I liked how the guy (who was about to fall on his face in the bike v. bock race) said they were "Popular in Japan."   I'm almost certain that I'm the ONLY bocker in Japan right now!

I know that video's been up for awhile, but I just found it since sumofallpower's post brought it back to the top.   Very well done and helpful.  I've been trying to keep my hand on my front knee, and push myself up with my leg and arm at the same time, but it just doesn't work.   Leaning forward like that and pushing from the ground looks like it might be more effective.

How tall are you Balthezar?  You look like a pretty lanky guy.

tahts why ist betsto use a peron in froint cos they have more conntrol then a fence. jelly x

Lol Janelle it looks like you're getting progressively drunker as you write!  Your next message will be "f***in' bosh upmeister jump big freshman crowbar innit..."

I'm a total noob too, having just gotten my bocks 2 days ago.  For jumping, I went with the "have a stationary object in front of you" strategy that Xarnu recommended.  I just trust an unmoving object more than a person, whose strength may not be enough to keep me up if I come down hard.  Maybe if I had some experienced bocker/tumbler friends it would be different.

I've been using a cyclone fence with a bar going across the top.  It's sturdy, but if I fall and hit the fence it won't hurt as much (hopefully) as face-vaulting into a brick wall.  I start off by holding onto the bar and jumping, then move on to barely touching the bar, and then move my hands away and only touch it when I come down to steady myself a little, and finally I don't touch the bar at all, unless I lose my balance.

Re falling:  I know how you feel.  I'm really scared to fall on pavement.  Last night I went to a big, wide-open grassy area, and just practiced falling (with the proper safety equipment) over and over and over.  Do it about 20 times, and you'll realize that you ain't gonna get hurt falling (at least not on grass).  Soon I will try the same practice on pavement.   Now that I know how to fall (kneepads-elbowbads-wrist protectors, in that order but at almost the same time, thinking of yourself as a bow rolling from end to end) hopefully I can handle pavement.

Getting up, in the agregate, is tougher than falling down.

Lol, as a former attorney, I love you disclaimers coachgeo!  Very forthright and earnest!

That spotting belt looks like a cool idea, as long as you trust your spotters.

Re the contraption, it looks cool as hell, but I'd sure as hell not want to be strapped to it until I was really good on bocks already.  That way, I could use the springiness of the bungy cords to extend my upward-motion.

The irony, therefore, is that it's a training device that I wouldn't feel I could trust until after I got a lot of training.  Still ingenious as hell though!

Mmmmm... girls!

Re the abs:  Yeah, I think bocks are a lot like an ab-roller, or similar device.  One of the best ab exercises is hanging from a bar and lifting your legs up in front of you.  Bocks seem to work you in a similar way, albeit with a somewhat smaller range of motion.  Kangaroo hopping is what does it I think, since you're stretching out your body and bringing your legs forward at the same time.  The weight of the bocks really adds a lot to the exercise, plus the fact that you have to use other muscles to keep your balance.

And now that you've had your first go you can be expecting some bockers back to catch up to you, don't go too hard on your body let it adjust to the new stresses slowly

Yeah, I had anticipated that, so I've been doing a lot of low-weight deadlifts and lower-back exercises to get ready.  Even so I felt it this morning.  I think that's one of the things I'm going to like most about bocks:  I don't think there's any other exercise that will work you in exactly the same way.  It's like the ultimate cross-training tool.

Lol it was just like running wind-sprints, that sudden nausea that just comes out of nowhere.  I think I just wore myself out putting the things on, so by the time I got up I was already winded.  I puked a little and then I was fine.

I liken it to playing Quake II:  After you play for 36 hours straight, you get this terrible headache and nausea, and the next 12 hours are like hell.  But if you can break through that 48-hour-Quake II-marathon point, the sickness, heart palpatations, and audio-visual hallucinations stop, and they never bother you again.

I bocked for about an hour (resting a lot of that), then went and took a rest, then did two 20 minute sessions with rests between.  I still got winded the second two times, but not as bad.  This morning I ran my normal 3-4 mile jog, and felt great.  I can tell that the bocks are going to put some badass muscles on my legs in ways that running or biking would never do!

Tonight I'm going to go to a park, so I can move on grass.  I'm just too afraid of falling on the asphalt, and it's cramping me.  I think once I fall a few times on the grass　and get used to landing I'll be able to ball it out on concrete.

Hey Richard, happy birthday!  I got my S-Rexes from you today, and they're great.  Thanks again!

[total]

 

I've spent the last hour or so bounding around in them on my roof!  I was pleasantly surprised at how easy they are to jump and run in!  My roof is this wonderful, smoothe, painted concrete; hard as a bitch, but great for jumping.  Also, there are plenty of supports.

I was running within about 5 minutes, and have only fallen once so far.  I'm on my way to the park, where there's grass, so I can push the envelope a little without being afraid of falling!

A few preliminary observations from a total noob for those waiting for your first pair: 

1) Picking up your feet is the first key.  If you drag your feet at all you'll lose your balance. 

2) Most important, for me at least, was to keep moving!  Don't try to stop by stopping, but by keeping up your speed and just taking control of the motion.  The great racecar driver Mario Andretti once said something like "It's amazing how many drivers there are, even at the Formula 1 level, who think brakes are for slowing the car down."  Bocks seem from my first impression to be the same way.

3)  Get used to standing and moving without touching anything as quickly as you can, and then wean yourself away from supporting yourself.  Like I said, I'm really lucky that my roof has this bizarre cyclone-fence configuration that gives me a perfect place to walk with support.  But the thing about supporting yourself with your arm is that you instantly realize that, with bocks on, you are going to go down like a sack of kittens if you try to hold yourself up that way.

Momentum is the best support.

4)  Jump close to a support, and concentrate on keeping your heels down.  Beyond that, you have to do kind of a "stomp" if you really want height, where you extend your knees as you come down.  It seemed to me that I was adding about a foot in height to my jumps when I did that extra stomp.

5)  You are going to get very, very tired, very, very fast.  If you had breakfast, plan to puke it up.  If you are diabetic, plan for your blood sugar to get low very quickly, and have some juice or something handy.

I'll try to get some video later, and post it.

Thanks especially to Richard at RTX!

Thanks Nero.  And may I say you have the coolest signature of any I have ever seen!  "Outside is my XBox" really says it all!

Well, I'm waiting for my first pair to clear customs in Tokyo right now.  If my girl thinks bocks are cool, and wants to try them, maybe I'll make you an offer.

Anyway, like I said, don't get discouraged, and follow whatever path you think is right for you.  If bocking is half as fun and cool as I think it's going to be, you'll come back eventually.  And you should have the right to come back without feeling you've been an outcast.

39 years have taught me that you can leave a hobby and come back to it.  What you can't do is let others tell you what's right for you.  Once you start doing that, you never make it back.

You fool!   

It is your choice!
you are going to delete your account too
right!!

Geesh guys, come on... the kid's not leaving a cult!

Do what you have to do bam.  I hope you get what you need from your Raptors, and that when you've got the cash you come back to bocking.

[Always wear your protective gear!]

Always wear your protective gear![/b] Because also the gear can fail.

Well put!  That pretty much says it all.

Glad Bobman's ok and that no one got hurt too seriously.  It looks like he took one hell of a nasty fall!

Sprog, a few questions about these recent issues with 7s:  Were all (or any) of the recent problems similar to Bobman's?  I.e., were they related to the integrity of the frames, rather than the springs?

Also, were all of the incidents among top-level bockers?  It looks most of the really good bockers use 7s.  You guys are the ones who are going to put the most stress on a set of stilts, so it follows that any design shortcoming would manifest first in the 7s, even if other bocks share the same shortcoming.  For instance, I was struck in the photos how big the holes were in the support bar, leaving relatively little metal connected to support the brunt of all that jumping.  It may be that designers will have to give in and add a little big of weight by drilling smaller holes in the struts, in order to assure sturdiness.

But the fact that it's 7s is probably just due to the skill and number of users.  If I say, for instance, "Most people killed by guns are killed by 9mm bullets.  Ergo, 9mm bullets are the most deadly."  I may be numerically accurate, but statistically inaccurate.  9mm bullets aren't nearly as deadly as, say, .45s, but as standard NATO rounds, 9mms are used in a lot more guns.  Get your best jumpers all jumping like sex-crazed kangaroos on Xtasy using the same brand of bock, and... well, you get my meaning.

Skis, snowboards, skateboards, etc., all have many thousands of users, and all sometimes break despite the best engineering.  Unfortunately, though, bocks have the added element of a super-strong spring that can turn into a lethal projectile.  One of the things that has attracted me to this sport (and probably hooked a lot of you) is the fact that the bocks are such an engineering marvel!  How cool is it that you can safely jump over cars and run like you were in reduced gravity!?  How cool that so few have even discovered it, and that it has so much possibility!

But by that same token, we may all look back in 10 years and realize that we were--by willing and inevitable virtue of our early participation in the sport--guinea pigs of a sort for engineering enhancements yet to come.

I plan to wear plenty of protection, and jump my ass off!

is that tea really green?

Oh yeah, Japanese tea is a beautiful bright-green color.  It's more bitter than the European teas I've tasted, and an acquired taste, but great.

Also, I guess green tea is full of antioxidents and good crap like that to keep your arteries and aortal valves all nice and clean.

Lol, I know you guys take your tea pretty seriously over there.  Most Americans think Lipton teabags are the last word in tea, and that the only reason you get the water hot is to immediately ice it down again.  If we want to warm up, we drink the c-word.