Stuck on lesson 5 of the Halpern method

So I can mount and ride as far as I want if I'm holding someone's (usually
Christa's) hand, sigh. Or I can mount and ride a revolution or two before
stepping off by myself. Lessons 1-4 went pretty fast... how do I get past
this?

I know, more practice. Any other advice?

--
NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is
surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are
fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are
fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion
to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our
weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise....

[Checkernuts]

I learned against a big wall... just feeling myself back and forth eventually I found myslef using the wall less and less... and venturing out further away from the wall. I also forced myself how to free mount so I didnt need something to lean off of when getting on. I highly recomend doing that if you can. It helped me alot with riding in general. I really suggest the wall method in riding and only use it when you need it.
It sounds like your doing really well just keep at what you are doing and you'll soon be able to ride for quite a while without falling.

> I know, more practice. Any other advice?

Nope, you got it.

Concentrate on riding. Don't try to analyze too much. Approach it like a
kid. They ride until they fall off. After accumulating plenty of fall-offs,
patterns will emerge in the fallings. Work to prevent those patterns.

Have fun.

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com



Howard Stern: "How many wheels does a unicycle have?"
The beautiful but vacant, recently-crowned Miss Howard Stern:
"............Four?"

[UniDak]

I dont know if you juggle at all, but I have found that once you stop focusing on the mechanics of the pattern, you begin to just feel it. Where am I going with this, you ask? Well, Unicycling is the same.
Here is a good method to stop thinking, and to start riding:
Pick a point in front of you, and try to ride to it. Dont just try to ride as far as you can. By focusing on the spot, you are not thinking about your balance, your arms, or your legs, you are just riding.
Once you are able to stop thinking, you will begin to ride.
-David Kaplan

[U-Turn]

Originally posted by Scott Kurland
if I'm holding someone's (usually
Christa's) hand, sigh. ... how do I get past
this?

Hmm. Sounds pretty good to me... why is it that you want to get past this stage?

> > *if I'm holding someone's (usually
> > Christa's) hand, sigh. ... how do I get past
> > this?
> *Hmm. Sounds pretty good to me... why is it that you want to get past
> this stage?

Well, I can hold Christa any time I want. :-)

But she's getting tired of having her arm ripped off when I lose my balance
and/or her hand crushed when I get scared and/or getting shot in the legs
with a Coker....

This is slightly out of date, by the way. Yesterday evening at 6:20 I rode
almost a hundred feet all by myself, yee ha! And I don't need a hand
anymore, I just need to rest a hand on her shoulder for mounting.


Mounting the Coker, you perv. Never mind.

[Animation]

Scott,

Cheers! on learning to unicycle. Twice the cheers for your first unicycle being a Coker. You are definitely all man.

Lewis

> Pick a point in front of you, and try to ride to it. Dont just try to
> ride as far as you can. By focusing on the spot, you are not thinking
> about your balance, your arms, or your legs, you are just riding.
> Once you are able to stop thinking, you will begin to ride.

That's a good idea too. Just don't use a target that will hurt you if you
dismount right before it. A wall (or car), for example. If the unicycle
shoots out in front of you just before you touch the wall, it's really going
to hurt. Lines on the ground are always safe...

JF

[UniDak]

wait, you are learning on a coker? Thats amazing. Its like driving a truck before you learn on a car.
-David Kaplan

In a message dated 6/6/02 8:46:17 PM, UniDak.5upvy@timelimit.unicyclist.com
writes:

<<
I dont know if you juggle at all, but I have found that once you stop
focusing on the mechanics of the pattern, you begin to just feel it.
Where am I going with this, you ask? Well, Unicycling is the same.
Here is a good method to stop thinking, and to start riding:
Pick a point in front of you, and try to ride to it. Dont just try to
ride as far as you can. By focusing on the spot, you are not thinking
about your balance, your arms, or your legs, you are just riding.
Once you are able to stop thinking, you will begin to ride.
-David Kaplan >>

I kinda dissagree with this. i belive that this is part of the prossess that
most people do to little of, and it should be taken into consideration.
However i think that, if you go for this without having spent enough time
focusing on the mechanics and getting them drilled into the part of your
brain that takes over when you arnt thinking about it, you just wont have the
ground to work off of. when i am learning new tricks i try to even the two
out as best i can in my mind. I'm learning weel walking for example (way
before i should be) If i go out for an hr, I try to spend 20 min praticly
meditating, focusing on what exactly it is that i am doing, and when i fall
why exactly it is that i fall adn waht i need to correct that, and once i hit
a dead end with that, i switch gears and do exactly what david said, and pick
a point and try to ride to it. And i agree compleatly that trying to ride
till as far as you can till you fall is a very bad idea. You dont try as
hard to keep from falling, and it tends to make you just fly at it with as
much speed as possible and hope you make it pretty far, and usualy you dont.
also it adds an element of frustration because you keep falling. you do a
lot better phycologicaly if you are steping off the unicycle in a purposful
kinda way everytime then if you fall on your ass everytime.