Unfortunately there is a significant difference between those who would like
to be able to ride a unicycle and those who would like to learn to ride a
unicycle. And most people can't tell the difference until they have a go and
find out it isn't quite as easy as they first hoped. So don't worry that so
many people appear to give up.
I had a flying instructor who got the best out of me by being encouraging to
the point of outright flattery. The effect was that I seemed to live up to his
praises. I think that lots of encouragement is very important. I believe often
people are afraid that they are having more difficulty than others and that
there is therefore something wrong with them. This makes them depressed and
give up. This is what you have to avoid. Make much of learners' successes and
belittle their failures.
I don't know if that will help, as I started out - some people aren't prepared
to put in the effort. But I do think that you need more home-brew psychology
than anything specific in the form of training your new recruits. I gave up
twice before learning to ride, I didn't realise how well I was doing because I
didn't think that I was making any progress at all.
Best of luck
Nick Merriam
Imperial College, London
nam@doc.ic.ac.uk