YCS Round 1 - "The Peak" (2013)

Yo Guys

Last Saturday was the first round of the YCS for many regions round the country including both North and South Scotland. In the North it was held at Inverness Leisure Centre and in the South it was at Stirling's "The Peak"!A host of competitors and coaches checking out myself and Jonny's creations (Photo By Rachel Carr)

This year was set to be the biggest one yet with 75 kids participating in total! This is massive for our regional rounds and it really shows just how Climbing as a sport is growing year after year. Rock Climbing is now considered to be the fastest growing sport in the world taking over from Skateboarding which has been number one for the last 20 years. I believe that the growth of the sport relies heavily on the regional work put into getting more kids into the sport such as events like this - if we can keep up the hard work going into these events, then the future for Climbing is going to be getting brighter for sure!

Our leader, Area Youth Co-ordinator Scott Forsyth (Photo by Rachel Carr)This years YCS is not only the biggest it's ever been, but its probably also looking at being the most competetive in each category we've ever had. There are so many kids in our Southern region that deserve a podium place and thus an opportunity to go to the YCS Finals in June, but the categories are so dense with strong climbers all operating at a high level that it becomes a real fight for the opportunity to go. This of course makes my job as setter and coach very tough indeed.

The day before I have to set the boulders and routes to a level that wil:

1. Split the field of strong candidates in a fair unbiased way (i.e. no big reachy moves and in a variety of styles and technical skills so that the most developed don't have advantages i.e.only the most skilled will get through)
2. Be enjoyable for the majority of the groups and not just acting as a splitter for the top guys and girls.
3. Hopefully split everyone without a need for a superfinal as it becomes a long day if this happens.

These are my main parameters as a Routesetter for the YCS Rounds.

This of course becomes very difficult when you set 3 x Routes and 3 x Boulders and in order for the meat of the climbers to enjoy it, they have to top the first 2 of each! This makes things harder as the pressure is all put on one route and one boulder which if not set perfectly, could lead to a lot of joint 1st places in the more competetive categories.A YCS Competitor cranking it out on one of Stockings yaldi test pieces! (Photo by Rachel Carr)

Saturday's competition in Stirling was set by myself and a good friend of mine, Jonny Stocking (Junior British Champion). We arrived at "The Peak" around 8am and got together a plan of where the routes and boulders would be set. Because I am the Scottish Coach and heavily involved with the top climbers in each category either through 1:1 coaching or training events, I know pretty well the right grade to set the routes at and what will hopefully split each category... saying that... it is still hard work getting it right and we all make mistakes :P

Working with Jonny was great fun, we have a good laugh together and he is as hard a worker as any so the job gets done quickly and efficiently. By the end of the day, i felt that we had set together a quality selection of routes and boulder problems that the kids would both enjoy and be challenged on. 

On the day, I was nervous for the kids I coach, but also nervous for myself and Jonny as I knew we had set to split the competition and if we had not done our job well enough, the competition could have been a flop! 

Ian of the Stirling Spiders starting out on the gnarly V6 I set for Youth C, B and A Boys! (Photo by Rachel Carr)As the day progressed, we saw some amazing climbing skills, fantatsic displays of courage, fight, determinataion and effort on all fronts! It was good to see as well the comraderie amongst our young climbers, working together as if in a team but also against each other at the same time. This is something I don't think you see in other sports... yet another reason why climbing is the greatest sport on earth! :D

By the end of the day, there was of course a few tears amongst the crowds of children... but mostly they where happy faces with smiles. And the tears never last long because children always bounce back higher after they have fallen. I was proud of every single kid I saw climb that day - from those who have been training a year for another chance to make finals to those who had only been climbing 3 weeks and had come along just to see what a competition is like. 

I am happy to say that we didn't require a superfinal and each category was split despite a few close calls in the more competetive categories :D

Looking forward to Glasgow Round 2 in a week and a halfs time! 

PSYCHED!