The proper technique of balance climbing involves the following: v Eyes. As a climber, you must observe the entire route selected to climb. Use your eyes to climb the pitch. You should identify handholds and footholds, possible belay positions, alternate routes, rest spots, and a route for down climbing or descending. You must use your eyes continuously to look for subsequent handholds and footholds, and rest positions. As well as to continue planning and revision of the route. v Body Position. As you move and climb, your body must be in balance; that is, your weight must be centred over your feet. Use your hands mainly for balance, and support you body weight with your legs.

If you lean in toward a rock, your feet will not hold well; you must keep your body out and away from the rock to counter the gravitational pull of the body. With your body in balance, move with a slow, rhythmic motion. If possible try to maintain three points of contact with the rock, such as two hands and one foot.

Avoid a spreadeagle position, since you must stretch too far and cannot let go without falling. When you reach a position of security try to rest, since tensed muscles tire quickly. Allow for circulation by keeping your arms as low as possible, and while you relax,take the opportunity to plan your next move.

When selecting handholds, you should keep your hands about waist-to-shoulder level. This allows you the desired upright, balanced position as well as resting your arms. It is better to use small, intermediate holds rather than stretching and clinging to widely separated holds. Handholds may susequently become footholds. Your arms or legs should not be crossed, nor should you use your knees or elbows as handholds or footholds.

There is an acronym that will help you remember the proper procedures during balance climbing. CASHWORTH.

C – Conserve energy.

A – Always test holds.

S – Stand upright on flexed joints.

H – Hands kept low; handholds should be waist-to-shoulder high.

W – Watch your feet.

O – On three points of contact; avoid using knees and elbows; avoid awkward, out of balance positions.

R – Rhythmic movement.

T – Think and plan ahead.

H – Heels kept lower than toes, and pointed inwards.

Learn this and you will be one step ahead of the game.

For walls designed to help people learn the basics of climbing, hand holds are generally screwed onto the wall. A beginner’s rock climbing wall may be a simple vertical wall with regular hand holds spaces so that it is easy to move upwards – this helps a beginning rock climber get used to supporting his or her own body weight while scaling a wall. More advanced rock climbing walls can have more complicated surfaces and relatively fewer hand and foot holds to hang on to. However, it is unusual for indoor climbing walls to be completely devoid of hand holds and foot holds because unlike outdoor rock climbing surfaces, indoor surfaces do not generally make use of belaying equipment and the various kinds of anchors that damage the face of the rock. While the climber of an indoor rock wall may use a harness depending on the height of the wall and the lesson being taken, a primary method of protecting oneself from a fall is a thick padded surface below the wall. Climbers are also usually required to wear protective gear so that even in the event of a fall it is unlikely that they will suffer an injury.

While an indoor rock climbing wall does not provide the same degree of challenge as an outdoor area, it is significantly safer and it makes it possible for people who live in the city, far from suitable rock climbing locations, to learn how to climb and develop their skills. It also gives people a place that they can go to climb when the weather is not suitable for climbing (if it is rainy or snowy).

Artificial walls for rock climbing were first built in 1964 in Great Britain and have since spread around the world, with an increasing number of large gyms including rock climbing walls as one of the options that they provide for working into fitness routines. Indoor climbing walls can be designed with complex moulded features and the optimal routes, as well as more challenging routes, can be indicated with markings on the wall to help people visualize their goals and work towards conquering the more advanced paths up the climbing wall as they learn new techniques and better develop their climbing strength and coordination for climbing on a sheer rock face. And as a sport in itself it can be very exhilerating, and takes some beating.

• In the United States, a child is injured on a playground every 2 1/2 minutes.
• More than 200,000 children each year are treated in emergency departments for playground-related injuries.
• More than 75% of playground injuries occur on a public playground.
• Most playground injuries involve falls, and over half of the time the child’s head and face is hurt.
• Most of these injuries are preventable with proper supervision and safer playground equipment and design.

You can make the playground a place that’s entertaining and safe for your children by checking equipment for potential hazards and following some simple safety guidelines. In addition, teaching your kids how to play safely is important: if they know the rules of the playground, it’s less likely they’ll become injured.

Safety Guidelines

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funds the National Program for Playground Safety (NPPS), which works to prevent playground-related injuries by establishing detailed guidelines for safe playgrounds. According to the NPPS, the most important factors in evaluating the safety of any playground are surface, design and spacing, equipment installation, and maintenance.

The following types of equipment are not meant for safe playgrounds:

• animal figure swings
• glider swings that hold more than one child at a time
• swinging ropes that can fray, unravel, or form a noose (any kind of rope attached to play equipment poses a strangulation hazard, so never let your child tie jump ropes or leashes onto the equipment)
• exercise rings (as used in gymnastics) and trapeze bars
• Monkey bars: although people use the terms monkey bars, jungle gyms, and climbing equipment interchangeably, actual monkey bars are a specific type of climbing equipment with interior bars onto which a child may fall from a height greater than 18 inches. In the early 1980s, the CPSC stated that monkey bars were unsuitable for playgrounds.
• trampolines: these are never appropriate for safe playgrounds

As the number one concern when rock climbing is the possibility of a fall, the most important pieces of gear for rock climbers are their harnesses and rope systems. Modern climbing ropes are designed with a core of long twisted fibers surrounded by woven fibers. The ropes have some flexibility and elasticity, which means they are far less likely to snap under sudden tension or to cause whiplash by bringing a falling user to an instantaneous stop ‘ instead there will be a little bounce in the line to create a smoother end to the fall. Static rope is another kind of rope which does not have the same amount of give and is used for the critical connections of the belaying / anchoring system that a climber uses to stay connected to the rock face. Nylon webbing is used in some cases as well but is a completely different kind of specialized material with an amazingly high tensile strength.

The rope system that a rock climber uses is attached to a belay device ‘ a piece of gear that allows the rope to be gradually released but seizes onto the rope and prevents it from continuing to run in case of a fall. The belay device will be attached to the rock face with some kind of support or cam system to provide a point of anchor. A belay device will have an active camming device or a passive camming device. With an active camming device a user must lock off the rope with his / her brake hand and a carabiner (a kind of metal loop with a spring loaded gate, usually made from aluminum). Of course, when such a system is being used, two people are climbing together for increased safety, and the current second (the lower climber who is staying put while the other continues on) will be in charge of keeping the belaying system operational in case of a fall.

Finally, the climber is attached to the rope and the belay device using a harness. The most important thing in choosing a harness (besides making sure that it is entirely secure) is making sure that it has a good fit, as it will likely have to support much of your weight for a good amount of time. Also keep in mind that while there are different kinds of harnesses, such as chest harness and full body harnesses in addition to the traditional sit harnesses, not all of them are equally safe. Chest harnesses have been found in some cases to increase the risk of damage to the neck at the end of a drop. In addition to these pieces of equipment, rock climbers wear protective helmets and carry bags of chalk on their belt to give them a better grip. All of these kinds of gear are important for safe rock climbing!