@verretor Lord of the Rings
@pete There’s actually a gymnast that is known as “Lord of the Rings”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBmy9JWyCS4
You’ll notice that he’s quite short. Ring specialists are never tall. I’m 5’9”, almost 5’10”. Too tall to be a ring specialist.
@verretor ha, that name totally doesn't surprise me.
Gymnasts are amazing. I nearly took gymnastics as a kid. But I was too shy back then. I really should have.
@pete My mother didn’t care when I told her I wanted to do gymnastics as a child. I did acrogym later and I actually gave classes but that’s more like circus stuff.
@Corydoras @pete Government keeps closing gyms here. I also like rock climbing but I haven’t practiced since the first lockdown.
@Corydoras @verretor Parkour is a lot scarier than climbing. I used to do what was basically traditional parkour as a kid before I even knew about it (there was a large boulder breakwater near me). If I did it now I'd be taking pretty big risks, as falls are so much worse when your fat...
OTOH, even as a kid I made almost no mistakes.
I've tried climbing a few times and liked it a lot. I'm cheap though so I've never worked myself up to investing in the memberships/gear.
@Corydoras @verretor Climbing is unusual, because it tends to either be very safe, or deadly. It's fairly uncommon for people to even sprain ankles climbing, especially with top rope. OTOH I've seen someone fall 30ft due to a belaying mistake - had they not been in a padded gym, or had just fallen awkwardly or on someone, they'd have been killed instantly. Fortunately the thick padding the gym had installed left them with nothing more than a sprained back.
@Corydoras @verretor I personally got dropped about 20ft due to a belaying mistake myself. I was lucky that the grigri locked up before I actually hit the ground at full speed due to the belayer letting go. I stopped climbing with them...
But actual injuries? Other than some blisters, I really can say nothing at all.
@Corydoras @verretor I think you choosing to focus on techy movements is smart. Endless fun to be had being precise, and it'll keep you doing it for the rest of your life.
@pete @Corydoras That’s Ido Portal’s approach. Instead of focusing on performance like endurance and strength, he focuses on movement so as he ages, he’s always in his prime.
@Corydoras @verretor Same with caving. Much more dangerous than the climbing I've done. But at the same time, I'd say my biggest screw up was once needing to ask a partner to help me get down the last ~1m of a small downclimb that I screwed up on and couldn't climb back up.
To me, that was a BIG DEAL because I could have sprained my ankle (no stable footing under me if I jumped). We were about an hour or two from the exit so that would have really, really, sucked.