Pedal grab help seriously needed......

I can't do a pedal grab, but I can go to rubber from a crank hang. Since
you're not hopping off of the tire, you can't use the compression to
spring yourself up at all. You just need to jump normally, like you
would without the unicycle, and pull the uni up with you.

Also, pedal grabbing on to something with your back foot is a lot harder
than with your front foot (from what I've heard). I also do it with my
back foot, though, and I've been sort of working on a weird thing to
help me. With the pedal on the object, pull the unicycle up so the free
pedal is in back. This should be the incorrect position for hopping.
Then pull up on to the ledge, and do a full 180 degree crank turn,
landing with the pedals in the right position for hopping. I've gotten
to rubber several times doing this, but I haven't successfully landed it
yet.

--
James_Potter - Rettop_Semaj

-If there was an eleventh commandment, it is to be "thou shalt dip thy
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I don't mean to sound sexist but I think it's really impressive that
you're a chick and you can unispin!

Ok, so you wanna do pedal and crank grabs to rubber?

The natural progression for me was to go from seat in crank grabs to
seat out crank grabs, and then several weeks later, seat out pedal
grabs.

I think you'll be ok practicing on your KH20 but if you've got a 16"
handy, no harm trying that. I think you'll find that you have more than
enough body strength as soon as you figure out the technique. The great
thing I've found about getting crank grabs down is that once you've done
one of them successfully, you can pretty much do them all day long
without any problems.

I think a good tip I can give you is to lean your unicycle inwards (push
the seat towards the object you're trying to jump onto) before you jump
up... I mean, lean it in a bit more than you might expect you need to.
The lean in thing isn't exactly necessary but it does seem to make me
land very much on the object.

As far as the actual jump action goes, it's really a "what you see is
what you get" thing, you just gotta believe that you're gonna do it and
go for it, it's not quite as psychologically daunting as unispins so
you'll be fine!

When you get on to seat out pedal grabs, gerblefranklin posted some good
tips on it if you can find them (they worked for me) but basically you
swing your free foot up and jump when it's quite high up (and again,
lean the uni inwards).

Good luck
Yeah! Go the trials girls!
Pete

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pete66 - Level 4 Unicyclist
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My question to you is this:
Do you use a pre-hop when making large jumps?
If so this may be where you're having trouble. When I started, my
learning progression was barely a preogression (maybe in part to the
fact I was learning on a 24" MUni). I then took a week off and just
worked on my non-pre hop jumping technique. And the next time I went to
practice I got it.
Hope this helps,
Zac

--
zactor29 - Sleep Expert
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So, here's a little secret. The most common form of pedalgrabbing and
crankgrabbing foot positions is off the front foot. But all is not lost.
In fact, some is gained. Because you pedalgrab off your back foot, try
this, rather than all those crappy ways you see most people do
(including me).

I first think it's worth mentioning that it's fine that you use two
hands for hopping seat out, but the move I'm about to describe needs
some control and extra balance that really can only be achieved with a
free hand. I reccomend that you learn to hop seat out with your left
hand on the seat if you hop to the right, or with your right hand on the
seat if you hop to the left WARNING: LONG PARENTHESES, NOT NECCESSARILY
USEFUL FOR PEDALGRABS, BUT STILL GOOD INFO. (this is because if you hop
towards the hand you hold the seat with, when you try to lift the uni it
will angle the tire away from the obstacle, which will make things way
harder and you will fall lots more. I hop to the left with my right hand
on the seat. I can consistently make 28-29" to rubber, but when I hop to
the right I can barely make 20". This is not because I cannot get the
tire onto the object [that's the easy part]. The problem is that when I
jump onto the object to the right, my hand lifts the seat so that the
tire naturally angles to the left. That's why most high hoppers hop to
the direction opposite their hand. Anyways, when I do big hops to the
right, once my tire's on the object, I put my weight on the wheel and
one of three things can happen. First, the uni can just collapse out
from under me and I fall, which sucks. Second, I can have the seat
ripped out of my hand because I can't grip hard enough to keep it up.
Third, I muscle the seat up from being ripped out of my hand and keep it
up, and end up doing a 3-4' gap to get control over the uni again.
That's when I land it. On the other hand, when I do big hops to the
left, it's nice because half my tire simply lands on the edge of the
object and I just tip onto it, and have a smooth landing)

Now for the pedalgrab:

Climb up on the object and do a PEDAL hang, without the crank touching
the object. The front of the unicycle should be angled towards the
object as much as you can. Crank clearance should not be a problem, as
the crank will never hit the object. Get comfortable. Now, with all your
weight on the pedal on the object, swing the uni with the pedal as the
axis of rotation. It's okay if the crank hits the obstacle, as long as
whoever owns the obstacle doesn't mind crank-marks (there's a ledge by
my house with a black rubber mark on the side of it for about 6'. It
abruptly stops 10" from the top of the ledge. This is where I learned to
crank grab).

Now, carefully and slowly bring the uni up so that your right foot is in
front. the uni should still be angled in enough that the front of the
tire is maybe 1-2.5" from the object. This is a kinda steep angle. Once
you have the uni in this position, lower it as low as is comfortable for
you to keep the outside foot on the pedal. Then, in a rather quick
movement, spin the wheel around the pedal, keeping your outside foot on
the pedal, and jump lightly off the inside foot. The spin combined with
the jump should basically "roll" you onto the object. This is easier on
longer cranks. By doing the roll move, you are jumping around 2-4",
rather than 10". Truse me, it's easier. I learned this move from Mike
Middleton. He's a great trials rider who skipped crankgrabs and just did
what I describe above. It's easier than crankgrabs, and much more
precise.

If you want a video I'll try to get one in my gallery in a few days to a
week. As for one-handed seat out, dont' worry, it's harder at first, but
will get easier with time.

Most of all, good luck! I tried to be clear, but if it's not I'll
reiterate anything that needs it. And also, it's fine to skip crank
grabs. They're not all that useful, and are way hard. I'm a guy and I
swim tons, maning I have plenty of upper-body strength. Still, it took
me around three months to land my first complete crankgrab. And still
another three to do a pedalgrab. Now I only pedalgrab.

As for my way, I hop to the left with my right foot back, so i do a
pedalgrab by slowly raising the uni until my back foot's above lateral
and then I do a quick jump as I swing the pedal up still more. then, I
swing them back to lateral as I land. It takes a while to get precise
forward-backward, but once you are you can get onto stuff as small as
the top of a 4x4 (piece of wood). Good luck (again).

Remember, the most important thing is having faith. I never landed
anything until I believed I could. I can only do a big hop if I think I
can. If you don't believe in yourself, I promise, you won't do it.

Something that may help is a distraction to get yourself to go for a
move. Sometimes when I'm distracted I go for stuff without any reserves
and then land it. For example, a girl I liked was walking by as I tried
to learn crankgrabs, and I went for ti as she passed. Being a dumb,
testosterone crazed idiot, I was half distracted by seeing if she was
watching. Without even thinking, I did the crankgrab, some corner of my
mind still expecting a fall (the rest to trying in vain to see through
the corner of my eye to see if she was watching), and instead I landed
it. Noone saw, but whatever, as I landfed it five times afterwards,
without messing up. Basically, if you relax and don't neccessarily think
about the move, you may lose some inhibition that's making you hold back
and land it inadvertantly. I was also distracted when I landed my first
ever 26" hop. Strange, but it seems to work for me (in some cases).

If you read this entire post, I am amazed, since nethier reading nor
writing 5927 characters is an easy feat!

P.S. Check out my gallery, some new vids of me doing a wheelwalk up a
hill and gliding down it ought to be up in a few days.

Later.

--
gerblefranklin - Trials Unicyclist

Don't you think it's a cruel irony that acting like a G.I. Joe in the
army can get you a Medal, while playing with one can get you thrown
out?

http://www.gallery.unicyclist.com/Trials-Muni
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I think gerblefranklin did a pretty good job of explaining it.
Personally, I find going to rubber easier off pedal grabs than crank
grabs.

I struggled with going to rubber for a long time. What made the
difference for me was a change inthe way I thought about the jump. When
I was trying to learn it, my thought process for going to rubber was
basically to just do a good sideways hop off the pedal, and then try to
land in control. I didn't come close. I needed a new approach. The
change I made was to break the hop up into 2 parts, and the landing took
care of itself.

My new thought process was now this (and the other descriptions here
also seem to describe this in a similar fashion):
1. Get my momentum moving in the direction you need to go to land on
top of the object (i.e., mostly upwards, but also slightly sideways; I
know I'm stating the obvious, but I like to make things as clear as
possible). (I go off my front foot, but I'm sure this technique could
be used for going of the rear foot as well). I start with my outside
foot low (lets say the crank is approx. 45 degrees below horizontal),
and start by bringing my unicycle and body upwards, until the outside
crank is about 30 degrees above horizontal.
2. Do the hop. My momentum will carry me sufficiently high enough and
far enough sideways to land on top, so the actual hop is focused more on
control (and not power) so you can successfully land with the tire
sufficiently on top of the object. The actual hop is really quite
light. The outside crank is probably about 45 degrees above horizontal
as my pedal leaves the object.

Although it all happens quickly, I can pick out 2 distinct steps both
watching other people pedal grab to rubber and actually doing it
myself.

To simplify, I first start by first getting myself moving in the proper
direction with the pedal planted, and THEN I hop lightly from the pedal
and focus on landing accurately and in control.

Like gerblefranklin said, remember that you only need to jump high
enough to get your tire on top, no need to jump way over the edge.
Smaller hops are easier to control.

I don't think that upper body strenth is too much of an issue. I agree
with pete66 in that you will find you have more than enough.

This is what worked for me, it might or it might not work for you, but I
figure it's worth a try!

--
toddw9 - Doh!!!

Fat people are hard to kidnap.
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Hey, thanks for all the great advice guys! And, yeah, sure, I'd love for
you to post a vid of pedal grabbing/crank hanging...that would be VERY
helpful!! I almost never pre-hop because I find it gets me off balance
or at an angle from left to right too much.

--
unipsychogirl

~Sara C.

"I CAN JUMP OVER YOUR HONOR STUDENT ON MY UNICYCLE!!!" -me to old lady
at festival

"I BET YOU CAN!" -old lady, without a clue as to what a "unicycle" is

([email hidden]) (A.I.M. S.N: "unipsychogirl" but mostly on
as "violpunk"😉 )--O

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Gerble, that method you described is about the same as the method I
described above, isn't it? So, at least now I know it -can- work....

--
James_Potter - Rettop_Semaj

-If there was an eleventh commandment, it is to be "thou shalt dip thy
pizza, for it is, wicked."-
--Thedan
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i'll just add that if you are strong enough to jump seat out to crank,
you are definatly strong enough to go to rubber.

john

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unigeee - Hmmmmm!
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unipsychogirl said:

*And, yeah, sure, I'd love for you to post a vid of pedal
grabbing/crank hanging...that would be VERY helpful!! *

Sara,

As promised, see http://gallery.unicyclist.com/SabinAtThePark . Check
out the still sequence starting at pic 282 for the crank hang to rubber.

--
UniBrier - Its Time to Ride

Steve De Cuckoo

"Only an idiot would try to ride a pointed stick with a wheel on the
bottom." - ‘tiped again’ on the early stages of mastering the uni.

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Potter: Yeah, that's what you described. I think it's more of a roll
than a hop, though. And yes, it's very possible, I've seen Mike
Middleton do it onto the tops of 6x8s multiple times.

It'll be a while until I get a video of the pedalgrabs up, because my
parents have hijacked my camera for a 10 day cruize. I'll post when I
get a video up.

--
gerblefranklin - Trials Unicyclist

Don't you think it's a cruel irony that acting like a G.I. Joe in the
army can get you a Medal, while playing with one can get you thrown
out?

http://www.gallery.unicyclist.com/Trials-Muni
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Sara,

There's a clip of me pedal grabbing in the new video in my most recent
thread (see the last post). It's not done very smoothly at all as it's
only the 3rd pedal grab I've landed but it does show how little arm
strength is required and how you don't have to hop very high from the
hang position.

Andrew

--
andrew_carter - Two unicycling years old.

HTTP://WWW.UNICYCLIST.COM/GALLERY/ANDREW
andrew_carter (at) mail (dot) com
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Wow, In the last 20 minutes of practice, which has been my first working
on pedal grabs in the last year, I just learned. I had pretty much
given up, but with the advice stated above in mind, I gave it a try.
Thanks for the advice everyone.

--
Max_Dingemans - Hey Look, who's that?

BLAH!
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WHOOO sweet, I did it! I can do pedal grabs now. Yay! But, I have a
question again:
I just got new pedals, which I think contributed greatly to my sudden
success.They have big ol' pins on them to stick to my feet. Will pedal
grabs damage the pins at all? Sometime soon, I'm going to either buy or
make some grindplates. But until then, should I not try pedal grabs?

And when I get a grind plate, will that make it harder to do pedal grabs
because of the slippyness?

--
James_Potter - Rettop_Semaj

-If there was an eleventh commandment, it is to be "thou shalt dip thy
pizza, for it is, wicked."-
--Thedan
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It depends on the pedals and what you're pedal grabbing on. Most pedals
will hold up fine if you're pedal grabbing on wood. Especially oldish,
rotting wood. Concrete? The damage probablity grows. However, if you're
going to get a grind plate, thus making one side the designated pedal
grab side, I dont see the harm in letting on side of you're pedal grab
side pedal getting marred. I just got a new pair of snafu's so I could
mar them, rather than ruin my 100 dollar pair of pedals. As to the
difficulty, I couldnt tell you.

--
Max_Dingemans - Hey Look, who's that?

BLAH!
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What kind of pedals are they? I ride snafus, and they hold up okay,
except I've ripped two pins out of them. I now have one side of the
pedal that I only use for pedalgrabs, and the other side my shoe always
goes on. Pedalgrabbing only wood will greatly lengthen the life of your
pedal and crank. More to the point, you shoudln't be worryign about your
pedals so much as scouting the great new set of obstacles you can now
handle! Now you needn't get off your uni to get over a shorti-ish
chain-link fence🙂 .

--
gerblefranklin - Trials Unicyclist

Don't you think it's a cruel irony that acting like a G.I. Joe in the
army can get you a Medal, while playing with one can get you thrown
out?

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The pedals I have are these:
http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=218

Most of what I'm grabbing on to will be cement, with the occasional
wood. I guess I could do it only on one side of the pedal, but I'd need
to mark it somehow to make sure I did only use that side.

--
James_Potter - Rettop_Semaj

-If there was an eleventh commandment, it is to be "thou shalt dip thy
pizza, for it is, wicked."-
--Thedan
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Woah, this thread has a lot of great information, I think it is worth
being revived. I have yet to land a pedal grab, but now I have a few
new perspectives on technique. Makes me itchy to go out and try some
things...

--
Beaver1
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