WEBVTT

00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:02.200
All right, welcome back to the largest

00:00:02.200 --> 00:00:05.120
study on climbing falls. In the first

00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:08.360
episode we looked how does extra slack

00:00:08.360 --> 00:00:11.320
affect the fall, or more precisely does

00:00:11.320 --> 00:00:14.320
falling more reduce the pendulum into

00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:16.520
the wall and how hard the climber is

00:00:16.520 --> 00:00:18.840
going to hit the wall. And then I showed

00:00:18.840 --> 00:00:21.640
you the importance of soft catch and

00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:25.359
what a massive difference that makes.

00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:28.310
And also that hard catches are not only

00:00:28.310 --> 00:00:30.599
the problem for heavier belayers.

00:00:30.599 --> 00:00:33.320
Lighter belayers often lack practice to

00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:35.760
give soft catches since most of the time

00:00:35.760 --> 00:00:38.920
they don't need, they fly up anyway but

00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:42.003
in exceptional cases 
with enough friction...

00:00:42.003 --> 00:00:44.039
- My foot 
- What happened to your foot?

00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:48.000
- Well it was a hard fall.
- Heavy belayer?

00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:50.700
- Eh... Light belayer. Yeah.

00:00:50.700 --> 00:00:53.756
Yeah. And I also asked you guys

00:00:53.756 --> 00:00:55.320
- I'm curious, did you ever

00:00:55.320 --> 00:00:59.776
got unexpectedly hard catch 
from a light belayer?

00:00:59.776 --> 00:01:01.879
And turns out this happens more

00:01:01.879 --> 00:01:04.370
often than I thought.

00:01:04.370 --> 00:01:06.040
So yeah, light or heavy, you're

00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:08.119
going to love this episode because we're

00:01:08.119 --> 00:01:10.320
going to investigate which method of

00:01:10.320 --> 00:01:12.920
giving soft catch is the best. We're

00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:16.000
going to compare stepping forward versus

00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:19.000
jumping up, and as a bonus the tube slide

00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:21.119
method where the belayer lets the rope

00:01:21.119 --> 00:01:23.040
slide through the device, which is more

00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:25.336
common in trad climbing.

00:01:25.336 --> 00:01:27.386
So let's begin.

00:01:27.386 --> 00:01:30.000
Now in the previous episode 
I showed you this

00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.799
beautiful horizontal velocity graphs

00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:35.720
and I explained that 
the peak of horizontal

00:01:35.720 --> 00:01:38.240
velocity is at the bottom of the

00:01:38.240 --> 00:01:40.720
pendulum, and that is a good indicator

00:01:40.720 --> 00:01:44.159
how hard the climber would meet the wall

00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:46.824
if the wall would not be overhanging.

00:01:46.824 --> 00:01:49.200
And in this test I wanted to go a step

00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:51.600
further and see what happens when the

00:01:51.600 --> 00:01:56.129
climber meets the wall. 
[Climber] - One, two, three

00:01:57.884 --> 00:01:59.840
And my idea this time was to

00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:03.600
measure deceleration during the impact.

00:02:03.600 --> 00:02:06.840
And in many of our test cases

00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:09.840
this idea was working really well. If we

00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:13.000
compare the soft catches to the hard one

00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:16.650
you can see a huge spike in deceleration.

00:02:16.650 --> 00:02:18.800
However, after doing lots

00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:21.440
and lots of more falls and analyzing the

00:02:21.440 --> 00:02:23.840
data, I realized that the peak

00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:27.996
deceleration is not always 
a good metric to look.

00:02:27.996 --> 00:02:30.708
For example, take a look 
at this hard catch.

00:02:30.708 --> 00:02:32.080
You can visually see that it

00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:35.080
was much harder for the climber, but the

00:02:35.080 --> 00:02:38.200
peak deceleration was nearly identical

00:02:38.200 --> 00:02:40.645
to the soft catches before.

00:02:40.645 --> 00:02:46.650
So, turns out our soft bodies 
are incredible at absorbing impacts,

00:02:46.650 --> 00:02:48.400
but the problem is that it's

00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:50.080
very difficult to measure what's

00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:53.131
happening in our muscles 
during this impact.

00:02:53.131 --> 00:02:54.959
So while peak deceleration was

00:02:54.959 --> 00:02:57.040
interesting to look in some cases,

00:02:57.040 --> 00:02:59.840
horizontal velocity at the moment of

00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:03.190
impact was a much better indicator.

00:03:03.190 --> 00:03:05.560
After all, all of this velocity 
that we are

00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:09.031
about to hit the wall, 
will need to be absorbed

00:03:09.031 --> 00:03:11.021
by our soft bodies.

00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:16.079
Okay, so let's see which method 
to give a soft catch is the best.

00:03:16.079 --> 00:03:21.271
To not kill me on the very first 
test we started with smaller falls

00:03:21.271 --> 00:03:24.200
and "jumping up" technique. And these

00:03:24.200 --> 00:03:27.611
falls were extremely nice and soft.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.217
[Climber] - A soft ride!

00:03:32.217 --> 00:03:36.100
So let's see how stepping 
forward will compare.

00:03:36.100 --> 00:03:38.657
[Climber] - One, two, three

00:03:39.397 --> 00:03:40.467
- This is harder.

00:03:40.467 --> 00:03:45.159
And the fall this time felt a 
little bit harder and we can also

00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:48.480
see that in the graphs. However overall

00:03:48.480 --> 00:03:50.920
it was still a very soft catch.

00:03:51.910 --> 00:03:54.840
And the second fall was very similar.

00:03:55.640 --> 00:03:58.040
Also a quick note: I was not sure

00:03:58.040 --> 00:04:01.040
how much stiffer the rope gets over

00:04:01.040 --> 00:04:03.640
multiple falls, and even though in this

00:04:03.640 --> 00:04:06.079
video I'm presenting you all the data

00:04:06.079 --> 00:04:09.069
grouped by method, meaning at first I

00:04:09.069 --> 00:04:10.879
show you all the soft catches with

00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.480
"jumping up" method, then I show you all

00:04:13.480 --> 00:04:15.760
the soft catches with stepping forward,

00:04:15.760 --> 00:04:18.519
in reality we did alternate between the

00:04:18.519 --> 00:04:21.320
methods between every fall. So we did a

00:04:21.320 --> 00:04:24.629
jumping up and then stepping forward, etc.

00:04:24.629 --> 00:04:26.600
Pointless information for most of

00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:28.720
you, but I know that a lot of geeks are

00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:30.919
watching my videos and they like to write

00:04:30.919 --> 00:04:33.202
nitpicky comments.

00:04:33.202 --> 00:04:35.508
So this is for you, nitpicky geek.

00:04:35.948 --> 00:04:40.479
All right, now let's see how 
the tube slide method compares.

00:04:40.479 --> 00:04:42.520
And while I was expecting a lot from this

00:04:42.520 --> 00:04:47.240
method, the first fall wasn't any better.

00:04:47.240 --> 00:04:50.039
The second fall had a very low momentum

00:04:50.039 --> 00:04:53.600
into the wall but a lot of vertical

00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:56.800
momentum, which made me almost run across

00:04:56.800 --> 00:04:58.840
the wall, which was slightly

00:04:58.840 --> 00:05:02.080
uncomfortable. So we tried again and this

00:05:02.080 --> 00:05:06.000
time the fall was much nicer and I know

00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:08.160
that people like to try all the crazy

00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:10.479
things they see on the internet so

00:05:10.479 --> 00:05:12.160
that's why I have to stress that this

00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:14.960
tube slide method is really advanced, so

00:05:14.960 --> 00:05:17.360
if you don't know what you're doing, make

00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:20.400
sure that you have an expert guiding you.

00:05:20.400 --> 00:05:22.360
Now if we would compare all the best

00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:24.919
attempts of all the methods, we can see

00:05:24.919 --> 00:05:28.000
that the jumping up was slightly better,

00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:31.691
but overall all the methods 
were very similar.

00:05:31.691 --> 00:05:35.010
[Climber] - So all of these falls 
felt quite soft,

00:05:35.010 --> 00:05:37.045
except the one where he does nothing.

00:05:37.045 --> 00:05:39.810
Then I fell to the wall.

00:05:39.810 --> 00:05:42.199
Yeah we actually forgot 
to film hard catches

00:05:42.199 --> 00:05:44.859
where the belayer does nothing 
on this test,

00:05:44.859 --> 00:05:48.129
but no worries this was just a
small warm-up.

00:05:48.129 --> 00:05:50.220
And let's see some bigger falls.

00:05:50.220 --> 00:05:52.240
So this time we started with a

00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:55.570
tube slide method,
which at least in theory

00:05:55.570 --> 00:05:58.700
lets the belayer achieve
any fall arc.

00:05:58.700 --> 00:06:00.960
And here is one more attempt

00:06:00.960 --> 00:06:04.600
this time with even bigger arc or longer

00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:07.800
braking distance, and the fall was just

00:06:07.800 --> 00:06:10.750
a tiny bit softer for the climber.

00:06:10.750 --> 00:06:12.639
For now I'm just gonna keep the softest

00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:15.039
attempt in the charts and let's see how

00:06:15.039 --> 00:06:18.278
does that compare to the 
jumping up technique.

00:06:18.278 --> 00:06:20.520
And we can see that the first

00:06:20.520 --> 00:06:24.479
fall was slightly smaller, however it had

00:06:24.479 --> 00:06:27.520
nearly identical horizontal acceleration

00:06:27.520 --> 00:06:31.319
and velocity. However it also had lower

00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:33.960
absolute velocity, which is actually

00:06:33.960 --> 00:06:36.680
better for the climber. Now the second

00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:40.919
fall was slightly smaller
but had a tiny bit

00:06:40.919 --> 00:06:43.800
more horizontal velocity towards the wall

00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:46.240
and again let's keep the best

00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:49.039
attempts of each method and see how does

00:06:49.039 --> 00:06:53.160
that compare to 
the stepping forward technique.

00:06:54.370 --> 00:06:55.840
And we can see that the fall

00:06:55.840 --> 00:06:59.440
was smallest, however it had the greatest

00:06:59.440 --> 00:07:02.599
impact to the wall. Now on the second

00:07:02.599 --> 00:07:05.919
attempt the belayer did a much better job

00:07:05.919 --> 00:07:09.560
and the fall was significantly softer.

00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:11.479
And if we compare all the best attempts

00:07:11.479 --> 00:07:13.680
of all the methods, we can see that the

00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:16.680
horizontal speed at the moment of impact

00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:19.879
was nearly identical. Which means that at

00:07:19.879 --> 00:07:21.759
least in this test case scenario,

00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:24.280
a skilled belayer can achieve almost the

00:07:24.280 --> 00:07:27.440
same results with any method. But since

00:07:27.440 --> 00:07:29.879
consistency in catches also matters,

00:07:29.879 --> 00:07:33.440
if we compare the worst attempts,
tube slide method

00:07:33.440 --> 00:07:36.070
was the best, followed by jumping up,

00:07:36.070 --> 00:07:39.500
and then the stepping forward 
was the worst.

00:07:39.500 --> 00:07:42.479
However even the worst cases of

00:07:42.479 --> 00:07:45.440
any of these methods were much much

00:07:45.440 --> 00:07:49.280
better compared to the passive belay.

00:07:49.280 --> 00:07:52.120
So the first arising takeaway was that no

00:07:52.120 --> 00:07:54.199
matter which method you choose to give a

00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:57.039
soft catch, it's going to be much better

00:07:57.039 --> 00:07:58.960
than passively standing and doing

00:07:58.960 --> 00:07:59.960
nothing.

00:07:59.960 --> 00:08:03.280
And as always one test is no test, so I

00:08:03.280 --> 00:08:05.400
wanted to repeat these tests in a

00:08:05.400 --> 00:08:08.159
different location with another belayer.

00:08:08.159 --> 00:08:11.599
Ricky who has also a lot of experience

00:08:11.599 --> 00:08:14.319
using this tube slide method, and he told

00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:16.940
me that it's actually 
his preferred method.

00:08:16.940 --> 00:08:19.599
So, high expectations.

00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:22.136
[Climber] - Two, three... Falling!

00:08:24.130 --> 00:08:26.100
- Aw, that was super soft!

00:08:27.662 --> 00:08:31.690
So we did three attempts, and all
of them had very similar

00:08:31.690 --> 00:08:35.789
horizontal velocity. 
Nice, for consistency.

00:08:35.789 --> 00:08:38.240
Next we tested the stepping

00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:40.880
forward method, and we can see that the

00:08:40.880 --> 00:08:43.839
fall was much shorter and had a much

00:08:43.839 --> 00:08:46.760
greater swing into the wall. It seemed

00:08:46.760 --> 00:08:48.680
that the belayer was pulled towards the

00:08:48.680 --> 00:08:51.720
wall way too much, and did not have enough

00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:55.379
control to make the fall smooth.

00:09:00.920 --> 00:09:04.079
All right next the jumping up method,

00:09:04.079 --> 00:09:07.200
where Ricky actually did a very bad job

00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:08.880
on the first attempt.

00:09:09.270 --> 00:09:11.279
And the same happened on the

00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:14.680
second attempt where his jump was very

00:09:14.680 --> 00:09:17.800
minimal, only initiated a little bit from

00:09:17.800 --> 00:09:20.680
his right calf. So that's not how you

00:09:20.680 --> 00:09:23.480
jump and that's why I decided to ignore

00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:26.502
these two attempts for the poor technique,

00:09:26.502 --> 00:09:29.918
and after he adjusted his technique
on the third jump,

00:09:29.920 --> 00:09:33.280
he jumped with both legs
and it was much much better.

00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:37.519
And finally we did one passive

00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:40.000
catch where the belayer does nothing and

00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.560
same as before, it causes significantly

00:09:42.560 --> 00:09:45.399
higher swing into the wall. So at least

00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:48.200
in this test case scenario, tube slide

00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:51.399
was the best, followed by jumping up, and

00:09:51.399 --> 00:09:54.079
stepping forward was again the worst.

00:09:54.719 --> 00:09:57.000
[Belayer] - So stepping forward versus uh

00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:01.079
jumping up 
[Climber] - Yes stepping forward was not

00:10:01.079 --> 00:10:04.360
in a controlled way. I was just pulled to

00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:06.690
the wall. I tried to lean

00:10:06.690 --> 00:10:11.200
backwards to brake, to catch the fall

00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:13.519
but it was not in a controlled way, and

00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:15.880
jumping up I can choose how much I want

00:10:15.880 --> 00:10:17.648
to jump and at what timing.

00:10:17.648 --> 00:10:20.800
So overall which method is the 
best will heavily

00:10:20.800 --> 00:10:22.800
depend on your experience using this

00:10:22.800 --> 00:10:26.000
methods, however stepping forward seemed

00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:29.360
to be the worst, and gave the least

00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:32.160
control, and also worth mentioning is

00:10:32.160 --> 00:10:35.399
that standing too far in many situations

00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:37.839
can drag the belayer into the wall

00:10:37.839 --> 00:10:40.090
completely uncontrollably.

00:10:44.510 --> 00:10:48.449
And that would make the catch even harder.

00:10:50.490 --> 00:10:53.120
All right but what if the belayer

00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:56.160
is significantly heavier. In that case if

00:10:56.160 --> 00:10:58.560
you try the jumping method there is not

00:10:58.560 --> 00:11:01.959
much pull up by the rope, and jumping is

00:11:01.959 --> 00:11:04.959
much more difficult. So maybe stepping

00:11:04.959 --> 00:11:07.221
forward is better in this case.

00:11:07.221 --> 00:11:10.720
To test that, Krushu 
suggested to introduce extra

00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:12.880
friction which basically makes the

00:11:12.880 --> 00:11:14.500
belayer heavier.

00:11:15.080 --> 00:11:18.670
[Climber] - Can we try like this?
[Belayer] - He wants to kill me!

00:11:19.496 --> 00:11:23.040
So that's what we got: a little

00:11:23.040 --> 00:11:25.959
zigzag in the beginning and then a

00:11:25.959 --> 00:11:29.040
straight line all the way to the climber.

00:11:29.040 --> 00:11:31.560
So the rope actually is not going over

00:11:31.560 --> 00:11:35.160
the edge, it's just very sharp angled.

00:11:36.510 --> 00:11:38.949
- He says you have to fall!

00:11:39.228 --> 00:11:41.721
- One, two, three

00:11:44.365 --> 00:11:49.523
The swing into the wall is...
...okay-ish.

00:11:49.523 --> 00:11:51.399
So we started with jumping

00:11:51.399 --> 00:11:54.839
method, which felt slightly harder with

00:11:54.839 --> 00:12:00.120
increased friction, but still 
plenty soft enough.

00:12:00.120 --> 00:12:02.440
Just take a look at this belayer

00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:05.000
running up the wall and even avoiding

00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:07.399
his arm being squished into the first

00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:11.160
quick draw. So let's see if

00:12:11.160 --> 00:12:13.920
with increased friction stepping forward

00:12:13.920 --> 00:12:16.440
will be better. This time he was not

00:12:16.440 --> 00:12:18.560
pulled into the wall uncontrollably

00:12:18.560 --> 00:12:21.297
anymore. It also looks like he got the

00:12:21.297 --> 00:12:23.959
perfect timing and even started running

00:12:23.959 --> 00:12:27.680
forward just before the impact, however

00:12:27.680 --> 00:12:30.199
the swing into the wall for the climber

00:12:30.199 --> 00:12:34.670
was still harder compared to 
the jumping method.

00:12:34.670 --> 00:12:38.492
Okay, next we did a series 
of tube slide catches.

00:12:38.492 --> 00:12:41.170
The first felt very nice and soft.

00:12:42.260 --> 00:12:43.839
Now the second fall had even

00:12:43.839 --> 00:12:46.839
softer impact with the wall however I

00:12:46.839 --> 00:12:49.360
still had a lot of momentum downwards

00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:52.240
which forced me almost 
to run down the wall

00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:54.010
which is a little bit awkward.

00:12:54.540 --> 00:12:56.720
And the last fall had a very

00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:58.702
similar effect.

00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:01.639
And if we look into the best cases for

00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:04.360
each method, we can see that jumping up

00:13:04.360 --> 00:13:07.399
and tube slide were very very similar,

00:13:07.399 --> 00:13:11.090
and the stepping forward 
was slightly worse.

00:13:11.090 --> 00:13:14.005
And this bar chart plots all the falls.

00:13:14.005 --> 00:13:16.839
So we can see that on average, tube

00:13:16.839 --> 00:13:19.196
slide method performed the best,

00:13:19.196 --> 00:13:23.538
followed by jumping up,
and then stepping forward was the worst.

00:13:23.538 --> 00:13:25.279
Now from pure feeling

00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:27.920
standpoint for me as a climber, both

00:13:27.920 --> 00:13:30.839
jumping up and tube slide methods felt

00:13:30.839 --> 00:13:33.720
very nice and soft. Maybe if I would be

00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:37.120
nitpicking this extra momentum downwards

00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:39.120
sometimes on the tube slide method was

00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:41.279
slightly uncomfortable, although in

00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:43.680
theory the belayer should be able to give

00:13:43.680 --> 00:13:45.839
almost any kind of catch with this

00:13:45.839 --> 00:13:49.040
method and the stepping forward method

00:13:49.040 --> 00:13:51.800
was maybe slightly harder, had slightly

00:13:51.800 --> 00:13:54.600
bigger impact to the wall, however it was

00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:57.800
still plenty soft enough. And what is not

00:13:57.800 --> 00:14:01.082
soft enough is passive belays.

00:14:01.082 --> 00:14:04.399
So once again, no matter 
which soft catch method

00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:07.639
we tried it was significantly better

00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:10.959
than passive belay. 
And with added friction

00:14:10.959 --> 00:14:13.440
the belayer wasn't even lifted off the

00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:16.120
ground this time. Previously when we had

00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:18.800
no friction, passive belay looked like

00:14:18.800 --> 00:14:22.320
this: the belayer was still pulled up but

00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:25.240
now with extra friction, that is not the

00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:27.120
case anymore and you can see how the

00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:29.880
climber is being pulled up and into the

00:14:29.880 --> 00:14:32.380
wall even harder.

00:14:34.839 --> 00:14:38.480
[Climber] - Okay that was...

00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:41.508
... that was the way it was.

00:14:41.508 --> 00:14:44.839
So yeah don't forget to 
subscribe, I might need

00:14:44.839 --> 00:14:47.399
advertisement money to fix my broken

00:14:47.399 --> 00:14:49.691
body at old age.

00:14:50.364 --> 00:14:52.774
[Climber] - So what's your favorite 
method?

00:14:52.774 --> 00:14:54.759
[Belayer] - Yeah jumping up, yes.

00:14:54.759 --> 00:14:56.959
Okay so we were leaning towards

00:14:56.959 --> 00:15:00.399
jumping as our favorite method, but

00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:03.160
what if the belayer is really really

00:15:03.160 --> 00:15:05.399
heavy, or there is so much friction in

00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:08.120
the system that the rope almost doesn't

00:15:08.120 --> 00:15:11.579
pull the belayer up? In that case, you can

00:15:11.579 --> 00:15:17.839
jump... I don't know what 
30, 40 cm maybe 50

00:15:17.839 --> 00:15:21.079
if you're a crazy athlete... but is that

00:15:21.079 --> 00:15:23.272
enough for the soft catch?

00:15:23.272 --> 00:15:25.416
And this brings us to this experiment.

00:15:25.416 --> 00:15:28.680
Here we did a series of falls, 
alternating between

00:15:28.680 --> 00:15:30.649
stepping forward and jumping up,

00:15:30.649 --> 00:15:34.120
and we measured the forces to the climber.

00:15:34.120 --> 00:15:36.399
And same as before, jumping up was

00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:38.480
consistently better than stepping forward,

00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:40.880
and doing nothing was

00:15:40.880 --> 00:15:43.360
significantly worse. And then we decided

00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:46.360
to introduce this zigzag in the route, and

00:15:46.360 --> 00:15:49.279
although it doesn't look like much,

00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:52.240
it actually added a ton of friction,

00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:56.319
basically imitating a very heavy belayer.

00:15:56.319 --> 00:16:00.801
[Belayer] - Wow! I couldn't jump at all!

00:16:00.801 --> 00:16:04.480
And, as I was expecting,
jumping up was not working

00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:07.279
at all in this case, so let's see if

00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:11.289
stepping forward is gonna be better.

00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:14.659
[Climber] - Wow that was solid!

00:16:15.539 --> 00:16:18.744
[Climber] - 2.5, oh sh*t!

00:16:18.744 --> 00:16:21.434
And it actually was even worse.

00:16:23.778 --> 00:16:26.619
[Belayer] - Man I cannot give you 
a soft catch this way!

00:16:26.619 --> 00:16:28.560
So yeah no matter how much I tried

00:16:28.560 --> 00:16:31.560
to jump, I was not able to give a

00:16:31.560 --> 00:16:34.279
truly soft catch, and stepping forward

00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:36.419
was even worse.

00:16:37.149 --> 00:16:40.094
[Belayer] - It's impossible to give
a soft catch like this!

00:16:40.094 --> 00:16:44.220
[Belayer] - To time well the stepping 
forward on such a short fall

00:16:44.220 --> 00:16:47.450
is nearly impossible.

00:16:47.688 --> 00:16:51.208
Now while it seemed that heavy
belayers are doomed,

00:16:51.208 --> 00:16:53.839
on this next experiment I actually

00:16:53.839 --> 00:16:56.445
discovered something that helps.

00:16:56.445 --> 00:16:59.243
This time I was belaying a light girl,

00:16:59.243 --> 00:17:02.360
and as before, I was also 
struggling to give a

00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:07.328
soft catch. The jumping 
simply did not work.

00:17:07.328 --> 00:17:10.460
And neither did the 
stepping forward method.

00:17:11.270 --> 00:17:13.949
But then, I discovered something.

00:17:16.472 --> 00:17:20.555
[Climber] - Better, better.
This one was soft!

00:17:22.239 --> 00:17:24.878
[Climber] - Yeeeesss! 
It's soft!

00:17:24.878 --> 00:17:28.039
So yeah, turns out that bending the knees
will give you more

00:17:28.039 --> 00:17:30.799
range of movement and in this test case

00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:34.299
scenario it made a huge difference.

00:17:34.299 --> 00:17:36.440
[Climber] - If the fall was Wuuuuuuuuu

00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:41.349
Just super soft, and the others was Bung!

00:17:41.349 --> 00:17:43.260
[Belayer] - Like Bung? 
- Yeah yeah yeah!

00:17:43.260 --> 00:17:46.480
- So it's Bung versus Wuuuuuuu.

00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:47.480
[Climber] - And we prefer Wuuu.

00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:49.867
- You prefer Wuuuu.
- Yeah!

00:17:50.297 --> 00:17:51.440
And although I already

00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:53.320
mentioned this in the first episode, but

00:17:53.320 --> 00:17:56.080
it's really important to stress that

00:17:56.080 --> 00:17:59.320
simply throwing a lot of slack does not

00:17:59.320 --> 00:18:01.618
mean a soft catch.

00:18:08.457 --> 00:18:10.380
And in the case of a passive belay,

00:18:10.380 --> 00:18:12.600
it can end up very badly.

00:18:12.600 --> 00:18:14.880
And the only reason she was fine in this

00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:17.280
case, was because she was falling

00:18:17.280 --> 00:18:19.989
straight down under the quick draw.

00:18:19.989 --> 00:18:23.224
So all she felt was 
just a jerk to the harness.

00:18:23.224 --> 00:18:25.360
In a different situation with a

00:18:25.360 --> 00:18:28.200
little bit of swing, that kind of catch

00:18:28.200 --> 00:18:30.804
would probably break her ankles.

00:18:31.097 --> 00:18:33.720
So, instead of feeding a ton of slack for

00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:37.643
your climber maybe you should... 
feed your climber?

00:18:37.643 --> 00:18:39.974
And as we saw If the fall is small,

00:18:39.974 --> 00:18:43.149
bending the knees before
the fall might help.

00:18:43.449 --> 00:18:45.280
Now in case of a big whipper

00:18:45.280 --> 00:18:48.080
the fall naturally is much bigger, so you

00:18:48.080 --> 00:18:50.480
will have more time to go down and

00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:52.799
explode up. And from a biomechanical

00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:55.120
standpoint, since our muscles act as

00:18:55.120 --> 00:18:58.050
springs, going down and jumping up

00:18:58.050 --> 00:19:00.500
should result into a higher jump.

00:19:00.500 --> 00:19:03.400
Now if that doesn't help,
I would suggest more

00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:06.120
food cycles, and if that's 
not an option,

00:19:06.120 --> 00:19:09.540
then I've seen a method 
used by a very heavy belayer,

00:19:09.540 --> 00:19:11.400
which worked very well for him,

00:19:11.400 --> 00:19:15.690
where he took a little bit of 
slack with his lead hand,

00:19:15.690 --> 00:19:18.039
and during the impact he

00:19:18.039 --> 00:19:20.980
used his lead hand to soften the catch.

00:19:23.230 --> 00:19:26.000
It is extremely important to not

00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:30.050
have too much slack here 
or you will burn your hand.

00:19:30.050 --> 00:19:31.600
So be smart and use this

00:19:31.600 --> 00:19:34.559
at your own risk. This is sketchy but

00:19:34.559 --> 00:19:36.612
I've seen it working really well.

00:19:36.612 --> 00:19:39.159
Or alternatively, go old school and learn

00:19:39.159 --> 00:19:41.618
how to use tube style belaying, then it

00:19:41.618 --> 00:19:43.939
doesn't matter what's 
the weight of the climber,

00:19:43.939 --> 00:19:46.230
you can always make a soft catch.

00:19:46.230 --> 00:19:48.760
But of course that comes with 
its own risks of not

00:19:48.760 --> 00:19:51.049
having an assisted belay device.

00:19:51.049 --> 00:19:54.437
But for majority of you, 
jumping up is going to

00:19:54.437 --> 00:19:56.520
be the best and if for whatever reason

00:19:56.520 --> 00:19:58.600
you find yourself away from the wall,

00:19:58.600 --> 00:20:01.960
then just do stepping forward, as we saw.

00:20:01.960 --> 00:20:04.480
Whatever soft catch method is much

00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:06.082
better than passive belaying.

00:20:06.082 --> 00:20:08.280
Now I understand that this 
video was full of

00:20:08.280 --> 00:20:10.840
charts and graphs, and chances are if

00:20:10.840 --> 00:20:12.280
you're still watching you're a

00:20:12.280 --> 00:20:14.799
little bit nerdy, however I'm gonna make a

00:20:14.799 --> 00:20:17.320
separate video for my belay Master Class

00:20:17.320 --> 00:20:19.360
where I will go more on practical

00:20:19.360 --> 00:20:22.280
details, including those sketchy

00:20:22.280 --> 00:20:24.130
low-to-the-ground situations.

00:20:24.130 --> 00:20:27.200
And also during these two years 
we have measured forces

00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:30.159
on hundred of falls, so we have a lot of

00:20:30.159 --> 00:20:32.120
data. But as I explained in previous

00:20:32.120 --> 00:20:34.840
episodes, peak force to the climber might

00:20:34.840 --> 00:20:36.805
not be the most important factor

00:20:36.805 --> 00:20:38.486
for sport climbers.

00:20:39.006 --> 00:20:41.080
However that might be much more

00:20:41.080 --> 00:20:43.530
important for trad climbers.

00:20:43.955 --> 00:20:45.715
[Climber] - Keep a good eye.

00:20:48.220 --> 00:20:49.436
[Climber] - Sh****t!

00:20:49.436 --> 00:20:50.840
So I guess this deserves an

00:20:50.840 --> 00:20:53.235
episode for trad climbers as well,

00:20:53.235 --> 00:20:55.640
and all of these people and supporters

00:20:55.640 --> 00:20:57.690
deserve a huge thank you.

00:20:57.690 --> 00:21:01.037
None of this project would've 
been possible without all of you.

00:21:01.037 --> 00:21:03.559
And you deserve some knowledge.

00:21:04.607 --> 00:21:06.200
For the last 6 months I was

00:21:06.200 --> 00:21:08.839
warming up my brain in the mornings

00:21:08.839 --> 00:21:12.667
with brilliant.org which is 
an awesome online platform

00:21:12.667 --> 00:21:14.880
for learning math, data science,

00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:17.559
and computer science interactively.

00:21:17.559 --> 00:21:20.230
- Good morning Ben how are you?

00:21:20.230 --> 00:21:21.827
- Ah feeling like quaternion and

00:21:21.827 --> 00:21:24.801
four dimensional space 
with emotions twisting

00:21:24.801 --> 00:21:26.960
like Möbius transformation and my mood

00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:29.604
transforming like eigenvector.

00:21:29.604 --> 00:21:31.919
So no only you get deeper connections with

00:21:31.919 --> 00:21:34.440
your smart friends, you also deepen your

00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:36.640
scientific understanding of the world.

00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:39.320
Just imagine how your regular life

00:21:39.320 --> 00:21:41.440
problems will look when you will be

00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:44.080
contemplating that we are all just

00:21:44.080 --> 00:21:47.120
riding a giant rock through constantly

00:21:47.120 --> 00:21:50.320
expanding space, with supernovas and

00:21:50.320 --> 00:21:53.360
solar winds. Or maybe before human

00:21:53.360 --> 00:21:55.429
thinking becomes obsolete...

00:21:55.429 --> 00:22:00.691
- Write a short math poem 
in a style of...

00:22:01.272 --> 00:22:02.104
me.

00:22:02.274 --> 00:22:04.901
You want to know how ChatGPT works?

00:22:04.901 --> 00:22:07.050
So whenever you're are a complete beginner

00:22:07.050 --> 00:22:09.200
or ready to dive into machine learning

00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:11.880
and beyond, brilliant.org makes it easy

00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:15.758
to level up fast, with 
fun bite-sized lessons.

00:22:15.758 --> 00:22:17.200
And you can try all of this

00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:19.600
completely for free for 30 days

00:22:19.600 --> 00:22:22.608
by visiting brilliant.org/HardIsEasy

00:22:22.608 --> 00:22:26.120
and the first 200 of you 
can also get 20% off

00:22:26.120 --> 00:22:28.520
their annual premium subscriptions.

00:22:28.520 --> 00:22:31.720
So thank you Brilliant for making sure

00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:35.611
that we still use our brain. 
And thank you for watching.

00:22:35.611 --> 00:22:38.066
Enjoy your brain, and climbing,

00:22:38.066 --> 00:22:39.408
and see you in the next one.

00:22:39.408 --> 00:22:41.828
- Now it's gonna be fun...

00:22:41.828 --> 00:22:44.148
- Feeling like quateri...

00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:49.240
That word!