The Imperfect Movement by Carlo Malerba
From Method to Antimethod in Climbing
After more than ten years of didactic application “on” colleagues, in individual and group lessons Carlo Malerba, Mountain Guide, Mountaineering Instructor and National Instructor of Ropeway Work, Founding Member of the Society and School of Alpinism @prorockoutdoor Alpine Guides, shares with all of us his METHOD P.E.R (ProElasticRock...or Perception, Equiibre, Rhythm as reviewed by one of our affectionate @nocentini38...) contained in the manual just published in March 2026. P.E.R, “a method of learning and teaching rock climbing techniques that is effective, correct and elegant and which must be recognised for its intrinsic originality” (ed. R.Vigiani). P.E.R. is a tool designed to facilitate the learning of motor and progression techniques in climbing, as well as to support the teaching of vertical disciplines (ed. C.Virgilio)
Who better than Carlo to introduce us to this reading? “This manual was not born from theory. It was born from the rock, from the magnesium dust on my fingers, from the accelerated pulse after a fall....I wrote these pages not as an expert imparting truths from on high, but as a fellow traveller who took notes along the way...Setting up a climbing lesson through the description of a motor scheme, even if accompanied by a comprehensive demonstration, did not convince me in terms of effectiveness...My desire was that the correctness of a movement be perceived on a bodily level, before being understood on an intellectual level...’ ”Let the sensitivity of your body be such that you feel the smallest feather brushing against your skin“ ed. Wong Chung-yua
A work of “group, friendship, affection“.... If this book exists today, it is not just the result of study or personal research. It is the result of a collective experience, lived intensively in the field, day after day, course after course. It is the synthesis of years spent together teaching, observing, learning. Because in the mountains, you know, everyone is always a student. And I have had the good fortune to grow as an Alpine Guide in a unique context, surrounded by extraordinary colleagues and, above all, by so many pupils who, with their questions, doubts, enthusiasm and mistakes, have contributed to refining my outlook and my way of teaching climbing....All this would not have been possible without the silent and granitic strength of the Prorockourdoor team...Thank you for making possible, day after day, an excellent organisation....It's not just technical expertise, it's love for what we do and respect for those who rely on us.’
Many thanks for the graphic design to my friend Piero Sisti, for the exercises performed to Sivia Moroni @parlasostenibile and to those who kindly granted me the photos that you will see quoted in the manual, and to my colleagues Roberto and Cristiano for the Preface and Introduction.
