When you say "pinch" you mean "pinch the brake," no? Why on earth would you ever have to do that while TR belaying?

Regarding gym rules being dictated by insurance companies... In my gym experience, which is extensive but admittedly potentially out of date, insurance companies that dictate specific gym rules are a myth.

What I have seen are insurance companies that require gyms to have risk-management plans (including rules) and that they follow them. But those plans are typically written by the gym itself, not the insurance company.

Sounds like you got your answer, already, but I'll add my own 'gyms can require things to be done THEIR way' stories.

1. A guy comes to visit from out of town. He says hello to the employee at the counter. It so happens that the two guys know each other, have run into each other while climbing outside many times, and the employee happens to know that the visitor has 10+ years of climbing experience.

Nevertheless, the employee proceeds to belay test the visitor, requires him to use an ATC, and insists on the visitor tying in with a figure 8+double fisherman, even though the visitor always uses double bowline with a re-thread, and the employee knows how to tie double-fisherman and never objects to anyone tying in that way when climbing outside.

Sounds silly-- but this is a case of employee going by the book. And you can't really fault him for it, even though it is silly.

2. I am setting a TR route at the gym, using a gri-gri for self-belay (which is the standard gym-approved method). When I am done, a friend comes along, and I ask him to quickly run up the new route and give me feedback. He agrees, and I put him on belay with the gri-gri, because, well, I have it handy, while the ATC is in my bag. I get reprimanded for using a gri-gri to TR belay, because the gym requires everyone to belay with an ATC. The justification is that, while they know I can use a gri-gri, someone else might see me belaying with a gri-gri, and that would create a precedent and then maybe someone else would want to do the same, and gym rules say ATC only.

Silly, for sure. But... gym has rules. Got to stick with them if you want to climb there.

I have to agree on setting precedence to be honest.

Sure, if it's for something that makes sense.

Suck it up, you got to go climbing in the end.

And that's what counts!

End of story.

Setting precedence makes sense to me. I can only guess, but the gym most likely wants to avoid the gri gri as much as possible because it flattens their ropes.

As someone who owns a gym, I can honestly say, "why can he do it and not me" is a very common phrase. It's easier to enforce the rules with everyone versus selectively.

Perhaps the root of the problem is the rule structure itself. I have 10 years of experience managing gyms in which customers could use whatever device they like, as long as they did so correctly. No offense, but apparently our approach was more effective at reducing such questions than yours. I rarely had to field them. And when I did, since our rules were well thought out, they were easy to justify.

As for flat ropes from Gri-gri usage, I found that the natural variety of belay devices people employed solved the problem for us. Now requiring only Gri-gris... I could see flat ropes becoming an issue. But that's an example of another rule with which I disagree.

Flat ropes are part of life in gyms. We d what we can, but any gym in business should know that ropes don't last for ever and budget accordingly.

Now that I agree with.

hard not to agree with it.

Flat ropes are part of life in gyms. We d what we can, but any gym in business should know that ropes don't last for ever and budget accordingly.

I disagree

With which part?

I read somewhere on here about ropes and like the maximum number of falls they can take. And someone mentioned that like if you like rest a rope after a fall for a while it will stay stronger in the long run. If this indeed works I fail to see how it would happen. Because the stressed fibers wouldn't bend themselves? I'd its a bit late, not sure if that question made sense..