How To Tie A Box Tie For Suspension – Pete Riggs

Lately I’ve been relearning suspension practices from the ground up,  due to a long period of spending more time writing than practicing or actually doing suspension. Shortly, Blue and I and a bunch of our local friends are going to be attending a workshop on Japanese suspension; this tutorial video shows the base of the “90% Takate Kote” or box tie that we’re informed we’re going to be using. This isn’t my video; I’m effectively curating it for my own use and for others who are interested in practicing the functional base of the box tie or takate kote. Many thanks to Moco for creating it; he’s done a brilliant job describing the mechanics of it.

Things that are of particular interest in this video:

• loving the way he shows how to re-center the harness
• the use of closed half hitches to hold tension while he does other stuff such as dress his lines; that technique can be applied to all kinds of different ties.
• His description of cinches and how to do cinches is really detailed; especially the points about not distorting the load bearing bands.

One of my favorite things about this entire video is that Moco is careful to explain the reasons behind every step of the  box tie. That’s incredibly useful. I’ve found that for both myself and other people, if you know the reason why something is done a particular way, you’re much more likely to remember that part of the process, and learn the underlying principles of it as well.

This is why I tend to ask the “stupid” or “obvious” questions in class. I really don’t mind giving the impression that I’m ignorant, because there are huge advantages to asking the “stupid” questions. I’d rather open my mouth and learn than stay silent and miss the opportunity.

If you know the reason why something is done, you tend to remember it better. It’s also sometimes the case that when you assume you know why something is done a particular way, you’re completely wrong; the person showing you may have a totally different reason that you didn’t expect.

That’s a great opportunity to learn something new.