Personal coaching session for Ceri.
Ceri has been climbing with her partner, Rob, for many years. Both recognise that Ceri has been operating under Rob's 'expert halo': Ceri said that she did things because 'that's what Rob told me to do' rather than understanding the reasons behind a technique. She can climb 6a indoors and 5b on sport. She specifically wanted to be a more competent belayer, particularly on lead.
Ceri had said that she feels safe using an assisted braking device (Gri Gri2) because she didn't trust herself to use a non-assisted device. I outlined a session plan for her, which was basically a 'history of belaying' overview.
We looked at how a belay works by creating friction; body belaying; using a figure of eight device; I described a Sticht plate; we then went on to DMM Bug, DMM Mantis and Black Diamond ATC Guide.
We then looked at paying out and taking in, using ground-based quickdraws. We agreed that this is something that Ceri just needs to practise to get slicker and more confident at.
We then moved to Ceri lead-belaying Rob while Rob 'led' on an auto belay route.
Ceri said she appreciated the session and found it very useful. She highlighted points like not previously realising that a GriGri and Click-up are threaded to work as manual devices. We agreed to do some belay warm-ups in subsequent sessions.
