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They lower the grade by cca 1 level by pulling you up, at least till 6a/6b in french scale. In higher levels I can imagine they also interfere with careful bala
by jajko 2y ago
They lower the grade by cca 1 level by pulling you up, at least till 6a/6b in french scale. In higher levels I can imagine they also interfere with careful balance and body weight shifting training you away from actual skills, thats why I never saw them on anything harder than maybe 7b and even there it was like 1 or 2 routes in whole gym.
But for easy grades and cca beginners, if you lack a good partner for whatever reason, they are great IMHO.
- toxik 2y agoThe pull of an autobelay is negligible, surely. The cable is a bit annoying perhaps but the real problem is that the wall is like near vertical, completely flat. Super uninspiring in my opinion.
- lazide 2y agoMost climbing gyms put auto belays only on flat or slabby ‘beginniner’ areas of the walls because most people using auto belays can’t do much on harder stuff - and also it’s kind of convenient to have your partner ‘take’/hold you on steep stuff sometimes. Having uncontrolled (but slow) descents onto people’s heads probably also doesn’t help.
- cheschire 2y agoEver seen a spotter help in a struggling bench presser with just a couple fingers?
- toxik 2y agoI mean I can lift my entire bodyweight with just a couple of fingers, but that point aside, this isn't so strange. The bench presser stalls exactly when their muscles are just short overcoming gravity, any extra force--even a couple of fingers--will add upwards momentum. You're not often in this kind of stall condition when climbing, it is much more about leverage and transplanting force through the kinetic chain. Especially since we were discussing balance on typically lightly overhanging flat walls.