How far can I go self-taught?

You can go as far as you like. It's my impression that most of the
people round here are 'self-taught'. Most of us are the only unicyclist
in the village. Also, a lot of unicycling stuff is just practice,
practice, practice and nobody can do that for you.

I have found it helpful in my uni'ing to see other people and what is
possible but that can be accomplished as well via dvd/video as actually
seeing people live.

Having said that, other people can help keep you motivated and point
out mistakes you may be making, but it's certainly not crucial.

Hope this helps.

Cathy

--
cathwood

Say no to unicycle genre discrimination! - MrBoogiejuice

http://www.chuckingandtwirling.co.uk
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i did everything "self taught"

--
musketman
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stayler said:

I've been riding for 8 months (nothing very serious, when it's nice out
and such), and never formally been taught. Or even informally been
taught. I can mount freely, ride straight, turn if I windmill, ride
over pine cones and dirt, nothing too exciting, but I'm the best in the
neighbourhood 😄 . I've been planning on just keeping at it by myself,
but everyonce and awhile somebody'll say to me "are you thinking of
joining/do you belong to -insert local circus training group here-?"

Anybody care to share how far they've gotten by themselves? Is there a
limit to how good somebody can get if they're self-taught?

Frankly, I think there's little in unicycling which doesn't amount to
teaching oneself. I've helped a number of people learn, and while I
can give them some ideas and pointers, they very much have to teach
themselves how.

I think groups can be good in that they can show you what is possible
and motivate you to try things you wouldn't otherwise (particularly in
MUni and trials). But I don't think it's necessary. Kris Holm is
self-taught.

--
tholub
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i am mostly self taught.. i was taught to ride and then i learned
everything on my own... kinda... i watch some uni movies for some good
tricks. that what i learn from.

--
irvinegr

Check out my SWEET movies!!! http://tinyurl.com/cr7fu
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im am entirely self taught unless you count the expert advice given on
this forum. i dont kno anyone who unis as serious as i do so i have
noone to compare to and knoone to have help me learn new skills...i
like most unicylists will be entirelly self taught by the time im done.

--
trials_uni

'Check Out my Newbie Guide' (http://tinyurl.com/99yez) <---new more
informative post go now! edited today!
Also Join the 'Unicyclist Roster'
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unicyclists in your area!
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I attended Mikefule's "Roland Hope School of Unicycling" from which I
failed to graduate.

--
harper

-Greg Harper

B L U E S H I F T

*jc is the only main man. there can be no other.*

This is still my nth post....*AWESOME!!!*
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I think you can go as far as you want to go being self-taught.

it may take a while to get things down or to understand instructions
you get from seeing on a video or reading from a guide, but your gonna
develope your own style, and not the style that somebody has cause he
is teaching you his way (not always true but i see it a lot)

And if your determined enough all you goota do is find the thing you
wanna learn, use the search or ask around, then go outside and
practice, learn form your mistakes, and if you can, have someone else
ride with you and try new stuff with you, cause im pretty sure he is
gonna have some tips to give you, and youll be able to give him tips,
everybody wins!!

--
Jerrick
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i taghut myself until i found this website. than i relized that
unicycling can get extreme. than i got some tips from this website.
since than ive taught one of my frinds. so i guess you can teach
yourself anything is you try hard enough.

--
manon1wheel

pure trials
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just reitterating but yea you can go as far as you can push it on your
own. unicycling isnt easy though. tricks are really hard. drops take
guts initially. ive taught myself, and now i can do pretty advanced
stuff. i used to look at jess riegels vids over and over and be like
whoa. now i can like stand up glides. mind blowing. anyways, yea man
you can be self aught but self taught means you are your biggest
motivator. stay positive. peace

--
chosen

honestly,
jonny
'My Gallery' (http://tinyurl.com/cw3lv)
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yep =p ive been completly self-taugh with playing guitar and all i do is
practice extremely hard, i go to sites and look at tips if im ever
stuck on anything, but now ive been playing for 3years, and not to brag
much, but i am better than ppl who have had lessons for about 7years.

So if you work hard on something youll get it, and a little advice from
the ppl on these forums always help =p

--
Jerrick
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Thanks everybody, I assumed it basically equated to "practice, practice,
practice" but some people had me doubting. Probably why I wanted to
pick it up in the first place - it's alot more independant than alot of
physical activities. And not to mention loads of fun. And satisfying.
😄

--
stayler
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one man one wheel...but dont try to be like"oh i dont nedd anyone...im a
god" these forums are a great asset to any unicyclist not matter what
skill level...even kris holm has an account and uses it every so often

--
trials_uni

'Check Out my Newbie Guide'
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<---new more informative post go now! edited today!
Also Join the 'Unicyclist Roster'
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You can get far on your own, that much is true. But I remember Roger
(or was it Rocket?) at last year's BUC helping me nail the kick up
mount just by mentioning that my seat might be a tad too low. I would
*-never -*have got that on my own.

--
s7ev0

DARWIN LOVES YOU

-Avatar courtesy of Loosemoose. -
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I've never really met another unicyclist. I know some other folks that
can get from here to there, but not freemount. I am a level 4 with a
few level 5 and 6 skills (unofficially).

I think the forum is a great place for help, plus the levels were, for
me, a souce of ideas and stepwise progressions to follow. I like that.
Some folks don't need or like that structure.

Have fun, keep riding!
B

--
podzol

THE MISSING WHEELS TOUR DA YOOP!
Check out the charity ride, planning is under way.
Seeking riders and support.
*http://missingwheels.unicyclist.com/ *
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I agree with everyone. I'll just add two related observations.

One is that there seem to be "binary unicycling" attitudes and
"continuous unicyling" attitudes. A binary attitude is when, once you
learn to unicycle, you are satisfied. You can unicycle as opposed to
not unicycle. But that gets boring quick. If you think of unicycling
as a continuous skill, you will always be looking for new challenges,
and thus continually improve. There literally is no limit other than
your own imagination. People try to come up with "stages" of skills,
but it's kinda arbitrary. If you use other people's skills as a guide
rather than a code of conduct, then you'll probably improve faster, and
maybe even make up your own tricks. I would bet that the best riders
are the ones who think of unicycling as merely a tool to help you do
fun stuff, rather than a set of rules to master.

Another observation is that it's one thing to learn to ride, and
another thing to be able to articulate how you do it. And being able
to articulate it will ultimately make you a better rider. I found this
out when I started teaching lessons to kids. At first I thought, "this
will be easy because I know how to ride." But then I realized, while
my body had learned how to ride, it certainly didn't tell my conscious
mind what it had learned. So, I didn't know how to explain things
well. But if you experiment with your riding and think about the
physics of it, you can figure out useful ways to teach kids, and this
will in-turn help you understand your own riding. Granted, most
students don't listen to what you have to say about the physics of
unicycling. But at the very least, it will help your riding. Anyway,
my recommendation is, as long as you're capable of protecting the
learners' safety, then teaching unicycling (like teaching anything) is
one of the best ways to learn.

--
eyal
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For the first four years of unicycling I taught myself everything due to
a lack of any other riders around. I then moved half way across the
planet for four months to spend some time with riders who I could learn
off. Here are some observations from having been on both sides of the
fence.

With perserverence you can teach yourself a lot of things. Learning in
isolation can take a LOT longer though. If one approach doesn't work
you try another, and another, and another. It can take weeks to find
the right approach that works for you whereas an experienced rider
could show you the correct approach in a few minutes. For example, I
had a friend who had been trying to learn to ride in isolation for over
three months. I am confident he would have gotten there in the end but
about two minutes of tips from me had him successfully riding within a
few days. He could have dramaticly shortened his three month learning
time with a teacher.

Knowing something is possible, seeing it done on video and seeing it
done live are all very different. For example, I had read about
coasting and knew intelectually it was possible but didn't really
*believe* it was something I could do. Even after seeing it performed
on video I classed it as something that those "people in TV land" could
do, not something a mere mortal could learn. When I moved to Minnesota
and joinged TCUC it was not uncommon to see half a dozen people pull
off assorted coasting moves in one afternoon . Suddenly the possibility
of learning myself seemed a lot more likely and I put some concerted
effort into learning. It only took me one evening of practice to make
significant progress. Picking a skill up that quickly was in part due
to observing how many different people did it, what technique they used
and lots of little subtleties you don't necessarily notice on video.

I highly recommend taking any opportunity you can to meet up with
riders who know things you don't. Chances are high that you will pick
up skills far faster from interacting with others than you will working
by yourself.

When you teach yourself tricks in isolation you sometimes have no idea
of whether something is possible or not. This can be both a blessing
and a curse. It can be a blessing because you will potentially work
hard on a trick other people would simply give up on. They give up
because all the really good riders they know can't do it, hence it must
be too difficult. As a result of perservering you will sometimes learn
how to do something know one else has ever managed to do! It can be a
curse because you you will potentially work hard on a trick that you
would be better to leave until later on. It is possible to waste a lot
of time trying to learn a skill which would be much easier if you
learnt a few other stepping stone skills first. For example learning
to coast is a lot easier if you can ride one footed, wheel walk and
glide. These may not be essential skills for learning to coast but
without them you can spend years working on coasting and making very
little progress.

--
peter.bier

-Peter Bier
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i agree. I'm only relatively new to the sport (going on 3 months now)
but i can feel the difference between self-teaching and being
taught/seeing someone else do it. I learnt to mount and ride by myself
and it took me a freaking long ttme but by the time i was finished and
could ride in a resonably straight indefinetly i was satisfied with
myself to the ears. Being around other unicyclists and watching the
dvds out there i feel is the the best way to stay motivated about
learning new things. (Also a quick note - has anyone seen the UniVerse
2 dvd? better then Defect?)

--
albino_gumby
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For ever, join the club

--
onebyone

Bill Blogs is an alien!
www.municycle.com.au
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eyal said:

I agree with everyone. I'll just add two related observations.

One is that there seem to be "binary unicycling" attitudes and
"continuous unicyling" attitudes. A binary attitude is when, once you
learn to unicycle, you are satisfied. You can unicycle as opposed to
not unicycle. But that gets boring quick. If you think of unicycling
as a continuous skill, you will always be looking for new challenges,
and thus continually improve. There literally is no limit other than
your own imagination. People try to come up with "stages" of skills,
but it's kinda arbitrary. If you use other people's skills as a guide
rather than a code of conduct, then you'll probably improve faster, and
maybe even make up your own tricks. I would bet that the best riders
are the ones who think of unicycling as merely a tool to help you do
fun stuff, rather than a set of rules to master.

Another observation is that it's one thing to learn to ride, and
another thing to be able to articulate how you do it. And being able
to articulate it will ultimately make you a better rider. I found this
out when I started teaching lessons to kids. At first I thought, "this
will be easy because I know how to ride." But then I realized, while
my body had learned how to ride, it certainly didn't tell my conscious
mind what it had learned. So, I didn't know how to explain things
well. But if you experiment with your riding and think about the
physics of it, you can figure out useful ways to teach kids, and this
will in-turn help you understand your own riding. Granted, most
students don't listen to what you have to say about the physics of
unicycling. But at the very least, it will help your riding. Anyway,
my recommendation is, as long as you're capable of protecting the
learners' safety, then teaching unicycling (like teaching anything) is
one of the best ways to learn.

I agree that anyone can self learn to ride as long as they are
motivated enough.

I taught myself 30 years ago.

*BUT*, IF I HAD THOSE MOST IMPORTANT TIPS AND A LITTLE MOTIVATION
BEYOND MY OWN I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN THERE MUCH FASTER.

THERE ALSO WOULD BE MANY MORE UNICYCLIST OUT THERE IF THERE WAS SOME
FORM OF STRUCTURED TRAINING.

THINK ABOUT WHY THERE AREN'T MANY MORE UNICYCLIST OUT THERE, AND WHY
JAPAN HAS OVER ONE MILLION.

I also train people how to ride and I'm getting ready to launch a
unique motivation and training center with a big surprise along with
it. To finally give the sport of unicycling the exposure it never
received.

I've trained people to ride from 6yrs old to my last student 50yrs old
with two artificial knee caps.

-The important tips- (where to place the pedals at mounting, keep your
weight on the seat, Look forward, etc) along with an - experienced
personal motivator- will make all the difference in a persons ability
to take the task all the way to the end (learning to ride
successfully).

Another great tip: Never give up!

Adam

--
JustOneWheel

There is no better way to have Fun and Exercise. "UNICYCLE"
Every one should have "FUN ON ONE"
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