1 Introduction
This book is about slacklining, with special emphasis on
longlines. Its abouthow resonances in long slacklines originate,
when they appear and why, howto train them, kill them, avoid them
or how to estimate their character beforeyou are even on the
line.
This is not a scientific work. We are not constructing bridges
or mobile-phones or laptops, so we dont need 100% accuracy. We
allow ourselves tobe a little more speculative and let intuition
guide us to more phantastic andinsecure ground.
The aim of this book is to explore, open new possibilities and
give a deeperview on the mental and physical aspects of the sport.
Its main objective isnot to improve your performance, but to
promote a philosophy that offersobjectives apart from sheer
performance.
1.1 Philosophy
The most important difference of slacklining, compared to other
sports, is itsapproach to control. This is also the most
interesting input that slackline-training can give. You dont train
your sense of balance in slacklining; balanceis the basic
requirement. The value of slacklining is that it teaches you to
letgo of control.
This is beautifully described by Scott Balcom in his book Walk
the LineThe Art of Balance and the Craft of Slackline:
Focusing on balance is not about mental effort.There is no need
to reach out to find balance it is in you.Try to relax almost
completely.This problem is especially clear on longlines: While you
can indeed control
shorter slacklines that have little weight, by using a lot of
concentration, bodytension and power, this in not possible on long
and heavy lines. Short linesdo not respond to your efforts of
controling them; longlines do. On a shortline, it is just you, the
line has no memory, no life on its own. Balcomfinds his own words
for this:
The line doesnt shake; you shake the line.The resonances in a
longline are a factor that you interact with, like some
sort of communication. Longlines will shake heavily if you have
stress. Inother sports, this stress is linked to higher effort of
regaining control overthe situation. On a longline, as your effort
increases, the line will only shakeharder. This causes a chain
reaction that will end in failure. You cant solvethe problem that
way: You have to learn to relax in a stressy situation.Succeeding
in this is a highly satisfying experience.
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Figure 1: A longline in Linz - 100 Meters long)
The search for control is deeply involved in all aspects of
western culture,and also in sports science. There is some standard
method for every move-ment, and every beginner is forced into this
scheme before he is allowed toevolve. This has its origin in the
fear of the unknown. The unknown also liesin your own body: No one
is fully aware of how he or she manages to stayon the line. You
cant do it only consciously, you have to let your body domost of
the job.
However, there is clearly some risk in letting go of control.
Somethingunexpected can happen, and you can fail. On the other
hand, the meaningof sports is often the search for hard challenges.
Without the risk of failure,there is no sense in it. There are
studies that the motivation for a task ishighest if you have a
fifty-fifty chance of succeding. So, there is no point insearching
for full control. Slacklining shows that letting go of this
approachcan sometimes be the way to success.
In this spirit, a statement must be made for tubular webbing,
low tensionand narrow lines. A beginner to the sport will favour
broad lines with lotsof tension: It reminds him of the solid ground
he is used to. Such lines area good motivation for beginners, who
will quickly make progress. However,to develop further, one must
start walking also slack tubular webbing. After
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