global_jd

Rope notes, 072508

Little topics here....

Two-handed rope dart: Cane twirling has a lot of hand-to-hand transfers. But all the Chinese Rope Dart work I've seen has been right-handed only. Last week I just started doing two-handed poi work with a single-weighted rope, alternating left and right control of the weight. With a twelve-foot rope, and sliding grips, there's a lot of transfers possible.

Even more interesting is using the free hand to push or pull the rope along. The physics of a pendulum mean that a motion applied can be released into a different direction... it's possible to push the rope away from the target and have that translated into greater movement *towards* the target, depending on when during the circle you release. If you've got good timing of your motions, you can keep pumping energy into this circular system with relatively subtle motions.

When a limb interrupts the weight's circle, the new center of revolution is the point of interruption itself. That point can be moving in space, whether in the direction of the rope's motion (to dampen the system), or against the direction of rope motion (to add energy to the system), or in some other direction relative to rope motion (which gets complex pretty quickly).

Anyway, my big brainstorm for the week was that ambidextrous two-handed techniques can be applied to a single-weighted rope, starting from a springboard of two-handed cane transfers. Feels more like Hell's Kitchen than Shaolin Temple.

Rear circles: In a normal rope grip it's held by thumb atop the curled forefinger, pointing forwards. To do a Figure8 it's easiest to move the wrist, the forearm, the elbow, the upper arm, maybe even the shoulder and trunk. But it's also possible to just flip the wrist, changing its orientation while not changing its position.

(This stuff is very hard for me to talk about, I keep staring at the keyboard.... ;-)

Suppose you're rotating a weight in the front plane (like you're standing facing a wall), with the hand down towards mid-thigh, a natural rest position. The thumb would be atop the forefinger, pointing directly forwards. At the right point in the arc the wrist could just twist around to point to the back, not moving, so that the weight makes a Figure8.

This kind of near-motionless flip can also be done above the shoulders. I've made Triple8s from a front thigh-level spin, then a rear spin, then on the forward raise it to shoulder-level for a back spin high. Looks like three circles: a high one behind you, a middle one in front, then a low one behind, going from one to the other.

Wrapping and bouncing: There's a continuum of different ways the rope can interact with an intercepting object. Tangling someone's knees, or turning the rope by catching it under the arm, or slapping a nylon poi sock against the arm to sproing it back... all occur when the rope hits an object, but what happens after that is very open to control.

In the movies, Indiana Jones has the tip of his whip wrap around a tree branch three or four times, then pulls the whip to the side to lock it atop the wrapped section. That's a binding kind of wrap, secure.

But without that final locking, it's just a fancy way to reverse direction. I've been keeping a single-ball spin in the forward plane, then wrapping it around the other arm two or three times, letting it unwrap and spin away in the opposite direction. The goal is to never have the rope go slack, or the weight jump... just nice smooth movements. Incidental motion of the arm as it's unwrapped can give great velocity to the rope.

Rope Dart techniques of elbow wraps, arm wraps, neck wraps, leg wraps don't really wrap so much as bounce. (These folks do wrap to shorten the rope, but directional changes generally use shorter contact.) These body parts can also be moving in a direction of their own, changing the course of the rope.

Then there's soft damping to reduce the speed of the rope... spinning on the vertical plane and wrapping it around the body, using the opposite hand to gently slow it down.

Using a soft nylon poi sock taught me a lot, because it's more elastic and adds additional jump to a return. Once I started seeing the similarities between different types of techniques, it became easier to approach each different rope, each different situation.

Eighth-inch tent cord: I got fifty feet of this at REI. Cost $4. I sliced off about ten feet, doubled it up, put a big square knot on the end, and it became a necklace. Now I've always got a rope. In case I have to tie something. (I've frequently packed a marker pen with some duct tape around it, in case I had to tape something, but I haven't.)

I'm trying to think of a nice weight I can tie on it... something soft so I don't crack my shins, that I'd naturally carry. Something in a bandana as a weight is a possibility.

Anyway, that 1/8-inch tent cord is a nice convenient little rope. I'm looking for some thicker ropes, ornamental quality, that could pass as a belt too.

Masaaki Hatsumi: This guy knows rope! The first time I read his classic "Stick Fighting" book I thought it was interesting, but each time I re-read it I learned at a deeper level. Documentaries have portrayed him as "The Last of the Ninjas". He has videotaped his workshops the past few years, and they're available on DVD. I picked up his "Kuden vol1" in the Bunjikan Hikan Densho series, and it shows workshops from 2003 using sticks, ropes and other things.

He did some wild, natural tying of attackers. The situation was artificial -- the attacker struck a pose and froze -- but the work seemed very plausible. I had the feeling Hatsumi could switch into any of several paths at each moment. Once you bind the attacking hand (whether by wrap&trap, or lasso, or quoit), it's wrapped around another limb (such as the neck), and cinched tight. The hand gets attached to the neck. Then wrap and cinch the other hand. Or a foot. One by one, each gets attached to the next, never retrieving any motion they first gave away. The range of motion is methodically silenced.

But even with just one limb wrapped, you can apply your own bodyweight against wrist muscles or whatever that aren't used to being pulled in such directions. It's a power multiplier.

It's hard for me to see hojojutsu as being a practical self-protection technique, but with sufficient training, it might be... it's just hard to get such complex habits engrained. There's something very attractive about not relying on an impact weapon (such as a cane) as an equalizer... I don't carry a knife, because I don't want to cut anyone, and I'd really rather not strike anyone either. If a rope could be real protection, that'd be cool. Regardless of whether it has a practical use, rope is sure fun to practice.

Hatsumi has lots of tapes available, but there's not much description about each disc. I'm not sure if every disc has similar types of content... suspect it was just capturing whatever happened to be taught at each session. I like keeping it on in the background, muted, so I can watch how he moves.

Some cane and rope moves

A bunch of little topics here....

Different lengths of rope: Even a single rope can be folded in two, and a long rope can be doubled yet again. It can be used as a single-ended rope dart at long range, two poi at medium range, a short flexible stick at close range. Doubling adds weight and affects speed. Doubled ropes also require a little more care to keep extended, so that the ends flop apart only when you want them to.

I got into a session today with a twice-doubled ten foot rope, in underhand grip as well as overhand. Underhand Figure8s, in either direction, were particularly instructive. Hand-to-hand transfers require more care than with a stick, because the twelve-o'clock position is inherently unstable. Even a four-foot rope has a useful new personality when doubled. Poi folk work with a constant length, sometimes wrapped and shortened, but an actual rope offers constantly changing length. It's very, uh, flexible.

Cane twirls: Lots more two-handed, transfers in front or behind, the far end of the cane always looping, following its weight. Fewer specific patterns, more groups of patterns now. The rope has really had a beneficial effect on twirling the stick: I have a lot more sense of rotational planes now, am driving the cane less, letting it do the work. Too much to really describe, but I feel it growing each week.

One nice little example: Elbows at hips, forearms extended with thumbs pointed up, cane held at each end in each hand, thumb on top and side of forefinger beneath. One hand pushes down and releases, and its end rotates around the stationary other hand in a large circle. It's a combination of a finger twirl between first and second fingers and turning that hand thumb-down which accomplishes the full rotation. Then that hand pushes down and releases, doing the same rotation about the other hand. Looks like two large alternating circles, around the stationary hip-high hands. Can be varied with different hand grips and rotations, or pushing up and releasing instead of down, or different paths with each hand, or adding a second spin in a different plane, and so on.

Cane for defense: The more I think about it, the less I'm into these "powerful strike" systems. It's true that it's more mechanically efficient to use a whole body turn in a strike, but this adds a windup, and people watching could perceive it as threatening. Baseball swings are a natural reaction, but I want to learn to do better. I've been watching videos from Ted Tabura and Mikhail Ryabko, and they have a very relaxed look to them, seems like they're hardly moving. A lot of their work is in targeting, timing, complementing and amplifying the attacker's momentum. They work on wrist development, for snapping strikes against bony areas, so there's no telegraphing, no body tension. Once the attacker's attention is captured, leverage and locking techniques can continue to affect the direction of their motion. Some of the big stick-bashing techniques may be good to teach to a newbie in a class, to give them at least one technique quickly, but I'd like to move more naturally, less threateningly, with a finer degree of responsiveness and control.

Rotational planes: I've been trying to hit certain angles more cleanly... the right and left planes, the front plane, forty-five degree angles. Sometimes I'll move the hand up and down, left and right, while maintaining the front plane... it's like I'm washing a wall. Crossing the hands so that right and left planes are switched, keeping them stable. Doing 45d in front, then cross the body at 45d to define an outward-facing V, then a third rotational plane behind, defining a triangle around the body... a double Figure8, with three distinct circles.

Switching between perpendicular planes is a little trickier than a regular Figure8, particularly with a rope. It needs to slow down at the top of its arc, so the arm can pull it into a new rotational plane. The goal is to have the rope always straight, never slacking and curving.

Jumping rope: I don't have a good practice environment... my apartment is the top floor of a hardwood Victorian... the parking lot at work has a concrete base... I'm too self-conscious to start learning in the park. But I have been timing leg flexes with loops, as if I was actually jumping. I've finally found a way to start making progress here.

Weave patterns: I've got one pattern down, but am still working on the tools to generate different patterns. The basic weave has two different planes for each hand, usually two circles cross-body to one circle same-side, with the two hands off-cycle to each other. I've been trying to move in and out of this to dual-circles, dual-Figure8s, one hand Figure8 one hand circles, cross-body circles... just ringing the changes.

There's variation possible in the circular planes for each hand. I've been working a lot with overhand rotations at forty-five degrees, out-of-phase with each other so the tips constantly come down a foot or two in front of my body. Either hand can alternate into a circle behind the back, with the arm pointing down and the fingers pointing back. Ends up being Figure8s with the apex out to each side of the body, one circle in front, the other behind. I want to do 2-1 weave-like patterns with this too.

Have done a little work towards doing these weaves underhand too, so the ropes rise towards someone watching from the front, but I'm not yet sure which parts to reverse when, and which turns to take. It's coming.

Wrist strengthening: When standing waiting for something, I'm often invisibly flexing my wrists against the cane, wringing, bending, pulling, pushing. Lately I've been trying to isolate and relax the shoulder muscles while doing so.

Cane as rope, rope as cane: I've mentioned this before, but it's a squishy subject... I'm definitely applying things I learn with each instrument to the other. I haven't seen any other traditions which do stick-style hand exchanges with rope, but it sure does work, sure does make sense. I think jo-style sliding-hands techniques have affected my desire to work with different effective lengths of rope. Rope practice is definitely improving my ability to let the weight of the stick do the work. Lots of fun.

Spinning rope, 070908

I'm learning a lot. But learning it too quickly to put it into context. Here are some varied notes of what I've been learning about rope the past two weeks.

• Length of rope, whether ends are weighted, whether working in two hands or one... doesn't matter. Each has advantages. I usually carry a 9-foot rope with light monkeyfist weights on the ends, but I also like a plain 10-foot rope with cut ends, or a three foot sock, or a belt, or a set of poi, or a four-foot rope, and I hope to branch out further soon.
• Cane moves are applying to rope and vice-versa. With cane I'm now much more attentive to plane of rotation, and letting the weight do the work. Today I started applying two-hand cane spins to a single poi sock, and it was a lot of fun.
• Chinese 9-Section Chain Whip applies directly, like a cross between cane and poi. Okinawan Suruchin seems to have come from China, but they also used chains before that... confirming the "Meteor Hammer" confusion, lengths are usually six or nine foot. Cowboy lariat may use a honda and loop, but many of the principles and sensitivities are common with other traditions... fifteen feet length, like many rope darts.
• Martial traditions do seem to use wraps and binds in addition to blocks, strikes and thrusts... verges over into the knot-tying traditions... hojojutsu rope-tying techniques of Japanese police are an explicit link. Overall, people have made full use of the instrument, even though some of the tutorial materials seem oriented towards competitions, shows and judging. Makes me think of karate belts in a whole new light.
• In the tutorials I've used, there are discrete "tricks" like Butterfly, the Weave, Mexican Wave and other names. But in reality the moves do blend into each other... there's a whole spectrum behind each name depending on how you change things like direction, angle, hand position... any move can be reversed, along two or three dimensions. A lot of the trouble I have is figuring out which reflection the author is referring to... it's more like they give me ideas, and I have to work out the combinations and transitions myself.
• "Butterfly" is when the hands are together, balls spinning in planes just slightly askew from each other, so that each can do a circle without being obstructed by the other rope or hand. One hand is usually above the other a few inches, which means there are a few combinations of hand position to work with. The balls are at similar height throughout their opposite-facing circles... it looks like a butterfly's wings are beating up and down.
• "The Weave" usually means an asymmetrical Figure8, with two circles on the cross-body rotation versus one circle on same side (eg, right hand ball makes two circles on left side, one on right, cycle after cycle). Took me awhile to learn it, but now I think it's easier to start by doing jump-rope crosses, where both hands cross body simultaneously to spin their balls on the other side. After working through various patterns in parallel, the next trick is to put them slightly out of phase with each other, so that the first beat of the left hand is on the second beat of the right hand's pattern. I'm just working one pattern so far, but after reversing it various ways and trying different patterns, this seems a very rich area.
• I wonder if Bill "Bojangles" Robinson ever danced with a rope....
• Poi keeps a static length between two balls... sometimes they wrap up to shorten the rope. I like a longer rope because you can slide and change lengths. You can also fold it in half or quarters for heavier weight at closer ranges.
• I carry a rope with me everywhere now, so that I can take a break and get refreshed with it at the office, or take some time in the park on the way home. Sometimes it's coiled up in a bag, but usually I just double it, wrap it around my waist, pull the ends through the center loop and tighten it, then tuck the end under. Can be hid beneath the belt line, or under a sweater or shirt. Even with a monkeyfist on the end it's unobtrusive, off to the side or the back.
• The plain-end rope is more delicate to work with, not having a weight at the end to guide things, but it's fun, almost snakey, the way it looks. Easier to pack as a belt, too. Functions as a jump rope. I'm trying to shop some nice ropes in different colors, to blend in with different clothes.... ;-)
• There's a definite cardiovascular effect from rhythmic upper-body motion. (I'm stepping, but not doing too much with my legs yet.) There's also a definite analgesic effect from paying attention to two objects at the same time, using both sides of the body. Great stuff.

Rope notes, 062108

I haven't found much in web search on the physics of an object rotating on a string.

Some of the entries are people writing what they remember of physics class, but just the equations and abbreviations, not the English meaning. There are communities online about the sling and trebuchet, but they often speak about the distance a projectile can be slung, rather than how factors interrelate for total force.

(I didn't do well in physics, because I kept asking "What does this equation mean, can you rephrase it in English?", while my classmates were memorizing it successfully for the test. When I hear F=mA I guess they mean that "force" doesn't quite mean "how it feels if it hits you", because acceleration is only the rate of change, and a faster thing, even if it's slowing, sure has an impact. Joules and Newtons introduced new terms: defined, yet unapplied. Wikipedia doesn't help. Guess I've got special needs with terminology. ;-)

Anyway, assuming you're spinning three feet of rope poi-style in a circle, each revolution covers about 18.85 feet of distance (that's 2piR, 2 * 3.14 * 3). If you're scooping the palms (making the circle larger with wrist movement), then that's about 20 feet of distance per rotation. Three rotations per second gives you a ball travelling 60 feet, or 40 miles per hour. I've read forum discussions where people say they get six rotations per second, which would be 80 mph. Techno music often runs 120-150 beats per minute. I can't measure my own rotations yet. Bottom line: Balls on strings go fast.

They go fast, but what happens when they hit something? I use soft weights of 2-3 ounces, but Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon used a horseshoe. An iron dart on the end weighs 350-450 grams (12-16 ounces), and a "hammer" type of wushu weight is quoted in a video I've seen as 750 grams (1 3/4 pounds). Shaolin rope darts can cut through an inch of thick wood, and the "meteor hammers" were used to defeat body armor. I think Jackie Chan just knocked someone out, and I didn't see the head fly off, but then again that's Hollywood. ;-)

Anyway, with three feet of rope swinging, you get 13mph for each additional revolution per second. The heavier the weight, the bigger the effect. Beyond that there's body torque... some of the rope dart moves use a 180d body turn to snap the rope forward, in addition to the spin.

I'm pretty sure this packs more of a punch than a punch, but how much, that's not clear. I think I need to go out in the park with a rope-end monkeyfist and aim at leaves and tree trunks, to get a feel for what's going on with the rope when it's swinging around.

One phrase that comes up in a lot of web searches is "the accumulation of energies" -- the ball in circular motion stores energy, and you keep adding to that store. Slingers say they usually swing only a few circles before release, and some techniques release at less than 360d of spin. With the body torque that some rope dart techniques apply, it's like a punch from the hand, but at long distance, and without the follow-through of falling bodyweight behind it.

Rope dart also uses a lot of wrapping techniques, around the elbow, neck, leg. I'm not sure how these suddenly-smaller circles affect momentum upon release. There are some rope dart wrapping techniques where all centrifugal motion is removed, and you end up just flinging a tethered dart outwards. The wrapping techniques might have some power implications, but I suspect they evolved slowly, in response to how swordsmen and others learned to anticipate straightforward circles and dodge the dart -- more for timing and surprise than for power.

The physics of the pendulum, the pulley, the supersonic snap of the whip, all these things are related. I want to gain an intuitive understanding of how these forces play together.

Some early rope moves

Apologies for the appearance... Typepad's new JavaScript "rich text" editor is a few steps backwards.

A jump-rope is about nine feet long, half-again as tall as we are. I've been having fun with a nine-foot rope with soft weights on the ends, holding it in the middle, spinning two pendulums against each other.

The most important reason I like it is that I think it's modifying my mind. Both sides of the body must make subtle sequenced movements, sometimes synchronously with each other, sometimes out of phase with each other, sometimes independently of each other. It's not a matter of muscle, but of quieting down and paying attention, using parallel processors. It feels really good afterwards.

How does spinning a rope compare with spinning a cane?

• My cane work has been affected by what I've learned on the rope. Puts things more in focus.  
• The rope is straight only under tension, when pulled by weight, momentum, centrifugal force. Changes of direction become much more complex than with a stick.  
• Rope needs to ease in to a shift, and so requires less muscle than stick. But timing, breathing and cardio seem to play a greater role.  
• Rope is unobtrusively portable, and is quieter when dropped.  
• Now it's easier to see the circles a cane must follow, after I've been trained by the rope.  

There are precedents, but I haven't found anything else which is quite the same. Poi spinning is the closest right now, and Home of Poi is a great resource. These are a pair of three-foot socks, rope or chain with a three ounce weight on the end. Most of the action I've seen so far has been circles, in combination, across planes. There's a lot you can do with moving the axis of rotation, and Figure8s can be used in various planes too.

A nine-foot rope with weights on each end has similar geometry to poi, but with the addition of a flexible connection between the two sides. Japanese stick work uses a lot of sliding-hands technique, and this can be applied to the longer rope... the variable-length darting of the fifteen-foot Wushu Rope Dart can also apply to the nine-foot rope, and ambidextrously at that. A nine-foot rope is like poi, but you can change the length of the radius at will. A pair of light tethered weights, on a nine foot rope, that's what I'm working with here.

But atop that I'm gravitating more towards arcs and lines in additions to circles, mixing the movements up in rhythm and counterpoint, like a drummer with brushes and high-hat. It's a little different from what I've seen other people do... just makes sense for me. Here are some of the exercises I've been doing:

1. Spin circles on your sides. Like you're jumping a rope: going down in front, and up in back. Keep the rotational planes even on each side; keep the synch steady. Try different arm positions, hand orientations.  
2. Vary it. Rotate the ropes the other way: up in front, over your head and down your back. Or put the two rope ends 180 degrees out of phase, one high when the other low. Or one spinning "backwards" to the other. Or changing the planes of rotation, so they intersect out-of-phase. Or arm positions high, low, opposed, extended, rear. Or singing to the beat.  
3. Stall them. Extend the arm in the direction of the ball's travel to deaden its momentum, stall it, and pull it back in the other direction. The arm moves, so the ball doesn't. You can go back and forth as pendulum, or switch back to circles, or loopty-loop in a fancy pendulum.  
4. Work at arm independence. Either ball can do pendulums, circles, stalls at will. Vary with arm position, angle of rotation, length of rope, speed.  
5. Move balls beyond a single plane of rotation. Figure 8s, in either hand, stalling to switch between overhand and underhand. Then both hands, blending between circles and figure8s. Then hands independently.  
6. Focus on footwork. Turn the body while maintaining basic circles. Advance, lunge, retreat, circle. It's possible to turn around when spinning circles and figure8s, as the hands shift between one or both sides of the body. Avoid obstacles, walk past obstructions.  
7. Catching and tossing a ball. Shooting an end forward like a rope dart. Disentangling. Sweeps around the body, like a katana. Wrapping around the hand to shorten. Doubling the rope for a two-ball bolo. Sinawali weaves.  

Spinning rope

I've written this post half-a-dozen times the last six weeks, but haven't figured how to start talking about it. To cut to the chase: lately, I've been fascinated by rope.

It grew out of the cane. Every day I twirl with the cane, stretch with it, use it to loosen muscles out, practice dexterity. It's also a tool, like a flashlight or pocketknife, with many uses if you can integrate it into your life. Handy, and always in the hand too. But it's just as much a toy, too... fun to juggle with, fun to play with.

There's not much literature on the daily carrying of a stick, so I ended up using a lot of martial and self-defense materials. These are a mixed lot, but I enjoy seeing how each different instructor carries the stick, handles it, approaches it. From this I got exposed to the use of belts or ropes in Hapkido... the ability to block a blow translates easily (although with the extra variable of the tension on the rope, for a hard bouncing block or a soft yielding block)... while wraps, to control a joint, added a whole new dimension that I still don't understand. Anyway, Hapkido got me thinking about "flexible weapons".

I've been trying to learn about jumping rope, which may be the most efficient cardiovascular workout there is, is very flexible in terms of tasks, and is portable. I've been picking up cowboy books on "trick roping", spinning a loop in various ways, although I haven't worked through it yet. Knots are a rich topic of study, as is how people have use rope in daily life, in rope-using cultures through history. While searching around, I also stumbled upon a new juggling movement, coming out of New Zealand, called poi... the Home of Poi is a good introduction.

Poi spinners use an arm's-length weighted rope in each hand, and spin patterns ambidextrously. The rope can be a chain, or a long sock... the weight can be a heavy knot, a small ball, a glowing ball, or a wick of fire. Many of these folks also spin six-foot staffs or juggle clubs, or practice contact juggling. There's also an overlap with the Chinese martial-arts tools of a rope dart (a 12-15 foot length of rope with a blade or heavy metal hammer on one end) or meteor (a 6-8 foot of rope with a hammer or heavy knot on each end).

There are similarities to cane-spinning, but additional complexities due to the rope needing to stay under tension, or being able to wrap around a joint. A spinning rope also has gyroscopic properties, and changing the plane of motion requires more thought than with a stick. You can also catch, throw, and retrieve the weight on a rope in ways that can't make sense with a static length of stick. But many of the principals of momentum, grips, and patterns of movement around the body practiced in canework can be applied to rope.

My favorite instrument right now is a nine-foot length of rope, with a monkeyfist knot around a small rubber ball at each end. Held in both hands to divide the rope in thirds, you've got a poi-length in each hand, but with a connection between the two hands. Unlike poi, you've also got sliding grips, so that the length can vary. It can also easily be treated like a short rope dart, sliding and wrapping and thrusting, but with either hand, back and forth.

I don't know what you'd call it... the names of the Chinese weapons vary anyway... many of the YouTube videos I've seen of "meteor hammers" are actually for rope dart techniques, with a single weight at one end of a long rope. Most English-speaking people seem to use "meteor hammer" to refer to a dual-weighted six-foot length of rope. What I'm using is not a bolo, which usually has three weights. I've read Marc MacYoung talk about "monkey balls", a Filipino Pananandata technique, but I haven't found much else on the web with this name. Don't know what to call it.

So why do I like working with it? It uses both sides of the body symmetrically, sort of like patting your head while rubbing your belly. Patterns can be added together as I learn them... every little trick adds to the whole ability to flow. There's a cardio element --moving the upper body and body weight in rhythmic motions gets the heartbeat up, the breathing heavy. A nine-foot rope can be used as a jumprope. It can fit into a pocket.

It's just fun to spin stuff, too. And when both sides of the body work, it's a strangely unifying experience.

Anyway, there's lots more I could say about it, although details may be better for another time. I've been having lots of fun with various lengths of rope recently, but have been sort of embarrassed to talk about it. A stick is complex, but a rope is even more complex. I like it.

Tips on a monkeyfist

Google has plenty of results on how to tie a monkeyfist knot at the end of a rope, but it still took me awhile to figure how to do it. Here are some tips I didn't quite see in the instructions I studied:

• There are two distinct parts to the workflow: laying out the strands, and then tightening and working it into shape. Instructions are mostly about the layout, but the finishing usually takes the most time.
  
• Because of this, the initial position of the knot on the rope doesn't matter much... it can be "slid" along the rope during the tightening. Multiply the knot's final diameter by 28 (pi * 9) to estimate how much rope it will consume, although you'll need more than that to create the knot. Bottom line: Start out with *plenty* of rope in the free end.
  
• After wrapping the first set of loops around the fingers, you can reshape the rope into a narrow tube to make the second set easier... the knot doesn't need to keep its shape, only its relationships. Simple point, but I hadn't worked much with rope before, and it took me awhile to realize it.
  
• Keep looking at how many strands are in parallel along each side of the knot... it's easier to count three stands on a side than to count three complete circuits of each loop.
  
• The final working end comes out the opposite side of the knot from the standing side of the rope... has to run along the inside for the final symmetry.
  
• The tightening is straightforward along each side... just pull the six loops alternately. Figuring out which strand to pull next after a change of direction is still tough for me, and I often tease apart the overlaying strands to see where the free end goes next.
  
• Sometimes I've turned the knot around while tightening and ended up pulling the slack the wrong way. At that point it's easy to just untie the whole thing and start again.