First, thanks to anyone who read this and commented, on Twitter or in person. You all had good things to say.
After I posted the first post last week, I went to rope practice at a friends' place and asked him (Ojipan) to take a look at my TK to see what might be going on with my tension problems.
Of course, in the eternal law of the universe, once you've asked someone to look at it, it stops happening. I said afterward, "I just needed a-tension!". Ojipan suggested it was a result of my slowing down and focusing (he's right), and I offered that having someone watching and appraising me might also have an affect (aside from making me nervous). In any case, he made a few small suggestions about my flags and my Mount Fuji, the kind of details that had become afterthoughts to me without someone to explain why they should go a certain way.
My rope upbringing has been, as I've said, piecemeal. Inasmuch as it was overseen at all, it was overseen by my Owner, a very good rigger in his own right. He's even more self-taught than I am, with a stronger improvisational outlook of figuring it out as he goes along; the tie has a form, but the details get worked out along the way and it becomes what it needs to be. It's an attitude I absorbed, but I'm discovering that it's somewhat antithetical to my personality. I'm a planner; he isn't. While I don't think I'll ever be a fanatic, having a more systematized approach to my ties will probably help me know what I'm doing going into a scene.
The next night, I got out my trusty rope bottom, Diningroom Chairwithpillow, to nail down some technique and details, specifically on my TK. Result: success (with wiggle room for different people, bodies, etc.) I did both a Mt. Fuji and a reverse fishtail for third ropes, using Otonawa's more recent tie-off for two-rope finishing and his older big x-friction for three-rope.
Quibble: the first flag always looks weird, no matter how I start/finish it. Over, under, away from the body, close... something's always funky compared to the second one.
For fun, I decided to see if I could remember Kanna's hojo hishi tie, having not tied it for about a year, and I think it was somewhat successful in general form.
Goals for this week:
- Line management
- Sketch out two suspension transition sequences to try, step-by-step
- Find a fellow BED orphan to practice with this weekend :( Womp womp.
Monday, April 25, 2016
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Assessment and goals, April 19
Basically, I am participating in a weekend intensive taught by Kinoko Hajime in about a month, and I don't want to fucking embarrass myself with dumbass issues.
So my first set of goals is to strip back to some basics and hammer them.
1. Tension, especially for TKs. I know I tend to tie on the looser side of things, and I have to consciously tie tighter. I want to improve the tension and evenness of my wraps and the the tension of all the other lines. More bottom feedback about whether something feels loose or tight. Also I am terrible at getting the stem in the center of the back without having to haul the wraps around the body -- how to improve?
2. Rope handling. My handling isn't bad, and I can tie fast, but I need to slow down a little bit. My rope tangles frequently -- take a few seconds to play it out when adding a new rope.
3. Line management, quick and clean tie offs. Break the habit of always tying off at the top; stagger the hitches. Remember and practice different tie off than my usual 2-hitch + quick release bundle.
1. Tension, especially for TKs. I know I tend to tie on the looser side of things, and I have to consciously tie tighter. I want to improve the tension and evenness of my wraps and the the tension of all the other lines. More bottom feedback about whether something feels loose or tight. Also I am terrible at getting the stem in the center of the back without having to haul the wraps around the body -- how to improve?
2. Rope handling. My handling isn't bad, and I can tie fast, but I need to slow down a little bit. My rope tangles frequently -- take a few seconds to play it out when adding a new rope.
3. Line management, quick and clean tie offs. Break the habit of always tying off at the top; stagger the hitches. Remember and practice different tie off than my usual 2-hitch + quick release bundle.
Current Creature
I am a rope creature; chimeric, unfinished. My rope is a cobbled-together morass of self-taught invention and bits and pieces from a few different people. I am unadhered to any ryu, and I mix some Western in with the shibari as needed. My practice is intermittent at best, and has been done on obliging bottoms who run the gamut from women even smaller than I am to men where my head is level with their top TK wrap; fat, thin, buff, bendy, stiff. A lot of it has been done on me.
After three years of this winding path, I find myself frustrated by my progress and where I currently am. Still clumsy sometimes, still finding that the ideas in my head don't match up with what gets tied. I've tried planning and designing my ties going into scenes; I've tried freewheeling flow. Neither seem to be arbiters of success. Sometimes I just stare at shifted stems or uneven tension and wonder what I am doing *wrong,* after all this time, and how I can fix it. I look at pictures, at videos, and my brain picks over the lines and transitions: it looks so simple! That goes there, and then they move like *this* and then it works! Je comprende! I can do that! But then something just doesn't work, and I don't know what it is, or I do but it doesn't make any sense as to why it didn't work for me.
When I started tying, it came so easily. I remembered ties quickly, replicating them after only watching a video a few times. I was suspending after (mumble) months (elided to avoid the inevitable gasps of horror at a single-digit number). Now, I struggle to remember even things I had memorized a few years ago. I hesitate; I improvise; I go back to notes and videos to check that I'm doing something correctly.
So I decided that a journal might help. Specific issues and goals of what to work on (aside from "EVERYTHING HELP PLEASE FIX??") and tracking progress, recording practice sessions and scenes to remember what worked, what didn't, and maybe work out why.
I debated whether to make this a private journal, either handwritten or digital, but then I considered that I have such a great community of people online, all around the world, who could offer perspectives, advice, encouragement, or even just the accountability of posting every week (yes: I will do some kind of tying practice, with a write-up, every week. I know this doesn't seem like a lot to some of you, but not all of us have regular, available rope partners and tying space. Hi, I currently live with my parents and get home around 7pm!).
But I know that I can, and will, make this a priority, and having a place to write down thoughts and progress will help.
After three years of this winding path, I find myself frustrated by my progress and where I currently am. Still clumsy sometimes, still finding that the ideas in my head don't match up with what gets tied. I've tried planning and designing my ties going into scenes; I've tried freewheeling flow. Neither seem to be arbiters of success. Sometimes I just stare at shifted stems or uneven tension and wonder what I am doing *wrong,* after all this time, and how I can fix it. I look at pictures, at videos, and my brain picks over the lines and transitions: it looks so simple! That goes there, and then they move like *this* and then it works! Je comprende! I can do that! But then something just doesn't work, and I don't know what it is, or I do but it doesn't make any sense as to why it didn't work for me.
When I started tying, it came so easily. I remembered ties quickly, replicating them after only watching a video a few times. I was suspending after (mumble) months (elided to avoid the inevitable gasps of horror at a single-digit number). Now, I struggle to remember even things I had memorized a few years ago. I hesitate; I improvise; I go back to notes and videos to check that I'm doing something correctly.
So I decided that a journal might help. Specific issues and goals of what to work on (aside from "EVERYTHING HELP PLEASE FIX??") and tracking progress, recording practice sessions and scenes to remember what worked, what didn't, and maybe work out why.
I debated whether to make this a private journal, either handwritten or digital, but then I considered that I have such a great community of people online, all around the world, who could offer perspectives, advice, encouragement, or even just the accountability of posting every week (yes: I will do some kind of tying practice, with a write-up, every week. I know this doesn't seem like a lot to some of you, but not all of us have regular, available rope partners and tying space. Hi, I currently live with my parents and get home around 7pm!).
But I know that I can, and will, make this a priority, and having a place to write down thoughts and progress will help.
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