MCofS: Youth Open Bouldering Prep Day

The last two days have been so much fun and yet so tiring! Who would have thought that 14 hours route setting followed by 6 hours sleep and a full days coaching would be tiring :P

Saturday was the MCofS Prep Event for the Youth Bouldering Open being held in Liverpool in December. I am going down myself acting as Team Coach and will be involved in the selection of the new GB Team on the Saturday for the Lead event and am going to offer my support to those going for the Bouldering as well.

The MCofS Prep Events that I organise like this are invaluable sources of competetive exerience for all competitors as well as being a fun day climbing with friends and no doubt a hard days training! For this event, I had planned a Qualifier and final style format following the Official IFSC Rules so that the kids would benefit from learning the most up to date tactics for when they compete on the day.

The day before the event, Iain Sneddon (Route Setter and Coach at EICA) and myself made the journey to Glasgow TCA to set all the problems for the Saturday. Iain and myself have been looking forward to this day for sometime as we've been eager to set at TCA since the place first opened late last year. We even had to go through TCA's "Complex and Stifingly Hard" Route Setter Examination/Induction before being allowed to set. 

Our plan for the setting day was to set all the Qualifiers as taped problems using holds already on the wall and set our own purpose built problems on the TCA Competition Wall. We set the finals problems first owing to the fact that we knew thatit would take all our energy and undivided attention to set the best quality finals using as much volume madness as possible. Check out below pictures of our finals problems.

 The Red Bloc above was a problem I designed to challenge the younger kids confidence in making dynamic or explosive moves. The first move is literally a dyno from two edges to two jugs on the volume. Because it is low to the ground it's a fairly safe dyno but in the competetion environment kids don't tend to want to risk jumping for holds unless they have to (on this you have to unless your long!). The last move is also a risky move requiring a short pop for the final jug.

This Yellow V7 above was a fantastic problem set by Iain. It's always a bit of a chance when you set something harder than you canusually climb. Iain is a V6 climber, so setting a V7 is going to be more of a challenge for him, especially for a competition. These events are not only good prep for the kids, but also for us as route setters because it gives us an opportunity to hone our skills and test our ideas on kids outside of the real competition. The yellow did it's job well acting as a final separator for the large part of the older boys group. It's almost basic look is actually a subtle trick, the sequence is a lot more complex and hidden than meets the eye.

This Orange above was also set by Iain. We decided to use this problem as an example of a selected starting handholds position to show the kids what this is all about. Notice the Grip tape along the side of the blue volume... a very nice touch that provides an added bit of support when moving around it for both hands and feet!

I set this Green in about 5 minutes flat. Who says art can't be rushed. It might not be one of my masterpieces but the sequence puzzled most of the kids, especially the final pocket which unbeknown to all but the savvy has a nice little undercut inside :P

This blue I was particularly proud of. It had a good few tops in the finals by kids across the age brackets, however, what was the main theme behind success on this bloc was "body position". The strongest guys struggled like mad on this whist the younger more supple and wiry kiddie's cruised it like a warm up... Can you spot the two no handers?

Kalymnos comes to TCA! The first Bloc I set. Although it isn't that hard for adults, kids with tiny hands struggle like mad on this. It's all about laybacking up the tufa pipes and using the right bobbles and bumps. You can't pull your way up this one!

This one caught out everybody, not one flash in the whole competition! It's only V6 and actually quite an easy one at that - probably not harder than F6C realistically but could get F6C+ if push comes to shove. The volume technique is a tough cookie to break but once your in, you never look back! The older boys had to do this without the bonus screw on hold on the upper volume which probably bumped it to V6.

This white bloc was probably the most basic out of all the problems set. It's good to have a variety in styles and although I am not a fan of basic left right left right climbing, sometimes it's good to see who is simply the strongest. Interestingly enough, Rebecca Kinghorn displayed amazing feats of strength on this, but when it came to the final moves she showed her ability to think quick by catching the 4th last hold wrong handed with her left and pressing to reach the one out left with her right. This set her up perfectly for a clean Flash!

The hardest bloc in the comp! I did this after setting it in my Evolv Bolts. This is not really a problem about footwork, it's all about compression, burl and timing. The crux which nobody made in the comp is a throw for the Red triangle volume with the right, the only catch being if you don't immediately come in with your left to catch the hold underneath you spin uncontrollably backwards doing a 180 (or 360 depening on the force of the jump and the length of time you latch the hold for). Only Angus and Scott managed to make it to this point but neither of them spotted the left hand release and catch... A tricky technque to spot indeed!

After a hard 14 hour shift setting, Iain and I headed back to his and met up with his girlfriend, Miss Rachel Catherine Cooper of Ireland, with whom we shared a delightful McDonalds meal with (I am very ashamed to admit - not the having dinner with Rachel bit, the McDonalds bit :P ). Rachel is actually very nice, although I don't ever understand what she says when she speaks, it's just garbled Irish twangs (my description of a Dublin accent).

The next day, we all headed to TCA once again for the coaching day. I have just passed my driving test so it was fun getting to drive all the way to Glasgow two days on the trot, although slightly terrifying if I'm honest :P

The day ran pretty smoothly. Our tape set qualifiers went down well with all the kids and despite early concerns that the older boys group might have an easy set, those worries where put to rest when they all got shut down on my V7 Cobra Roof Bloc and all but Angus failed on my Prow Route Bloc.

After qualifiers, a little bit of lunch was all that was needed before a heafty beating on the finals. We made it so that there was 4 kids out at once on every bloc and every kid in each group tried the problems in the same order to keep things in check with IFSC Rules.

There was a few trips with regards to rules being broken or misunderstanding, but these are to be expected and exactly what the event was designed to teach anyway which was good. Surprising that the two biggest mistakes in the comp where made by the two most experienced competition climbers there, not naming any names (Angus and Scott :P )

I think prize for the best dismount goes to Angus for a 360 spin coming off the Green V8. Definitely prize for the best tantrums goes to Ewan Davidson who is almost as bad as me (but not quite, more practice needed). And finally I'd say best slip of the toungue to Katie Moore who accidentally asked me out on a date :P

Another good day climbing with Scotland finest Youth Climbers. I hope your all prepped up and ready for the British Youth Open Bouldering Competition in December!

CHECK OOT MA GUNZ!!!

ROBZ OUT