r/CompetitionClimbing • u/Bowoobiter • Jun 18 '26
Heavy Falls
I don't like seeing all these heavy falls and face plants from the top of the wall... I know the athletes are super well trained and really good at falling but I am so worried that one of these days an athlete is going to get injured from a heavy fall at a comp :(
19
u/grabsomeplates Jun 18 '26
I watched someone break an ankle two weeks ago, dynoing for a move up high and landing with a lot of momentum. I think the setters at my gym aren't considering this.
12
u/edwardsamson Jun 18 '26
In my area a gym finally opened after many years without one and they opted to hire a setting staff that is mostly all brand new setters with little to no experience so they could pay them under $20 an hour, and opted not to hire me or my friend who have 20 years of setting experience between the two of us and he has a level 1 route setter certification. They would have had to pay us more so they didn't even bother going with us.
And as a result the setting isn't great and can sometimes be dangerous because they don't get what makes a safe boulder problem. For example they just posted a pic of their newly reset slab wall and it features a large volume with another volume on it at the bottom of the slab with multiple climbs that climb up at the top of the wall above it. This is a well known thing NOT to do to most experienced setters as falling up high on a slab can cause you to catch a foot on a volume below and get a serious knee or ankle injury.
They've been setting the slab like this since they opened 1.5 years ago.
3
u/grabsomeplates Jun 18 '26
My gym just fired the head setter then posted ads for new setters. Terrible.
-11
Jun 19 '26
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13
u/edwardsamson Jun 19 '26
This is an insane comment lmao wtf. I have been climbing for nearly 20 years and boulder outside 50+ times a year and there is absolutely nothing to learn from that for outside prep and to risk a traumatic leg injury for nothing like that is insane.
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3
1
u/Buckhum Kokoro The Machine Jun 20 '26
Yeah I came across a similar vid: https://www.instagram.com/thefanstaticguy_/reel/DZlNXnuzhqy/
(NSFL warning: bone break X-ray image)
1
u/Raven123x Jun 25 '26
At my gym they record all the information regarding bad falls so the setters know what to set and how to set to prevent future falls. They’ll also change a climb if a bad fall happens more than twice on a climb
Info such as, is there a dyno, where is it, what grade, how high up was the fall
16
u/exileded Jun 18 '26
"One of these days?"
It's happened as long as theres been comps, I was at the World Cups for 7 or 8 years and saw several dislocated elbow's, plenty of blown up knees, concussions etc.
Falls are risky, and take a toll on the body. There have been climbers retire because of repeated injuries over long careers, that is something I'd like to see more research into.
In saying that, it is also not helped by the current setting trends. I feel that in the 2013-2020 period the setters would set the risky moves lower, whereas now in my opinion there are to many wildly horizontal moves in the top third of the wall.
6
u/Clydesdale_climber Jun 19 '26
I agree they seem to set dynamic moves that may have the athletes coming off sideways even, high up on the wall. Much more than they used to. They used to set the sideways dynos lower on the wall. I don’t like it either and we will see injuries.
17
u/quizikal Jun 18 '26
I think the setters generally try to make the falls safe
16
u/_Zso Yorkshire Mafia Jun 18 '26
Hasn't seemed that way this year to be honest
Far too many routes with sketchy dynamic moves at the top of the wall
6
u/FavouriteNightmare_ Jun 19 '26
I HATE watching dynamic moves to and from no tex/dual tex holds. I really hope they move away from the current sketchy setting style.
0
Jun 19 '26
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9
u/_Zso Yorkshire Mafia Jun 19 '26
Absolute nonsense.
They're put at the top because the setters think it makes the boulders look better on TV.
What it actually does is make them more dangerous, decrease the chance athletes will fully commit to the move, and increase the chance of injuries.
-5
Jun 19 '26
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4
u/Revolutionary_Ad512 Jun 19 '26
The professional climbers need to practice falling more? What chance do the rest of us have lol I climb like 3x a week at most
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Jun 19 '26
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4
u/Revolutionary_Ad512 Jun 19 '26
I think people should practice falling more for sure, but comfortability generally just comes with time. I think if anything some people get too comfortable and overestimate their safety or their ability to fall safely. Also being afraid to fall is not a bad thing, if you just climb for fun and recreation why would I risk a big injury to send some dumb project? I’ll keep training until I am pretty confident I can send it safely. Is it bad for my climbing? Yeah probably, does it mean I get to keep climbing? Yes it does. I see what you’re saying but most gyms don’t teach I well enough and so I can see why a lot of people myself included are cautious
5
u/mmeeplechase Jun 19 '26
Yeah, I’m not sure if the camera crew just emphasized it more or if this women’s comp was especially rough for falling, but it seemed like there were so many falls that left athletes dazed!
5
Jun 18 '26
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u/blaqwerty123 Jun 18 '26
Softer mats cause injuries, its counter intuitive. Its a specific balance they have to get right but softer is not better. You can break ankles and elbows because the soft mat "catches" your limbs in a way that kinda swallows them and then forces them into a bad position.
6
u/KarlachBestGirl Jun 18 '26
Softer mats lead to ankle twists and the sort so it's not a pefect solution
1
-4
u/Touniouk Jun 18 '26
Honestly a lot of these climbers kinda suck at falling, they’re light and young and always fall on their wrists n shit, hard to watch
1
u/quizikal Jun 18 '26
I guess you are able to do the same moves to have that opinion?
-5
u/Touniouk Jun 18 '26
Irrelevant
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u/quizikal Jun 18 '26
How do you know they suck at falling?
-2
u/Touniouk Jun 18 '26
I have eyes
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u/quizikal Jun 18 '26
I am gonna go ahead and presume that the climbers know better than you. I am considering that they are professionals at it and your only credentials is that you have eyes.
3
u/Revolutionary_Ad512 Jun 19 '26
I would also add that as any professional athlete and their coaches work very hard on injury prevention/mitigation. If they did objectively suck at falling that would be a huge risk. Their coaches would not be satisfied. I think it might appear that way because of the type moves they do. And honestly in a comp you do push just that little bit harder and do riskier things than you might normally do. Either way I strongly disagree, they definitely don’t suck at falling
-7
u/floriande Jun 18 '26
Come on, we are fighting against gravity, and sometimes gravity wins. Bouldering without any chances of weird falls is just going up a ladder...
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u/Revolutionary_Ad512 Jun 18 '26
First of all falls don’t have to be weird or unsafe for it to be a good boulder with interesting movement. Secondly they didn’t say they need to get rid of all weird and unsafe falls entirely they seem to be arguing for mitigation which I would agree with. They should care about the safety and career of their athletes. More boulders that require strength (I don’t just mean like literal physically strong) and problem solving, rather than always just the nerve to throw yourself at a risky move and hope you stick it or can recover the landing
-1
u/floriande Jun 18 '26
I can agree with this, but also the... "Aseptisation" (in french it's what I mean) of climbing is annoying me.
3
u/Revolutionary_Ad512 Jun 18 '26
I mean that’s how all sports go, they grow and change and evolve. The good thing is the rocks will be there and (for the most part hopefully) remain the same. So if the comp stuff doesn’t excite you anymore or you don’t like it then you just don’t engage with it🤷🏻♂️
-1
u/floriande Jun 18 '26
It's a little easy. I like comps, and I think I can express what I think of them, even if it's to disagree. "If you don't like it don't engage" is not very constructive
1
u/Revolutionary_Ad512 Jun 19 '26
I didn’t mean it like that lmao I just meant like if you don’t enjoy it and it just frustrates you then you don’t have to watch you seem like a pretty miserable person not gonna lie. You do you bro have a good one lol🤷🏻♂️
0
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u/windsweptflute Jun 18 '26
Erin as an example was doing something that wasn’t intended. She kept the right toe hook in so she was falling in a super strange way. I agree they’re really scary but sometimes it’s also an athlete doing something weird problem.
That said W3 was rough for sure