Cheating is almost always considered to be a bad thing but can give you great results in a short period of time. Like when you play competitive games, it’s easy to notice players that use the cheats to get higher in rankings or get social adoration. Some of us are simply tired of the training process and we want to get results fast, but there is always that thing in the back of our heads “Should I cheat at climbing?” or “Is heating bad overall?”. If you want to know more then keep reading.
Cheating unfortunately is bad, but many of us still do cheat. Cheating in climbing will let you clear higher graded routes, and some of the cheating methods will even let your climbing skills improve faster. All of that should be based on your own perspective on climbing. You should be honest with yourself, so it will be basically fooling yourself, but overall is cheating even worth it? Let’s find out!
Why are people cheating in climbing?
People tend to cheat when they feel like being in a worse position than others, for example in terms of height, because that’s what we have to live with for the rest of our lives.
There are ways to the best results in climbing quickly. Let’s think about shorter people, like girls for example. Many of them struggle to reach that handhold because their range is not as far as many men have. Often in many climbing or bouldering gyms, route setters tend to give women or shorter people facilitation with an additional foothold to help them reach that handhold, which was previously out of their reach without that additional foothold.
So whenever when that person has similar problems on another route but there isn’t additional help for them, it’s getting frustrating. That person will start to look for something additional to use to help with reaching out to that handhold.
Most of those problems could be solved by route setters but not by adding additional footholds for shorter people, they should just make the problem that can be enjoyable for any climber in terms of climber’s height.
Being short isn’t something that we can change like our weight. So if it’s really impossible to reach that next handhold and you are at least 5 feet tall, then know that many people with similar height will skip that route. Being 5 feet tall isn’t considered to be very small, so you can feel justified to skip that, but you really need to make sure that move is impossible with your height.
Sometimes we can see a bunch of people who are using other holds to start a bouldering problem, and also why they are climbing they are sometimes using the wrong holds just to complete the route.
How can I cheat in climbing?
There are a few ways to cheat at climbing, but remember that the person you are going to fool will be you, so if you don’t care much about it then stay with us. The first method is quick and almost not noticeable and that is using holds from other routes. It sounds simple but when you have a hard part on your route, so you could try to support yourself with a hold that should be supposed to be used in your problem.
When you are climbing a high wall then almost no one can check if you’re doing something that shouldn’t be done because the distance between you and other people is too great, and many people won’t care if they will see you cheat once or twice, but still, you are the person to decide what’s right.
Another option to cheat is a bit unhealthy for your body, and that is using supplements that will give you energy like caffeine before your attempts. Caffeine will give you a quick and high energy boost, and that will let you climb higher and longer than you ever could. It’s pretty simple and also unhealthy, and you will cheat yourself.
In bouldering, it’s often hard to even start a boulder, so people use other holds to even start the problem, and you could also do that because that’s even before the route begins, but that’s also cheating. You should start a bouldering problem using only the holds that are meant to be used in this problem.
All of the methods described above are not recommended by us, because they can be unhealthy and cheating is bad overall but in this case, you will be fooling yourself, so we would like to check our new article about ways to improve our skills as climbers “How long should you hangboard for?“.
In general – Should I cheat at climbing?
That’s the question you can only answer but we don’t recommend you cheat in climbing. Climbing is a sport that is done more casually than any others because it’s simply fun and simple. It’s a great activity to hang out with your partner or friends, but sometimes we want to impress them, and that’s most likely why the questions about cheating even exist.
Cheating in climbing is considered to be bad by the community, and people can give you those angry looks, and that’s not worth it. It’s better, to be honest with yourself and look for things that are the reasons why you are not improving as a climber, and focus on them.
