Tricks to learn after basic

[noclowns]

Well as you see i just subscribed to the forum. I can ride the unicycle well forward (and to the left/right :P), and have tried to learn idling and riding backwards. Now I have some questions.

I have seen these amazing unitrial videos. What I wonder is: firstly, do u often get hurt? i mean like broken arms or legs or a tooth falling out? Well, the falls look terrible ...
secondly, what tricks should I start with? That is if the whole thing isnt too dangerous.

I don't have a trial unicycle (i have a normal 24 "), but i know there are tricks that aren't ( or don't look ) that dangerous, I saw the video of the Japanese woman doing some amazing stuff in some sort of a competition. That doesnt look as dangerous as jumping up on 1 meter high stairs or rocks. Or even worse - grind them down .

Well, I hope I get some advice from you (the forum users seem very nice)

ps. and wow. now I have 20 mbs of free webspace

[gpickett00]

I would say, learn all the stuff up to level 3 or 4, if you do trials or freestyle. If you like stuff like jumping off picnic tables and grinding go with trials. If you like more artsy stuff like figure skating style go with freestyle. I perfer jumping off stuff and hopping on stairs.

[tennisgh22]

the trials unicycling is not as dangerous as it looks. in fact, extreme unicycling (trails/muni) is very safe as far as extreme sports go. you almost always land on your feet. The bad falls in the videos are rare, and *usually* not as bad as they look. they only included those crashing clips cuz they impress the viewers. they're not everyday things. i have yet to know of anyone that broke an arm or leg or lost a tooth unicycling. im sure there are some , but its not a reason to never try trials or muni.

if you can backwards and idle, i'd suggest to go the route of trials or muni instead of freestyle. many will disagree, but i find freestyle not as instense/fun/satisfying as muni or trials. its really your personal preference, but try all of them.

first learn to hop in place, then once you feel comfortable with that learn to hop up a curb, then hope up a set of 3 or 4 steps, then just use your imagination. the sky is the limit. beware, its pretty easy to get hooked.

however, if you choose the freestyle route, i would suggest learning a kickup mount or wheel walking or one foot riding if you already idle and go backwards.

-grant

[special_liz]

I personally like learning new mounts as;
they are some fairly easy ones which look wicked
they hide the fact that you previously just screwed up when you were showing off

Riding with the seat outfront/riding on your stomach/riding backwards are all fairly easy once you get the hang of it and quite a few tricks progress of those...

running stairs is also fun and you get some cool looks

have fun trying!

[TheBadger587]

idling is really, really, really important. riding backwards is a fun show-off skill, and one-foot riding is useful for training to become a more efficient all-around rider.

if you'd like to focus on MUni/trials, learn to hope in place, up curbs, ride/hop seat in front and master those skills. if you'd rather do freestyle just work your way up the skill level chart- focusing on wheelwalking and new mounts. if you don't know what you want to specalize in, work on everything. i like to use the skill level chart as a guide to figgure out what to do next. your call.

[nickvb123]

i ride freestyle and do very little trials (i don't wanna screw up my uni plus freestyle rocks). After you've learnt to ride there are a couple of tricks that can be learnt relatively quickly (after these tricks become much harder and take a lot more time to learn eg wheel walking). here is a list of tricks i think everyone should learn regardless of type of unicycling they do

idling
idling 1 ft
backwards riding
1ft riding
stomach on seat (most pointless trick in the world but learn it anyway...helps for seat out front i guess.)
seat out front
seat out back
seat on side

work on some basic trials as well

eg. hopping up/down curbs
build this up to stairs
hoping small "gaps"

From here choose what you enjoy most and branch into that i guess.

should be enough 2 keep you busy for while....enjoy

noclowns wrote:
> Well as you see i just subscribed to the forum. I can ride the
> unicycle well forward (and to the left/right :P), and have tried to
> learn idling and riding backwards. Now I have some questions.
>
> I have seen these amazing unitrial videos. What I wonder is: firstly,
> do u often get hurt? i mean like broken arms or legs or a tooth
> falling out? Well, the falls look terrible ...
> secondly, what tricks should I start with? That is if the whole thing
> isn't too dangerous.
>
> I don't have a trial unicycle (i have a normal 24 "), but i know there
> are tricks that aren't ( or don't look ) that dangerous, I saw the
> video of the Japanese woman doing some amazing stuff in some sort of a
> competition. That doesn't look as dangerous as jumping up on 1 meter
> high stairs or rocks. Or even worse - grind them down .

Hop variedly.

tennisgh22 wrote:
> the trials unicycling is not as dangerous as it looks. in fact,
> extreme unicycling (trails/muni) is very safe as far as extreme
> sports go. you almost always land on your feet. The bad falls in the
> videos are rare, and *usually* not as bad as they look. they only
> included those crashing clips cuz they impress the viewers. they're
> not everyday things. i have yet to know of anyone that broke an arm
> or leg or lost a tooth unicycling. im sure there are -some- , but its
> not a reason to never try trials or muni.

Didn't Dustin Kelm (?) break himself going down stairs?

[dustin]

Originally posted by Scott Kurland, RMT

Didn't Dustin Kelm (?) break himself going down stairs?


[/B]

yes

[noclowns]

Thank you for the help!

[siafirede]

I learned to backwards ride before one footed, for some reason one footed took me a while to get the hang of. I find backwards riding a lot easier.

[unicycleboy]

Bacwards is easyier than one footed thats why Idleing is pretty essential and maybe hopping up kurbs.

Trev

[muniracer]

Originally posted by noclowns
firstly, do u often get hurt? i mean like broken arms or legs or a tooth falling out? Well, the falls look terrible ...
secondly, what tricks should I start with? That is if the whole thing isnt too dangerous.

unicycling is only as dangerous as you make it. in trials, you will see something and think, "wow, i could get hurt if i don't make it," and then you must decide whether or not it is worth the risk. if you fell pretty confident that you can handle it, then go for it, you may get hurt but at least you recognize the risk and are doing it only because you are willing to get hurt. three things can happen on any line. one, you make it. two, you fall but dont get hurt. three, you fall and get hurt. i have never had a bad injury. i have been riding about a year.

[vivalargo]

In my limited experience, there were several totally new mental and physical modes that I had to get used to as I learned new tricks. Riding backwards was the first one--where you seem to be responding in reverse. Felt weird then suddenly I had it. Seat out front felt impossible for about 5 minutes, then that too came once I let my free hand just float in space for balance. Idling and stillhopping were just a matter of practice, and the basic trials hopping stuff is mostly just massive rote to get any good.

But for me, one foot riding, which I'm just starting trying yesterday for a few minutes, feels totally and rediculously hard. I trust that if and when I get it, it will open up a whole other set of skills. For whatever reason, I'm afraid to relax into this trick and am trying to force things--and it's relaxing that counts. A strange fear, seeming that I've just spent the last 25 years climbing 3,000 foot rocks.

I don't need this skill to do Muni riding, but I suspect my riding will improve like it has when I've learned other "needless" tricks. It's also an interesting mental challenge, which is perhaps the best part.

Bottom line: Considering skills strictly in terms of immediate practical application is probably not the best idea. It's all riding, and the more comfortable I get in strange positions, the more bomber I fel in the saddle overall.

JL

[evilewan]

its never too soon to start practicing wheelwalking.