Hopping

So What Do I Do?

To start with it's best to practice next to a wall for support. So, find yourself a wall for support and sit on your unicycle. Then:

1. Get the pedals so they're horizontal with your favourite foot forwards.
2. Hold the front of your seat with your strongest / favourite hand. You'll want to wrap your fingers under the front of the seat. Miyata seats have a handle which makes this a whole lot easier.
3. Put your weight on the pedals then stand on them taking your rear end off the saddle. Placing the balls of your feet on the pedals is advised.
4. Keeping your holding arm taught and said arms elbow against your body - the front side of your chest works for me.
5. Now the hardest part - actually hopping. The hopping action comes mainly from your ankles as opposed to your knees and is definitely helped by holding on to your seat!
   
   • Try one small jump - remember ankles not knees - while keeping your free hand on the wall for support. You may very well land and come off the unicycle so be prepared. If not then so much the better.
   • Try another.
   • And another.
   • Try to do two hops. And again and again etc.
   • Gradually increase the number of hops
6. Keep practising until you're happy with bouncing on the spot. Don't worry - it took me a few practice sessions to get comfortable with it and that's after realising to hop using my ankles - I spent a few days trying using my knees and, although I did hop higher, I would land and loose my balance after one or two hops.

When you feel confident with this you're ready to try it while riding. To start hopping you want to come to a virtual stop as you ride. The way I do this is to feel the pedal on my weaker foot as it reaches the downward position and to add some resistance to it as it starts to come up and finally bringing it to a halt when the pedals reach the horizontal position. Need I say you don't want to be going very fast otherwise you're body has too much forward momentum and keeps going - leaving the unicycle behind. Not the desired effect ;)

When you can manage three or more hops on the spot try making very small hops in different directions and with your weaker foot forwards. This is something you have to get a feel for (read: "I'm not entirely sure how I do it - it just kind of happens") but leaning your body weight ever so slightly in the direction you want to go then hopping sure helps.