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All right, welcome back to the largest

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study on climbing falls. In the first

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episode we looked how does extra slack

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affect the fall, or more precisely does

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falling more reduce the pendulum into

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the wall and how hard the climber is

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going to hit the wall. And then I showed

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you the importance of soft catch and

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what a massive difference that makes.

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And also that hard catches are not only

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the problem for heavier belayers.

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Lighter belayers often lack practice to

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give soft catches since most of the time

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they don't need, they fly up anyway but

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in exceptional cases 
with enough friction...

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- My foot 
- What happened to your foot?

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- Well it was a hard fall.
- Heavy belayer?

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- Eh... Light belayer. Yeah.

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Yeah. And I also asked you guys

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- I'm curious, did you ever

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got unexpectedly hard catch 
from a light belayer?

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And turns out this happens more

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often than I thought.

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So yeah, light or heavy, you're

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going to love this episode because we're

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going to investigate which method of

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giving soft catch is the best. We're

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going to compare stepping forward versus

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jumping up, and as a bonus the tube slide

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method where the belayer lets the rope

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slide through the device, which is more

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common in trad climbing.

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So let's begin.

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Now in the previous episode 
I showed you this

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beautiful horizontal velocity graphs

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and I explained that 
the peak of horizontal

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velocity is at the bottom of the

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pendulum, and that is a good indicator

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how hard the climber would meet the wall

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if the wall would not be overhanging.

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And in this test I wanted to go a step

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further and see what happens when the

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climber meets the wall. 
[Climber] - One, two, three

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And my idea this time was to

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measure deceleration during the impact.

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And in many of our test cases

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this idea was working really well. If we

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compare the soft catches to the hard one

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you can see a huge spike in deceleration.

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However, after doing lots

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and lots of more falls and analyzing the

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data, I realized that the peak

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deceleration is not always 
a good metric to look.

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For example, take a look 
at this hard catch.

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You can visually see that it

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was much harder for the climber, but the

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peak deceleration was nearly identical

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to the soft catches before.

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So, turns out our soft bodies 
are incredible at absorbing impacts,

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but the problem is that it's

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very difficult to measure what's

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happening in our muscles 
during this impact.

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So while peak deceleration was

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interesting to look in some cases,

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horizontal velocity at the moment of

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impact was a much better indicator.

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After all, all of this velocity 
that we are

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about to hit the wall, 
will need to be absorbed

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by our soft bodies.

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Okay, so let's see which method 
to give a soft catch is the best.

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To not kill me on the very first 
test we started with smaller falls

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and "jumping up" technique. And these

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falls were extremely nice and soft.

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[Climber] - A soft ride!

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So let's see how stepping 
forward will compare.

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[Climber] - One, two, three

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- This is harder.

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And the fall this time felt a 
little bit harder and we can also

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see that in the graphs. However overall

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it was still a very soft catch.

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And the second fall was very similar.

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Also a quick note: I was not sure

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how much stiffer the rope gets over

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multiple falls, and even though in this

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video I'm presenting you all the data

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grouped by method, meaning at first I

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show you all the soft catches with

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"jumping up" method, then I show you all

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the soft catches with stepping forward,

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in reality we did alternate between the

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methods between every fall. So we did a

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jumping up and then stepping forward, etc.

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Pointless information for most of

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you, but I know that a lot of geeks are

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watching my videos and they like to write

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nitpicky comments.

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So this is for you, nitpicky geek.

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All right, now let's see how 
the tube slide method compares.

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And while I was expecting a lot from this

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method, the first fall wasn't any better.

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The second fall had a very low momentum

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into the wall but a lot of vertical

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momentum, which made me almost run across

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the wall, which was slightly

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uncomfortable. So we tried again and this

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time the fall was much nicer and I know

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that people like to try all the crazy

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things they see on the internet so

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that's why I have to stress that this

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tube slide method is really advanced, so

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if you don't know what you're doing, make

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sure that you have an expert guiding you.

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Now if we would compare all the best

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attempts of all the methods, we can see

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that the jumping up was slightly better,

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but overall all the methods 
were very similar.

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[Climber] - So all of these falls 
felt quite soft,

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except the one where he does nothing.

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Then I fell to the wall.

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Yeah we actually forgot 
to film hard catches

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where the belayer does nothing 
on this test,

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but no worries this was just a
small warm-up.

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And let's see some bigger falls.

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So this time we started with a

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tube slide method,
which at least in theory

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lets the belayer achieve
any fall arc.

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And here is one more attempt

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this time with even bigger arc or longer

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braking distance, and the fall was just

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a tiny bit softer for the climber.

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For now I'm just gonna keep the softest

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attempt in the charts and let's see how

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does that compare to the 
jumping up technique.

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And we can see that the first

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fall was slightly smaller, however it had

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nearly identical horizontal acceleration

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and velocity. However it also had lower

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absolute velocity, which is actually

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better for the climber. Now the second

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fall was slightly smaller
but had a tiny bit

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more horizontal velocity towards the wall

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and again let's keep the best

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attempts of each method and see how does

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that compare to 
the stepping forward technique.

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And we can see that the fall

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was smallest, however it had the greatest

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impact to the wall. Now on the second

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attempt the belayer did a much better job

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and the fall was significantly softer.

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And if we compare all the best attempts

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of all the methods, we can see that the

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horizontal speed at the moment of impact

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was nearly identical. Which means that at

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least in this test case scenario,

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a skilled belayer can achieve almost the

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same results with any method. But since

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consistency in catches also matters,

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if we compare the worst attempts,
tube slide method

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was the best, followed by jumping up,

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and then the stepping forward 
was the worst.

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However even the worst cases of

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any of these methods were much much

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better compared to the passive belay.

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So the first arising takeaway was that no

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matter which method you choose to give a

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soft catch, it's going to be much better

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than passively standing and doing

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nothing.

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And as always one test is no test, so I

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wanted to repeat these tests in a

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different location with another belayer.

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Ricky who has also a lot of experience

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using this tube slide method, and he told

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me that it's actually 
his preferred method.

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So, high expectations.

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[Climber] - Two, three... Falling!

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- Aw, that was super soft!

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So we did three attempts, and all
of them had very similar

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horizontal velocity. 
Nice, for consistency.

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Next we tested the stepping

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forward method, and we can see that the

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fall was much shorter and had a much

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greater swing into the wall. It seemed

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that the belayer was pulled towards the

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wall way too much, and did not have enough

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control to make the fall smooth.

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All right next the jumping up method,

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where Ricky actually did a very bad job

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on the first attempt.

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And the same happened on the

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second attempt where his jump was very

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minimal, only initiated a little bit from

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his right calf. So that's not how you

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jump and that's why I decided to ignore

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these two attempts for the poor technique,

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and after he adjusted his technique
on the third jump,

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he jumped with both legs
and it was much much better.

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And finally we did one passive

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catch where the belayer does nothing and

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same as before, it causes significantly

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higher swing into the wall. So at least

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in this test case scenario, tube slide

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was the best, followed by jumping up, and

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stepping forward was again the worst.

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[Belayer] - So stepping forward versus uh

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jumping up 
[Climber] - Yes stepping forward was not

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in a controlled way. I was just pulled to

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the wall. I tried to lean

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backwards to brake, to catch the fall

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but it was not in a controlled way, and

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jumping up I can choose how much I want

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to jump and at what timing.

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So overall which method is the 
best will heavily

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depend on your experience using this

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methods, however stepping forward seemed

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to be the worst, and gave the least

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control, and also worth mentioning is

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that standing too far in many situations

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can drag the belayer into the wall

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completely uncontrollably.

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And that would make the catch even harder.

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All right but what if the belayer

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is significantly heavier. In that case if

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you try the jumping method there is not

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much pull up by the rope, and jumping is

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much more difficult. So maybe stepping

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forward is better in this case.

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To test that, Krushu 
suggested to introduce extra

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friction which basically makes the

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belayer heavier.

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[Climber] - Can we try like this?
[Belayer] - He wants to kill me!

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So that's what we got: a little

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zigzag in the beginning and then a

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straight line all the way to the climber.

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So the rope actually is not going over

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the edge, it's just very sharp angled.

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- He says you have to fall!

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- One, two, three

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The swing into the wall is...
...okay-ish.

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So we started with jumping

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method, which felt slightly harder with

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increased friction, but still 
plenty soft enough.

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Just take a look at this belayer

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running up the wall and even avoiding

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his arm being squished into the first

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quick draw. So let's see if

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with increased friction stepping forward

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will be better. This time he was not

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pulled into the wall uncontrollably

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anymore. It also looks like he got the

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perfect timing and even started running

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forward just before the impact, however

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the swing into the wall for the climber

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was still harder compared to 
the jumping method.

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Okay, next we did a series 
of tube slide catches.

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The first felt very nice and soft.

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Now the second fall had even

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softer impact with the wall however I

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still had a lot of momentum downwards

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which forced me almost 
to run down the wall

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which is a little bit awkward.

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And the last fall had a very

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similar effect.

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And if we look into the best cases for

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each method, we can see that jumping up

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00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:07,399
and tube slide were very very similar,

267
00:13:07,399 --> 00:13:11,090
and the stepping forward 
was slightly worse.

268
00:13:11,090 --> 00:13:14,005
And this bar chart plots all the falls.

269
00:13:14,005 --> 00:13:16,839
So we can see that on average, tube

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00:13:16,839 --> 00:13:19,196
slide method performed the best,

271
00:13:19,196 --> 00:13:23,538
followed by jumping up,
and then stepping forward was the worst.

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00:13:23,538 --> 00:13:25,279
Now from pure feeling

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00:13:25,279 --> 00:13:27,920
standpoint for me as a climber, both

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00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:30,839
jumping up and tube slide methods felt

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00:13:30,839 --> 00:13:33,720
very nice and soft. Maybe if I would be

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00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:37,120
nitpicking this extra momentum downwards

277
00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:39,120
sometimes on the tube slide method was

278
00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:41,279
slightly uncomfortable, although in

279
00:13:41,279 --> 00:13:43,680
theory the belayer should be able to give

280
00:13:43,680 --> 00:13:45,839
almost any kind of catch with this

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00:13:45,839 --> 00:13:49,040
method and the stepping forward method

282
00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:51,800
was maybe slightly harder, had slightly

283
00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:54,600
bigger impact to the wall, however it was

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00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:57,800
still plenty soft enough. And what is not

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00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:01,082
soft enough is passive belays.

286
00:14:01,082 --> 00:14:04,399
So once again, no matter 
which soft catch method

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00:14:04,399 --> 00:14:07,639
we tried it was significantly better

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00:14:07,639 --> 00:14:10,959
than passive belay. 
And with added friction

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00:14:10,959 --> 00:14:13,440
the belayer wasn't even lifted off the

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00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:16,120
ground this time. Previously when we had

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00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:18,800
no friction, passive belay looked like

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00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:22,320
this: the belayer was still pulled up but

293
00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:25,240
now with extra friction, that is not the

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00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:27,120
case anymore and you can see how the

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00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:29,880
climber is being pulled up and into the

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00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:32,380
wall even harder.

297
00:14:34,839 --> 00:14:38,480
[Climber] - Okay that was...

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00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:41,508
... that was the way it was.

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00:14:41,508 --> 00:14:44,839
So yeah don't forget to 
subscribe, I might need

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00:14:44,839 --> 00:14:47,399
advertisement money to fix my broken

301
00:14:47,399 --> 00:14:49,691
body at old age.

302
00:14:50,364 --> 00:14:52,774
[Climber] - So what's your favorite 
method?

303
00:14:52,774 --> 00:14:54,759
[Belayer] - Yeah jumping up, yes.

304
00:14:54,759 --> 00:14:56,959
Okay so we were leaning towards

305
00:14:56,959 --> 00:15:00,399
jumping as our favorite method, but

306
00:15:00,399 --> 00:15:03,160
what if the belayer is really really

307
00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:05,399
heavy, or there is so much friction in

308
00:15:05,399 --> 00:15:08,120
the system that the rope almost doesn't

309
00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:12,439
pull the belayer up? In that case, you can

310
00:15:12,439 --> 00:15:17,839
jump I don't know what 30 40 cm maybe 50

311
00:15:17,839 --> 00:15:21,079
if you're a crazy athlete... but is that

312
00:15:21,079 --> 00:15:23,680
enough for the soft catch? And this

313
00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:26,079
brings us to this experiment: here we did

314
00:15:26,079 --> 00:15:28,680
a series of falls, alternating between

315
00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:31,399
stepping forward and jumping up and we

316
00:15:31,399 --> 00:15:34,120
measured the forces to the climber.

317
00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:36,399
And same as before, jumping up was

318
00:15:36,399 --> 00:15:38,480
consistently better than stepping forward,

319
00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:40,880
and doing nothing was

320
00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:43,360
significantly worse. And then we decided

321
00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:46,360
to introduce this zigzag in the route, and

322
00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:49,279
although it doesn't look like much,

323
00:15:49,279 --> 00:15:52,240
it actually added a ton of friction,

324
00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:56,319
basically imitating a very heavy belayer.

325
00:15:56,319 --> 00:16:00,801
[Belayer] - Wow! I couldn't jump at all!

326
00:16:00,801 --> 00:16:04,480
And, as I was expecting,
jumping up was not working

327
00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:07,279
at all in this case, so let's see if

328
00:16:07,279 --> 00:16:11,289
stepping forward is going to be better.

329
00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,659
[Climber] - Wow that was solid!

330
00:16:15,539 --> 00:16:22,098
[Climber] - 2.5, oh sh*t! 
And it actually was even worse.

331
00:16:23,778 --> 00:16:26,619
[Belayer] - Man I cannot give you 
a soft catch this way!

332
00:16:26,619 --> 00:16:28,560
So yeah no matter how much I tried

333
00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,560
to jump, I was not able to give a

334
00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:34,279
truly soft catch, and stepping forward

335
00:16:34,279 --> 00:16:36,419
was even worse.

336
00:16:37,149 --> 00:16:40,152
[Belayer] - It's impossible to give
a soft catch like this!

337
00:16:40,152 --> 00:16:42,569
To time well the stepping forward

338
00:16:42,569 --> 00:16:44,440
on such a short fall

339
00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,450
is nearly impossible.

340
00:16:47,688 --> 00:16:51,600
Now while ,it seemed that heavy
belayers are doomed, on

341
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:53,839
this next experiment I actually

342
00:16:53,839 --> 00:16:56,680
discovered something that helps.

343
00:16:56,680 --> 00:16:59,800
This time I was belaying a light girl, and as

344
00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:02,360
before, I was also struggling to give a

345
00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:07,328
soft catch. The jumping 
simply did not work.

346
00:17:07,328 --> 00:17:09,270
And neither did the stepping

347
00:17:09,270 --> 00:17:11,020
forward method.

348
00:17:11,270 --> 00:17:13,949
But then I discovered something.

349
00:17:16,472 --> 00:17:20,555
[Climber] - Better, better.
This one was soft!

350
00:17:22,793 --> 00:17:24,878
It's soft!

351
00:17:24,878 --> 00:17:28,039
So yeah, turns out that bending the knees
will give you more

352
00:17:28,039 --> 00:17:30,799
range of movement and in this test case

353
00:17:30,799 --> 00:17:34,299
scenario it made a huge difference.

354
00:17:34,299 --> 00:17:36,440
[Climber] - If the fall was Wyuuuuuuuuu

355
00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:41,569
Just super soft, and the others was Bump!

356
00:17:41,569 --> 00:17:43,270
- Like Bum? 
- Yeah yeah yeah!

357
00:17:43,270 --> 00:17:47,480
- So it's Bum versus Yuuuuuuu.
- And we prefer Yuuu.

358
00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:49,867
- You prefer Woooo.
- Yeah!

359
00:17:50,297 --> 00:17:51,440
And although I already

360
00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:53,320
mentioned this in the first episode, but

361
00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:56,080
it's really important to stress that

362
00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:59,320
simply throwing a lot of slack does not

363
00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:01,618
mean a soft catch.

364
00:18:08,457 --> 00:18:10,380
And in the case of a passive belay,

365
00:18:10,380 --> 00:18:12,600
it can end up very badly.

366
00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:14,880
And the only reason she was fine in this

367
00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:17,280
case, was because she was falling

368
00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:19,989
straight down under the quick draw.

369
00:18:19,989 --> 00:18:22,520
So all she felt was just a jerk to the

370
00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:25,360
harness. In a different situation with a

371
00:18:25,360 --> 00:18:28,200
little bit of swing, that kind of catch

372
00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:31,497
with would probably break her ankles.

373
00:18:31,497 --> 00:18:33,720
So, instead of feeding a ton of slack for

374
00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:37,643
your climber maybe you should... 
feed your climber?

375
00:18:37,643 --> 00:18:39,360
And as we saw If the fall is

376
00:18:39,360 --> 00:18:42,159
small, bending the knees before the fall

377
00:18:42,159 --> 00:18:45,280
might help. Now in case of a big whipper

378
00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,080
the fall naturally is much bigger, so you

379
00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:50,480
will have more time to go down and

380
00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:52,799
explode up and from a biomechanical

381
00:18:52,799 --> 00:18:55,120
standpoint since our muscles act as

382
00:18:55,120 --> 00:18:58,440
springs, going down and jumping up should

383
00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:01,200
result into a higher jump. Now if that

384
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:03,640
doesn't help I would suggest more food

385
00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:06,480
cycles and if that's not an option then

386
00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:08,960
I've seen a method used by a very heavy

387
00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:11,400
belayer, which worked very well for him,

388
00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:14,600
where he took a little bit of slack with

389
00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:18,039
his lead hand and during the impact he

390
00:19:18,039 --> 00:19:22,070
used his lead hand to soften the catch.

391
00:19:23,230 --> 00:19:26,000
It is extremely important to not

392
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,880
have too much slack here or you will

393
00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:31,600
burn your hand. So be smart and use this

394
00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:34,559
at your own risk. This is sketchy but

395
00:19:34,559 --> 00:19:36,612
I've seen it working really well.

396
00:19:36,612 --> 00:19:39,159
Or alternatively go old school and learn

397
00:19:39,159 --> 00:19:41,618
how to use tube style belaying, then it

398
00:19:41,618 --> 00:19:43,939
doesn't matter what's 
the weight of the climber

399
00:19:43,939 --> 00:19:46,230
You can always make a soft catch.

400
00:19:46,230 --> 00:19:48,760
But of course that comes with 
its own risks of not

401
00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:51,296
having an assisted belay device.

402
00:19:51,296 --> 00:19:54,437
But for majority of you, 
jumping up is going to

403
00:19:54,437 --> 00:19:56,520
be the best and if for whatever reason

404
00:19:56,520 --> 00:19:58,600
you find yourself away from the wall,

405
00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:01,960
then just do stepping forward as we saw.

406
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:04,480
Whatever soft catch method is much

407
00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:06,082
better than passive belaying.

408
00:20:06,082 --> 00:20:08,280
Now I understand that this 
video was full of

409
00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:10,840
charts and graphs and chances are if

410
00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:12,280
you're still watching you're a little

411
00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:14,799
bit nerdy, however I'm going to make a

412
00:20:14,799 --> 00:20:17,320
separate video for my belay Master Class

413
00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:19,360
where I will go more on practical

414
00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:22,320
details, including those sketchy

415
00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:25,080
low-to-the-ground situations.
And also during

416
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:27,200
these two years we have measured forces

417
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:30,159
on hundred of falls, so we have a lot of

418
00:20:30,159 --> 00:20:32,120
data. But as I explained in previous

419
00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:34,840
episodes, peak force to the climber might

420
00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:37,120
not be the most important factor for

421
00:20:37,120 --> 00:20:38,486
sport climbers.

422
00:20:39,006 --> 00:20:41,080
However that might be much more

423
00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:43,530
important for trad climbers.

424
00:20:43,955 --> 00:20:45,715
[Climber] - Keep a good eye.

425
00:20:48,220 --> 00:20:49,436
[Climber] - Sh****t!

426
00:20:49,436 --> 00:20:50,840
So I guess this deserves an

427
00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:53,480
episode for trad climbers as well and

428
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:55,640
all of these people and supporters

429
00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,280
deserve a huge thank you. None of this

430
00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:00,400
project would've been possible without all

431
00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:03,559
of you. And you deserve some knowledge.

432
00:21:03,559 --> 00:21:06,200
For the last 6 months I was

433
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:09,000
warming up my brain in the mornings with

434
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brilliant.org which is an awesome online

435
00:21:12,039 --> 00:21:14,880
platform for learning math, data science,

436
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:17,559
and computer science interactively

437
00:21:17,559 --> 00:21:20,230
- Good morning Ben how are you?

438
00:21:20,230 --> 00:21:22,240
- Ah feeling like quaternion and

439
00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:24,801
four dimensional space 
with emotions twisting

440
00:21:24,801 --> 00:21:26,960
like Möbius transformation and my mood

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transforming like eigenvector.

442
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So no only you get deeper connections with

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problems will look when you will be

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contemplating that we are all just

448
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riding a giant rock through constantly

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expanding space, with supernovas and

450
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,360
solar winds. Or maybe before human

451
00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:55,429
thinking becomes obsolete...

452
00:21:55,429 --> 00:22:01,182
- Write a short math poem 
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So thank you Brilliant for making sure

465
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that we still use our brain and thank

466
00:22:34,279 --> 00:22:37,080
you for watching. Enjoy your brain and

467
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:39,566
climbing and see you in the next one.

468
00:22:39,566 --> 00:22:44,799
- Now it's gonna be fun... 
Feeling like quateri...

469
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:49,240
That word!