UniLog
- One Foot Backward: slow progress
I put on hold a few weeks ago my focus on 1-ft bwd. My practice location wasn't available during the day, and I seemed to be too busy to drive to it. This location is Tillicum Middle School. They have a a three tennis court enclosure behind the school. The surface is very flat. By that I don't mean level. It has a very slight slope, but the surface is free of bumps and depressions. It also lacks the regular surface coating found on most tennis courts, which is some kind of paint to give a little texture and probably prevent slips.
However they made this court, it is the best I have ever found for practicing freestyle unicycle. Another huge plus is that there are two other courts at the school that are 'nicer' for tennis, and closer to the parking lot. I have never seen more than one court in use in my prefered area. It is a relief to have a practice area which isn't in high demand.
My usual workout is to ride down across all three courts at the middle line, half way between the baseline and the net. Three courts is about 40 yards. Once at the end, I ride backward to my starting point, and repeat this 2-3 times. Backward riding warms me up fast, which is why I start with this. Next I ride circles one foot. The circle radius is 3-4 meters, or half the length of one side of the tennis court. I like to use the tennis court as a guide. The base line is one side, and the service line and center line is the other side. Due to the slope, I start my circles at 12-3-6-9-12 and ride once around plus another 90 degrees. The next circle starts whre the last one left off. Once I complete each starting point without dimounting, I turn around and do it counter clockwise the same way. Then I switch feet and repeat the process.
- 3x Riding Backward 40 yards.
- 5x 1ft-c left foot clockwise.
- 5x 1ft-c left foot counter clockwise.
- 5x 1ft-c right foot cw.
- 5x 1ft-c right foot ccw.
- 3x 1ft-8 left foot.
- 3x 1ft-8 right foot.
- 30-45 minutes 1ft bwd.
- 10 minutes koosh koosh.
- 10 minutes ww bwd.
- Mounts: side, jump
After I finish with the circles, I do figure-8's. I complete three figure-8 for each foot, trying to start in different places in the figure-8 for each one. Figure-8's take up the length of the court, from the baseline to the net.
This warms me up for trying one foot backward. I've been doing most of my practice downhill. The slope is slight, but noticeable. Going up hill actually make it easier to stop, but I don't get as far. Today I matched my record of 14 strokes, or 70 feet. Dispite this, progress is really slow. I think I'm a little more consistent, but still most attempts don't get anywhere. I'm getting more in the 4-6 range.
Today I found that a slight forward lean might help in stopping. Seems stable, but it slows me down and I usually go less distance.
One other interesting note is that I do one foot backward with my right foot. My more stable one foot forward is my left foot. I'm also left footed at one foot wheelwalk and gliding.
I mount with my right foot back (on the pedal) and my right foot is my best idling foot. I might have chosen my right foot for this reason. In order to do 1ft bwd, I start in a one foot idle. On the other hand, I seem to have a little smoother time at one foot forward with my right foot, even though it isn't my most stable foot.
After getting tired of one foot bwd I moved on to koosh koosh. I'm getting a little better at this. I can get 4-5 small backward kooshes. The small kooshes seem better than big ones. Seem the idea here is to avoid falling sideways, but the skill is pretty safe to practice.
Today I tried backward wheel walk as well. I had tried it once before but found my feet constantly hitting the frame and messing me up. But today I did pretty good. I even went backward 3-4 without holding on to the fence. Probably a few weeks practice will give me a better idea how this is going to go, but it seems easier than koosh koosh.