Agree or Disagree?
When preparing for competitions, I like to know who will be helping me do the setting. Whether it will be experienced, creative, balanced routesetters or new, excited employees breaking into their first comp experience. This tells me the amount of work I will have to do, and how to budget my time for each stage of the game.
For instance, this week I am preparing for a competion, mostly roped routes, a few bouldering problems. I walk into the gym and see a wall cleaned and stripped and find a new route on it. This route has 7 new, quality holds and is not quite finished. The wall it is on covers about 35 feet including the added length for the overhanging nature of the wall. These 7 holds are in almost a straight line up the middle of the wall. A Dihedral style climb that eliminates most of the difficulty associated with the angle [because of steming ability]. While the quality of the route may be satisfactory, the overall look of the movement suggests the same moves are repeated often. I do not want to discourage this person from setting, especially when help is needed for competitions, but in this case, is their setting doing more harm than good? Having to go back and edit the route creating a more asthetic, flowing, sequence will take time. Do I strip the route, appoligize and explain, or, try to help this setter along and take the time, which is precious, to refine the route with their approval?