Читать книгу The Double Dangerous Book for Boys - Conn Iggulden - Страница 17

THE FASTEST LACES IN THE WEST

We all learn a simple way to tie shoelaces when we are kids. This technique – sometimes called a butterfly knot – is at least twice as fast. You appear to tie the knot in one quick movement, which impresses onlookers. It might look tricky, but it’s one you can learn very quickly. Once you have done it a few times, you’ll never go back to the old loop-loop-knot method again.

Note: This is much easier to do than to describe! Follow these instructions while you try to tie the knot on an actual shoe. Just as when you first learned to tie a shoe – it gets much easier.

1. Begin with the traditional cross-over. Regardless of how you tie your shoes, you might want to put one lace through a second time. It forms a triple, which has more friction and so locks every knot in place. Your shoes will come untied less often if you take nothing but this away.

2. Note and practise the finger positions in the next pictures until they are second nature. Thumb and middle on the right hand, index and middle on the left. The idea is to form and bring both loops together in the same movement, completing the knot in one swift tug.

3. Rotate each hand – the left clockwise to bring the thumb underneath, then anticlockwise to form an upside-down U or open loop.

4. The right hand moves anticlockwise to bring the second/index finger up underneath, then clockwise to form an upside-down U or open loop.

This probably seems impossibly complex at this point. Just remember – there is nothing wrong with complexity. If something is hard, we don’t give up. We grab it by the throat and throttle it until it’s easier. In this case, that might mean sitting with a shoe on a table and the book propped open next to you for ten minutes, but the principle is clear enough.

5. It helps to form exaggerated open loops when you are learning. Bring them together, right hand over the left hand, holding the four points taut – the two bends and two grips.

6. When the right-hand lace is brought over to the left hand, it forms a capital letter A.

7. With the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, grasp the crossbar of the A.

8. With the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, grasp the lower left leg of the A.

9. Pull gently – and the familiar twin loops will form.