Fitness for caving pre-questions

[christine]

JasonC is absolutely correct   

I am interested (purely for curiosity) how a professional caver could potentially judge a new persons ability  BEFORE taking them underground, based on answers to a simple questionnaire.. 

I had a feeling this could be real difficult 

It is difficult.

But if they have never been caving before (assuming beginners is what you are talking about, otherwise you will have previous experience to base it on) then you have to start somewhere.

The alternative is not to bother asking anything at all. Not something I'm prepared to do TBH.

My questionnaires actually work quite well and are quick, simple and relevent.
The 'profile' I get from them usually matches the people almost spot on. I've been surprised by one or two (for the better - they did themselves down in the questions) but never for the worse, so whilst I don't depend on it, asking relevent questions (how do you find crawling on your hands and knees for a few minutes? (Options: Extremely difficult, fairly hard, Ok, Fairly easy, Very easy)
has to be better than nothing.

if anyone out there has the perfect pre-caving questionnaire, then I'm all ears and would welcome seeing it 

 

[christine]

ps if anyone is genuinely interested, I'm happy to send them a copy of my booking form to take a look at.

I half thought about linking it here....but that would create more hassle than I'm prepared to put up with 

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Caving like diving is partly psychological. State of mind not physical fitness is very important. With diving I used Yoga techniques and pre dive visualisation to prepare myself. Also I gave myself time to arrive on site and kit up. Tom Mount has some great views on this. People who dont know caving too well waste a huge amount of energy as they fail to become one with the environment. They battle it instead of analyzing the path of least resistance which becomes second nature in time. All the OP's original questions I would fail at. I am nearly 66, hate gyms and couldn't run across the road. I do try to maintain a good lifestyle though. No alcohol, weight as low as feasible. ( Now half a stone heavier than 40 years ago.) So caving fit is different than being fit. I have seen several very fit folk suffer on long trips as they do not know how to conserve energy.