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Injury at Spurt Wall 29-Apr-2015 At 6:01:13 PM Rawpowa!

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On 29/04/2015 harold wrote:
>http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/tnb-eight-ways-to-avoid-braking-bad-the-art-of-the-so
>t-catch
>An article from rock and ice on soft catches. Of course if you're worried
>about the climber decking it might not be possible, but soft catch is
>pretty essential to avoid smashing ankles.
>Compare Dave Mcleoud's ankle smashing whipper on Rhapsody with a fairly
>static belay, and then subsequent repeats taking the same whip but with
>soft catch and their belayors getting launched up.
>The worst combination is pushing away from the wall as you fall and then
>a heavy belayor locking off tight on a gri gri.

What are peoples views on this from the article:

2) No slacking. Do not throw out any extra; that only increases the force. As one person posting on Mountain Project puts it, “A longer unchecked fall is not a softer catch. It's what you do to decelerate the climber that softens the catch.”

I've always thought it was better to keep a tight belay so the climber wouldn't generate as much energy that needs to be dissipated. People have told me that giving out slack is better, but my feeling is that they are being pulled off their feet by the higher energy generated and giving a soft catch that way. Whereas because I'm a large guy and belaying typically malnourished climber types I generally have to try to jump to give a soft catch, and if I didn't and just paid out heaps of slack the chances of breaking ankles would be much higher. It seems slightly controversial.