how to unicycle books are kind of stupid

I also learnt to ride a unicycle without 'a stupid book' and
without a teacher and that sort of thing. I think if someone
handed me a book when I was learning I'd skim through it for
a few minutes (after trying out the uni for a few minutes
first of course) and pick up the main pointers before
attempting any real riding.

The thing is though, a lot of people would prefer to take
an academic approach to learning to unicycle. That's just
the way they are. You can ignore their wishes if you like,
or write a 'book' to try to help them. Klaas Bil and I
wrote a little instruction manual. Not quite a book but
probably around 2000 wordsish. The first page has the very
basic tips on it for people who don't want to read the rest
to read. The rest has more in-depth tips for learning to
ride and then covers idling, freemounting, turning, and
some other key aspects. I know quite a few people who have
benefited from it.

I think that yes, practise makes 'perfect', but practise
plus knowledge of what you're meant to be doing gets you to
'perfect' quicker.

Think about when you teach someone to ride. They will more
often than not want tips on how to ride...those tips are in
these books and instruction manuals.

That's what I think anyway.

Andrew

--
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Mike_Foote said:

"practice makes perfect."

Of course, but a book tells you /what/ to practice, and
/how/ to practice. It works as your instructor, and can
save you a lot of time. Heck, if you knew nothing about
what others do, you wouldn't even know what to do with a
unicycle at all!

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
Clearly a system of 1/14 and 1/16 is not decimal - Mikefule
on the English weight system

Mike_Foote said:

*i think unicycling "how to" books are kind of
stupid ...., *

Mike_Foote said:

*....without a stupid book. *

Mike_Foote said:

*so uh yeah,... *

i guess i'm stupid then

while learning, i read charlie dancey's book incessantly not
while i was practising, but afterwards, at night just before
going to bed i'd read it and dream about freemounting a
giraffe one day...

did someone just call books stupid? what do u want to do?
burn them?

books like these transfer information, skills, insights call
them stupid at your peril

and remember that those who refuse to learn from history is
condemned to repeat it (i would credit the person who said
it but i can't remember the name right now...) without
books, that learning bocomes a great deal more difficult

if u choose to do it without books, great calling them silly
might just be a bit 'strong'

--
GILD - Waffle-[censored] (ocfopgm)

-ORIGINALLY POSTED BY A FELLOW UNICYCLIST IN A MOMENT OF SUBLIME
INSIGHT-

"On the subject of 'significant others' it is a matter of timing and
topic whether 'significant' or 'other' is the defining word in that
phrase."
'[image: "]http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/sp/84255.gif]'
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Dave
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andrew_carter said:

Klaas Bil and I wrote a little instruction manual.

That should be reversed to read Andrew Carter and Klaas Bil.
Andrew wrote almost all of it, I did some editing only.

Quoted message said:

I know quite a few people who have benefited from it.

And additionally there are many who we don't know. Since it
has been made available from my website (end of February
this year), the document has been downloaded over 100 times
(English and Dutch versions combined).

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
Clearly a system of 1/14 and 1/16 is not decimal - Mikefule
on the English weight system

I understand your viewpoint ‘they are kind of stupid’ but
they aren’t. I do agree that practice is the only way of
learning to ride, but pointers to help with the practice are
immensely helpful in assisting.

Why re-invent the wheel?

I never bought a book – but I’ve read all I can on
techniques off of the Internet for free, this is the same
thing surely.

Your words ‘I learned how to unicycle without a stupid
book’. Are you saying that you never read one dot of
helpful information in assisting you to ride? This I find
hard to believe.

--
Huthwaite - <bahhh>
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Quoted message said:

Are you saying that you never read one dot of helpful
information in assisting you to ride? This I find hard to
believe.

Well I'm quite sure a lot of people have learned to ride
without reading any tips at all, myself included, but that's
just our bad luck. Advice and tips would definately have
helped a lot.

Andrew

--
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I learn well from books. I didn't but a book to learn to
uni, but I would have if is were not for this forum.

I learned in about 6 hours (not freemount) just because of
the tips I got from the forum. If the forum wasn't around I
would have gotten a book or two. It probably sped up the
learning process for me by 3x.

--
newtouni - Self Proclaimed Unicycling Dufus

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(The Unicycle Calculator) free from
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being an anxious theorizer I wanted to get some tips before
learning (which by the way took me 3 months!)

these are my feelings (I'll be pleased to get comments):

- any lesson on how to ride should be read the way you read
a cookbook you should not stick to it "as is" but pick up
thoughts and some technical tips. then it's up to you.

- observe others... then you realize that things you read
are not thoroughly exact: you've got to adapt to your
morphology and behaviour. Working with a mentor is good
too (but the trainer should not be too dogmatic).

- the big question is: by adapting (or by sticking to the
rules) are you picking bad habits? This forum is a
precious tool for trying to understand techniques... but I
still feel our sports is in infancy: I mean many
techniques have evolved from experience but still need to
undergo scientific scrutiny just to pinpoint the
parameters involved.

just my 0.02 Euros ...

bear

--
wobbling bear - GranPa goes-a-wobblin'
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wobbling bear said:

these are my feelings (I'll be pleased to get comments):

yes, on all of themwobbling bear wrote:by adapting (or by
sticking to

Quoted message said:

the rules) are you picking up bad habits?

i think an analogy with music is (relatively) fair u have to
know the basics(rules) before u can adapt(break) them
'succesfully'

simmilar disregard for the dogmatic rules of music yet we
may once again agree (or not) that Miles came out with,
musically speaking, a more pleasing output this i chalk
up to the fact that he knew the 'rules' and could
therefore 'break' them more succesfully (and please, i
realise that the SP were making an ideological statement
rather than play music blah, blah, blah. it's my analogy,
work with me here 😉 )

i dont think a solid grounding in the basics of any field of
endeavour is ever a bad thing

--
GILD - Waffle-[censored] (ocfopgm)

-ORIGINALLY POSTED BY A FELLOW UNICYCLIST IN A MOMENT OF SUBLIME
INSIGHT-

"On the subject of 'significant others' it is a matter of timing and
topic whether 'significant' or 'other' is the defining word in that
phrase."
'[image: "]http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/sp/84255.gif]'
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Namaste!
Dave
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Crossing threads here, but Mike you asked advice in another
post and in this one you say that books are stupid - can you
have it both ways?

I guess you can!

<ROFL!>

--
Huthwaite - <bahhh>
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That last post kind of got my point. You posted to
this newsgroup. Why read it? It's not going to teach
you how to ride, and you won't learn to ride better
unless you practice.

The book knows this.

A good unicycle book will:
- Tell you *how* to practice so you don't waste time doing
things the hard way
- Tell you *what* to practice. Stuff you may not have
thought of on your own
- Tell you what people do with unicycles outside your
local area
- Tell you the history of unicycling, and about famous
unicyclists
- Tell you how to find other unicyclists, in places like
this

Learning on your own, you will likely never figure out one
tenth of the things people do with their unicycles. Only by
exchanging information do we share the fun of this sport.
Books are still good for that.

And, of course any good book instructions will tell you you
need to get out and practice!

Now *juggling* books, on the other hand... 😄

--
johnfoss - Walkin' on the edge

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

"Hey, could I have some of that spinach? I need to get this pork rind
taste out of my mouth." -- Ryan Atkins to Kris Holm, on the way back
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In the words of a great man:"An education allows us to leap-
frog over the mistakes of the past."

My initial reaction to the post sort of agreed with you,
Mike. I learned without any books or advice (except from
idiot non-unicycling folk) from anyone. However, I am
presently learning tons from reading this forum and columns
written by the experts.

--
elmer - uniimpaired

"At 40 life begins...to show."
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I didn't use any books or anything like that to learn, and I
probably wouldn't buy a book because I like to be out there
doing, rather than reading about how to do it. But I
wouldn't call them stupid, they obviously work for some
people or else they wouldn't get sold. After all, nobody's
making you buy or read them, and nobody's making you read
this forum.

Quoted message said:

- the big question is: by adapting (or by sticking to the
rules) are you picking bad habits?

well I suppose we probably are, but if they work for us then
they must be good. As you said, the sport is in its infancy:
nobody really knows which techniques are good or bad, and
surely the only way to find out is to try them?

--
theamazingmolio - A Unicylist, a juggler, and a prat

Luke Duller ([email hidden])
Never trust anything you read on the internet
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I've written about a dozen how-to books and have more than
500,000 copies in print (all on rock climbing and
adventuire sports). The whole point of a how-to book is to
steepen someone's learning curve and provide a progression
and focus to learning. John Foss adds a valuable point as
well--that unless you're part of Tommy Thompson's club, or
one like it, you've got little if any chance of knowing
what others are doing in the sport, and a book can open
eyes to the possibilities. On the other hand, I can
appreciate people who want to discover everything on their
own. Whatever works.

Personally, I rode a uni as a kid, then didn't ride for 25
years, till I ran into KH (also a climber) at a trade
show. I started in again 3 months ago and knew virtually
nothing about modern unicycling. As I've been learning how
to idle, ride backwards, hop, jump, ride saddle out, go
one-footed, ease into trials suff, muni, Coker, et al, the
tips I've picked up from this site have been invaluable
and have kept me from practicing the wrong stuff while
dialing me into various learning short cuts. In a tangible
sense, this site has been my instructional book, and I
trust it functions in that way for many others of us
trying to bring ourselves up to speed.

I've always been a totaly expert in sports, and it's been a
riot to start in on something as a total hack. But I don't
want to stay there forever, and a few lines or videos that
can set me straight on specific techniques is most welcome
from my end.

JL

--
vivalargo
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I think Mike Foote was talking about how-to booklets, more
than full-on books about unicycling. Does that make is point
more valid? No.

I learned with no books or help. It took forever. I had no
idea if I was doing it the easy way, the hard way, or the
stupid way. Each exists, though people may argue about which
is which some are well known to work better than others.

So though I learned to ride the thing on my own, I
eventually got my hands on the Schwinn Owner's Manual,
which taught me some invaluable stuff to set me in the
right direction about mounting, idling, and a few other
basic skills.

The book doesn't do the practicing for you, but it
helps you practice in the way the author thinks will
work best for you.

--
johnfoss - Walkin' on the edge

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

"Hey, could I have some of that spinach? I need to get this pork rind
taste out of my mouth." -- Ryan Atkins to Kris Holm, on the way back
from Moab after sampling some of my pork rinds. They grossed out the
whole van!
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I'm not calling anybody stupid, and I'm not saying BOOKS are
stupid. I'm just saying that I didn't think much of the "how
to" unicycle book that i read. i found that they werent
helpfull. thats all.

--
Mike_Foote - Violinist and Unicyclist

Long live unicycling
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Unicycling books are out of date because of this forum, but
without this forum, unicyclings books would be
magniferously helpful.

Rob

--
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Hi,

I'm glad someone started this thread, because I'm thinking
about writing a how-to book on mountain and trials
unicycling. In other words, I want to write down what I've
learned in this sport over the past 18 years or so of
offroad riding.

I also would like to do a DVD but the challenge is this:
although sometimes it's easiest to show a technique (ie film
it), it's possible to go into way more detail about moves
and techniques if it's done in book format.

So if I wrote a book, would you be interested in buying it?

Kris Holm.

--
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danger_uni said:

*Hi,

I'm glad someone started this thread, because I'm thinking
about writing a how-to book on mountain and trials
unicycling. In other words, I want to write down what I've
learned in this sport over the past 18 years or so of
offroad riding.

I also would like to do a DVD but the challenge is this:
although sometimes it's easiest to show a technique (ie
film it), it's possible to go into way more detail about
moves and techniques if it's done in book format.

So if I wrote a book, would you be interested in
buying it?

Kris Holm. *

Of course. Now a book with a DVD included might give the
best of both worlds. Maybe like a workshop.

--
bugman - Survivor 2004 Wolfman Duathalon
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