In the past I had only tried the kickup mount sparingly, partly because
it can be a little intimidating thinking about the possible injuries
and maybe even damage to the uni. Then I saw a Japanese unicyclist
video:
http://www.ichirin.ne.jp/video/single/sinf02.wmv
The video isn't all that extroadinary, but notice how she has a false
start to her kickup mount at the beginning of the routine . She lifts
up the seat halfway, then puts it back down -- all in a very controlled
manner. This gave me the idea that you don't really have to "kick up"
with the kicking foot at all; rather, you simply lift up and guide the
seat with your kicking foot, while letting your weight on the pedal do
most of the work in lifting up the unicycle. Perhaps some people
really do have a more violent kicking motion, but I find that
pulling/guiding up the saddle results in a much more controlled seat
motion, and is great for learning the mount. No more worries about the
saddle flying out of control. I'm guessing that there are probably
people who can do this mount almost in slow motion, with the saddle
rising quite slowly.
I practiced doing what she did, lifting the saddle up halfway then down
in a slow controlled motion. Up and down repeatedly. This also helped
me coordinate my weight shift with the leg lifting action. And when I
did try the mount, I found that I was acquiring the seat much more
frequently than before. My attempts were successful only about 20
percent of the time though, because even if I got the seat in the right
place, often my weight was off, causing me to fall. However I felt
like I was definitely making progress.
That was last weekend, but unfortunately I had no time to practice
until today. This time I focused on where my weight should be after
stepping onto the pedal and also making sure I lift the saddle up to
the correct position, not too far forward or back. Before too long, I
was making about half of my tries. Then at the end I tested myself on
20 attempts and made 14. Needless to say, I got quite excited!
So my advice is to practice "lifting" rather than "kicking up" the
seat. Also, there's no need to jump, simply shift your weight to the
pedal. Perhaps a little more force than a slow lazy weight shift is
necessary to get the saddle up quickly, but I don't think jumping is
required. Read somewhere that a normal walking motion is about the
right amount of momentum required -- found this to be good advice too.
Hope this helps anyone learning the mount. Would be interested in
hearing whether people find this as helpful as I did.
Tony
--
crslinyc
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