Random Ah Ha Moment - Quick turn with ball

There seems to be a number of different ways to control the ball while making sharp turns. One that I stumbled on today works well when turning to the side on which I hold my blade (left for me).

One observation I've made about any ball control through a turn, regardless of how tight the turn is, concentrating on angle the blade contacts the ball makes all the difference. Sounds obvious now I write it! When the turn has a large radius the angle away from 90 degrees (being straight ahead) can be small. With v. tight turns the approach that worked for me today was to block the ball completely by turning it 90 degrees to the direction I entered the turn and then slightly pull the ball in towards me (to offset my forward movement). I could then turn quickly and be back on to the stationery ball and off in the opposite direction.

This wasn't comfortable when turning to the right because of my crossed arms in front when reaching to the ball on that side ( back hand, out in front position) made it difficult to pull the ball in towards me. I found that if I changed how my top hand held the stick ( changed from thumb pointing at blade to thumb pointing in the air) it was easier to rake the ball back towards me. This needs some more practice but was the only way I've found so far to avoid feeling cramped in this move.

Random Ah Ha - More efficient way to sweep across body

Today I came across a way to help control my balance a bit better when quickly moving the stick from one side to the other. Its especially useful when the ball in in close.

If I have the stick out in front of me (see earlier past) and tried to swing it quickly from one side to the other, the large arc that it sweeps out and the distance that the stick must be out in front to get past my body made for slow movement, often led to me stabbing myself in the stomach as I passed and caused the unicycle to twist in the opposite direction due to the large radii.

The thing I found today was that instead of sweeping a big arc with the stick extended out it was a bit more effective if I drew the stick back and around my side (retracting back past my hip) and then when it fully 'retracted' push it forward while continuing to rotate it with the lower hand. In this way the blade tracks along a straighter path rather than a large arc which seems to results in less twisting of the uni to counteract the sweep due the action being dominated pulling and pushing action rather than upper body twisting which naturally needs the uni to counteract it.

A key to making this comfortable is to make sure the lower hand slides along the stick so that it can remain at a good distance from you body when the stick is retracted. This also help give better control and accuracy to the stick placement.

Update:

This retracting to the side seems to be valuable in avoiding the feeling of being cramped up when handling the ball in close. I used it when trying to dribble the ball from left to right and it felt like there was a lot more control and speed in the movement.

Update:

I tried using this approach when handling the ball through a series of cones. I was suprised at just how much counter-twisting this action still resulted in. As a result I found it very difficult to guide my way through a slalom course of cones because when I turned the wheel to go around a cone and then reached for the ball and pulled it in the pulling action changed my course. I think I need to twist away from the ball just prior to pulling it in or start the pulling action by keeping my arms fixed and using a deliberate turning of the uni to start the action of pulling the ball in. Which ever there needs to be some counter rotation before the ball gets pulled in with this approach.

Colt Hockey stick - unbreakable ... shaft

An interesting Kickstarter project using a polymer metallising process that creates metallic layers with crystals on the nanometer scale which they claims brings massive strength and durability improvements. The process appears to be widely licensed in loads of industries.

I have however seen videos of efforts to break one and as soon as the metal layer is warn through the stick is just a stick so in the highly abrasive area of unicycle hockey (outdoors at least) I can't see the life will be extended greatly. However..... very bling

Better twitch and close game

My wife found a Reaction Ball at our local sports store and so today I had a chance to try it out.

I hadn't heard of them before I recently spotted one in a Rebel Sports catalog. Apparently they are for cricket practice and help improve reaction time to off bounces. The large nodes on the side means that it bounces in an unpredictable way. This turned out to be fun and useful on the unicycle as it meant that I needed to find a posture and balance that would let me react quickly to the bounce.

I just randomly stick handled it around close to me trying to move it left,right, behind, ahead, dribble etc and every now and then gave it a hit to clear it out to a new area. Was a great work out - legs were on fire after 5 minutes. I have a feeling this is going to be a very valuable little addition. I haven't tried it against a wall yet, but that should take it up a level.

Stick handling - random Ah Ha moment

Stumbled on a way to manage my balance better when sweeping the stick quickly from one side to the other. Here is a top down view of the stick and the Blue Straw Man.

By holding the stick out in front and attempting to pivot the stick about an imaginary point mid way between my hands two good things happened:

1. Both hands are engaged and apply force so both arms are creating the drive
2. The motion is largely symmetrical so it has less impact on balance than twisting your upper body to move the stick.

I think this might be a useful method when controlling the ball left to right, reaching quickly to get the ball when you're wrong footed, or trying to create the largest obstruction you can to a players path. The flip side is that your body posture doesn't change much so there is no faking value to it. i.e In a fake the player might drop a shoulder to make the opponent think they are heading in one direction and then quickly turn the opposite way to wrong foot the opponent. Here the player's body is being used to broadcast a confusing message about their intention. In the above stick handling approach the line you're riding and your posture can't really be used to broadcast. For this reason I think this approach might be better used in defensive moves where (it seems to me) quick reflexes to follow the opponents lead is more important. In offensive moves I suspect this move will leave the ball too far away from you to really feel in control of it.

Update: Keeping the lower hand fixed and doing all the work with the upper hand works well, if not better for controlling and avoiding going off balance. It does trade of some power but it gains in control and balance. Has good success in dribbling the ball at a good speed using the fixed lower hand. 

Riding Backwards - Random Ah Ha moment

Had a small break through today in riding backwards. Although I'm still not riding much more than 5-10 backpedals its up from 1-2 and a sprained wrist so I'm calling that as a success.

The Ah Ha moment was remembering that when I was learning to ride forwards one of the natural and very useful intermediate steps towards riding in a more upright posture was to first bend a lot at the hips so that my weight was spread across top dead center  ( directly above the cranks) rather than teetering directly over it. A perfectly upright posture puts all your weight right over top dead center so the balance needed to control this is much finer than when my weight is extended both sides.

There are two ways to distribute your weight around top dead center. The first is to push your pelvis forward, head back, chest out. With this approach the unicycle leans away from the direction you're travelling. This has the added benefit of riding over small obstacles on the ground more smoothly. It also lends itself better to slower more controlled backwards pedaling because of the tendency to fall forward and not backwards. By luck this was the first approach I stumbled on and in hindsight I think its the best approach for beginning because of the more controlled and stable character. This is the method I practiced most today to get familiar with the feeling of being balanced while riding where I can't see.

 The second approach is to lean the uni towards the direction you want to travel and bend at the hips. Again, your weight is distributed across rather than balanced on top dead center so it is easier to balance, become aware of going off balance and recovering. This approach leads to much faster backwards riding because the tendency is to fall backwards which you naturally counter with faster pedaling. In contrast to the first method the uni leans towards the direction you're travelling and so if you encounter an obstacle on your path the uni is much more likely to fall backwards because of its orientation.

Update 11/1/2015:

Small improvement today. I found that the smoother I pedaled the more success I had. Key to this was avoiding the momentary stall that can happen a the deadspot when the cranks are vertical. To avoid this, as the cranks approach the deadspot I pointed the toes on my top foot towards the ground and pulled the crank through the deadspot. This made for a much smooth ride and better control. I also found that if the pedal action was erratic the wheel tended to twist under me and my backwards motion was a series of fish tails.

Update 12/1/15;

Confirmed at practice today that smooth pedaling is a key to dramatically improving distance and keeping direction going straight.  Regularly getting 10+ backpedals.

I found a comfortable posture that is in between the above 2. Slightly bent at the hips and keeping head up to focus on a fixed object at a distance.

Used back pedaling assisted by the stick to help get into position. Touched stick to ground when I felt like I was going off balance. Worked a treat.

Warm up drill

I'm taking a leaf from my learning experience with kiteboarding where the kite control and the board control are easy to separate. Breaking the activity into smaller chunks helps those with limited bandwidth such as your truly get the necessary brain wiring in place.

I started up with the same drill that I used last time.

i) Put uni down and just stick handle. This time set out 4 rocks in a rectangle and about twice shoulder width wide and 1/2 a meter high. I very slowly manured the ball around the outside of the rectangle and really focused on my right hand rotating the blade of the stick to get the ball moving in the right direction. Then I started a slow figure eight around them and after a while just random but (mostly) intended directions.

ii) Then I walked up and down the court stickhandling the ball alternatively left and right trying to avoid widening my stance to balance me and forcing myself to slide the stick through my left hand in order to reach for the ball in preference of bending. this meant reaching for the ball on a lot of occasions with one hand which I'm led to believe is not ideal for control or my arm/wrist.

iii) Still walking forward I tried pushing the ball away and trapping it and pulling it back in. This is much easier on my natural side. When I tried on the other side so my left hand came all the way across my body to the right, I found that I frequently stabbed myself in the stomach with the end of the stick as my arms crossed over in front of me.

The two partial solutions I found where to no cross them but rather pull my right arm (on the top of the stick) around me to the back while I bought my left hand across the front and then push both forward to grab the ball. This meant that both hands were always moving in the same direction so it felt natural.  The other part solution was to just push my right hand out in front ( with the top of the stick) and make the cross over happen with the stick stretched way out the front.

I suspect both might be useful but the I found the first also help to turn to the right more easily ( the right hand coming round the back). This seems to keep the stick in closer so there's less angular momentum to resist the turning action.

iv) Finally I increased the speed from a slow walk up to a fast jog. I also tried the sharp turns while jogging. For this I threw in the little alternative direction turn before twisting hard towards the direction I wanted to turn. This small, alternative direction turn prior seems to make it easier to turn agressively. I thought it was useful to try this while walking as this alternative twist feels quite counter intuitive and if I tried to think about it too hard or do it too quickly my co-ordination was all over the shop.

So takeaways today:

i) separate learning the stick and the uni until more advanced skill levels.
ii) Do things slowly with the stick until the co-ordination gets better and only then add the unicycle.
iii) turns to the right ( my right hand on top ) are easier when I move both hands around my body and keep them close in. The small, alternative direction twist prior to turning helps for more aggressive turns.