1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,200 All right, welcome back to the largest 2 00:00:02,200 --> 00:00:05,120 study on climbing falls. In the first 3 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:08,360 episode we looked how does extra slack 4 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:11,320 affect the fall, or more precisely does 5 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,320 falling more reduce the pendulum into 6 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:16,520 the wall and how hard the climber is 7 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:18,840 going to hit the wall. And then I showed 8 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:21,640 you the importance of soft catch and 9 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:25,359 what a massive difference that makes. 10 00:00:25,359 --> 00:00:28,310 And also that hard catches are not only 11 00:00:28,310 --> 00:00:30,599 the problem for heavier belayers. 12 00:00:30,599 --> 00:00:33,320 Lighter belayers often lack practice to 13 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:35,760 give soft catches since most of the time 14 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:38,920 they don't need, they fly up anyway but 15 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:42,003 in exceptional cases with enough friction... 16 00:00:42,003 --> 00:00:44,039 - My foot - What happened to your foot? 17 00:00:44,039 --> 00:00:48,000 - Well it was a hard fall. - Heavy belayer? 18 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:50,700 - Eh... Light belayer. Yeah. 19 00:00:50,700 --> 00:00:53,756 Yeah. And I also asked you guys 20 00:00:53,756 --> 00:00:55,320 - I'm curious, did you ever 21 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:59,776 got unexpectedly hard catch from a light belayer? 22 00:00:59,776 --> 00:01:01,879 And turns out this happens more 23 00:01:01,879 --> 00:01:04,370 often than I thought. 24 00:01:04,370 --> 00:01:06,040 So yeah, light or heavy, you're 25 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:08,119 going to love this episode because we're 26 00:01:08,119 --> 00:01:10,320 going to investigate which method of 27 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:12,920 giving soft catch is the best. We're 28 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:16,000 going to compare stepping forward versus 29 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,000 jumping up, and as a bonus the tube slide 30 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,119 method where the belayer lets the rope 31 00:01:21,119 --> 00:01:23,040 slide through the device, which is more 32 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:25,336 common in trad climbing. 33 00:01:25,336 --> 00:01:27,386 So let's begin. 34 00:01:27,386 --> 00:01:30,000 Now in the previous episode I showed you this 35 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,799 beautiful horizontal velocity graphs 36 00:01:32,799 --> 00:01:35,720 and I explained that the peak of horizontal 37 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:38,240 velocity is at the bottom of the 38 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:40,720 pendulum, and that is a good indicator 39 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:44,159 how hard the climber would meet the wall 40 00:01:44,159 --> 00:01:46,824 if the wall would not be overhanging. 41 00:01:46,824 --> 00:01:49,200 And in this test I wanted to go a step 42 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:51,600 further and see what happens when the 43 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:56,129 climber meets the wall. [Climber] - One, two, three 44 00:01:57,884 --> 00:01:59,840 And my idea this time was to 45 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:03,600 measure deceleration during the impact. 46 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:06,840 And in many of our test cases 47 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,840 this idea was working really well. If we 48 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:13,000 compare the soft catches to the hard one 49 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,000 you can see a huge spike in 50 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,800 deceleration. However after doing lots 51 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:21,440 and lots of more falls and analyzing the 52 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:23,840 data I realized that the peak 53 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:26,959 deceleration is not always a good metric 54 00:02:26,959 --> 00:02:29,480 to look. for example take a look at this 55 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,080 hard catch you can visually see that it 56 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:35,080 was much harder for the climber but the 57 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,200 peak deceleration was nearly identical 58 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:41,159 to the soft catches before, so it turns 59 00:02:41,159 --> 00:02:44,519 out our soft bodies are incredible at 60 00:02:44,519 --> 00:02:45,800 absorbing 61 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:48,400 impacts but the problem is that it's 62 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:50,080 very difficult to measure what's 63 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:52,319 happening in our muscles during this 64 00:02:52,319 --> 00:02:54,959 impact. So while peak deceleration was 65 00:02:54,959 --> 00:02:57,040 interesting to look in some cases, 66 00:02:57,040 --> 00:02:59,840 horizontal velocity at the moment of 67 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:03,280 impact was much better indicator. After 68 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:05,560 all, all of this velocity that we are 69 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:08,239 about to hit the wall will need to be 70 00:03:08,239 --> 00:03:12,200 absorbed by our soft bodies. Okay so 71 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:14,400 let's see which method to give a soft 72 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,599 catch is the best. To not kill me on the 73 00:03:17,599 --> 00:03:20,280 very first test we started with smaller 74 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:24,200 falls and jumping up technique. And these 75 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:28,319 falls were extremely nice and soft. 76 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:33,799 [Climber] - A soft ride! So let's see how stepping 77 00:03:33,799 --> 00:03:38,080 forward will compare. [Climber] - 1... 2... 3... 78 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,680 - This is harder. And the fall this time 79 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:45,159 felt a little bit harder and we can also 80 00:03:45,159 --> 00:03:48,480 see that in the graphs. However overall 81 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:50,920 it was still a very soft catch. 82 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:54,840 And the second fall was very similar. 83 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:58,040 Also a quick note: I was not sure 84 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,040 how much stiffer the rope gets over 85 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:03,640 multiple falls, and even though in this 86 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:06,079 video I'm presenting you all the data 87 00:04:06,079 --> 00:04:08,879 grouped by method, meaning at first I 88 00:04:08,879 --> 00:04:10,879 show you all the soft catches with 89 00:04:10,879 --> 00:04:13,480 jumping up method, then I show you all 90 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:15,760 the soft catches with stepping forward, 91 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:18,519 in reality we did alternate between the 92 00:04:18,519 --> 00:04:21,320 methods between every fall. So we did a 93 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:23,919 jumping up and then stepping forward, etc. 94 00:04:23,919 --> 00:04:26,280 Pointless information for most of 95 00:04:26,280 --> 00:04:28,720 you, but I know that a lot of geeks are 96 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:30,919 watching my videos and we like to write 97 00:04:30,919 --> 00:04:34,240 nitpicky comments, so this is for you 98 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:37,280 nitpicky geek. All right now let's see 99 00:04:37,280 --> 00:04:40,479 how the tube slide method compares and 100 00:04:40,479 --> 00:04:42,520 while I was expecting a lot from this 101 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:47,240 method, the first fall wasn't any better. 102 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:50,039 The second fall had a very low momentum 103 00:04:50,039 --> 00:04:53,600 into the wall but a lot of vertical 104 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:56,800 momentum, which made me almost run across 105 00:04:56,800 --> 00:04:58,840 the wall, which was slightly 106 00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:02,080 uncomfortable. So we tried again and this 107 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:06,000 time the fall was much nicer and I know 108 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:08,160 that people like to try all the crazy 109 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:10,479 things they see on the internet so 110 00:05:10,479 --> 00:05:12,160 that's why I have to stress that this 111 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:14,960 tube slide method is really advanced, so 112 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:17,360 if you don't know what you're doing, make 113 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:20,400 sure that you have an expert guiding you. 114 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:22,360 Now if we would compare all the best 115 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:24,919 attempts of all the methods, we can see 116 00:05:24,919 --> 00:05:28,000 that the jumping up was slightly better 117 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,919 but overall all the method were very 118 00:05:30,919 --> 00:05:34,280 similar. [Climber] - So all of these falls felt quite 119 00:05:34,280 --> 00:05:36,240 soft except the one where he does 120 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:39,960 nothing, then I fell to the wall. 121 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,199 Yeah we actually forgot to film hard catches 122 00:05:42,199 --> 00:05:44,080 where the belayer does nothing on this 123 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:46,919 test, but no worries this was just a 124 00:05:46,919 --> 00:05:50,220 small warm-up. And let's see some bigger falls. 125 00:05:50,220 --> 00:05:52,240 So this time we started with a 126 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:53,880 tube slide method, 127 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:56,790 which at least in theory, lets the belayer achieve 128 00:05:56,790 --> 00:05:58,700 any full arc. 129 00:05:58,700 --> 00:06:00,960 And here is one more attempt 130 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:04,600 this time with even bigger arc or longer 131 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:07,800 braking distance, and the fall was just 132 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:10,880 tiny bit softer for the climber. For now 133 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:12,639 I'm just going to keep the softest 134 00:06:12,639 --> 00:06:15,039 attempt in the charts and let's see how 135 00:06:15,039 --> 00:06:17,880 does that compare to the jumping up 136 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:20,520 technique. And we can see that the first 137 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:24,479 fall was slightly smaller, however it had 138 00:06:24,479 --> 00:06:27,520 nearly identical horizontal acceleration 139 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:31,319 and velocity. However it also had lower 140 00:06:31,319 --> 00:06:33,960 absolute velocity, which is actually 141 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:36,680 better for the climber. Now the second 142 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:40,919 fall was slightly smaller but had a tiny bit 143 00:06:40,919 --> 00:06:43,800 more horizontal velocity towards the wall 144 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:46,240 and again let's keep the best 145 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:49,039 attempts of each method and see how does 146 00:06:49,039 --> 00:06:53,160 that compare to the stepping forward technique. 147 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:55,840 And we can see that the fall 148 00:06:55,840 --> 00:06:59,440 was smallest however it had the greatest 149 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:02,599 impact to the wall. Now on the second 150 00:07:02,599 --> 00:07:05,919 attempt the belayer did a much better job 151 00:07:05,919 --> 00:07:09,560 and the fall was significantly softer. 152 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:11,479 And if we compare all the best attempts 153 00:07:11,479 --> 00:07:13,680 of all the methods, we can see that the 154 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:16,680 horizontal speed at the moment of impact 155 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:19,879 was nearly identical. Which means that at 156 00:07:19,879 --> 00:07:21,759 least in this test case scenario, 157 00:07:21,759 --> 00:07:24,280 a skilled belayer can achieve almost the 158 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:27,440 same results with any method. But since 159 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:29,879 consistency in catches also matters, 160 00:07:29,879 --> 00:07:33,440 if we compare the worst attempts, tube slide method 161 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:35,800 was the best, followed by jumping up, 162 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:39,000 and then the stepping forward was the worst. 163 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:42,479 However even the worst cases of 164 00:07:42,479 --> 00:07:45,440 any of these methods were much much 165 00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:49,280 better compared to the passive belay. 166 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:52,120 So the first arising takeaway was that no 167 00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:54,199 matter which method you choose to give a 168 00:07:54,199 --> 00:07:57,039 soft catch, it's going to be much better 169 00:07:57,039 --> 00:07:58,960 than passively standing and doing 170 00:07:58,960 --> 00:07:59,960 nothing. 171 00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:03,280 And as always one test is no test, so I 172 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:05,400 wanted to repeat these tests in a 173 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:08,159 different location with another belayer. 174 00:08:08,159 --> 00:08:11,599 Ricky who has also a lot of experience 175 00:08:11,599 --> 00:08:14,319 using this tube slide method, and he told 176 00:08:14,319 --> 00:08:16,940 me that it's actually his preferred method. 177 00:08:16,940 --> 00:08:19,599 So, high expectations. 178 00:08:19,839 --> 00:08:21,641 [Climber] - Two, three... - Okay 179 00:08:21,641 --> 00:08:23,400 - Falling! 180 00:08:24,130 --> 00:08:26,100 - Aw, that was super soft! 181 00:08:27,662 --> 00:08:31,950 So we did three attempts, and all of them had very similar 182 00:08:31,950 --> 00:08:35,789 horizontal velocity. Nice, for consistency. 183 00:08:35,789 --> 00:08:38,240 Next we tested the stepping 184 00:08:38,240 --> 00:08:40,880 forward method and we can see that the 185 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:43,839 fall was much shorter and had a much 186 00:08:43,839 --> 00:08:46,760 greater swing into the wall. It seemed 187 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:48,680 that the belayer was pulled towards the 188 00:08:48,680 --> 00:08:51,720 wall way too much, and did not have enough 189 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:55,379 control to make the fall smooth. 190 00:08:55,379 --> 00:08:58,200 [Music] 191 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:04,079 All right next the jumping up method, 192 00:09:04,079 --> 00:09:07,200 where Ricky actually did a very bad job 193 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:08,880 on the first attempt. 194 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:11,279 And the same happened on the 195 00:09:11,279 --> 00:09:14,680 second attempt where his jump was very 196 00:09:14,680 --> 00:09:17,800 minimal only initiated a little bit from 197 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:20,680 his right calf. So that's not how you 198 00:09:20,680 --> 00:09:23,480 jump and that's why I decided to ignore 199 00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:26,669 these two attempts for the poor technique, 200 00:09:26,669 --> 00:09:29,918 and after he adjusted his technique on the third jump, 201 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:33,280 he jumped with both legs and it was much much better. 202 00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:37,519 And finally we did one passive 203 00:09:37,519 --> 00:09:40,000 catch where the belayer does nothing and 204 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:42,560 same as before, it causes significantly 205 00:09:42,560 --> 00:09:45,399 higher swing into the wall. So at least 206 00:09:45,399 --> 00:09:48,200 in this test case scenario, tube slide 207 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:51,399 was the best, followed by jumping up, and 208 00:09:51,399 --> 00:09:54,079 stepping forward was again the worst. 209 00:09:54,719 --> 00:09:57,000 [Belayer] - So stepping forward versus uh 210 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:01,079 jumping up [Climber] - Yes stepping forward was not 211 00:10:01,079 --> 00:10:04,360 in a controlled way I was just pulled to 212 00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:07,120 the wall. I tried to lean 213 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:11,200 backwards to break to catch the fall 214 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:13,519 but it was not in a controlled way, and 215 00:10:13,519 --> 00:10:15,880 jumping up I can choose how much I want 216 00:10:15,880 --> 00:10:17,648 to jump and at what timing. 217 00:10:17,648 --> 00:10:20,800 So overall which method is the best will heavily 218 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:22,800 depend on your experience using this 219 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:26,000 methods, however stepping forward seemed 220 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:29,360 to be the worst and gave the least 221 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,160 control, and also worth mentioning is 222 00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:35,399 that standing too far in many situations 223 00:10:35,399 --> 00:10:37,839 can drag the belayer into the wall 224 00:10:37,839 --> 00:10:40,090 completely uncontrollably. 225 00:10:44,510 --> 00:10:48,449 And that would make the catch even harder. 226 00:10:50,490 --> 00:10:53,120 All right but what if the belayer 227 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:56,160 is significantly heavier. In that case if 228 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:58,560 you try the jumping method there is not 229 00:10:58,560 --> 00:11:01,959 much pull up by the rope and jumping is 230 00:11:01,959 --> 00:11:04,959 much more difficult. So maybe stepping 231 00:11:04,959 --> 00:11:07,920 forward is better in this case. To test 232 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:10,720 that Kishu suggested to introduce extra 233 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:12,880 friction which basically makes the 234 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:14,500 belayer heavier. 235 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:18,040 [Climber] - Can we try like this? [Belayer] - He wants to kill me! 236 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:23,040 So that's what we got: a little 237 00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:25,959 zigzag in the beginning and then a 238 00:11:25,959 --> 00:11:29,040 straight line all the way to the climber 239 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:31,560 so the rope actually is not going over 240 00:11:31,560 --> 00:11:35,160 the edge it's just very sharp angled. 241 00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:38,949 - He says you have to fall! 242 00:11:39,228 --> 00:11:41,721 - One, two, three 243 00:11:44,365 --> 00:11:49,523 The swing into the wall is... ...okayish. 244 00:11:49,523 --> 00:11:51,399 So we started with jumping 245 00:11:51,399 --> 00:11:54,839 method which felt slightly harder with 246 00:11:54,839 --> 00:12:00,120 increased friction but still plenty soft enough. 247 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:02,440 Just take a look at this belayer 248 00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:05,000 running up the wall and even avoiding 249 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:07,399 his arm being squished into the first 250 00:12:07,399 --> 00:12:11,160 quick draw. So let's see if 251 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:13,920 with increased friction stepping forward 252 00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:16,440 will be better. This time he was not 253 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:18,560 pulled into the wall uncontrollably 254 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:21,360 anymore. It also looks like he got the 255 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:23,959 perfect timing and even started running 256 00:12:23,959 --> 00:12:27,680 forward just before the impact, however 257 00:12:27,680 --> 00:12:30,199 the swing into the wall for the climber 258 00:12:30,199 --> 00:12:33,880 was still harder compared to the jumping 259 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:36,959 method. Okay next we did a series of tube 260 00:12:36,959 --> 00:12:40,240 slide catches. The first felt very nice 261 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:43,839 and soft. Now the second fall had even 262 00:12:43,839 --> 00:12:46,839 softer impact with the wall however I 263 00:12:46,839 --> 00:12:49,360 still had a lot of momentum downwards 264 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:52,240 which forced me almost to run down the wall 265 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:53,680 which is a little bit awkward. 266 00:12:53,680 --> 00:12:56,720 And the last fall had a very 267 00:12:56,720 --> 00:12:58,702 similar effect 268 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:01,639 And if we look into the best cases for 269 00:13:01,639 --> 00:13:04,360 each method we can see that jumping up 270 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:07,399 and tube slide were very very similar, 271 00:13:07,399 --> 00:13:10,240 and the stepping forward was slightly 272 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:13,120 worse. And this bar chart plots all the 273 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:16,839 falls so we can see that on average, tube 274 00:13:16,839 --> 00:13:19,519 slide method performed the best, followed 275 00:13:19,519 --> 00:13:22,120 by jumping up, and then stepping forward 276 00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:25,279 was the worst. Now from pure feeling 277 00:13:25,279 --> 00:13:27,920 standpoint for me as a climber, both 278 00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:30,839 jumping up and tube slide methods felt 279 00:13:30,839 --> 00:13:33,720 very nice and soft. Maybe if I would be 280 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:37,120 nitpicking this extra momentum downwards 281 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:39,120 sometimes on the tube slide method was 282 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:41,279 slightly uncomfortable although in 283 00:13:41,279 --> 00:13:43,680 theory the belayer should be able to give 284 00:13:43,680 --> 00:13:45,839 almost any kind of catch with this 285 00:13:45,839 --> 00:13:49,040 method and the stepping forward method 286 00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:51,800 was maybe slightly harder, had slightly 287 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:54,600 bigger impact to the wall however it was 288 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:57,800 still plenty soft enough. And what is not 289 00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:01,759 soft enough is passive belays. So once 290 00:14:01,759 --> 00:14:04,399 again, no matter which soft catch method 291 00:14:04,399 --> 00:14:07,639 we tried it was significantly better 292 00:14:07,639 --> 00:14:10,959 than passive belay. And with added friction 293 00:14:10,959 --> 00:14:13,440 the belayer wasn't even lifted off the 294 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:16,120 ground this time. Previously when we had 295 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:18,800 no friction, passive belay looked like 296 00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:22,320 this: the belayer was still pulled up but 297 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:25,240 now with extra friction, that is not the 298 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:27,120 case anymore and you can see how the 299 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:29,880 climber is being pulled up and into the 300 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:32,880 wall even harder. 301 00:14:34,839 --> 00:14:38,480 [Climber] - Okay that was... 302 00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:42,120 ... that was the way it was. 303 00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:44,839 So yeah don't forget to subscribe, I might need 304 00:14:44,839 --> 00:14:47,399 advertisement money to fix my broken 305 00:14:47,399 --> 00:14:51,639 body at old age. [Climber] - So what's your favorite method? 306 00:14:51,639 --> 00:14:54,759 [Belayer] - Yeah jumping up, yes 307 00:14:54,759 --> 00:14:56,959 Okay so we were leaning towards 308 00:14:56,959 --> 00:15:00,399 jumping as our favorite method, but 309 00:15:00,399 --> 00:15:03,160 what if the belayer is really really 310 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:05,399 heavy, or there is so much friction in 311 00:15:05,399 --> 00:15:08,120 the system that the rope almost doesn't 312 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:12,439 pull the belayer up? In that case, you can 313 00:15:12,439 --> 00:15:17,839 jump I don't know what 30 40 cm maybe 50 314 00:15:17,839 --> 00:15:21,079 if you're a crazy athlete... but is that 315 00:15:21,079 --> 00:15:23,680 enough for the soft catch? And this 316 00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:26,079 brings us to this experiment: here we did 317 00:15:26,079 --> 00:15:28,680 a series of falls, alternating between 318 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:31,399 stepping forward and jumping up and we 319 00:15:31,399 --> 00:15:34,120 measured the forces to the climber. 320 00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:36,399 And same as before, jumping up was 321 00:15:36,399 --> 00:15:38,480 consistently better than stepping forward, 322 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:40,880 and doing nothing was 323 00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:43,360 significantly worse. And then we decided 324 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:46,360 to introduce this zigzag in the route, and 325 00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:49,279 although it doesn't look like much, 326 00:15:49,279 --> 00:15:52,240 it actually added a ton of friction, 327 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:56,319 basically imitating a very heavy belayer. 328 00:15:56,319 --> 00:16:00,801 [Belayer] - Wow! I couldn't jump at all! 329 00:16:00,801 --> 00:16:04,480 And, as I was expecting, jumping up was not working 330 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:07,279 at all in this case, so let's see if 331 00:16:07,279 --> 00:16:11,289 stepping forward is going to be better. 332 00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,659 [Climber] - Wow that was solid! 333 00:16:15,539 --> 00:16:22,098 [Climber] - 2.5, oh sh*t! And it actually was even worse. 334 00:16:23,778 --> 00:16:26,619 [Belayer] - Man I cannot give you a soft catch this way! 335 00:16:26,619 --> 00:16:28,560 So yeah no matter how much I tried 336 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,560 to jump, I was not able to give a 337 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:34,279 truly soft catch, and stepping forward 338 00:16:34,279 --> 00:16:36,419 was even worse. 339 00:16:37,149 --> 00:16:40,152 [Belayer] - It's impossible to give a soft catch like this! 340 00:16:40,152 --> 00:16:42,569 To time well the stepping forward 341 00:16:42,569 --> 00:16:44,440 on such a short fall 342 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,450 is nearly impossible. 343 00:16:47,688 --> 00:16:51,600 Now while ,it seemed that heavy belayers are doomed, on 344 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:53,839 this next experiment I actually 345 00:16:53,839 --> 00:16:56,680 discovered something that helps. 346 00:16:56,680 --> 00:16:59,800 This time I was belaying a light girl, and as 347 00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:02,360 before, I was also struggling to give a 348 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:07,328 soft catch. The jumping simply did not work. 349 00:17:07,328 --> 00:17:09,270 And neither did the stepping 350 00:17:09,270 --> 00:17:11,020 forward method. 351 00:17:11,270 --> 00:17:13,949 But then I discovered something. 352 00:17:16,472 --> 00:17:20,555 [Climber] - Better, better. This one was soft! 353 00:17:22,793 --> 00:17:24,878 It's soft! 354 00:17:24,878 --> 00:17:28,039 So yeah, turns out that bending the knees will give you more 355 00:17:28,039 --> 00:17:30,799 range of movement and in this test case 356 00:17:30,799 --> 00:17:34,299 scenario it made a huge difference. 357 00:17:34,299 --> 00:17:36,440 [Climber] - If the fall was Wyuuuuuuuuu 358 00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:41,569 Just super soft, and the others was Bump! 359 00:17:41,569 --> 00:17:43,270 - Like Bum? - Yeah yeah yeah! 360 00:17:43,270 --> 00:17:47,480 - So it's Bum versus Yuuuuuuu. - And we prefer Yuuu. 361 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:49,867 - You prefer Woooo. - Yeah! 362 00:17:50,297 --> 00:17:51,440 And although I already 363 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:53,320 mentioned this in the first episode, but 364 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:56,080 it's really important to stress that 365 00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:59,320 simply throwing a lot of slack does not 366 00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:01,618 mean a soft catch. 367 00:18:08,457 --> 00:18:10,380 And in the case of a passive belay, 368 00:18:10,380 --> 00:18:12,600 it can end up very badly. 369 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:14,880 And the only reason she was fine in this 370 00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:17,280 case, was because she was falling 371 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:19,989 straight down under the quick draw. 372 00:18:19,989 --> 00:18:22,520 So all she felt was just a jerk to the 373 00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:25,360 harness. In a different situation with a 374 00:18:25,360 --> 00:18:28,200 little bit of swing, that kind of catch 375 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:31,497 with would probably break her ankles. 376 00:18:31,497 --> 00:18:33,720 So, instead of feeding a ton of slack for 377 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:37,643 your climber maybe you should... feed your climber? 378 00:18:37,643 --> 00:18:39,360 And as we saw If the fall is 379 00:18:39,360 --> 00:18:42,159 small, bending the knees before the fall 380 00:18:42,159 --> 00:18:45,280 might help. Now in case of a big whipper 381 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,080 the fall naturally is much bigger, so you 382 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:50,480 will have more time to go down and 383 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:52,799 explode up and from a biomechanical 384 00:18:52,799 --> 00:18:55,120 standpoint since our muscles act as 385 00:18:55,120 --> 00:18:58,440 springs, going down and jumping up should 386 00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:01,200 result into a higher jump. Now if that 387 00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:03,640 doesn't help I would suggest more food 388 00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:06,480 cycles and if that's not an option then 389 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:08,960 I've seen a method used by a very heavy 390 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:11,400 belayer, which worked very well for him, 391 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:14,600 where he took a little bit of slack with 392 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:18,039 his lead hand and during the impact he 393 00:19:18,039 --> 00:19:22,070 used his lead hand to soften the catch. 394 00:19:23,230 --> 00:19:26,000 It is extremely important to not 395 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,880 have too much slack here or you will 396 00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:31,600 burn your hand. So be smart and use this 397 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:34,559 at your own risk. This is sketchy but 398 00:19:34,559 --> 00:19:36,612 I've seen it working really well. 399 00:19:36,612 --> 00:19:39,159 Or alternatively go old school and learn 400 00:19:39,159 --> 00:19:41,618 how to use tube style belaying, then it 401 00:19:41,618 --> 00:19:43,939 doesn't matter what's the weight of the climber 402 00:19:43,939 --> 00:19:46,230 You can always make a soft catch. 403 00:19:46,230 --> 00:19:48,760 But of course that comes with its own risks of not 404 00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:51,296 having an assisted belay device. 405 00:19:51,296 --> 00:19:54,437 But for majority of you, jumping up is going to 406 00:19:54,437 --> 00:19:56,520 be the best and if for whatever reason 407 00:19:56,520 --> 00:19:58,600 you find yourself away from the wall, 408 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:01,960 then just do stepping forward as we saw. 409 00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:04,480 Whatever soft catch method is much 410 00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:06,082 better than passive belaying. 411 00:20:06,082 --> 00:20:08,280 Now I understand that this video was full of 412 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:10,840 charts and graphs and chances are if 413 00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:12,280 you're still watching you're a little 414 00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:14,799 bit nerdy, however I'm going to make a 415 00:20:14,799 --> 00:20:17,320 separate video for my belay Master Class 416 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:19,360 where I will go more on practical 417 00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:22,320 details, including those sketchy 418 00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:25,080 low-to-the-ground situations. And also during 419 00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:27,200 these two years we have measured forces 420 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:30,159 on hundred of falls, so we have a lot of 421 00:20:30,159 --> 00:20:32,120 data. But as I explained in previous 422 00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:34,840 episodes, peak force to the climber might 423 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:37,120 not be the most important factor for 424 00:20:37,120 --> 00:20:38,486 sport climbers. 425 00:20:39,006 --> 00:20:41,080 However that might be much more 426 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:43,530 important for trad climbers. 427 00:20:43,955 --> 00:20:45,715 [Climber] - Keep a good eye. 428 00:20:48,220 --> 00:20:49,436 [Climber] - Sh****t! 429 00:20:49,436 --> 00:20:50,840 So I guess this deserves an 430 00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:53,480 episode for trad climbers as well and 431 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:55,640 all of these people and supporters 432 00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,280 deserve a huge thank you. None of this 433 00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:00,400 project would've been possible without all 434 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:03,559 of you. And you deserve some knowledge. 435 00:21:03,559 --> 00:21:06,200 For the last 6 months I was 436 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:09,000 warming up my brain in the mornings with 437 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:12,039 brilliant.org which is an awesome online 438 00:21:12,039 --> 00:21:14,880 platform for learning math, data science, 439 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:17,559 and computer science interactively 440 00:21:17,559 --> 00:21:20,230 - Good morning Ben how are you? 441 00:21:20,230 --> 00:21:22,240 - Ah feeling like quaternion and 442 00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:24,801 four dimensional space with emotions twisting 443 00:21:24,801 --> 00:21:26,960 like Möbius transformation and my mood 444 00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:29,604 transforming like eigenvector. 445 00:21:29,604 --> 00:21:31,919 So no only you get deeper connections with 446 00:21:31,919 --> 00:21:34,440 your smart friends, you also deepen your 447 00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:36,640 scientific understanding of the world. 448 00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:39,320 Just imagine how your regular life 449 00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:41,440 problems will look when you will be 450 00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:44,080 contemplating that we are all just 451 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:47,120 riding a giant rock through constantly 452 00:21:47,120 --> 00:21:50,320 expanding space, with supernovas and 453 00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,360 solar winds. 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And you can try all of this 463 00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:19,600 completely for free for 30 days by 464 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:22,799 visiting brilliant.org/HardIsEasy and 465 00:22:22,799 --> 00:22:26,120 first 200 of you can also get 20% off 466 00:22:26,120 --> 00:22:28,520 their annual premium subscription. 467 00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:31,720 So thank you Brilliant for making sure 468 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:34,279 that we still use our brain and thank 469 00:22:34,279 --> 00:22:37,080 you for watching. Enjoy your brain and 470 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:39,566 climbing and see you in the next one. 471 00:22:39,566 --> 00:22:44,799 - Now it's gonna be fun... Feeling like quateri... 472 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:49,240 That word!