I know naff all about doing drops, but a fair amount about physics, and
about dancing. I am used to taking off and landing with the minimum
impact to my leg joints.
Clearly, it is a bad thing for your rim to bottom out. You may damage
your rim.
More pressure in the tyre would be one way of preventing your rim from
bottoming out, but at the expense of the cushioning effect of a nice
soft tyre.
What you need to do is develop your entire shock-absorber system.
Tyre hits ground and deforms. That absorbs some shock.
Ankles flex - that abosrbs some shock.
Knees bend. That absorbs more.
A friend of mine used to do rock climbing. He fell about three feet
and landed with his legs straight. The impact shattered his ankles.
There was no gradual deceleration of the mass of his body. Just BANG!
Sotps dead.
I saw a street performer recently. As part of his act, he leaped as
high as he could then landed barefoot on a "bed of nails". As a
performer myself, i watched carefully. Every part of his feet, angles,
knees, hips, back and arms worked together to spread the deceleration
as evenly as possible. If he had worn Doc Martens, and just jumped and
landed without this gradual deceleration, I have no doubt that his Doc
Martens would have bottomed out, the soles would have been pierced, and
his feet injured.
If you apply these principles to your unicycle dropping, you will
realise that there is an optimal tyre pressure, but that the tyre is
only part of the problem. More pressure in the tyre will make that
part of the landing harder, putting more of the responsibility onto
your ankles, knees etc. Too little pressure will result in the rim
bottoming out, a sudden clunk, and, again, extra work for the rest of
your system.
Applying ideas I have picked up from other sports, I would suggest you
should go back to small drops, and work on the technique. When you are
working at 80% of what you can achieve, you have more time and space to
work on technique. If you are aiming for 105%, then your technique
will take second place behind your will to succeed at all costs. That
way lies a dented rim, broken cranks, and injuries.
--
Mikefule
I think edging is one of the less well known level 4 skills.
(Naomi)
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