Wheelies are a very necessary skill to learn. Not only do you need them for jumping up and down curbs, but they are most helpful when you want to rest against a wall or turn in a very tight space. You should practice this skill with a spotter (Figure 1) until you can do it with some degree of confidence. Eventually you will be able to pop a wheelie with hardly a thought. Wheelies are not very hard to learn. Your own fear of falling will probably be the biggest thing to overcome. Nonetheless, a few words of caution are in order. Begin practicing with your anti-tip tubes down. Once you can touch these to the ground, start practicing with a spotter. Also, when you fall over backwards (and you will), tuck your head into your chest so that you don't bump the back of your head. I know this sounds crazy, but once you fall, you will say "is that all there is to it?", have a chuckle and get back up. (Obviously if you have just broken your neck don't even think about trying this stuff until you are out of your brace and the doctor tells you your neck is stable.)

Let's start with a few principles that you need to understand before you begin. The first principle is that the front of the chair is raised by pushing backwards on the back of the chair. It is the back of the chair that does the lifting, not some tremendous burst of speed. The second principle is that as you lift the front end of your chair, it begins to feel weightless. This is because it is close to its balancing point. I know that these points may sound strange, but lets start by testing them out.

First, put your hands at 11:00 on the wheels, then lean forward and arch (Figure 2) your back. Now bounce your body off the back of the chair and lean back while holding your hands still. Practice this until you can actually bounce the front end off the ground. (This may be difficult or impossible if you are sitting in a dinosaur.) Once you can do this, it is simply a matter of changing your center of gravity by pushing your chair forward while your body is going backwards. (I should mention that you can accomplish this by wheeling backward and then quickly pushing forward. Don't develop this poor habit since it can't used to jump over things while you are wheeling forward.) I know that it doesn't feel as smooth as rolling backwards when you start by bouncing, but when you get outside in the "real world" you will be very glad you learned to do it right. All right, back to business. Now lets start to "pop" wheelies by bouncing on the back of your chair and pushing forward at the same time. Reach back and place your hands at about 10:00 on the wheels. Lean forward, arch your back and then begin to push forward quickly while letting your body come back against the chair. When your back hits the chair, your hands should be right at 12:00.

Continue to lean back and continue to push the chair forward. Now your front end should start to leave the ground. By the time your hands get to 2:00 (Figure 3), your front end should feel weightless, and you should be thinking about getting things under control. Let's take a closer look at this. When you feel your front end become weightless, you are balancing on your rear axle. To stay in control of the situation, you must be able to move the chair forward if the front end is falling down or backward if the chair is falling backward. This is accomplished by sliding your hands back to about 1:00. You should not take your hands off the wheels to bring them back because this lets the chair fall, and then you are out of control. Once you get the chair up and are truly balancing (no more herky jerky movements), you always want to keep just a fraction of weight on the front end. By this I mean you want to feel the weight of the chair just slightly trying to fall forward with you ever so gently pushing forward without the chair moving. This way, you are not "blind" to what the chair wants to do, and if you lose it, the chair will fall forward, not backwards. A good place to practice in order to get the "feel" of the front end is on carpeting, grass or sand. These surfaces let you get an exaggerated feel of pushing forward in a wheelie without moving. You should practice your wheelies until they are second nature, and you can do them with hardly a thought.

That's about all there is to pulling wheelies. Now we need to begin to develop some practical applications. Aside from looking good and making people go "wow", wheelies have many practical applications. Jumping up and down curbs, turning in really tight spaces, taking a nap without falling out of your chair and doing a pressure relief are just a few.

Now let's start by working on pulling small wheelies while you are rolling forward. Practice jumping your front wheels over cracks in the sidewalk or lines on the pavement while rolling forward slowly. Now that you are moving forward you need to apply all of the basic fundamentals so that everything comes together. Remember to use your body! Begin by taking a normal push to get yourself rolling (3 mph). Now glide to the place where you want to jump. Once your front wheels are about three feet in front of where you want to jump, lean forward, arch your back and reach back with your hands. Act as if you were going to take a very big push. (Notice how reaching back allows you to keep your balance while you lean forward.) By now your front wheels are about one foot from where you want to jump. Start to push forward and simultaneously force your upper body onto the back of the chair. Keep leaning back and follow through with your push. Do not take your hands off of the handrims when your stroke is finished; just let them slide through your hands. Your front end should be up off the ground and jumping over the crack or line. This simultaneous motion is the key to jumping. Keep repeating this until you can do it with control and grace. You must get this down cold because unlike cracks and lines, curbstones are very unforgiving and that's were we are heading next. As your timing gets better and everything starts to work together, you will have no trouble deciding on how high you want to lift the front end. Do this until you can go right up into a full wheelie while on a roll. Remember to just let the hand rims slide through your hands so that you are always in control. Notice how easy it is to bring the chair back down if you get into too much of a wheelie, simply by grabbing the hand rims. (Note: If you don't have a spotter, practice doing this with your anti-tip tubes down. You will still learn a lot.)