before standing up.

That's what I wrote in the Unicyclopedia for those two skills. You can
start work on backward wheel walk now, although it will take a while to
learn. Stand-up wheel walk is a very difficult skill, which you might
want to wait on for a while. It's a great skill, but you should probably
be a little better at one-footed wheel walk first. I also suggest you
learn gliding first, because I think it's really a necessary skill for
stand-up WW, because when you stand- up WW, you usually glide between
steps. For advice on learning it, look at the Unicyclopedia, or search
the forum archives. There's lots of stuff on it there.
As soon as you've got stand-up WW and gliding down you can learn learn
stand-up glide! It's going to be a while yet for you, but it's one of
the coolest tricks around. I'm having lots of fun with it right now,
especially downhill, which is a lot easier, since you don't have to do
the nasty transition from gliding.

When you start working on skills like backward WW, or other advanced WW
variations, you're really moving to a whole different level. Rather than
learning tricks in a week or two, you will often have to practice them
for months before you can do them well at all. Some general tips for
learning difficult skills:
1. Watch as many videos of the skills as possible. Unicyclist.org and
the performance videos linked to in the Unicyclopedia's resource section
are good places to check.
2. Spend many hours practicing.
3. Don't practice the same trick for too long at a time. Unicycling is
supposed to be fun, not boring. Try anything that interests you.
4. Analyze what you are doing; are you going the wrong speed, or leaning
too much in one direction, or is there some other problem?
5. Don't get discouraged. Have fun!


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