Fall Zone: Plan the Mats and Run a Bouldering Safety Check
Before climbing, teams figure out where someone would land on each problem, lay out the mats and run a safety checklist. Safety becomes a technical skill students can handle without the teacher.
How to play
- Explain how to fall in bouldering (on your feet, knees bent, rolling back) and what the fall zone is (3 min).
- Each team gets a problem and marks with cones where someone would land from the top and from the crux (4 min).
- Lay out the mats: no gaps, no overlaps that create a step, covering the coned zone (5 min).
- Cross-check: one team audits another's setup with the checklist (gaps, edges, nearby objects, loose rungs) (5 min).
- Fix and test: one member climbs halfway up and downclimbs to check the space (3 min).
Rules
- Four people carry each mat; never drag them.
- Nobody climbs until the auditing team signs off.
- Backpacks, bottles and benches stay more than 2 m from the fall zone.
- The test climb goes halfway up only.
Variations
Easier
Vertical problems with a simple fall zone.
Standard
Traversing problems where the fall shifts sideways.
Harder
A corner or high-finish problem: the team justifies the setup in writing.
Adaptations
- Students with limited mobility: lead auditor with the checklist, and photograph the setup.
- Back injury: don't carry mats; mark the zone with cones and direct.
- Students with visual impairments: check mat seams and edges by touch with a partner.
Learning goals
- Identify a problem's fall zone.
- Set up and check a safe layout.
- Treat safety as the group's responsibility.
Equipment for a class of 25
- gym mats: 12
- wall bars: 10
- cones: 20
- inspection checklists: 7
Teacher tip
If your mats are thin, double them only under the highest point and never create steps between mats. The usual mistake is covering the middle well and forgetting the sideways fall on traverses.
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