Proximity to Walls

Landing platforms or obstacles placed close to walls may sometimes introduce additional risk for athletes. Athletes traveling with a high velocity may have a difficult time stopping on the platform before a wall. Coaches should be mindful of their placement of landing platforms when they are within a close proximity to a wall.

It is important to note, walls are often incorporated into obstacles and provide additional challenges for athletes. Additionally, platforms in a close proximity to padded walls typically introduce less risk than non-padded walls. We recommend coaches be mindful of walls when evaluating a setup to determine the best placement for platforms or obstacles.

Proximity to Others

Coaches are often training more then one athlete at a time. We recommend coaches are mindful of other individuals in the gym when arranging an obstacle setup. This includes the students they are working with as well as spectators and by standers.

Here are a few questions coaches can ask themselves to evaluate their setup:

• Are any athletes or bystanders in the bail zones for any of my obstacles?
• Do my athletes have sufficent distance to stop after an obstacle before running into any other athletes are spectators?
• Is another coach or group of athletes using the same equipment?
• Does any of the set-up cross any high traffic areas where other individuals may walk into the path of an athlete actively on an obstacle.

Bail Zones

Coaches can check potential bail zones for obstructions before setting obstacles. As mentioned in a previous section, a bail zone is any area an athlete may land if they fall off an obstacle. We recommend coaches scan bail zones and consider any posts, equipment or people that may be in the area an athlete may fall. The coach should then determine if the area is clear enough for their obstacle setup.

Summary

This concludes our this short section on obstacle placement. You should now be familiar with the three considerations coaches can evaluate when selecting where to place their obstacle setups.