Just thought it would be helpful to give a quick review of my time learning to unicycle. I decided to learn in 2009, and in all, it originally took about 1 or 2 weeks, depending how you count, and I found it most helpful to practice for 20 minutes per day. Any amount of time longer than that was unproductive, as the muscles and balancing required for this sport were so different than anything I'd done, and so I lost control a bit after that long. So in summary: short, sweet, don't change things, and repeat.
Also, it's a great skill to learn, to keep your brain in learning mode and agile, and I think that this guy's assessments of the benefits of juggling carry over to unicycling quite well:
I'm not completely sold on the meditation, but most of the others hold! Read more here.
New Hobby for HB
Wherein I display to the world, for accountability, my desire to learn to ride a unicycle, with very little external input. I practiced for about 20 minutes per day, and let my muscles take their time in learning the new motions.
Unicycle: Days 6 & 7
Day 6 is when I started actually riding without holding onto things - traveling up to 30 feet or so (I had limited space). Day 7 is when I switched shoes - bad idea. Keep all variables constant in the beginning!
Unicycle: Days 8 & 9
Practie makes perfect! Trying to ride on new surfaces - bumpy walkways, around buildings, etc. First time to circumnavigate the block, with multiple dismounts (falls).
Unicycle: Day 10
Inventing challenges! I decided to go to the school down the street and use their wide-open spaces. Rode around the basketball court a few times without falling!
Day 15: Let's go to the park
Practiced riding up and down smooth paths, and continued to realize that riding on grass is difficult with a small wheel!
Unicycle progress tracker
Again, when learning, try to keep the equipment setup as unchanged as possible!
Day 17: Hittin' the (unicycle) gym
Wherein I continued to create new challenges for myself, to practice turning both directions, such as on a slalom course, shown here. Basically just trying to improve my riding control.
What's next?
Not sure! I haven't ever learned to ride backwards for any real distance, nor have I learned to "hover" in place, by riding forward & backward quickly. Another option is to give up the pavement and learn to ride more 'diverse' terrain. Enjoy!
Also, it's a great skill to learn, to keep your brain in learning mode and agile, and I think that this guy's assessments of the benefits of juggling carry over to unicycling quite well:
- brain growth
- body comfort
- stress relief
- focus retention
- coordination boosting
- being interesting
- improved learning
- unboring meditation
I'm not completely sold on the meditation, but most of the others hold! Read more here.
New Hobby for HB
Wherein I display to the world, for accountability, my desire to learn to ride a unicycle, with very little external input. I practiced for about 20 minutes per day, and let my muscles take their time in learning the new motions.
Unicycle: Days 6 & 7
Day 6 is when I started actually riding without holding onto things - traveling up to 30 feet or so (I had limited space). Day 7 is when I switched shoes - bad idea. Keep all variables constant in the beginning!
Unicycle: Days 8 & 9
Practie makes perfect! Trying to ride on new surfaces - bumpy walkways, around buildings, etc. First time to circumnavigate the block, with multiple dismounts (falls).
Unicycle: Day 10
Inventing challenges! I decided to go to the school down the street and use their wide-open spaces. Rode around the basketball court a few times without falling!
Day 15: Let's go to the park
Practiced riding up and down smooth paths, and continued to realize that riding on grass is difficult with a small wheel!
Unicycle progress tracker
Again, when learning, try to keep the equipment setup as unchanged as possible!
Day 17: Hittin' the (unicycle) gym
Wherein I continued to create new challenges for myself, to practice turning both directions, such as on a slalom course, shown here. Basically just trying to improve my riding control.
What's next?
Not sure! I haven't ever learned to ride backwards for any real distance, nor have I learned to "hover" in place, by riding forward & backward quickly. Another option is to give up the pavement and learn to ride more 'diverse' terrain. Enjoy!
Three awesome youtube videos about unicycling:
Impressive:
Inspiring:
Hilarious:
My posts, in reverse order, for some reason:
http://www.whereisholden.com/search?q=unicycle&max-results=20&by-date=true
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