When I was younger, I remember adults talking about how hard it is to keep up with the kids. As an adult, I know for a fact that it’s one thing to keep up with 11-year-olds, it’s another to keep up with 11-year-olds on unicycles.

This is how I’ve been spending – and will be spending – some of my Saturdays.

We’ve always talked about learning freestyle unicycling but our teachers have been limited to YouTube and the void deck cement – pain is a good teacher. We were acquainted very recently with some teachers from the Japanese school who introduced us to their Saturday morning sessions.

Our instructor is this sensible and very skilled primary school student who drills us in various basics. While the local primary schools are deathly afraid that their students would suffer the odd bruise, we’ve noticed that the Japanese seem to forgo kneeguards for increased agility on their unicycles. Tumbles are common but any seasoned unicyclist can tell you that sometimes, it’s precisely your guards that inhibit movement and cause some of the dumbest falls.

My aim eventually is to do this with ease. One of the girls tell us that it took her almost a year to perfect this and another to get to the point where she can pull out a leg in a yoga-esque pose. Naturally, they were all too fast to capture with a phone camera.

We Singaporeans have learnt most of our tricks from YouTube and haven’t much of a foundation to build upon. That’s why drills kill. Each session begins with a few rounds around the hall – forward, backwards, spins, variations of one-foot riding, then sprints. Each session lasts between 2 to 4 hours depending on how long you can go and I find myself struggling through the drills.

Progress comes fast though. Some of the kids whom I’ve seen riding wobbly a month ago are now comfortably riding backwards. I feel that my spins are more regular and controlled but nausea still sets in after a minute (think spinning yourself in a circle for 3. That’s the standard drill).

I should focus on learning to ride backwards properly. Then I’d learn skills in a Switch position (ie. with the other foot as master). Maybe after that I’d be able to get out from the sidelines.

For now though, I’m content with the dull ache in both calves every Sunday.