Failure to learn to unicycle



J

JJuggle

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After I gave a bried demo at work, a colleague commented today on the
sense of balance required to ride a unicycle. I commented back that I
think most people have it in them to learn if they put their minds to it
and take the time to practice.

So here's the question. Does anybody actually know of anyone who failed
to learn to ride after putting in sufficient time? "Sufficient time" is,
of course, a subjective thing. But aside from those who simply give up
after a few hours or a day or so, I'm curious if anyone knows of someone
who just couldn't learn to unicycle.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ


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i got a unicycle for christmas it took me about 3 weeks to learn
proficiently
my girlfriend has been riding for nearly 3 months and hasnt even managed
to roll a rew rotation of the pedals yet! but shes determined so she
wont give up until shes got it.

bungle


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BungleBanks - Wooden Chipmunk!

So many people ask me "if i can ride that thing?" and i say "no i just
push it round for fun!"
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BungleBanks wrote:
> *my girlfriend has been riding for nearly 3 months and hasnt even
> managed to roll a rew rotation of the pedals yet!
> *

Do you know how many hours she's put into it over those 3 months?


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digigal1 - 3 revs on carpet! ;)

Omni for Uni and Uni for Omni!
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"Failure to learn to unicycle"? I nearly fell into that category (in
more ways than one).

I first attempted crossing the juggling club's church hall in the middle
of June, and again, and again, only for a couple of hours once a week
since I didn't have my own unicycle.

It took me four months... to make it only half way across. Then two
weeks off for a holiday in Tenerife and suddenly I couldn't make it a
quarter of the way across anymore!

I nearly gave up, but was practicing once a week enough? I bought my own
unicycle and took some slow, steady, careful pedalling next to the
garden wall. And then the next week I brought it to juggling club and
attempted this seemingly hopeless goal... and I made it at the end of
the night! After FIVE MONTHS!

Most of what I typed above are reminded to me from my 'my first ever
post here' (http://tinyurl.com/2egba) .

I'd say January was when I got riding straight perfected, and over the
past month learned to idle. Just riding a unicycle around is the most
fun I ever have; I'm certainly glad I never gave up.

So if you are struggling with this, just practice more regularly no
matter how much of a small space you have.


--
gkmac - Level 1 + idle
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I gave up a whole bunch of times. Really. The stupid piece of **** I was
learning on was so anti-rideable that I several times threw it in the
corner.

Picture:
http://tinyurl.com/pn68

But I kept coming back. What spurred me on was the knowledge that a
totally ordinary human from my neighborhood could do it (and idle). If
he could, why couldn't I? It's a good thing I never figured out, back
then when I was 14, that he had a Schwinn and I had a P.O.S. The Schwinn
was a Cadillac and a Hummer rolled into one by comparison.

But I eventually got it. Only then did my Troxel become almost
completely unrideable, but falling apart under the weight of rider.

I know people who can't do lots of things. Including drive cars. I asked
about that when I worked for the driving school. Does anyone ever not
learn? The answer was along the lines of that there were people who
*shouldn't* ever drive. But for the most part, unless the person doesn't
have brain damage, or lacking cognitive skills, or physical damage
keeping them from working the controls, they can learn if they work at
it long enough. We had more than one student who took lessons for more
than a year before passing a road test.

I still can't juggle six balls with any regularity. But I have not
failed. I *will not* fail, even if I never finish learning.

So the answer may be no. Some people are better tuned to their balance
than others, but I believe if you have the physical and mental
equipment, you can learn to ride if you stick with it. If you have
neurological, inner ear, cognitive or other damage, this could impede or
stop you though. But I also know of several people who have overcome all
sorts of obstacles to ride, including people with varying levels of
developmental disabilities (retardedness), learning disabilities, bone
problems, and total blindness.

Better examples are given by places like the St. Helens school in the
60s and 70s when all the kids were riding unicycles. Did every kid in
school ride? According to what people tell me, no. It was not a
requirement of PE, to my knowledge. But the vast majority of the
school's population rode. This works well as a (small) population
sample.


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johnfoss - Walkin' on the edge

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
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On Mon, 3 May 2004 14:25:31 -0500, "JJuggle" wrote:

>So here's the question. Does anybody actually know of anyone who failed
>to learn to ride after putting in sufficient time?

It's a matter of definition. I'm tempted to say that someone who
failed to learn just hasn't put in sufficient time. The required time
varies largely across the population. He or she felt that the
investment in time and effort was too large to continue trying. But
had he or she persisted, he or she would have learned to ride.
(Disregarding persons with clear physical or mental disabilities.)

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
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BungleBanks wrote:
> *my girlfriend has been riding for nearly 3 months and hasnt even
> managed to roll a rew rotation of the pedals yet! but shes determined
> so she wont give up until shes got it.*
oh, somebody get that girl a whole bunch of decent footrubs!
:)


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GILD - Waffle-****** (ocfopgm)

only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. i think
it's
in my basement...let me go upstairs and check.
~ m. c. escher

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Rayden wrote:
> *I wonder how much more difficult riding a unicycle is compared to
> walking. Walking is very difficult Have you ever met anyone who never
> learned to walk? *


I've thought about this before too...It seems to me that the balance and
control required to completely shift weight between two legs (and be
smooth about it) at a wide range of speeds is very, very complex.


--
entropy - life in balance
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of course i know how many hours shes put it in it! im teaching her. she
is getting better all the time but shes scared of falling i would
estimate that shes put about 40 -50 hours in so far.

bungle :)


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BungleBanks - Wooden Chipmunk!

So many people ask me "if i can ride that thing?" and i say "no i just
push it round for fun!"
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I know someone who FAILED to learn to ride.
Down at the LBS there is a guy that *usually* mentions how good he is at
mountain biking. He also rides a road bike. Before I learned to ride, he
told me that he had a unicycle for 3 years, and made many attempts to
ride it during that time.
Finally, a non-rider came to his house and was playing around with it,
so he said if they can ride it off, they can keep it - and by the end of
the evening he was less 1 unicycle. :)
The same guy who failed implied that I wouldn't learn either - which of
course gave me motivation to learn quickly. :D
I believe that anyone who has the right ATTITUDE can learn (however, my
theory stops short at obese people).


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ChangingLINKS.com - member

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I met two different guys this past weekend that admitted that they owned
unicycles as a kid, but failed to learn to ride. I obviously have no
idea how much they practiced.

A little off topic, but I regularly meet people who say thay used to
ride as a kid. I then offer them my uni and they attempt to mount it by
going to the front pedal. I just have to smile. :) Anyone else have
this happen? --chirokid--


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chirokid - Wolfman 2004: Unicycle Catagory

"Other than that, the best maintenance is to keep riding it as this
helps to keep the eccentric nut on the saddle in optimal condition."
quote by Mikefule

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Rayden wrote:
> *I wonder how much more difficult riding a unicycle is compared to
> walking. Walking is very difficult Have you ever met anyone who never
> learned to walk? *


I have often speculated that walking involves more complex balance that
unicycling.

When walking your feet are not free to move (roll, pivot, etc.) when
they are in contact with the ground. When walking you basically begin
to fall, extend a leg to "catch" yourself and then repeat the process.
It all seems very static.

When riding your are in a continuous state of "falling" and correction.
This would seem to me to require less inherent balance than walking.

A theoretical experiment that I've thought about would be to take
infants and prevent them from being exposed to any humans who walk. All
they would experience would be people on unicycles. Provide the infant
with a unicycle and what would the progression be? Would they learn to
walk? Ride?

Of course such an experiment is impractical and probably immoral but the
point is that I think most people overestimate the amount of balance
required to unicycle compared to what's required to walk.

-mg


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The guy from the LBS who claims to have failed just gave up. I'm sure he
didn't practice for a whole three years! He works in a bike shop, he
should have more motivation to "fill out" his cycling skills. For
someone who's "good" at riding a bike (allowing for him being an
exaggerator), he should be able to manage a unicycle if he wants to work
at it.

chirokid wrote:
> *I met two different guys this past weekend that admitted that they
> owned unicycles as a kid, but failed to learn to ride. I obviously
> have no idea how much they practiced.*
Not enough. or they had Troxels like mine, which means they might have
practiced twice as much as someone with a Schwinn and still not gotten
it.

> *A little off topic, but I regularly meet people who say thay used to
> ride as a kid. I then offer them my uni and they attempt to mount it
> by going to the front pedal. I just have to smile. :) Anyone else
> have this happen? *
Yup. :p

About walking:
Walking is indeed complicated. Talk to anyone trying to program a
machine to do it. Most machines that walk have much larger feet than the
human equivalent.

When talking of learning to ride a unicycle, we generally assume a
person who already walks. The balance part of walking is almost the
same, if not exactly the same as what you use when unicycling. The
learning part is converting your feet from walking to turning pedals.

Walkers have the advantage of two feet. This makes it easy to stop
without idling. We can't. Having two feet also makes it possible to
change directions much faster, and do a few other things we can't
compete with on unicycles. Example: ever tried playing basketball on a
unicycle against people on feet?


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johnfoss - Walkin' on the edge

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com"
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who prefers not to wear one, in the 1991 video Rough Terrain Unicycling
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mgrant wrote:
> *Provide the infant with a unicycle and what would the progression be?
> Would they learn to walk? Ride?
> -mg *


Walking is *required* to mount.
Therefore the infant would have to learn to walk first.
I believe "walking" is almost required for an infant stand.


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I have been riding a lot in a local park with my 6 year old daughter who
is really starting to get her riding together. She getting into rides
that are sometimes 250 feet long. If I may brag a little, she just did
her first freemount last night!

I am amzed at how many people, young and old, say, "I could never do
that!" I wonder how many other areas of their lives have been hindered
by this kind of thinking? Sometimes I just want to get a unicycle and
put them on it until they can ride it. The correct response is, "That
looks like it would take a lot of time to learn." or "I'd really have to
work at that." But this "I could never do that!" response is sad to
me.

I think it's one of the reasons I enjoy the unicycling community so
much. They are an adventuresome bunch, willing to fail, but also
knowing that failure is one of the ways that we learn.

One of the ways I define failure is *Not trying or not giving something
your best.*

Most can ride a unicycle. Most will defeat themselves mentally.

Bill


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billham

"Watch out for those widow makers!" What I said to chirokid a few
minutes before a widow maker (dead tree) landed on his unicycle
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billham wrote:
> I AM AMZED AT HOW MANY PEOPLE, YOUNG AND OLD, SAY, \"I COULD NEVER DO
> THAT!\" I WONDER HOW MANY OTHER AREAS OF THEIR LIVES HAVE BEEN
> HINDERED BY THIS KIND OF THINKING?
> Most will defeat themselves mentally.
> Bill [/B]

Stop. Remember, we ALL pick our battles.


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johnfoss wrote:
> *
> Walking is indeed complicated. Talk to anyone trying to program a
> machine to do it. Most machines that walk have much larger feet than
> the human equivalent. *

Quite true.

One of the first successful "walking" robots was a robotic pogo stick.
Apparently it was much easier to solve the dynamic hopping problem than
the problem of coordinating multiple limbs. The researchers were very
surprised - they couldn't believe how simple the hopping programs could
be.


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BungleBanks wrote:
> *of course i know how many hours shes put it in it! im teaching her.
> she is getting better all the time but shes scared of falling i would
> estimate that shes put about 40 -50 hours in so far.*

May I suggest protective gear and stepovers? Fear of falling was a BIG
thing when I started learning. Strapping on all the pads and clipping
on the helmet really made me feel more secure. I now feel odd riding
without my "stuff". I'd rather have it on and not need it than need it
and not have it on.

I still haven't gotten stepovers down on anything bigger than a 24. I
feel like I need a trampoline to do them right on the coker. They do,
however, give you a good grounding in how to fall on your feet,
especially if you fall off forwards, which is very disconcerting.

I'm now nearing the 12 hour mark and falling no longer fazes me. I'm
going so slow I can jump off and land on my feet when I feel a fall
coming. Most times I can catch the unicycle too.

The most important thing is that she's getting better. Once she gets a
bit more confidence in her own abilities the fear of falling will
subside.

Jayne


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Jayne ZA - Learning to ride on a Coker

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