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Comparing Soft Catch Methods - Largest Climbing Study Part 2

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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 and
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    also that hard catches are not only the
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    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
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    friction... -My foot -What happened to your
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    foot -Well it was a hard fall - Heavey belayer?
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    -Llight belayer. Yeah yeah and I also
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    asked you guys I'm curious did you ever
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    got unexpectedly hard catch from a light
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    belayer? And turns out this happens more
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    often than I
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    thought. 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
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    climbing so let's begin. Now in the
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    previous episode I showed you this
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    beautiful horizontal velocity graphs and
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    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 and
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    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. - 1... 2... 3...
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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
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    deceleration. 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
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    to look. for example take a look at this
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    hard catch 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, so it turns
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    out our soft bodies are incredible at
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    absorbing
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    impacts 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
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    impact. 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 much better indicator. After
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    all, all of this velocity that we are
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    about to hit the wall will need to be
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    absorbed by our soft bodies. Okay so
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    let's see which method to give a soft
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    catch is the best. To not kill me on the
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    very first test we started with smaller
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    falls and jumping up technique. And these
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    falls were extremely nice and soft.
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    [Climber] - A soft ride!
    So let's see how stepping
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    forward will compare.
    [Climber] - 1... 2... 3...
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    - This is harder.
    And the fall this time
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    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 we like to write
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    nitpicky comments, so this is for you
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    nitpicky geek. All right now let's see
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    how the tube slide method compares and
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    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 method were very
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    similar.
    [Climber] - So all of these falls felt quite
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    soft except the one where he does
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    nothing, 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
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    test, but no worries this was just a
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    small warm-up.
    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,
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    which at least in theory,
    lets the belayer achieve
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    any full 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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    tiny bit softer for the climber. For now
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    I'm just going to 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
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    technique. 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...
    - Okay
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    - 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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    [Music]
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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 break 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. To test
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    that Kishu 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...
    ...okayish.
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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
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    method. Okay next we did a series of tube
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    slide catches. The first felt very nice
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    and soft. 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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    and tube slide were very very similar,
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    and the stepping forward was slightly
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    worse. And this bar chart plots all the
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    falls so we can see that on average, tube
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    slide method performed the best, followed
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    by jumping up, and then stepping forward
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    was the worst. Now from pure feeling
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    standpoint for me as a climber, both
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    jumping up and tube slide methods felt
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    very nice and soft. Maybe if I would be
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    nitpicking this extra momentum downwards
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    sometimes on the tube slide method was
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    slightly uncomfortable although in
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    theory the belayer should be able to give
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    almost any kind of catch with this
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    method and the stepping forward method
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    was maybe slightly harder, had slightly
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    bigger impact to the wall however it was
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    still plenty soft enough. And what is not
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    soft enough is passive belays. So once
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    again, no matter which soft catch method
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    we tried it was significantly better
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    than passive belay. And with added friction
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    the belayer wasn't even lifted off the
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    ground this time. Previously when we had
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    no friction, passive belay looked like
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    this: the belayer was still pulled up but
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    now with extra friction, that is not the
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    case anymore and you can see how the
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    climber is being pulled up and into the
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    wall even harder.
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    [Climber] - Okay that was...
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    ... that was the way it was.
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    So yeah don't forget to subscribe, I might need
  • 14:45 - 14:47
    advertisement money to fix my broken
  • 14:47 - 14:52
    body at old age.
    [Climber] - So what's your favorite method?
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    [Belayer] - Yeah jumping up, yes
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    Okay so we were leaning towards
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    jumping as our favorite method, but
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    what if the belayer is really really
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    heavy, or there is so much friction in
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    the system that the rope almost doesn't
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    pull the belayer up? In that case, you can
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    jump I don't know what 30 40 cm maybe 50
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    if you're a crazy athlete... but is that
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    enough for the soft catch? And this
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    brings us to this experiment: here we did
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    a series of falls, alternating between
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    stepping forward and jumping up and we
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    measured the forces to the climber.
  • 15:34 - 15:36
    And same as before, jumping up was
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    consistently better than stepping forward,
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    and doing nothing was
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    significantly worse. And then we decided
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    to introduce this zigzag in the route, and
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    although it doesn't look like much,
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    it actually added a ton of friction,
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    basically imitating a very heavy belayer.
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    [Belayer] - Wow! I couldn't jump at all!
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    And, as I was expecting,
    jumping up was not working
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    at all in this case, so let's see if
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    stepping forward is going to be better.
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    [Climber] - Wow that was solid!
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    [Climber] - 2.5, oh sh*t!
    And it actually was even worse.
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    [Belayer] - Man I cannot give you
    a soft catch this way!
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    So yeah no matter how much I tried
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    to jump, I was not able to give a
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    truly soft catch, and stepping forward
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    was even worse.
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    [Belayer] - It's impossible to give
    a soft catch like this!
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    To time well the stepping forward
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    on such a short fall
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    is nearly impossible.
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    Now while ,it seemed that heavy
    belayers are doomed, on
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    this next experiment I actually
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    discovered something that helps.
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    This time I was belaying a light girl, and as
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    before, I was also struggling to give a
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    soft catch. The jumping
    simply did not work.
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    And neither did the stepping
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    forward method.
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    But then I discovered something.
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    [Climber] - Better, better.
    This one was soft!
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    It's soft!
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    So yeah, turns out that bending the knees
    will give you more
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    range of movement and in this test case
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    scenario it made a huge difference.
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    [Climber] - If the fall was Wyuuuuuuuuu
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    Just super soft, and the others was Bump!
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    - Like Bum?
    - Yeah yeah yeah!
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    - So it's Bum versus Yuuuuuuu.
    - And we prefer Yuuu.
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    - You prefer Woooo.
    - Yeah!
  • 17:50 - 17:51
    And although I already
  • 17:51 - 17:53
    mentioned this in the first episode, but
  • 17:53 - 17:56
    it's really important to stress that
  • 17:56 - 17:59
    simply throwing a lot of slack does not
  • 17:59 - 18:02
    mean a soft catch.
  • 18:08 - 18:10
    And in the case of a passive belay,
  • 18:10 - 18:13
    it can end up very badly.
  • 18:13 - 18:15
    And the only reason she was fine in this
  • 18:15 - 18:17
    case, was because she was falling
  • 18:17 - 18:20
    straight down under the quick draw.
  • 18:20 - 18:23
    So all she felt was just a jerk to the
  • 18:23 - 18:25
    harness. In a different situation with a
  • 18:25 - 18:28
    little bit of swing, that kind of catch
  • 18:28 - 18:31
    with would probably break her ankles.
  • 18:31 - 18:34
    So, instead of feeding a ton of slack for
  • 18:34 - 18:38
    your climber maybe you should...
    feed your climber?
  • 18:38 - 18:39
    And as we saw If the fall is
  • 18:39 - 18:42
    small, bending the knees before the fall
  • 18:42 - 18:45
    might help. Now in case of a big whipper
  • 18:45 - 18:48
    the fall naturally is much bigger, so you
  • 18:48 - 18:50
    will have more time to go down and
  • 18:50 - 18:53
    explode up and from a biomechanical
  • 18:53 - 18:55
    standpoint since our muscles act as
  • 18:55 - 18:58
    springs, going down and jumping up should
  • 18:58 - 19:01
    result into a higher jump. Now if that
  • 19:01 - 19:04
    doesn't help I would suggest more food
  • 19:04 - 19:06
    cycles and if that's not an option then
  • 19:06 - 19:09
    I've seen a method used by a very heavy
  • 19:09 - 19:11
    belayer, which worked very well for him,
  • 19:11 - 19:15
    where he took a little bit of slack with
  • 19:15 - 19:18
    his lead hand and during the impact he
  • 19:18 - 19:22
    used his lead hand to soften the catch.
  • 19:23 - 19:26
    It is extremely important to not
  • 19:26 - 19:29
    have too much slack here or you will
  • 19:29 - 19:32
    burn your hand. So be smart and use this
  • 19:32 - 19:35
    at your own risk. This is sketchy but
  • 19:35 - 19:37
    I've seen it working really well.
  • 19:37 - 19:39
    Or alternatively go old school and learn
  • 19:39 - 19:42
    how to use tube style belaying, then it
  • 19:42 - 19:44
    doesn't matter what's
    the weight of the climber
  • 19:44 - 19:46
    You can always make a soft catch.
  • 19:46 - 19:49
    But of course that comes with
    its own risks of not
  • 19:49 - 19:51
    having an assisted belay device.
  • 19:51 - 19:54
    But for majority of you,
    jumping up is going to
  • 19:54 - 19:57
    be the best and if for whatever reason
  • 19:57 - 19:59
    you find yourself away from the wall,
  • 19:59 - 20:02
    then just do stepping forward as we saw.
  • 20:02 - 20:04
    Whatever soft catch method is much
  • 20:04 - 20:06
    better than passive belaying.
  • 20:06 - 20:08
    Now I understand that this
    video was full of
  • 20:08 - 20:11
    charts and graphs and chances are if
  • 20:11 - 20:12
    you're still watching you're a little
  • 20:12 - 20:15
    bit nerdy, however I'm going to make a
  • 20:15 - 20:17
    separate video for my belay Master Class
  • 20:17 - 20:19
    where I will go more on practical
  • 20:19 - 20:22
    details, including those sketchy
  • 20:22 - 20:25
    low-to-the-ground situations.
    And also during
  • 20:25 - 20:27
    these two years we have measured forces
  • 20:27 - 20:30
    on hundred of falls, so we have a lot of
  • 20:30 - 20:32
    data. But as I explained in previous
  • 20:32 - 20:35
    episodes, peak force to the climber might
  • 20:35 - 20:37
    not be the most important factor for
  • 20:37 - 20:38
    sport climbers.
  • 20:39 - 20:41
    However that might be much more
  • 20:41 - 20:44
    important for trad climbers.
  • 20:44 - 20:46
    [Climber] - Keep a good eye.
  • 20:48 - 20:49
    [Climber] - Sh****t!
  • 20:49 - 20:51
    So I guess this deserves an
  • 20:51 - 20:53
    episode for trad climbers as well and
  • 20:53 - 20:56
    all of these people and supporters
  • 20:56 - 20:58
    deserve a huge thank you. None of this
  • 20:58 - 21:00
    project would've been possible without all
  • 21:00 - 21:04
    of you. And you deserve some knowledge.
  • 21:04 - 21:06
    For the last 6 months I was
  • 21:06 - 21:09
    warming up my brain in the mornings with
  • 21:09 - 21:12
    brilliant.org which is an awesome online
  • 21:12 - 21:15
    platform for learning math, data science,
  • 21:15 - 21:18
    and computer science interactively
  • 21:18 - 21:20
    - Good morning Ben how are you?
  • 21:20 - 21:22
    - Ah feeling like quaternion and
  • 21:22 - 21:25
    four dimensional space
    with emotions twisting
  • 21:25 - 21:27
    like Möbius transformation and my mood
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    transforming like eigenvector.
  • 21:30 - 21:32
    So no only you get deeper connections with
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    your smart friends, you also deepen your
  • 21:34 - 21:37
    scientific understanding of the world.
  • 21:37 - 21:39
    Just imagine how your regular life
  • 21:39 - 21:41
    problems will look when you will be
  • 21:41 - 21:44
    contemplating that we are all just
  • 21:44 - 21:47
    riding a giant rock through constantly
  • 21:47 - 21:50
    expanding space, with supernovas and
  • 21:50 - 21:53
    solar winds. Or maybe before human
  • 21:53 - 21:55
    thinking becomes obsolete...
  • 21:55 - 22:01
    - Write a short math poem
    in a style of...
  • 22:01 - 22:02
    me.
  • 22:02 - 22:05
    You want to know how Chad GPT works? So
  • 22:05 - 22:07
    whenever you're are a complete beginner
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    or ready to dive into machine learning
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    and beyond, brilliant.org makes it easy
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    to level up fast with fun bite-sized
  • 22:15 - 22:17
    lessons. And you can try all of this
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    completely for free for 30 days by
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    visiting brilliant.org/HardIsEasy and
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    first 200 of you can also get 20% off
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    their annual premium subscription.
  • 22:29 - 22:32
    So thank you Brilliant for making sure
  • 22:32 - 22:34
    that we still use our brain and thank
  • 22:34 - 22:37
    you for watching. Enjoy your brain and
  • 22:37 - 22:40
    climbing and see you in the next one.
  • 22:40 - 22:45
    - Now it's gonna be fun...
    Feeling like quateri...
  • 22:46 - 22:49
    That word!
Title:
Comparing Soft Catch Methods - Largest Climbing Study Part 2
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
Hard Is Easy
Duration:
22:47

English subtitles

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