I haven't aquired many new skills since my last unicycling post nearly a month and a half ago. I simply can't go practice it every day.
I am having huge problems idling. Idling is rocking back and forth, so that you essentially stay in place. I am trying to learn a vertical idle, which I hear is the easiest. I'm leaning too much on my bottom foot, and turning in jerky circles rather than rocking.
Backwards riding also escapes me. I've traveled the length of the driveway once, but that was more of a fluke than a learned skill. I am already a catious rider, and the addition of not seeing where I am going does not help.
"I dun need ter know where Ah'm going-- I jerst need ter know where I've been," says Tow Mater-- "like tomato but without the 'ter'." That doesn't work for me. Most of the time, one of my siblings will run up behind me while I pedal uncontrollably backwards.
However, I have learned one new skill! Hopping!
I learned it without even knowing it.
I had just finished playing "hoola hoop catch" with my sister (I rode the unicycle, she threw the hoop at me, and I tried to either catch it or let it fall over my head-- then ride away as fast as I can so she had to come running to get her hula hoop back).
I rode from the driveway out to the middle of the street and attempted to idle. Now, our driveway, road, everything is a hill. In the past, I always learned new tricks by riding perpendicular to the slope. While I was idling, though, I accidentally twisted and found myself facing downhill mid-jerky-idle.
I told myself to hold on... I wasn't going to get that hurt if I fell... when I hit a rock. But somehow, instead of grabbing the unicycle as it flew out from under me, I grabbed it just in time to get my feet back on. Somehow, through all of this, I managed to leap into the air. I landed... and kept my balance!
I immediantly rode back and tried it again. After five minutes, I was able to control when and how I hopped. I could only hop in place, though, and only twice in a row.
But today I learned how to hop side to side (both directions) and front and back!!! I can also hop up almost four inches, and have enough control to jump over a peice of chalk without making it roll. I hope to be able to jump up things soon.
I can also ride off curbs now. :) And I have gone on two couple-mile-long unicycle rides. And now, if I am close to a wall, I mount "silly foot" (aka, with my left foot instead of right.) Maybe I can learn how to freemount left-footed.
