Side hop preference

[Rowan]

I am curious as to what other people prefer. My strongest position is to sidehop to the left, with my right hand on the seat handle and my (dominant) right foot to the rear, with the pedals horizontal. It would be ideal to be able to do both ways equally, but I think most people could have a preference. Ben is the opposite to me, and sidehops to the right, with his left hand on the handle, and his (dominant) left foot to the rear. He can do either side but that is his favourite way I think. If I have left out any options I apologise, just try to choose the option which suits you best.

[jagur]

[FONT=century gothic]Hop left, right hand on seat, right foot rear [/FONT]

[U-Turn]

I'm a right left right person but trying to become ambi foot-wise, which is 4 combos. I think it's very important and I know my off-road riding is compromized because I'm not ambi.

[Klaas Bil]

Until now I am the only person who doesn't hop to the side where the non-seat-holding arm stretches out. And I just last weekend discovered that that is 'bad' technique. But I'm not much of a hopper anyway; working on it.

Klaas Bil

[Drewnicycle]

I'm a left foot back, right hand on seat, hop to the left kind of guy.
Klaas, why is hopping to the non-seat-holding arm side bad technique?

[UniBrier]

My dominant method when I started learning curbs, stairs, etc was Hop right, right hand on seat, right foot rear. This seemed to be more comfortable.

But now that I am learning crank grabs I have to hop left so that is developing too.

[James_Potter]

Left hand on seat, left foot back, and I don't do it enough to know which direction to jump. I really need to work on my sidehops.

[Erin]

I hop equally either way.... that said, I don't hop well either way... but from the start I have always practiced hops both sides - hummm, must be all that carrying on about working both sides that those jugglers keep nagging me about.

But I have always have my left hand on the seat and my right foot back... I know, I should work on either combo but that's going a little too far, don't you think?!

Erin

[Rowan]

It is possible to choose more than one poll option, I discovered this while making the poll. Most people will only have one main preference anyway, I just thought I would mention it just in case some people have more than one strong position (sorry to those who have voted already and would have chosen two).

I thought this would be an interesting subject because I found myself whimping out when approaching objects to hop unless I was in my favoured position, and I started watching riders in UNiVERsE and Into the Thunder Dragon to see what techniques they tended to use. As I suspected many people hop in the opposite direction to their rear foot, and also opposite to their handle hand. I don't think it's bad technique to hop in the other direction, it can just be harder for some. It would be useful to be totally ambidextrous.

I find that sidehopping to the right with my right hand on the handle makes me twist around a bit, because I am pulling the Unicycle across rather than pushing it. I also feel that having my right foot on the rear pedal gives me more power to push off, but I have not tested the other way out properly yet. I have only started sidehopping relatively recently, because up until now I had no need to jump anything other than gutters which I did rolling hops up. Now I have a Gazzaloddi there is so much bounce that I can't resist trying side hops up and over stuff, especially since I read a (now old) Sidehopping thread in which I declared I could only sidehop 30cm. I can do much further than that now.

[U-Turn]

Originally posted by Erin
I know, I should work on either combo but that's going a little too far, don't you think?!

I don't. The more tools you have instantaneously available the more complex terrain you can ride. Every time I ride off-road I see times where I lost it only because I'm not fluent hopping weak-foot forward.

On Thu, 3 Jul 2003 09:20:33 -0500, Drewnicycle
<Drewnicycle.pzvoa@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

>Klaas, why is hopping to the non-seat-holding arm side bad technique?

Well don't take my word for it. But I was told and shown that if you
dynamically stretch your arm up just prior to the hop, and then
quickly move it down while you hop, there is a momentum transfer that
helps you go up and into the direction of the arm.

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
You can't go wrong when you follow King Muni-Man! - Jason from Alaska

[Phil_Donaldson]

Originally posted by Klaas Bil
Well don't take my word for it. But I was told and shown that if you dynamically stretch your arm up just prior to the hop, and then quickly move it down while you hop, there is a momentum transfer that helps you go up and into the direction of the arm.

Well I can take your word for it! I used to be an active trampolinist (now I am just a somewhat older non-active trampolinist). Whilst I cannot say much about hopping on a uni, I can say that that is the method used to get your body moving in the right direction: up in the air.

Throwing your arms (free arm) into the air, just as you are at the base of the jump (hop) helps to move your whole body upwards. Pulling it back down again, whilst in the air, is only useful, when you push your hips in the direction from where your arm is coming from (this would theoretically achieve a sidewards movement on a uni, or for example, achieve a ball out* from a back drop)

However, I wouldn't say that hopping in the opposite direction of your balance arm is incorrect, more an excellent sense of balance.

Phil.

*Ball out: Once you have done a back drop onto the bed, you bring your arms and legs towards your body, as you come up from the bounce, push your legs upwards over your head and throw your arms at your sides behind you and you do a backwards sommersault from a back drop. Looks impressive, once you can do it. Otherwise you land on the back of your head and have a stiff neck for a week. Not that that ever happened to me. Of course not. Never. No. Honest.

[andrew_carter]

I've always been curious whether other unicyclist are doing 'backhand' or 'forehand' hops. By backhand I mean hopping to the side which has the foot forward. Personally I'm a forehand hopper.

Andrew

[Drewnicycle]

Originally posted by Klaas Bil


Well don't take my word for it. But I was told and shown that if you
dynamically stretch your arm up just prior to the hop, and then
quickly move it down while you hop, there is a momentum transfer that
helps you go up and into the direction of the arm.

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
You can't go wrong when you follow King Muni-Man! - Jason from Alaska
[/B]

Interesting. Thanks for the information.

[joona]

I'm definitely going to practice also hopping weak-foot-back jumping. I've already experienced trouble because I can't do it at all.