A Learning to Ride a Unicycle: From Basics to Proficient Riding

1 How to Ride Forward

a) The Training Ground

b) Support and Assistants

c) Getting Started after All: Mounting Your Unicycle

d) Free Riding

e) Controlling Your Speed

f) Turns: Driving into the Direction You Want

g) Free Mount

2 First Obstacles

a) Steps

b) Narrow Paths

c) Bumpy Ground

3 Picking Things Up from the Floor

B First Tricks and Artistic Skills

1 Riding Backwards

2 Idling

3 Idling with One Leg

4 Idling on One Side or Crank Idling

5 Riding while Standing and Pulling the Seat Away from the Body

6 Stomach on the Airplane Trick

7 Preparation for Riding the Ultimate Wheel – Drag Seat

8 Spinning

9 Riding with One Leg

10 Hopping

11 Rope Skipping on the Unicycle

C Variations on the Unicycle

1 Giraffe

a) Preparing to Mount

b) Free Mount and Dismount

c) Advanced Techniques on the Giraffe

2 Ultimate

a) Preparations

b) Free Mount

D Unicyclehockey and Other Games, Plus Unicycle Races

1 Unicyclehockey

a) The Game

b) The Rules

2 Other Great Games on the Unicycle

3 Unicycle Races

E How to Teach Unicycling

1 Preliminary Considerations

a) Comparing the Movement Patterns of the Unicycle, the Bike, and Walking

b) Purpose

c) Recommendations for Teaching Methods

d) Public Transportation and Unicycles

2 Challenges and Elaborate Tricks

a) Combinations and Acrobatics on the Unicycle

b) The Rating of Skill Levels

F All About the Unicycle: Equipment, Links, and Retailers

1 Equipment and Tips for Buying Your Unicycle

a) Unicycles

b) The Giraffe

c) The Ultimate

2 Some Useful Websites

3 Some Retailers

Thanks

Photo and Illustration Credits

A Learning to Ride a Unicycle

From Basics to Proficient Riding

1 How to Ride Forward

a) The Training Ground

When you start to ride a unicycle, your mind will be occupied with things other than where you are going. Since you will only be able to ride very short distances in the beginning, you don't really have to bother with much else. Artful dodging of obstacles and precise turns will have to wait until later.

So, in order to get started properly, you should find a place open enough. A few meters of clear ground all around you are necessary since you might find yourself going in directions you did not intend to go in.

Make sure that the place where you choose to practice is safe (no traffic!), and also that you don't endanger anyone else by what you are doing.

Please remember that it is prohibited to ride a unicycle on public roads since you could obstruct the traffic.

The ground you practice on should be firm and not slippery. An uneven piece of road might look like a bad training ground, but often it does not cause much of a problem because the unicycle is much less affected by it than you might think.

Really bumpy roads, grass, and gravel, on the other hand, are not really suitable. In addition, a slight downward slope is also less problematic than one that falls away to the side.

You can find everything you should know about your unicycle (adjusting the saddle, where the front/back is, etc.,) before you start riding it at the beginning of chapter F 1.

You don't really need a helmet or other protection as a beginner. You can't fall from great heights, and you can easily get your feet back on the ground. Protective clothing might even hinder your moving about freely. Only if you tend to injure easily should you take it upon yourself to wear some extra protection.

Before you start riding, you should try to find something to hold onto. People who can lend you a hand are ideal if they are available. Only hang on to your friends or parents as long as you need to in order to get used to your unicycle, and to learn how it reacts to you mounting, and to your movements.

In the following chapter, we will explain how your assistants can best help you on the unicycle. You will also learn how to practice properly with the help of only one or even no assistant at all using walls, fences, and other means of support. Don’t start mounting your unicycle before you have found a suitable training ground, and some good assistants or support.

b) Support and Assistants

If there is nobody around to help you, try to find something to hold onto like a fence, a handrail, or a wall. There shouldn’t be any sharp edges or nails on top or along the wall.

Keep your hand open, and when you support yourself, avoid clinging to the fence or handrail. If your hands and arms cling too tightly, you will not learn to keep your balance properly. Stay in touching distance with the wall or fence without gripping it.

If the thing you hold on to is only available on one side, you will automatically tend slightly towards that side because you can only catch yourself from falling into the wall, but not away from it. Tending continuously to one side is of course bad for proper balance.

Much of the equipment usually found in a gymnasium (e.g. handlebars etc.) is extremely helpful. These are a great help to learn unicycling because you can arrange them, so that you get support from both sides. You can also place chairs or tables in a row to cycle along.

Having support at both sides is perfect to keep your balance. If gymnastic training boxes or bleachers are available, build them up as high as your shoulders.

However, chairs or special equipment are not always available. So, another good possibility is to use places like aisles, or narrow corridors, e.g. in your cellar or attic, where two parallel walls are often close enough to each other that you can touch both of them at the same time.

If it is not possible to find a place where you can hold onto both sides at the same time, one side will have to do. You should then change direction as often as possible, so you can learn to keep balance with a wall on your left side just as well as with a wall on your right side. Make sure that you keep some distance from the wall. Your arm’s length is the right distance to avoid touching the wall with your pedal. This will also improve your balance since you avoid clinging to the wall.

A shopping cart is a great help. Hold the handlebars, and push the shopping cart when you practice. After closing, the often roomy parking lot of a shopping center is an ideal place to practice unicycling when no cars are around.

Support on one side offers some important help, and is better than no support at all.

The handlebars of a shopping cart provide support that moves along. Some garbage bins with wheels will do just as well.

A short stick held by someone is also a good means of assistance to you. If you are on the unicycle, you should hold onto the stick in front of you with both hands like the handlebars of a bike. The assistant should walk backwards holding the stick with both hands, as well. Make sure that you do not hurt your assistant with your falling unicycle when you dismount.

A pole of about 2 meters held by an assistant in the middle allows support for two or more children at a time. They can practice to ride in a circle, or perform in a show long before they can actually ride without help.

An old mast from a surfboard provides assistance for several children at a time.

Summary: Make sure you have good support. It should look like this:

• You should be supported on both sides, so that you can learn to keep your balance on both sides.
• A support on one side only should be quite long in order to allow you to ride for some time alongside the support before you have to turn around. Then, you can concentrate on the actual riding itself, rather than on turning around all the time.
• The support must be solid and strong because the unicycle tends to leave some marks and dents.
• It should be at least as high as your hips, and lower than your shoulders when you are on the unicycle, so that you can always keep your body straight.

The best and most flexible support is, of course, one or two assistants who can walk alongside offering help on demand. This can be done by other unicyclists if you share a unicycle with them, and use it alternately. It can also be your parents or some strong friends.

Important:

“You are not held by your assistant(s). They only offer support, and you should let go after a while. At first, you let go for a short while, and then for longer intervals whenever you feel balanced enough. Your assistant(s) stay at your side.”

“This is the wrong way of helping. The assistant is lagging behind, and unbalances the unicyclist. The assistant should not raise his arm too high.”

There is a general rule for any support that you might use while practicing:

Make sure that your goal is always to learn how to do it without support. Hold onto it just enough to avoid falling off the unicycle – not more and not less.

Very often, you will be tempted to not correct mistakes or, even worse, to learn movements the wrong way because the support or assistant is too readily available. If you keep in mind what it would be like without his or her support, you can actually learn something. Any support should mainly offer you a safe feeling on the unicycle until you become independent of the support.

Make sure that you don’t hurt your assistant by holding too tightly on to his arms; he is your helpful assistant, not your victim.

c) Getting Started after All: Mounting Your Unicycle

After having chosen a suitable training ground and secured some good support or assistants, you can now actually start to learn unicycling. Your assistants could, of course, lift you up onto the saddle, or you could pull your body onto the saddle using your support; however, it is better to try to mount the unicycle on your own from the beginning. This way you will learn right away what is important.

Your assistants stand ready, but they don’t offer help before you need it. If you have support on one side only, you should be within reach, but don’t touch it right now. You have to do the first step on your own.

“You are ready for take-off. Try doing this on your own.”

Put the unicycle in front of you with the narrow part of the saddle pointing forwards. Make sure that the position of the pedals is correct before you start mounting: The pedals should be almost at the same level with the one closer to you only a little lower than the other one.

Depending on which foot you would like to start with, the right or the left pedal should point towards you now. Hold the unicycle with your hands on both sides of the saddle.

“One pedal should be closer to you. This is where you put your foot first.”

Move slowly towards the unicycle, and move your hands to the front of the saddle at the same time. Then, put the leg you want to start with over the saddle. Your whole weight is now on the other leg.

Now you put the saddle between your legs without changing the position of the pedals, and without moving the unicycle backwards or forwards. Then you put your foot on the pedal without placing much weight on it right now.

“Stand on one foot while you step over the saddle, and place the other foot on the pedal. Hold the saddle with both hands.”

Keep one hand at the front of the saddle while reaching out with the other for your assistant or your support at your side.

Now, very, very slowly you can shift your weight from the foot you are standing on to the unicycle. Put exactly as much weight on the saddle as on the one pedal. Make sure that you keep your balance at all times. Your assistant or your support should not carry any weight; they are just there to help you to keep your balance. Repeat this movement up and down the pedal a few times until you feel you can do it almost without support.

“Your assistant or your support help to keep you balanced, but they do not carry your weight.”

While you mount the unicycle, you can lean forward a bit. If you have done everything correctly, then your unicycle doesn’t move away from you. It may move a bit towards you, though. In this way, it will move slowly under your body, and you can shift the remaining weight from the foot on the ground to the unicycle step by step.

Above: “Mounting slowly prevents injuries. A fast-moving pedal could hit your leg when you move too abruptly.” Left: “The initial position of the pedals does not change. The weight on the saddle is in balance with the force on the back pedal.”

As soon as you have your whole weight on the unicycle, you can put the second foot on the other pedal. If you do everything slowly and with control, then the second pedal will not hit your shin.

If you step too fast onto the pedal, the unicycle will move, not only under your body but – if the pedal doesn’t hit your leg – move beyond that point, and thus will get completely out of control.

At first it is better that all movements are done slowly, so you learn to coordinate them. Later, when you have become an expert, mounting a unicycle will be done in one smooth and quick movement.

“Mounting while using support on one side: Find your balance in the end with only ONE hand against the wall.”

“Moving too abruptly, and putting too much weight on the pedal will make the unicycle move behind you.”

Always keep in mind: beginners make large moves; experts make only small moves. Mounting with the help of a wall, but without an assistant (see photos below):

• Push the saddle under your bottom. The pedals are in the right position.
• Put the first foot on the pedal closer to you. It is a bit lower.
• Move your weight forwards, and prop yourself up against the wall.
• Move the weight even more to the front, above the cycle and put the other foot on the second pedal.
• Move the pedals into a horizontal position. To do this, you might need to hold onto the wall, even with two hands if necessary. Make sure your feet are in the right position on the pedals.
• Straighten your body. Your center of gravity should now be exactly above the axis of your unicycle.

Mounting your unicycle without any help is much more difficult, but you don’t have to learn it right now. Surely at this moment, you would rather learn how to ride. Mounting without help is explained below in g) Free Mount.

If you almost got it, but not quite: “I can’t start properly!”

If, after mounting, your pedals got into the wrong position (one on top and the other one down), you can not start riding properly because both pedals are now in a deadlock position. This is the main advantage of controlling your power when you mount: your feet end up in the perfect position to start riding. So, you should make sure that your feet stay in the almost horizontal position you started with.

For a while, you might need to balance quickly with the help of some support, but soon you will be able to do it without any help.

“The left picture shows both pedals in a deadlock. You can hardly move from this position. The right picture shows the ideal position to cycle away.”

“This is the right position on the pedal. Take care: being too close to the crank will scratch your ankle with the next turn.”

Notice:

d) Free Riding

Stretch out both hands to keep your balance.

Keep your body tense, and make sure that you stay upright. Don’t bend over.

While riding, keep your body upright, and tilt forwards in order to get moving much like you do when you start walking.

"Keep your balance by stretching both arms to the side." "Stay upright with some tension while you ride."

Only experienced or well-trained unicyclists, who can keep their body tense, can bend forward a bit to improve their balance.

In order to move