For example, a gymnast performing the iron cross : modeling the ropes and person allows calculation of overall forces (body weight, neglecting rope weight, breezes, buoyancy, electrostatics, relativity, rotation of the earth, etc.). Then remove the person and show only one rope; you get force direction. Then only looking at the person the forces on the hand can be calculated. Now only look at the arm to calculate the forces and moments at the shoulders, and so on until the component you need to analyze can be calculated.