proper foot position?

[novazeus]

all u pros probably never even think about it, u just do it naturally. at 16 i started teaching golf. i would spend however long it took to my pupils grip correct before moving on to anything else because without the proper grip, the swing could never be correct. it is the only connection to the clubs. with our wheels, i’m assuming the grip (our feet) in this case is as important. just from very limited screwing around with my little 9bot, and the tips and videos, it seems the foot position on the foot pads is definitely forward of a more centered position. my question is this, should my ankle bone, which is huge and tender, touch the housing of the wheel at all. there’s no way i can control the wheel with the one foot exercise without it killing my inside ankle bone against the hard plastic of the 9bot, unless i wear my high top reebok basketball shoes and then it’s fine. so i’m looking for advice on the correct “foot grip”.  maybe this seems anal but of all the people out there playing golf, probably less than one percent have ever struck a golf ball properly. it all starts with the grip.

[LanghamP]

I'm very glad to hear you're kicking your wheels around during your learning process/journey, and you'll encounter all sorts of peculiar problems. Nature of the business, wheels look pretty simple but there's a lot going on.

Don't you have a KS16s? The width of the upper padding will prevent your ankle bone from touching the wheel unless you're extremely bowlegged, and so this wheel (along with the similar designed MSuper 3) is extremely comfortable with regards to ankle bones.

For wheels that don't have padding, I have built up their padding until they do not touch the ankle bone, such as the VF5 where I've added massive amounts of upper padding.

[novazeus]

26 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

I'm very glad to hear you're kicking your wheels around during your learning process/journey, and you'll encounter all sorts of peculiar problems. Nature of the business, wheels look pretty simple but there's a lot going on.

Don't you have a KS16s? The width of the upper padding will prevent your ankle bone from touching the wheel unless you're extremely bowlegged, and so this wheel (along with the similar designed MSuper 3) is extremely comfortable with regards to ankle bones.

For wheels that don't have padding, I have built up their padding until they do not touch the ankle bone, such as the VF5 where I've added massive amounts of upper padding.

so the foot position should have the ankle bone up against the housing? it’s hard to tell from the instructional videos, where the contact patch is, ie upper inside leg, ankle bone, or both. for my ankle not to touch the housing, my foot position would haveto be on the outside of the food pad and then the connection would be only botton of foot and upper inside leg below the knee. or does the foot sit tightly or just touching the housing. if i was asking grip questions to a golfer, i’d screw up his golf game for months, so don’t crash thinking about it.

[LanghamP]

Highly variable since human morphology is so different; I suggest posting a few pictures of various foot position on your favored training wheel. While we can't tell you the perfect one, we could tell you which ones are obviously wrong.

[novazeus]

6 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

Highly variable since human morphology is so different; I suggest posting a few pictures of various foot position on your favored training wheel. While we can't tell you the perfect one, we could tell you which ones are obviously wrong.

i’ll try. not gonna be easy.

[novazeus]

did it barefoot for illustration. just concerned with the ankle bone connectivity for now. i might have two milimeters of skin over my ankle bone, so there’s no cusion there. if people ride these in flip flops, i’m thinking the proper ankle/slash foot position shouldn’t touch the housing or their ankle bone is a lot less sensitive than mine.

yeah the 16s is totally different but i figured i’d start with the 9bot. it’s padded like crazy. the 16s feels fine cause it looks like a marshmellow. i’m wondering if the extra rubatex at the top is hendering the correct foot hold on the wheel. like i said, with the cushioned high tops on, np. the foam on the ks’s is very un dense btw but should help a little for learning but not near as battle ready as the 9bot.

[novazeus]

i haven’t screwed around with the 16s at all, but it sure seems like it would be easier to learn on. the weather is decent here now heat wise. misting now. i’ve sold some cows and probably won’t sell anymore until after thanksgiving. still gotta feed them tho. got my pos new 40k massey ferguson tractor working somewhat better now ( i’m so over buying junk built by these manufacturers that cheap out on everything, beancounters rule the world and it’s sad) so hopefully, if time allows, i’m gonna start this coming week. looks like i’ll be able to block out some time. i wish that kiwano k01 would hurry up and get here so i could compare all of them at the same time as a rank beginner but kiwano keeps having production problems. supposedly they are trying to get these first ones out right.

[novazeus]

yeah my ankle bone has a point on it. any kind of foam down there on the 9bot would be ok riding barefoot or flip flops. either the ankle isn’t suppose to touch or u don’t ride a 9bot without ankle cushioning cause that hard plastic is no bueno.

[LanghamP]

You can't ride an EUC without touching the sides because it requires exactly 50/50 % weight distribution which wouldn't be something you could acquire until after a few hours of riding time.

In other words, being able to float the wheel between your legs without touching the sides requires perfect balance in order to perfectly distribute the weight between your feet.

To know if you have that skill is easy; go to any store that sells shoe soles using that machine that purportedly figures out what kind of sole you need. If you can make the image perfectly semetrical then you have perfect balance.

[novazeus]

9 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

You can't ride an EUC without touching the sides because it requires exactly 50/50 % weight distribution which wouldn't be something you could acquire until after a few hours of riding time.

In other words, being able to float the wheel between your legs without touching the sides requires perfect balance in order to perfectly distribute the weight between your feet.

To know if you have that skill is easy; go to any store that sells shoe soles using that machine that purportedly figures out what kind of sole you need. If you can make the image perfectly semetrical then you have perfect balance.

idk how u could do one leg wheel control exercise without touching the sides somewhere, but is it ankle or upper inside leg below the knee contact, or both, that is the question. and why wouldn’t 9bot have a ankle pad down there like 16s and 18s does?

[novazeus]

yeah i’m convinced the batman 9bot one s2 without side pads is a design flaw. i can ride it barefoot without it killing my ankle bone, but i gotta have something cushioning that bone for that one foot gliding exercise. might skip that all together and just take my chances repeatly falling to the side anyway. just because u know how to ride one of these things, doesn’t mean ur worth a damn at teaching. everybody glosses over foot placement and wheel contact points, ie the grip, which i think is the most important.

[LanghamP]

3 hours ago, novazeus said:

idk how u could do one leg wheel control exercise without touching the sides somewhere, but is it ankle or upper inside leg below the knee contact, or both, that is the question. and why wouldn’t 9bot have a ankle pad down there like 16s and 18s does?

I prefer pads to hit below the knee while never touching the ankle, and add extra padding to my wheels accordingly. However, at low speeds I don't touch the wheel at all on the sides, and steer by  tipping the wheel. Therefore the answer might be both, with upper padding preferred for faster wheels.

[LanghamP]

3 hours ago, novazeus said:

yeah i’m convinced the batman 9bot one s2 without side pads is a design flaw. i can ride it barefoot without it killing my ankle bone, but i gotta have something cushioning that bone for that one foot gliding exercise. might skip that all together and just take my chances repeatly falling to the side anyway. just because u know how to ride one of these things, doesn’t mean ur worth a damn at teaching. everybody glosses over foot placement and wheel contact points, ie the grip, which i think is the most important.

While golf and EUCs are both psychomotor skills, anyone can hit a ball wrong and still get it down the range whereas EUC skill cannot be faked. They either can go down the road or they cannot so you should listen to someone who can EUC. They have some value over someone who does not.

Therefore when I tell you riding with sandals or barefoot is stupid, you should listen with great care. Don't ride with sandals.

[steve454]

12 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

Don't ride with sandals.

 

[Steve Persona]

Yes , riding with no protection on your feet is just asking for an injury. Once you get hit by the pedal after a simple wipeout you will wish you had on shoes of some kind. 

[novazeus]

2 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

While golf and EUCs are both psychomotor skills, anyone can hit a ball wrong and still get it down the range whereas EUC skill cannot be faked. They either can go down the road or they cannot so you should listen to someone who can EUC. They have some value over someone who does not.

Therefore when I tell you riding with sandals or barefoot is stupid, you should listen with great care. Don't ride with sandals.

yeah i wasn’t planning on it but i see people that are experienced riding with flip flops. like i said, i can see how i can ride it in flip flops but with no padding at my ankle bone, no way to do one foot gliding exercise. my analogy to golf is only ur feet are the only things connected to the wheel and whether u realize it or not, through trial and error in learning how to ride and as you get more experienced, ur feet find a certain position on the footpads.for example, just looking at the device and the footpads, one might think centering ur feet on the footpads would be correct, but that would be wrong. it seems the foot hangs off the front of the footpads. since i’m only getting a taste of this little 14” wheel, i’m surmising, the way my lower extremities bind to these different size wheels as i graduate up , 14”, 16”, 18” my positioning will change slightly to. teaching is a helluva lot different than doing. my friend wants to pick up my motorcycle next sunday so i gotta dig it out of my garage, so i gotta scrape my driveway so i can pull my new hobie cat 16 that’s never seen water out of the garage to get to the motorcycle. the weather looks perfect next week so i should get my first licks in tuesday or so.

[novazeus]

looking good. since i’ve got over a half of a square mile of land to sell, might as well rub it in for my northern neighbors. this is why the snowbirds come south this time of year.

[novazeus]

49 minutes ago, Steve Persona said:

Yes , riding with no protection on your feet is just asking for an injury. Once you get hit by the pedal after a simple wipeout you will wish you had on shoes of some kind. 

yeah i’m definitely wearing the new hightops i bought specifically for wheel riding. i do really stupid things tho, like feeding my cows and donkeys in flip flops. it’s pretty nerve wracking the way they swarm me during feeding time. can u imagine what a thousand pound cow standing on ur bare foot with their hoof feels like? unfortunately i do.

somebody gave me advice about practicing dismounting whether intentional or otherwise and that’s probably good advice. like my father once told me about dismounting a horse, if u can’t figure out how to dismount safely, u probably shouldn’t get on a horse. falling from almost 6 feet at 30 miles an hour will shake u up a little. i’ve done that too. the horse and my father got a good laugh tho.

[novazeus]

i’ve done this. still have an arabian race horse but won’t straddle anything anymore. never had a nice path like this. my runs were at full blast, runs chasing a cow trying to turn back from the herd. nothing safe about getting on a horse.

https://youtu.be/45hdjzNgLfc

 

[novazeus]

1 hour ago, LanghamP said:

5 hours ago, novazeus said:

 

While golf and EUCs are both psychomotor skills, anyone can hit a ball wrong and still get it down the range whereas EUC skill cannot be faked.

not really. taking 30 whacks at a ball is about like falling off a euc thirty times to go thirty yards. golf is hard. like i said, millions of golfers, very few ever strike a ball correctly. hitting a golf ball ten feet doesn’t mean u are doing it right. i’d say way less than one percent. like if i was able to ride a wheel down my road but dropped it thirty times, i wouldn’t consider that riding a wheel. that’s probably about how many times i will drop it. foot position in the stirrups is important too, btw. foot position in golf is huge. everything comes from ground. like electricity.

[Hunka Hunka Burning Love]

Riders wearing sandals are not riders who are experienced or thought much about falling off while wearing sandals.  Just ask @YoshiSkySun.  I did see Marty wear sandals riding on a wheel, but generally it's ill advised.  You don't see pro BMX riders or skateboarders wearing sandals nor professional basketball or baseball players doing the same.  You can do it, but there are more cons than pros to it.  Like striking a golf ball with only one hand on the club.  You can do it, but it's not a good idea.

Proper footwear is important during accidents and mishaps.  You need the foresight to realize how bad things can be trying to run off a sudden launch in sandals.

With your ankle anatomy, moving the leg slightly outwards or padding the bot/leg there would work.  In general contact along the inner calf is best.  Each wheel is different so technique may vary.  Adding a pad or wearing high tops / shin guards is perfectly acceptable.  Maybe learning on the 16S might be easier due to the extra weight and larger wheel.

[Marty Backe]

21 minutes ago, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said:

Riders wearing sandals are not riders who are experienced or thought much about falling off while wearing sandals.  Just ask @YoshiSkySun.  I did see Marty wear sandals riding on a wheel, but generally it's ill advised.  You don't see pro BMX riders or skateboarders wearing sandals nor professional basketball or baseball players doing the same.  You can do it, but there are more cons than pros to it.  Like striking a golf ball with only one hand on the club.  You can do it, but it's not a good idea.

Proper footwear is important during accidents and mishaps.  You need the foresight to realize how bad things can be trying to run off a sudden launch in sandals.

With your ankle anatomy, moving the leg slightly outwards or padding the bot/leg there would work.  In general contact along the inner calf is best.  Each wheel is different so technique may vary.  Adding a pad or wearing high tops / shin guards is perfectly acceptable.  Maybe learning on the 16S might be easier due to the extra weight and larger wheel.

I've ridden around town a couple of times with sandals, and posted a picture or video just to piss some people off   As @Hunka Hunka Burning Love suggests, it's not recommended for safety and your feet get tired real quick. The more support you have on your feet, the better.

[novazeus]

1 hour ago, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said:

 Maybe learning on the 16S might be easier due to the extra weight and larger wheel.

u think? u see i was screwing around last night, and believe it or not, for grins, i’ve put a lot of research into the best way to learn this, seeing how i use to teach golf and basically have to teach shit to everybody, really. being a contractor/developer/whatever, always the boss, always the one to teach, and of all the little training vids i’ve seen, that little drill of one foot gliding, seem to make the most sense for what i have to work with out here on the ranch, which is my road. no poles, no fence, no nothing, just asphalt. i’ll have to use my truck to push off on to get mounted fully. i could throw something together on my road like two rails to bounce off on, i have tons of lumber, literally, sitting in my pasture, but i’m not gonna bother with that for me just learning. so, like i was saying, last night i was screwing around with the one foot hold thing, barefoot, i mean i’m not going anywhere, i’m in a 40’ cargo container full of junk, and i was like, oww, i must not have my foot positioned correctly, because i can take more pain than most, especially after being sodomized by the doctors in jax 40 times with what felt like a oversized splintery broomstick that magically expands once inserted, and the hard plastic on my boney, never been broken ankle, unlike the right one, hurts unbelievably as well it should. so i’m thinking ok front to back is good, but does the foot go tight to the wheel casing, as in the arch of ur foot, as one pressure/contact point, or does it move out a bit, to give more of an angle so the inside of ur leg just below my knee, i’m 6’ and i’m talking 9bot here, if ur a midget, might be different, or are u also gripping it with ur ankle bone??? ie foot position question, that is all. if u are suppose to have pressure on the ankle bone whilst doing this gliding exercise, then batman 9bot left off some padding that other makers put on. are those ankle pads on othe models there to cusion ur ankles? because that is or would be a contact pressure point for one foot riding? next time ur out riding on one foot, think about where u feel the wheel below ur waist, and if u had a little psi meter in ur head, what the pressures are at the contact points, between u and the wheel, ie foot postion. don’t crash. i gotta go back and look at these one foot riding videos, and see if they are riding without pads whether it be footwear or part of the wheel, between their ankle bone and the shells hard plastic. maybe i’m not normal, but my inside ankle bone is about like my elbow.

i’ll bet if it was one of my pretty young gfs asking about foot position and pressure points, would be all over that.

the whole golf thing was about 47 years ago, i was getting paid ten dollars an hour to teach golf, which was a lot of gas money back then for a 16 year old, and people would complain, all u do is talk about the grip, when are u gonna show me how to hit the ball like u? and i’d say as soon as u start gripping the club correctly, everything else will happen almost naturally, otherwise will just keep working on ur grip for a few hundred more dollars. so yeah, in golf, just like i’m sure with this, cept ur using ur feet and legs to hold something, either by gravity or pressure, grip , position, pressure, all important. this is stuff i’m sure u don’t think about but it is real. 

one foot gliding foot position and wheel contact pressure points.

[radial]

I also have very prominent ankle bones.  When I was first learning to ride, I beat up my ankles and shins so bad that I took to wearing soccer shin guards turned inwards just to keep from bruising myself up.  But over time, I learned to ride without clutching the wheel between my legs like a nutcracker on a walnut.  And also to position my feet further outboard so that my upper shins were the only parts actually contacting the wheel.  Getting a little banged up when you are first learning how to ride is probably an inevitable rite of passage, but I think you should be aiming to keep your ankles/lower shins clear of the wheel as soon as you have the hang of it.  

[Hunka Hunka Burning Love]

Maybe think "brace" more than "grip?"  The ankle area has thin skin so use shoes or ankle pads to help keep the ankles away from any hard surfaces.  The twisting motion to balance should be fine with the friction from shoes on the pedals.  This video helped me a lot.