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Climber's Characteristics and Climbing Instruction
(1) When teaching climbing, it is first necessary to understand the characteristics of the climber from various aspects.
- Skill level
- Physical strength
- Athletic ability
- Readiness in terms of risk management
- Personality
- Purpose
- Degree of interest
2) Instructional goals and tasks need to be established, organized, and sequenced.
3) It is necessary to revise the directions, during instruction.
Form of instruction
- Rock climbing workshops (many people)
- Daily climbing in a mountaineering club (group instruction)
- Climbing in a master-disciple relationship (individual instruction for pairs)
- Climbing with a partner (pairs, self-learning)
The
prognosis is better when there is no bias toward a particular type of
instruction. If the climber only knows how to climb within a narrow
social context, such as a seniority system or a mountaineering club, he
or she may have adapted to an extreme organizational cultural scheme.
For example, they may think 5.9 is high standard, which is the thing of
the past in 2023.
It is better to have as many climbing
opportunities as possible, including climbing abroad, and to climb
without bias, so that you can keep a broad perspective and avoid extreme
thinking.
If there are too many people to the instructor, then
the risk is often not managed as well as it could be, and should be
avoided, using the guide ratio, FYI.
In climbing, when receiving
private instruction, it is better to receive instruction in pairs with a
partner, so that the instruction can be shared and reviewed, leading to
early independence. (e.g., once the leader takes the climber to a
multi-pitch, the two climbers then go again to review the route
together).
However, since the leader is basically forced to
adjust to the majority, it may be more fruitful to provide a different
group for children, women, and elderly climbers who are not part of the
mainstream.
The majority of climbers these days are adult males
in their 20s and 30s, and if children, or women or elderly people
training is compromised by them, it would be a complete disaster. The
mastery strategy of the low-strength groups of children, women, and the
elderly is primarily short, frequent climbs.
For
mainstream climber like men, the strategy is high intensity for long
periods of time. This is because they will finally learn the moves when
they are tired, and used up all excessive energy.
Teaching Methods for Individual Differences
(1) Descending... Descending is the most basic climbing technique to learn.
Needless to say, once you climb, you must descend.
This
may seem so obvious that it should not be verbalized, but in reality,
90% of the near-misses that occur at crags are due to the fact that
climbers have not been prepared for the technique of descending down.
(Case in: Hiei)
Therefore, all climbers, regardless of their level, must master the technique of descending after climbing.
The main descent techniques are;
- rappelling (rappelling down)
- Lowering down (ATC or Grigri)
- Jump-off (landing)
- Climb down
After mastering these four techniques, it is necessary to consciously learn how to climb.
In particular, rappelling is known as a technique where failure is not an option.
Personally, when teaching children, I have found the following methods to be successful in safely teaching the descent technique
After
learning to lower oneself down with a grigri, one can then lower down
with a belayer. When self-lowering with the grigri, a knot is tied about
2 meters above the ground so that the climber will stop even if fall.
In this case, any bulky knot is acceptable.
(2) Skill level (grade)
In
general, free climbing grades start at 5.9 on the outdoor rock. With
allowance, 5.8 is considered to be the safe entry level grade.
Not many beginner begin climbing in the outdoor crags. Majority starts at indoor gym. 1:9 is probably about right.
In
the case of beginners who started from mountaineering and followed the
growth path from flat terrain, to slopes, and then gradually to walls,
the three-point support of hands and feet is often already acquired by
hiking in the mountains. In such a case, the first task is to have them
climb lightly overhang on artificial walls, learn side body (twist), and
master two-point support.
On the other hand, for beginners in
indoor bouldering gyms, which account for 90% of the beginner climbers
today, the standard climbing ability is 5.9 on the outdoor rock is when
they are able to climb a 5th level in indoor gym grade without falling
down. So 5th or 5.11 is the level they should aim, except for rope work.
3) Learning to belay
It is necessary to learn to belay at early stages.
The standard for learning to belay is six months of climbing twice a week, in artificial walls.
If the climber is able to recognize the risk of landing on the outdoor boulders, it is acceptable to start him or her on the outdoor rocks at a lower grade. It is rather better for risk perception in the outdoors.
Since
the primary risk factor in outside bouldering is landing, it is
important to make them aware of the risk before they are able to climb
up. Many notice they can not climb down after topping out the rock.
Accidents of landing in gaps between mats are very common.
5) Grouping by climbing grade is becoming less meaningful.
Today,
it is no longer meaningful to divide climbers into beginner and
intermediate levels based on their climbing grade (like decimal) or the
length of their experience.
What makes a climber beginner and
what makes a climber intermediate? This is a question that needs to be
examined closely by advanced climbers.
For example, there have
been accidents both in Japan and overseas where climbers who can climb
5.13 have fallen to their deaths on 5.8 wide crack or slabs, etc. The
gap between the grade and the actual skills required at the crag is too
wide, and hard to be recognized.
5-2) Technical Level Classification (Draft)
Beginner: Can climb in a group without accidents. No lack of gear.
Intermediate: Able to go and come back with climbers of the same level as themselves.
Advanced: A climber who is able to climb difficult climbs and return home in a safe condition.
Experienced: A climber who can make sound decisions and give guidance in a pinch.
Proficient: A person who can give creativity to climbing.
(6) Increase readiness to recognize danger
Climbing is an extreme sport that involves danger, so it is important to properly assess the ability to recognize danger as well as the appropriateness of the exercise itself, and to provide appropriate guidance.
In particular, if the ideology that celebrates death wishing behavior is not corrected in the early stages of climbing, it can lead to loss of life or damage to the climber's life in the rudimentary stages. Examples include the death of a climber who slipped and fell on the west ridge of Mt.Karasawadake.
Training for the instructor's selfish purposes can lead to grade supremacy, which, if not corrected, can create people who are exclusive, uncooperative, inconsiderate, aggressive, emotionally unstable, and self-centered. Especially when teaching junior high and high school students, instruction that is detrimental to the development of an amicable personality must be avoided.
Similar problems may occur with adult climbers, so activities to teach basic risk management in climbing, both culturally and ethically, will become even more important as the number of climbers increases.
It a big loss for the climbing community if young climbers, who have the potential to make great records, are killed early in their climbing careers because of minor mistakes.
The discussion in this area has been very slow, and every year accidents are reported that could have been prevented without death (e.g., Amida North ridge of Gakushuin University).
Instead of the idea of taking life in stride, what kind of efforts and what kind of precise risk calculations led to great adventures and great records? should be talked about.
As a case study, we can make better climbing plans by reading past accident cases as a collection of failures, with examples of failures such as multi-pitching without a defeat plan (Hakua slabs ).
The legacy left by our predecessors should be utilized. In other countries, books compiling accident reports have also been published. (AAC: https://amzn.to/3Ip5TSr)
Learning in the form of discussions with top climbers would be a good way to transmit the ideas of great climbers.
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