Are you tying your wraps too tight?

Posted on Mon, 10 February 2014


We had an interesting discussion at Esinem Towers the other night about tension in gote shibari. It was unusual in that most of the input was from those with experience inside the rope and as riggers. Nina, Gorgone and Gestalta have been tied by some of the best. We have seen the first two tie to international performance standards and Gestalta is progressing very nicely on the quiet. They seem to agree that the Japanese bakushi tend to tie their gote with gentle tension compared western riggers, even some extremely experienced ones who should know better.

In fact, we reminisced how Gorgone used to be convinced that the wraps had to be crushingly tight and that the first time Nina tied her with the correct tension, she was terrified she would slip out of the gote! Of course, what she then failed to realise was that correct placement is all that is required. If the top wrap sits on the base of the deltoid and runs below the shoulder blades, this is the narrowest place and these markers create natural 'stoppers' to prevent the rope riding up. If the rope is placed correctly, there's no need to tie crushingly tight.

This theory was perfectly illustrated during the shooting of my new suspension tutorials, 'Ground to Air'. After four suspensions in the same gote (face down, side, face up and finally a seated suspension) the wraps had not moved one iota based on the photo of the marks.

You might say "Meh! What difference does a little more tension make?". The answer is "The difference is exponential!!" At the higher end of tension, a tiny difference can create terrifyingly large loads. How come? Well, I would suggest that you study the American Death Triangle, which is explained here. I believe this is what is happening with the wraps but the force exerted on the inside in this case. I assume the load on the inside of the triangle must logically equal that on the mounting points outside. Invert the triangle and imagine the triangle in the diagram represents a wrap with the apex being the suspension point and the angle is the pull-away resulting from the suspension load .

A change of angle from 120 degrees to 150 doubles the load and it increases exponentially as one approaches an impossible 180 degrees and virtually infinite force. Clearly, if you tie too loose diminishing returns set in and it will get insecure. If your wraps are tight, try slackening off a bit whilst monitoring the results with appropriate measuring equipment, i.e. a rope bunny who gives reliable feedback. Let me know what diffence it makes. In a 2-rope gote, no less than a hands breadth pull-away (10-12cm/4-5"), certainly not more than two, seems to work for me but YMMV. My tension will vary depending on what I'm tying over, e.g. skin v slick fabric, and my intention in terms of orientation and feeling. A 3rd rope might reduce the pull-away, e.g. Marai Masato's gote. Of course, this is something of an over-simplification. There are no doubt factors like the load taken by the chest or distributed via the thrid rope.

I have a cunning plan to record the effect using insulation board. I assume the rope will cut in where there is most pressure. By changing the tension, I expect it to deform the foam board and even cut in like a cheese-wire if I use a single wrap and enough load. So this week's Mythbuster-style experiment will involve some torso size slabs of 150mm thick insulation board, some rope, a standardised weight and some way to support it all. I think a scavenging trip to the nearest building site is in order.


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