I can't believe this works?!?! - Is the INDIANA JONES WHIP an effective weapon? |  

It’s also important to note that although Indiana Jones uses the whip, he actually does have an offhand weapon called a pistol

There's a few things I have notes on. It's pretty in depth, but I'll try to break it into sections. Tldr: I think more practice would definitely help with a lot of things, as would either making modifications to the whip, or getting a slightly better whip. For background, I'm a whip maker and whip cracker with over three years of experience. I mostly do nylon whips, though I have made two leather whips. I mostly do performance cracking and targeting, and I've done dozens of "wild west" shows. Looking at the whip they used, it does seem to be a reasonably good, if lower quality leather whip. It does also look to be made of kangaroo hide too, which is really good. I did notice it tended to bounce back a lot, and I think replacing the fall (the strand of leather at the end of the braiding) with a longer one would help. I am pretty curious where they got it from and who the maker is. For when they were doing wraps on the branch, it did seem to do poorly, but there are a few things that could help. One would be a longer fall, probably 3-4 feet for a 10 foot whip like this one. Trying an overhand flick does tend to work best for that type of wrap and trying to give it enough length to wrap 2-3 times seems to work best. For cutting in combat, distance does matter a bit. The end of the fall and the cracker are where you'll get the most cutting power, and when you'll get the most cutting power is just before or during the crack. Aiming for the face or eyes would probably be best for a cut. It's pretty easy to find videos of people, like Adam Winrich, Nick Schrader, and Jacques Ze Whipper, all of whom I've seen cut soda cans clean in half. I also have personal experience on the cutting power of whips. I've got scars on my legs from trying to use one that was too long to be properly functional, and one on my face from when one of my friends accidentally hit me (that was the worst of all the cuts, and I'm really lucky the scar faded away). For wrapping in combat, I hadn't considered going for the neck, but that does make sense. I find snatches (wrapping the weapon and pulling) or wrapping the arm if you want to disarm someone. It's also easier to do a wrap since it's a smaller circumference, which means you need less of the whip to get the ideal 2-3 wraps around. What I find to work best is doing a wrap around the leg. I've pulled people off their feet before, and even if it doesn't wrap, a crack on the leg does hurt. On speed, it is possible to crack pretty quickly, and multiple times. Combination cracks of three or four can be really fast, and while you would usually want to keep the whip in front as much as possible, I find using reverse cracks (ones that tend to crack behind you) speeds up cracking by letting the motion of the follow through set up the next crack. Examples of that would be things like the cow and calf (cattlemen's or overhand flick followed by an underhand flick), or the volley (overhand flick followed by reverse overhand). Lastly, on doing two handed with a sword, it does make sense, and I have tried it. I'm not familiar with swords, so it was awkward and cumbersome, but there can be a usage. If you can disarm, disable, or pull down an opponent first with a whip, then you can finish with the sword. If someone gets past the whip (especially longer ones), it's pretty ineffective at close range, which is where the sword would be effective for defense. If you actually read all that, I hope it was interesting and informative. If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Something to note guys, you can use smaller whips for smaller spaces. Looks like you might be using a 15 foot whip but an 8 or 6 ft whip might work well indoors paired with a smaller sword. Plus you can crack a short whip much more rapidly than the 15 and 20 footers.

Nothing is more fun than watching 3 good friends totally platonically whipping each other and having fun

Seeing Shad NOT wearing medieval armor is what looks strange to me. How funny is that.

Many many years ago I was staying with a friend in California (I'm from the UK) and I was looking through his book shelves and came accross a book called 'The Filipino Fighting Whip' I called my friends attention to this and he surprised me by saying this was a regular interest of his. So of course it wasn't long until we were on a field with a 4' whip. By the way we both wore eye protection. I was nervous of it as I manage to catch myself in the back of the head but he took me through some drills and it was fun. By the end of it was fairly sure it could be used effectivly for fighting if you were capable of using it that is. I wouldn't think people could just pick one up. I got to say that the whip you were using isn't a fighting whip. The Filipinos used 4 and 6 foot whips. Bull whips are for... well cows. I think it was told to me that they would crack it at certain angles from the cow to drive it in certain directions. The shorter whips are far better for handling people and a Filipino would have a knife in the offhand if they managed to get past whip range.

In the Mythbusters whip episode, the whip-master summed it up well. When asked if he could whip a gun from someone's hand, he said why try when he can go for the eyes instead.

The Mythbusters did an episode on this once iirc, Adam was surprised at how easy it was to control the whip.

Good to note: a modern “show whip” like you have is constructed significantly different than proper “purpose whips”, the show whip is sort of like a wall hangar, it looks nice, but effectiveness… not quite all there. Also, just saying, but i think you would have a Blast testing out chain whips (tho not on eachother… they are nasty). Also, there are many different sizes, designs, and tips for whips, and each has massive changes to how well they work for various things

I think its fair to say that the first 2 minutes of his video is the best piece of content Shad has ever produced Edit: then he has the balls to follow it up with the coolest intro sequence i've ever seen.

I appreciate that Shad, unlike Disney/Lucasfilm, is making money off of Indiana Jones.

4:45 how it works (shad science) 7:45 thoughts 10:15 test 10:50 swing test and thoughts 12:40 accuracy 15:10 vs bolamer 22:25 thought 26:00 vs sword and more thoughts 28:30 final thoughts

Shad was really embracing his inner Jack Black during that intro. And he even kinda looked like him with his beard

Now THAT's what I call a "Functional Fandom" intro! Also, the very beginning with Shad as Indy made me laugh!

Crazy how the whip is the first manmade tool to break the sound barrier.

The content is jumping to quite a professional level of quality.

On the boromir test, they managed solid hits to the eye. That could cause serious injury to the point of temporary blindness, which counts as incapacitating the opponent

The dynamic of Shad, Tyranth and Nate is just so damn good. Never get tired of watching you guys just do stuff. Nate and Tyranth are so good that I don't even mind when Shad steps back and lets them do most of the stuff. The production and entertainment value of these 3 is better than EVERY "professionally" produced TV shows of similar content by MILES. There isn't even a comparison. Y6all put Discovery History and History channel to SHAME. Shadiversity is just better in EVERY possible way.

Shad you hit the nail on the head. The whip isn't a primary weapon, it's a support weapon that really sets up your primary weapon for the kill. A better weapon than the whip is the martial arts chain. A master with that weapon is a force.

For the whip wrapping around, it’s very important that when you wrap it wraps as a clove hitch. It is possible, if you’re well trained with a whip.

Loving how well that Indie costume suits Shad. You look like you were born to be an adventuring archaeologist.

This episode would have been perfect to do a colab with Jacques Ze Whipper. Amazing whip cracker and extremely precise.

And on this day, Tyron discovered he's into whips. "Happy accidents" lmao

Good observations. As a whip cracking enthusiast myself, a few pointers: 1. To properly get a whip to grab onto a limb, as soon as it loops around, you pull back to secure a tight knot. This will secure it to effectively "tie itself." 2. Look up Chris Camp - The Whip Guy, Anthony Delongis (who trained Harrison Ford) or Adam Winrich on good tutorials on form. They offer great demonstrations of real world techniques. 3. The cracking isn't the physical strike of an object. The bullwhip is the first man made object to break the sound barrier (in the BC era no less!). That loud crack is a super sonic "boom" that breaks the air as the tiny "cracker" at the end flips. It's quite beautiful! 4.The best places to get high quality whips are: Townsend Whips, Midwest Whips, or Catchell Crafts whips. Those're the higher quality possible, and imo whips of those calibers are the ones that'll properly demonstrate all of your requirements/questions.

That was an amazing opening few minutes, especially as the lads were talkin about Shad, then he streaked across scene in a panic. Wonderful. Amazing. Stupendiferous.

One of my favorite videos in the channel! I think it's important to note that: - A slash across the forehead that makes the face bleed, will limit visibility. - The Impact of a broken nose could obstruct airwaves and impede breathing. - Catching a person in the eye will SERIOUSLY injure the eye, possibly disabling the opponent. - A crushed trachea might not be as easy to fight with for too long.

I mean, the whip was the choice weapon for vampire hunters.

You guys are forgetting that whip length plays a big factor. Your whip looked to be about 8 -10 foot, a 5-6 foot whip will be far easier to use in smaller spaces and with debris around. I noticed that when you were doing the water bottle test you were almost always hitting it with the FALL (the long strip of leather on the end) of the whip, in order slice through it you need to hit it with CRACKER (the string attached to the fall). You guys also didn't mention that the opponent can easily USE their Sword to Catch the whip and CUT IT (WHIPS ARE NOT CHEAP). That is something the whip user would need to be mindful about.

Dagger + whip seems like it would be a pretty good combo. Shorter blade means less chance of entangling your own weapon with the whip, and very effective if you can drag someone down to stab.

I would like to thank you Shad, for the greatest facial expressions to reference when drawing. Your channel is an invaluable resource when it comes to many things, but this goes seldom appreciated.

As a Whip user, I can affirm that the noise itself would make 50% of the possible opponents to turn back

Your skits just keep getting better and better You never fail to impress me with your creative originality!

There's actually a whip like sword called "urumi" that is basically one or more sharp metal (probably steel but not sure) ribbons attached to a hilt. I don't remember you ever mentioning it although that's not surprising considering your focus on medieval Europe. As far as I understand urumis don't break the sound barrier, so they're whip-like only in the sense that the metal bends. I thought it would be interesting to mention in a whip related video if you ever want to look it up and make a video about it 😄 If you get one, however, be careful as they can be quite dangerous to an inexperienced wielder.

The opening with Shad trying to get through the door? Had me nearly in tears. Lmao

Okay ONE moment!! Let's just take a moment to appreciate the acting and work done JUST for that intro buildup skit, this is art! ♥ (also Shad being waterboarded?)

Loved this video. Truly did, boys. I had a cheap leather whip after seeing Temple of Doom. There were some things I noticed about trying to swing from it. One is that it was easier when the leather was more worn in, and there was a technique to getting it to grab a branch. You have to kind of double flick it. Once to get it to wrap around and a little sideways flick as it starts to wrap so that it has a better chance of wrapping and biting on itself. Keep in mind that I was a child with a flea market whip, but good Lord was it fun. Never did get the Fidora though.

10/10 would watch Shad intimidate an artifact again.

We all know whips are just long, flaccid nunchucks

Chopping down swords with trees might be my favorite slip-up I've heard in a long time.

To solve the problem of it catching on things around you, just use the Castlevania whip which magically shortens and lengthens to the exact size you need

That intro was so stupidly funny. And it was cool to see the advantages and disadvantages of the whip being shown like that!

Only Shad to bring us something good about Indiana Jones on recent days… Great work, as always!

After seeing this, I wonder if a lasso would be even more affective. Like if you managed to tie it around their neck, or a limb, and yank it, maybe again with a blade in your other hand

Hey I’ve been a fan for years and I just have to say I’m so proud and impressed by how far your channel has come. Thank you for everything you do and everything you teach us

I can hear the Nunchuck fans angry at Shad enjoying a whip more.

This was a nice reminder of watching the Mythbusters covering Indiana Jones stuff back in the day.

Now, I will note that there are also some more... 'destructive' whips, like the "Cat O Nine Tails" which has razors on the edge and is meant as a method of punishment and I imagine has more chance at tangling and grappling. Still, the fact that a 'normal' whip is as effective as is really eye opening.

I'm really surprised you did not try going for the legs. As a backup weapon, tangling your enemy legs, or maybe even making them fall, is where the money is for the whip. Even if you would get only one leg, it would force the enemy to stop advancing, or endanger themselves more, or you could attempt a yank to completely imbalance them. This thing seems like it would be a dream team with a stabby blade, in perfect conditions of course. Other than that, a great piece of content again!

The Functional Fandom intro is so badass! You really outdid yourselves with this one.

in terms of the wrap around affect. seeing the whip wrap around Boromir's head and the tip smack him in the face, I winced. That could easily injure an eye.

I love how much fun Shad appears to be having in this one. This is a great video. 😂

Amazing intro. Who knew , shad has a burgundy"esque" comedic talent to him.

There are also different types of whips with different poppers that you can replace for different uses. Imagine the bullwhip having razor sharps blades, barbs, hooks, etc. You can even soak the popper string with poison.

I still fondly remember some of the montage scenes from "Man from Snowy River" where they were cracking the whips to drive the wild horses. "He's not a 'lad', _brother_ ; He's a man... he's a MAN!"

I love Nate lol. He's a funny and down-to-earth just generally nice guy

There is historical precedent of distraction weapons being used. Like darts, throwing knives, shuriken, fistfuls of sand, caltrops and so on. I'd say that a whip would qualify as a re-usable distraction weapon. So with training using it alongside a one handed sword, short sword or dagger, it could be a quite formidable combo.

Reminds me of a Roleplay I was in once (No specific system, not many rules) where my character got in a fight with someone who was using a barbed whip as their primary weapon. Tactic he used was wrapping his cloak around one arm to catch and tangle up the whip, pull his enemy off balance and into sword range.

It's like if Croc Dundee took up archeology. An exotic combo in my opinion.

This is the most Australian Shad had ever looked

I've played around a bit with a whip myself, and came across a technique that will let you wrap around the target and grab a bit more reliably. It does take some practice, and you have to be conscious of where the whip is going to land and what direction it's going to wrap. If you flick your wrist to send the slack end of the whip crossing where the tail wraps, you can catch it and it'll hold under more pressure through friction. You likely won't be swinging on it or climbing from it unless you get a really good wrap, but a swift jerk could clench a weapon or put your opponent off balance. A whip as a weapon, I think ideally you wouldn't wield alone. You would have an offhand sword or long knife that you can take advantage of by creating an opening or pressuring with the whip, or to fall back on if they overcome you.

Functional Fandom got its own intro? That's pretty cool!

When considering targets without any protection, aiming for the eyes and ears is also quite a powerful punch. One that might render you blind or disoriented.

When wrapping or the whip getting grasped you want to pull in because alot of the old whip along with newer ones the handles usually have a steel rod in the handle to help flow weight. When pulled in slide your hand up the whip and use the handle as a club.

I feel compelled to point out that the whip is a secondary weapon in the films. Indy also usually has a revolver.

Great intro! Better than anything Disney has put out in 10 years ;)

Excellent tests! I love how you and your crew test anything and debunk a lot of Hollywood melarky. I started using a bullwhip in the early 90s (an Australian-style one, strangely enough). It's still tied on my saddle today. I started by flicking out out and wrapping it around a post on our porch. The trick to getting it to catch was to get the wraps to cross over each other, which got it to catch, but not much else. I later moved on to catching the feet of cows we were herding. It's possible to catch their feet and make them stumble, but a lariat or reata works better. (Bolas work too, but then you have to get off your horse and get them when you miss). Would I trust my whip as a grappling line? I'd rather not. Can a whip do damage? The man I worked for could sort cattle with one, and definitely educated the ones that needed an attitude adjustment. It's possible to split ears and break skin, and when I was learning to pop one, I managed to hit myself in the ear. I can verify, IT FREAKING HURTS!! I've also managed to raise welts on a bull that copped an attitude. Would I use one in combat? For distance, yes, but anything closer than 19 or 20 feet, I'd rather have something else.

Nice little video as always. But I think there is still potential for a second video here. It would be interesting to explore where the whip was used as a weapon throughout history and the different whip versions.

i think this is one of those times where you need to get a professional whip cracker out to repeat the tests, just to see how much variation there is from your whipping skill set and an experts

I think, combat wise, that a shorter, heavier whip would be more effective, though that might fall more into a "soft" flail area. A weighted butt on the whips handle would allow it to act as a club or hammer in close quarters. One could also add a short blade or spike.

Imagine, what if someone were to get good at the whip in their off hand and then uses a short-handled spear in their main hand?

Loving the production value going up. Really feels like a dang 'brand' now.. but in a good way.

Love the video. I actually made a whip out of parachord, took 3 days of intense braiding which really killed my fingers but was so worth it. I'm a gold and crystal prospector and in the spirit of adventure decided I needed a good whip. That thing became unexpectedly useful in many ways. I used it to climb rock walls by grabbing both ends of the whip with both hands and lassoing onto a hold to hoist my self up, as well as a rope to lower me down. Being made of dozens of strands of 550 parachord it can support a ridiculous amount of weight. I also used it as a tail, like a puma, as a balance weight while jumping from rock to rock in a river. And one time I was walking through the woods and saw a one meter tall mound of dirt and decided to whip it. Only after I did this I noticed the mound started excitedly crawling and realized I pissed off a whole colony of fire ants. I promptly left.

The production is unreal

That new Functional Fandom opening is awesome! Looks great!

Actually it can rope branches and hold your weight if its strong enough and if you manipulate it correctly. As a kid practicing with a whip I found that if I roped a branch and moved the whip so it crosses over the threads that are on the branch already (crossing over itself), it will create counter pressure to keep the whip from slipping off even to the point of being able to swing a bit it its strong enough of a whip to hold you. There are some other videos on youtube about this as well.

I really liked this demonstration. Now I'm curious if Shad could get an actual expert on the show to give advice on possible motions that can be used in a choreographic patterns that could be used in combat to make it even more effective.

I absolutely love the Mythbusters style of this episode. Very entertaining and keep up the great content guys!

I found an interesting whip maneuver in the new trailer for GxK. Kong tries to attack one of the villain kaiju, Skar King, using his axe. Skar King has his own weapon, a spine whip called a whipslash, and defends himself by blocking the downward axe strike.

But what about a whip with multiple endings with small hook on each? Like a Cat-O-Nine Tail? :)

such epic acting in the first minutes and such a banger opening - instant like

This was a good observation session from a bunch of non-whip users. You would do well to follow up with an expert on another video to see how the different applications can or can't be done - for one, I reckon an expert could crack a person so hard they could be stunned or have a weapon disarmed because of the accuracy and the focus of all that momentum. And ... maybe a metal tip would up the ante too?

The amount of abuse Nate had to endure is appreciated, lol 😂 Great video, guys!

Well, I'll be damned. Something that sounds straight from Devil May Cry (wrapping a whip around an opponent to finish then off with a sword) actually works

This was awesome! I have a character in my novel who uses a whip as supplementary weapon and this was great for research.

The short learning curve really drives home how believable the intro to _Last Crusade_ is. Where a young Henry Jones Jr. picks up a whip for the first time in his life and immediately is able to use it effectively as a weapon against and unarmored, unprepared opponent. If anything, beefing his first shot so hard that he catches himself on the chin is the part that's hard to buy. Neither of the people actually using the whip in this video were bothering to use any facial protection and I trust them to know whether they need it or not.

When it comes to whips, you should try a cat of nine tails as a secondary weapon. They're a lot nastier, fairly short, but can be nasty.

..and NOW you know what the leather jacket and broad brim were for. This is the most fun vid I've seen in awhile.

Something else i think to consider is the possibility of adding a chain end like Mike Shake recently did and successfully broke a phone with the whip. I think that might even push it to the status of a main hand weapon as it could quite a bit more damage with something more rigid at the end

That is also a very new and shiny whip, it may grip better once it starts to wear a bit, making wrapping and pulling easier.

Informative AND entertaining! Loved the candid commentary. On ya boys!

This was great. Good, clear explanation regarding the energy spreading through the whip. And ou three seem to have great fun practising your skills. Well done.

Hi, Shad, there are more points, which would be great to consider. 1. Using whip as a rope/for swinging - You need a whip designed for that. Standard cowhide bullwhip won´t be able to support the weight without the risk of failure/structural damage to the whip. A lot of strands from kangaroo hide or paracord could work, but even these whips would require a lot of material. 2. Weight and lenght of the whip - It impacts speed and power. Generally, if you have lighter and shorter whip, you can do more cracks in a given time period, but the hit itself will have lesser punch. For example, micro snake whip about 1 m long can still crack, but wont hit you as hard as its 2,5 m long counterpart with lead core. 3. Weather - Water causes serious damage to leather whips in the long run. Hence not an ideal tool, when you go to the high humidity environment. 4. Damage - When you hit an object with the cracker just before it should break the sound barrier, thats the point of most potential damage. This also requires not to wrap the whip around the target. Instead, do that crack, spin over head and try again. It also adds potentially more cracks, since you chain one crack after another, even while moving. Throwing the whip in general direction, as mentioned in video, can hit the target, but the outcome will be very random. 5. Construction - It would be really nice, if you mentioned other whip types like stock whips (originally from Australia), snake whips, hybrid whips etc., even if the video was aimed primarily at Indiana Jones whip (american bullwhip). Different constructions change handling. For example, performance hybrid whips have long handles, so less chance to hit yourself and require less work to crack imho. I crack whips for 2,5 years and recently started crafting my own whips from paracord. Also used them on people, because BDSM enthusiast. :D If you or the viewers have any questions, feel free to ask.

If you try pulling just a little earlier, as soon the whip wraps starts to around the target, I think you'll find you sometimes have a lot better grip to pull someone over. If you wait until the whip has already visually wrapped the target, then by the time your pull force is delivered down the whip, it's already begun unwrapping. Pulling sooner takes better advantage of the wrap. Combined with a short sword or dagger, it'd actually make for a pretty lethal weapon combo, in my opinion, allowing you to grab and control an opponent from further away.

A whip made for use on humans will typically have embedded edged material like diamonds or broken glass.

I hope you can revisit this one at some point with someone very proficient with a whip and with a bunch of different whips

Seems like it'd be a good dual-fighter setup, like Gladiators with the net and the one with the spear. One ties up, the other finishes, like Jonathan and his Shield-Bearer.

One thing about the headshots: If you could break a bottle at that distance, then if you hit someone without a helmet/mask, wouldn't there be a good chance of taking out an eye?

One thing I have yet to see you test is when you wrap it around the neck then pulling the target down is what happens if you step aside so you have more distance to move your hand to pull them down.

Really cool video guys, awesome work! I'm a Filipino Martial Arts practitioner as a hobby and we actually use the whip as a weapon in combination with a dagger or small sword in some of our training. Very similar to some of the conclusions you came to here, using it to entangle the head or limbs and finish off with the dagger, or to stun or even temporarily blind opponents with hits to the face before closing in, that's the theory anyway. There's also some usage of it like a rope close in and using a sturdier handle to bash like a stick, but that's less common. Thanks again, awesome video keep up the good work.

I'd suggest attaching some small ball bearings at the very end of the whip. Steel ball bearings moving at supersonic speed as the end of the whip cracks is definitely going to do more than superficial damage