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:

*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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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

Download UniCalc
(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

--
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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'

we may (or may not) agree that the Sex Pistols and Miles Davis shared a
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]'
(http://tinyurl.com/ywxgb)
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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!>

--
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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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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

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

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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Avatar inspired by 'this thread' (http://tinyurl.com/2kmun) and 'this
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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.

--
danger_uni - 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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