I think the pop-up method is eaiser for medium to tall people as they can get more of the stilt under them. For shorter people, its very very hard to get the stilt under. I have seen first timers that are 5'10" do the pop-up with ease.

I find the split twist method to work for me. Though on concrete or asphalt or wet grass, it can be difficult to get grip and not have it slip out from under you.

Either way, it still takes practice and some strength.

The best way I have found to learn is to go from reverse, from standing to kneeling, and just before my weight has shifted to fall to my knee, I stand back up. I continue to do this getting lower and lower each time, until I have completely moved from a standing position to a split kneeling position while slow and in control.

I would rather jump around for 20 minutes on my stilts then 40 minutes of running. You will be developing and using more muscles, for balance, then you would be by running. It's a lot easier on your joints if you don't fall. Plus, for cardio improvement, the jumping stilts are a natural interval trainer. You tend to race up your heart, slow it down, and repeat. This will improve your heart and lungs dramatically.

The idea is that it's about fun, not work. I think a trampoline or even a mini trampoline are a great compliment to help train your body in the air awareness skills.

Start on you stilts, until you are tired, but before you hurt youself. Then move onto the trampoline or the mini tramp. If you are using a mini tramp, make sure to have good padding for the landing mats so that you don't stress your knees or ankles too bad.

For rest days on the legs, work with some free weights for your upper body. Learn proper techniques and don't feel like you have to win the olympic gold for weights either. I would look into a circuit training program for you. This will improve your cardio on your off days while giving your legs a rest. In your weight work-out, try to give yourself 1-2 minutes rest between sets. For a month, 20 minutes every other day will be more then sufficient.

If that doesn't sound interesting, then do your weights while on the stilts. The idea is to improve your balance muscles on your rest days. So do squats, arm curls, overheads while on the stilts. You will find that you will be still working your legs without the strain of jumping. This would be close to working out on instability pads or medicine balls.

How did this work out?


From the pictures, it looks like you will want to add some padding around the rings on the belt. Those will have a tendency to dig and pinch. You may want to sew a loop in the belt for the rings so they won’t slide around.

You may want to add padding all the way around especially around the clip. You will want it tight on you and it will have a tendency to dig up into you depending on how you land.

Practice with the rigging before attempting to do anything. Both the spotters and the jumpers have to get comfortable with the system. Spotters need to know when to give enough slack and when to catch. And for the jumpers, to trust their spotters, and not get distracted by the jangling of the chains next to them as it flops around when they jump

If you’re the jumper, just get ready to have your gut sucked up a few times for your spotters to get used to your weight.

For the belt, a climbing harness would be a lot more comfortable, granted a bit more expensive. You would still need to make the same modifications to either of the belts to make it work effectively. The climbing harness is designed to hold your weight like you were slung in a basket compared to spotting belts where they hold you from the side. Typically, you need to have a leg harness to hold the belt down so it doens't ride up when vertical stress is applied.

I’m not sure about the doubling of the chain. I would naturally prefer one solid chain to do the job with the same weight load as the doubled, so less likely to bind. I understand the desire for flexibility. What about another swivel on the belt side?

I like the low cost approach and the flexibility to spot anyone, anywhere.

[Warning : Long Post ]

Congratulations landing on your first front flip. I'm sure you were totally jumping up and down with excitment aftwards.
 
I have been trying to find the easiest way to teach someone how to get over the fear of doing the back flip. Technically it is a lot easier to land as you can spot your landing sooner then a front flip, but the fear factor of a blind take-off is what you have to over come.

Have someone experienced with back flips spot you. If you are learning on your own, patience and proper technique will be your best guardian.

Watch a lot of videos and practice in parts.

Some will say, practice backhand springs, or back bends first.

Some will say work it up from low to high so that you minimize your impression of the danger you are naturally adverse to experience.

Stay low, bent, and just bounce a little until you get the maximum height, and then throw your legs around enough to land on your knees. When you feel confident, move to a standing position. Again, throw your legs around enough to just land on your knees.  You will find this to be pretty easy. When you first begin at the standing level, you will most likely cheat and look over your dominant side shoulder. This is a bad habit to pick up.

The other step is really practice the take-off. This is probably the most critical part. When I was first learning, in about 7 hrs, spread through out the week, all I did is practice the take-off.  The real danger with flips is not getting enough height. Most people launch themselves more horizontally then vertically.

Get maximum height in your jump, with your arms above your head. When you knees are about the height of your head when standing, bring them up to your chest.  Do not look backwards. This causes most of the problems with back flips. keep looking straight ahead. Your arms should then wrap around the knees, behind the knees or just touching the top of your knees. But only rotate enough so that you will land on your back instead of rolling completely over. Visualize the take-off and practice the take-off. When you have done enough of the take-offs, you will naturally feel when you are ready to let the rotation continue.

To understand the movement, you lay flat on the ground with your arms stretched out. Lift your knees to your chest. You will notice that the body naturally tends to roll backwards. You body will do the same vertically if you bring your knees up to your chest.

How do you know when you are getting proper height on your flips? When you come out of the rotation, you should feel like you could land like one of those martial arts landing they do on movies, where they seem to float down in that spread arm position. Also, your landing should be about the same spot you launched from. If you find yourself very close to the edge of the trampoline, then you know your launching yourself more horizontally then vertically. If this is the case, keep practicing just the take-off.

It’s also good to get into a counting habit for the jumps. I find this to help my concentration and focus. I like the “ 5-6-7-8” jump. This prepares me mentally to commit myself when the count completes, and it prepares me to link my jump as I improve.

Since you are working towards transferring your skills on the trampoline to your stilts, I also recommend practicing the spring board take-off. Where you take a step, then hop as high as you can with your dominate foot, while swinging your hands up, land on both feet, and jump straight up, while lifting your hands above your head again. The first part of the technique looks like you are going to do a flying knee kick to someone. But remember to jump vertically.

Some other moves to work on to get comfortable with the back.
A reverse Pike, but instead of straightening the back after you touch your toes, just land on your back.
Back rolls to handstand.
Back bends
Backhand springs
Make sure to stretch out your neck and back.

What is the most important lesson? Learn to protect your neck and head.

If you know you are bailing out of the flip or had a bad take off, and you are going to land on your head or neck, use your arms and put them behind your head. This greatly prevents the whiplash most people suffer when crashing onto their head.

Sorry for the long post. Hope some of this is useful.

At your weight, I think you will bottom out the 5070 pretty quick. You will get the easier sensation, but after about 10 hrs on the lighter springs, you will want to get higher and it's just won't happen. I am a authorized retailer for Powerisers now, but I think you should save your money.

To help with the springs, jump off of things. Start at 2 feet and work up as you get comfortable in the landing. This will require less effort to start compressing the springs with more force, and 'softening them up'.

You can also help strengthen you legs with squats, burpees ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burpee ) , and if you have access to a gym or equipment, leg presses 3x week.

I'm a bit skeptical of the quick-release for the knee bar.

However, as owning a pair of the original Upwings, I would be glad to test them out if the manufacturer is willing to send me a pair.   

To the original post:

I found that jumping off of things, like 3 feet high, helped a lot with the "softening the springs" without having to work so hard. This also improves your landing technique.

I have been on Upwings for about 6 months, and I have come across a problem with the pin (bolt) that is slotted into the footplate.

The pin that is slotted into the footplate is too weak. One of the pins has broken in half. I locked my footplate in the 0 degree position with no tilt. I believe the back screw that sets the tilt degree is the cause.

My suspicion is the manufacture or designer knew about this, as there are an additional 2 pins that came with the stilts. My conclusion is that a failure will occur in the future with the supplied additional pins.

Owners of Upwings/Elites or poweriZers generation 3 jumping stilts should check the pin for bending. You will notice if it's bent either through a visual inspection or your footplate will tilt a little despite being completely tighten with the back screw.

Use of the stilts in below freezing temperature may also have contributed to metal fatigue.

So the pins need to be made with a much stronger composite material to withstand the constant impact of the screw.  I am now looking for a stainless steel replacement.


edit: I forgot to mention, that if the pin is bent or broken, it may be dfficult to remove the pin. You will have unscrew the bottom inner hexangular column screw and nut that holds the footplate to the bottom connection ports (column supports).

Bringing this up, the standard should be however way you can clear 10ft only using bocks, like they do in the high jump.

If you use flip flops, make sure they are the hard kinds, soft ones will get squishy and cause problems with loose fitting bindings.

I happen to have an extra pair that I am willing to send and ship. Don't ask why I have an extra pair. You will need to pay all the prices. I have a paypal account that accepts Euros or BP so, PM for details.

What was the cost of the material and about how long did it take to complete the wrapping?

If I could get a pair of 2007 (advanced) poweriSers and 7 leagues to test, I could tell you how the upwings compare to them. However, I can only tell you how they compare to the poweriZers classic and pro.

The issues I have with the upwings, not in any order of preferences.

1. The foot pad. It is very thin and wears out quickly, the need for a soc is critical. Parts are very, very hard to come by at this time.

2. The foot plate design makes it very hard to add snowboard bindings.

3. For short people, under 5'6", adding flip flop mods is dangerous with the foot plate design, as your heel will slide back. The heel plate will be used up by the flip flop and your foot will slide back, potentianially giving a lot of slack to the toe binding and the ankle strap during use.

4. The lateral support on the calf culf is too soft. It flexes a bit too much. (Although with a mod, like a quick release strap that wraps all the way around the velcro straps and the plastic backing, its much more stable, over time does not seem to become an issue.)

5. The calf cuff tightening. It uses only one bolt to tighten the the cuff to the support bar. The support bar is metal, the cuff is plastic, they don't mix well. I think they should have at least two tightening bolts. I have slippage problems. I added tape below the plastic brackets to help prevent them from sliding down, but I can see they have travelled 1/8" still. I can't tighten anymore as I see hairline cracks in the plastic.

6. Currently in N.America parts are hard to come by and pretty much incompatable to other models.

Pros
1. weight, being less weight makes it a lot more responsive.
2. calf cuff, despite its weakness in the latteral support, versus fixed cuffs, you get less banging on the shins and you don't have to take your shoes off to get in and out. For performers, this is an important consideration.
3. less bulk, it's streamline design allows for better costumes.
4. A lot less squack and honk compared to the classic and pro.
5. Adjustable/fixed tilting foot plate.
6. Transporting, you can compact it.
6.1 The manual, it's actually readable english.

Compared to the classic and pro versions of the poweriZers (with a Z), I prefer the upwings. Compared to the other brands, I have no idea.

Currently, I can jump about 3 feet high, almost 1 meter (2 weight classes above my current. I am about 150lbs, or 70kg. I am using 90kg springs, I have yet to bottom out. With more experience and better technique, I believe I could get about 5-6 feet in my weight class.) Spring durability is a bit of an unknown.

I am willing to test the 2007 (Advanced) poweriSers. Ship it to me, with pre-paid return shipping, and give me 2 weeks to run it through the same evaluation.

If a re-seller won't take the the challenge. I can set up something to get the funds to purchase a 2007 model for testing purposes for the community's benefit. Kinda like Consumer Report in the U.S.

This technique for the spring protection has to be measured against time and cost. Wrapping it with sufficient tape, and I mean sufficient to the degree that these tires would protect against nicks and cuts is pretty dramatic. Now add to the cost of the tire and tapes, and the time to do it all, would be a good cost/benefit ratio.

If you can do, the entire spring and hoof in less time and cost, the additional weight might not be that much of an issue. With this kind of protection of the spring, you would never have to do a touch up on the spring protection that you have to do with tape. I still have to once in awhile even with a lot of tape.

I have read this thread.

I am glad to see you have done a re-estimate on your time frame.

It’s very ambitious goal. I would like to help you by making a few suggestions.

As to proving people, I would begin a video / word blog about your training and times. And then set milestones within your training. These milestones should be on stilts. Say, 100 miles, over x-days. And so on. As you demonstrate your determination and strength, then you will get a lot more supporters.

Stilts are going to be critical. You have two main issues, durability and weight, or getting replacement stilts along the way. The calf cuff will be an issue about comfort. The weakness in the upwing calf cuffs will not be critical for walking purposes.

As to the walking only part, I'm sure you are going to jump a few times. When you enter a new town, and the kids come out, they always say, jump, jump, do a flip, bark like a dog. Sometimes, especially in the beginning, or when you have media coverage, you probably won't want to disappoint, or can't help yourself for being in the moment.  So I would not rule out that you will be jumping sometime over the course of your walk.

The second issue, before you re-calculated your mileage / time frame, was your calorie needs. You will still be using a lot of calories, even at the slower pace. With a 1.5 years time frame, you are going to travel 10 miles a day. No rest. With your height and weight, you will need a lot of calories. Carrying that much more food will become an issue. I would strongly suggest a support vehicle.

As to your average distance travel per day. I am guessing that you could comfortably do 20 miles per day. But doing that say for 100 days straight might be a serious wear and tear on your body. Based upon you height and the additional height of the stilts, your stride probably puts you in the 4-5 mph without being too streneous. 4 hours of walking per day, even on stilts should not be terribly taxing. Without a rest day, at 20 miles per day average, you could travel 5580 miles under a year. Not knowing your weight, you probably are going to need about 3000-6000 calories per day. If you are planning to only travel 20 miles per day, you are going to have to carry all you calories you need until you reach the next town to restock. So if 60 miles, you are going to need to carry 3 days of food that meet your calorie intake. Thus my suggestion for a support vehicle or people to help you along the way.

Also, the time of year you are planning to travel through these states gives me a bit of concern. I would double check for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms along your path for the season. This could have serious consequences on your part.

I would think maybe getting 24hr fitness involved. They are already heavily tied into the biggest loser. A personal trainer and nutritionest would be a great benefit. Also, regaradless of who you go with,you should establish your current calorie needs by a professional.

Sponsorship.

My suggestion is to get tied in with a 501-c3 non-profit organization. Whatever it might be. You can get more equipment donation for tax purposes if the sponsoring company can write it off. They donate the equipment to the non-profit that then gives it to you to do the walk. Services are non-deductible. They have to be tangible items.

If you don’t want to go through a non-profit group, then people will still want to participate if you can generate a lot of news coverage, mass media. Companies are willing to pay for media coverage of the news type that provide to them a lot more eyeballs for less money. (The absolute reason why the million dollar home page was a success.  In my opinion, the owner was able to generate a lot of free publicity/news coverage that drove traffic to the website. The click through cost were exceptionally low for the "advertisers" compared to the current rate.)

If you can combine the two strategies, initially get companies to donate to a 501 c3, to get the tax write off, and then later get more companies to donate to the 501 c3 both in money and goods, because they now have a tie into a good cause and get mass media coverage, you will have the perfect formula to get all the support you need.

Because this is a walking/traveling stunt, look for 501 c3 companies with a logical tie-in.  An example could be war veterans that have been maimed and are paraplegic. You want to bring awareness and support to an underserverd, or neglected people

Breaking the world record is great, but if you can have a tie-in to a cause, you will have a lot more support.  Look up the guy that attempted to do the first double traverse across the summit of Mt. Everest in 2007. (I don't remember his name at the moment. he was unable to complete it. For his age, it was a very ambitious goal.) He also created awareness and raised funds for child abuse victims, as he himself was an abused child.

Best of luck to you.