Mark Lewis wrote:I was interested in hearing what people think of part 3, Fear of Falling, chapter in MacLeod's book and his philosophy on falling in general.
From at least one previous forum discussion, seemed like no one disputed that taking practice falls for Sport climbing was a good idea, and that MacLeod's approach for it was worth knowing.
The controversial part was for taking practice falls in Trad climbing. (But I found the forum discussion about that unhelpful because it was about the idea of Trad falling generally, rather than about what Dave MacLeod actually said about it).
Presumably if you're going to take hundred or thousands of (Sport climbing) falls per year, you're going to get really good at knowing which are the situations in which you can safely fall, and really good at detecting which ones might not be safe.
Like driving a car out on the public roads, thousands of people actually die doing it every year, but I get out and do it at least hundreds of times a year, because I've developed good judgement (or so I hope) about detecting and managing dangerous situations.
Seems to me to be a very successful Sport climber, you have to judge that difference, and feel confident about your judgements. And I can't think of any other way to acquire that judgment and confidence (and any other way to maintain that judgement year after year) ... than to take at least hundreds of falls per year.
At my local indoor gym, they supply the ropes for lead climbing, so one of the managers said maybe they wished I wouldn't be taking deliberate practice falls (but so far made no specific rule against it). Then I got focused on kinds of climbing other than Sport, so I never asked them if it would be OK if I brought my own rope (which some gyms allow and even encourage).
Ken