Ladder based ties are a great way to practice maintaining tension in your ties as you tie them. This is a deceptively important skill to equip yourself with, as it makes everything else you do easier, makes ties neater, easier to read, look prettier, and increases your ability to make a tie connective with your partner.
You read that right; maintaining tension deepens connection with your partner during a tie
Stand-in text for now
Stand-in text for now
Laddering exercises are a great way to learn about keeping tension and maintaining connection, even more so than the Futomomo. They can force you to keep tension throughout the entire process of tying, which can really emphasise ways you can connect with a partner.
Aside from providing an excellent opportunity to practice maintaining connection and tension in the tie, laddering can also provide an excellent platform to drill x-frictions, munter hitches, half hitches, and extending rope in the middle of a tie while maintaining tension.
Start with a S.C.T. around two ankles, reverse tension ladder up the back of the rope bottoms legs to their waist, finish with an x-friction & half hitch. new rope, larks head to the front, munter hitch down the front of the rope bottoms legs to their ankles, then cows hitch.
This covers 8 concepts in one: SCT, reverse tension, x-friction, half hitches, joining rope, larks head, munter hitch, & cows hitch.