Slackrope techniques
Here I post some new stuff I wrote myself, some e-mails I received from people on rec.juggling and some old stuff from deja.news. I don't have all the names of the authors anymore. I have: Andy Peterson, Lauren Muney, Slammin Andy, Trog Woolley. I'm sorry for the one's I don't mention. If you come forward I'll recognize your copyright.
If it's slackrope walking you are interested in, I say GO FOR IT!!!. I am a fairly avid slackrope walker (slacker?) and I highly recommend it becaue it isn't all that hard, it's easy to set up and it goes great with juggling (it is much easier to juggle on a slack rope than on a unicycle for example).
Slackrope walking is a totally amazing thing and I highly recommend it. It is a phenomenal crowd pleaser too.
Sure, I walk a tightrope -- not slack. I use 1" marine hemp rope. I don't put it very high, so I rely on doing more tricks -- blindfolded walking, etc. I'm not a real pro at that, but it is a fun and interesting technique. Teahing kids how to do it really boosts their confidence -- a little practice is all they need for a simple walk.
I find that the nice thing about the unicycle and the rope is that it is a quick way to silence the internal dialogue. You have to shut up for a while and try to stay on top of things.
I juggle a lot on slackrope, but don't do a lot of the 'traditional' slack wire moves (handstand, ladder, etc.) because I don't have a spotter and don't want to break my neck. Let me tell you, juggling on the slack wire kicks ass. It IS great exercise. Try teaching some friends and then running passing feeds. Or if you are by yourself, numbers clubs, half pirouettes, juggling with club balance, whatever, it's all a blast.
Hi, I've been walking slack rope for five years now. I don't know if that makes me qualified to answer you question, but what the hell...
I always tell people to stand with all their weight over on foot, with the knee of that leg locked so that they feel like a pole is extending from the top of their head down through their center of balance, down throught their leg and on to the wire. The result should feel like your center of balance is concentrated right over the rope (duh... Sorry if that was obvious). I keep my feet straight with the the ball and heel on the rope. Look ahead, not down. Unlike tight wire, you must use your hips to keep you balance. Work on your Elvis impression when you are up there to help keep your balance over the wire.
No you are right. When I first started, it was easier for me to stand on two feet (once again all the weight was over one foot, with the knee locked). Now it was easier for me to stand on one foot however. I think it is something you get used to over time. At first, if you only use one foot, you will get the spread eagle syndrome, where your free foot travels up way to high to try to maintain your balance and you will fall flat on your face, or worse. So start out with two feet on the wire, weight always on one for OR the other however.
I started by learning how to walk, standing still came after that. Something about the momentum of taking steps forward helped me learn to balance better than just trying to stick it out and balance.
The guy who taught me made me start at the end. But then again, I walk a weird wire. It is climbing wire pulled 'tight', but it has a lot of give to it (because it is nylon climbing wire). As one guy (Bill??) in Niagara commented, it's like a slack trampoline. Remember, a slack rope is a little like a wave... It wants to swing back and forth (and in my case, up and down). Where you stand on the rope affects all the properties of that wave: period, frequency, amplitude, etc. So the closer you stand to the end, the lower the amplitude of the wave, but the faster the motion. It's a trade off. I started learning at the ends, but now I mostly use the 'sweet spot', right in the middle of the wire. Eventually, you will be comfortable all up and down the rope.
It took me about two weeks to get comfortable walking on a slack rope. My pointers are...
I never got very far with it, but did have good teachers. I remember with slack rope it's much easier to stay in one position; with tightrope it's easier to keep walking. What is definitely true is that you should begin by balancing on two feet on slackrope, whereas tightrope is easier when balancing on one foot. From this you can see that as soon as you begin to raise one foot in order to move along the slackrope, you need greater skill. Walking is an essential skill, but not the first.
Slackrope balancing is a knack that depends on being mobile at the hips - your torso stays pretty still, while your legs wobble like a pendulum. If you can focus on keeping your head relaxed but still, along with your body, and allow your legs to move freely (this feels very strange) you'll get it. Actually, logically, I would place my awareness directly in my hips - but I'm not expert enough to say whether this works best. Unicycling also needs this free independent movement between upper and lower body, so the two skills may help each other.
As was mentioned before, a slackrope will save much much time and money if you just want a rope to play on. Note that the techniques for slackrope and tightrope are almost entirely different, learning one does not transfer well to learning the other. good luck all... huiswants es!
One thing not to do is to use ski poles or some such thing to keep you up. Whatever balance mechanism it is in your head that will eventually alow you to stay up on the thing will be sidestepped. A hallway might be nice, but one wall is what did the trick for me. A tree won't let you get anywhere, but a wall will be there (for at least the length of the wall) to give you a sense of security, and to allow you to learn the moves that will let you keep your butt over the wheel, and that, in a rather crude nutshell, is the secret of the yike. (I don't remember where I heard that, but it was originally applied to slackrope walking, which is another fun thing to try while you're juggling.
A few slackrope hints from someone who can almost do it:
I walk tightwire and have learned most of my stuff without a spotter. This is due to the fact generally people aren't interested in learning to walk the wire and so I end up walking alone. Anyway to learn a new balance, I use a broomstick with a walking stick rubber on the bottom so it doesn't slip. I use it to lean on while I am learning a new balance. I don't know if you can use this little gadget for slackwire I find a brolly (=umbrella) very useful for tightwire too. The handle must be at 90degrees to a normal brolly handle (that is parallel to the canopy). I have seen brolly's used on slackwire so they must be useful; they certainly make tightwire about 1000% easier and they are a good looking prop.
Yes, there are tightrope walkers out here. Suggest that you check out Hovey Burgess's "Circus Techniques" book (available from Brain Dube'), as well as the free-standing apparatus which Ben Schoenberg at Serious Juggling carries. Another reference is Phillipe Pettit's "On The Wire", but it is difficult to get hold of, and it is not exactly a how-to manual. It does, however, have a photo of his clandestine walk between the twin towers of Notre Dame in Paris, with a not very amused gendarmes standing in the foreground.
On The High Wire, Philippe Petit, 1985, Random House, New York, ISBN 0-394-71573-X, trans. Paul Auster, preface by Marcel Marceau, back cover piece by Werner Herzog.
I use a really simple set up which only requires two short and one long length of flat 3/4" climbing web and three beeners (those clips from rock climbing) and two poles, trees or other strong objects to tie the slack rope to (about 15-20' apart, firmly implanted in the ground). So total cost of this set up is probably under $40 (minus the trees). The set up involves looping the short ropes around the poles/trees you use and then hooking one end of the long rope to one end-rope with a beener and rigging up a crude pully system on the other end of the long rope with two beeners, one of which get attached to the other end rope which in turn is looped around the other pole/tree. Finally then, tension can be set on the slack rope by using the pully.
Oh, yes. Start by rigging the rope so that it is *below* your inseam when you straddle the rope. Best of luck.
Ik heb nu de ideale opstelling gevonden denk ik. Snel op te bouwen en ook snel af te breken.
Klimtouw (dynamisch) werkt niet. Ik heb 20m oud touw voor NLG 10 gekocht bij de klimhal maar ik krijg het niet strak genoeg. Wat ik ook doe, als ik in het midden ga staan dan sta ik gelijk op de grond. Het is gewoon elastiek. Er zou wel een oplossing voor zijn: een katrol-constructie, maar dan wordt het gevaarlijk. Stel dat je er van af valt en je krijgt dat strak gespannen touw in je kruis. Au!
Ik gebruik gewoon 14mm touw, geslagen, 3 strengen. Een soort dikkere sleepkabel. Ik heb geen idee wat het is. Bij het "Touwhuis" vroeg ik om 14mm touw, het goedkoopste dat er is. En ik kreeg 25m voor NLG 45. (Eerst wilden ze het me niet verkopen omdat ik zei dat ik er een glijbaantje mee wilde maken. Dat vonden ze te gevaarlijk met niet-gekeurd touw.)
Voor het koorddansen bevalt het prima. Ik kan het zo strak trekken dat ik in het midden nog net 10cm boven de grond blijf en dan veert het nog steeds een beetje. Het is vrij statisch touw. De opstelling die ik gebruik is:
For those of you who recall my story last fall of having my torches confiscated by the University Police, I have a further anecdote: Last weekend there was a big festival at school with a circus theme; I juggled, brought in friends who unicycled and juggled, and tied up a slackrope to play on. The day was lots of fun as I got the hang of the rope and let other people try it out.
This morning, I brought out the rope again to practice alone on the University Yard, and was very quickly apprehended in the criminal act by a UPD officer. I was ordered to get down, get rid of the rope and never attempt it again; when I asked why, I was told I was a danger to innocent passers-by, who might unknowingly WALK INTO ME or suffer if I went flying through the air at them. Unconvinced as I was, I tried to be patient as the sergeant was brought out to talk some sense into me.
No logic worked with these men. I mentioned that students regularly play tackle football, frisbee and various other dangerous but conventional sports all over the yard, and that it is Extremely Unlikely for a lost student to wander across the grass and trip over my rope as I balance on it. Their response was, "Are you kidding? People walk out into the street and get hit by CARS!" Of course they don't attempt to take away people's cars, now, do they.
I spent the rest of the day being shuffled around from one administrative office to the next, pleading my case and waiting for long periods of time to see the appropriate officials about this - I want to play with my rope in my last few weeks of school and I am very angry at this whole situation. I haven't gotten an answer yet - by 4:30 I was tired of waiting for the Captain of the police so I gave up and went home. Tomorrow is another day. (*sigh*) I guess this relates back to the old "I got hassled for juggling" stories, but for the moment I am just sick and tired of the cops here at GW. Another victimized artiste
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© 2000 Petr Kazil