How to fall safely when bouldering

Falling is part of the sport

Bouldering means falling. You will come off, often, and from height, and that is normal rather than a failure. The catch is that a lot of bouldering injuries happen not on the wall but on the way down: a twisted ankle from a bad landing, a wrist hurt from throwing out an arm, a knee turned on an uneven mat edge. The good news is that falling well is a skill like any other, and once you learn it most falls become boring, which is exactly what you want them to be.

Land soft and roll

The single most useful habit is to absorb the landing rather than fight it. Aim to land on both feet with your knees soft and ready to bend, then let the momentum carry you into a backward roll or a sit-down onto your backside. Stiff legs send the shock straight up through your ankles and knees. Bent legs that give way and a roll spread the force out over your whole body.

A few principles that keep landings safe:

• Try to land on your feet first, with knees bent, then carry on down into a roll or a sit.
• Keep your arms in. Throwing a hand out behind you to break a fall is how wrists and elbows get hurt. Tuck your chin and let your back take the roll.
• Look where you are going to land if you can, so you do not put a foot on the edge of a mat or onto someone else's gear.
• Do not try to fight gravity halfway down. Once you are off, commit to the fall rather than grabbing wildly.

You can practise this. Jump off from low down on purpose and rehearse the soft landing and roll until it is automatic, so it is there when a real fall surprises you.

Falling from height

The higher you are, the more it matters to push away gently from the wall as you come off, so you do not scrape down the holds or land awkwardly close to the base. Push out just enough to clear the wall, then turn your attention to the landing. Do not over-push, or you sail out beyond the mats.

On a real topout boulder outdoors, the higher you get the more the consequences grow, which is why spotting and pads matter more the further up you are. Know your descent before you commit to the top. Downclimbing is often safer than jumping from height, so use it when it is there.

Spotting and pads

If you climb with others, learn to spot. A spotter does not catch a falling climber, that is a good way for both people to get hurt. The job is to protect the head and steer the falling body onto the mat, with hands up and ready, watching the climber's hips, and guiding rather than grabbing. Communicate before the climb about where the hard moves are and where a fall is likely.

Indoors the matting does a lot of the work, but still check there are no gaps, no bags, and no one sitting underneath the problem. Outdoors, place pads to cover the likely landing zone, watch for the seams between pads, and have a spotter steer falls away from rocks and uneven ground.

Keep falls boring

The aim of all of this is to make falling unremarkable. Soft knees, arms in, a roll, eyes on the landing, and a bit of practice from low height turn a fall from something to fear into a non-event. That matters for more than safety. Climbers who fear the fall climb tense, grip too hard, and back off moves they could do. Learn to fall well and you free yourself to actually try hard, which is where the climbing gets good.