d.kathrens@genie.geis.com
1995-04-03, 03:31 AM
I've been practicing wheel walking intensively for several weeks now, and today
I achieved what I feel is a major milestone.
I have been riding indoors at the local YMCA since January, in one of the
aerobic rooms. It has a wooden floor and handily enough, a 2" electrical conduit
running horizontally along one wall about 48" from the floor. It's on standoffs
so it's like a big fat handrail. I started rolling along, just learning the
footwork at first, later on trying to get a feel for the front-to-back balance.
After that it was just hundreds of repetitions of 'get on, roll a bit, fall
off'. While all this was happening I got some sense of side-to-side balance too.
I don't know about you other wheel-walkers, but I found learning the
fundamentals of this skill (I didn't say trick, Jack) to be a real mu... er,
very tough. For me, tougher than learning to ride in the first place.
Learning to ride a uni will sharpen one's sense of balance quite a bit but I
feel wheel-walking requires a sense of balance an order of magnitude higher.
Still have my sights set on learning to coast someday--I can't even imagine
what it takes to do that!
Last week I finally got all the elements coordinated enough to be able to roll 3
wheel revolutions (18 feet) after letting go of the bar on several attempts. Ah,
but today, I started by holding onto a vertical pole in the middle of the room
(one of a pair of volleyball net stands). I managed 4 revs a couple of times,
basically all the way to the wall, and then decided to try starting from a
one-footed idle with no handholds.
I managed to get all the way to the wall on three consecutive attempts, 4 revs
or about 24 feet. I've still got a lot of practicing to do of course, and I
still have to learn how to get my feet back on the pedals but I got that great
feeling of success I always get when all my effort in learning a new skill
finally pays off.
I'd brag to my coworkers but since there's no beer drinking involved, they
wouldn't be interested. So I brag to people who can appreciate it (that's you
guys). Thanks for listening.
Dennis Kathrens
I achieved what I feel is a major milestone.
I have been riding indoors at the local YMCA since January, in one of the
aerobic rooms. It has a wooden floor and handily enough, a 2" electrical conduit
running horizontally along one wall about 48" from the floor. It's on standoffs
so it's like a big fat handrail. I started rolling along, just learning the
footwork at first, later on trying to get a feel for the front-to-back balance.
After that it was just hundreds of repetitions of 'get on, roll a bit, fall
off'. While all this was happening I got some sense of side-to-side balance too.
I don't know about you other wheel-walkers, but I found learning the
fundamentals of this skill (I didn't say trick, Jack) to be a real mu... er,
very tough. For me, tougher than learning to ride in the first place.
Learning to ride a uni will sharpen one's sense of balance quite a bit but I
feel wheel-walking requires a sense of balance an order of magnitude higher.
Still have my sights set on learning to coast someday--I can't even imagine
what it takes to do that!
Last week I finally got all the elements coordinated enough to be able to roll 3
wheel revolutions (18 feet) after letting go of the bar on several attempts. Ah,
but today, I started by holding onto a vertical pole in the middle of the room
(one of a pair of volleyball net stands). I managed 4 revs a couple of times,
basically all the way to the wall, and then decided to try starting from a
one-footed idle with no handholds.
I managed to get all the way to the wall on three consecutive attempts, 4 revs
or about 24 feet. I've still got a lot of practicing to do of course, and I
still have to learn how to get my feet back on the pedals but I got that great
feeling of success I always get when all my effort in learning a new skill
finally pays off.
I'd brag to my coworkers but since there's no beer drinking involved, they
wouldn't be interested. So I brag to people who can appreciate it (that's you
guys). Thanks for listening.
Dennis Kathrens