i just wanted to thank and congratulate all the setters involved in this years event. i can honestly say, this was the best set national or any other actually, that i have been to. the routes were exciting, fun, blah blah blah etc. really i mean it. i did not hear one route complaint all weekend, and i usually either have some myself or hear from other coaches and parents. oh wait, kynan said he wanted more tops in finals, but that was the only one. really great job guys, you have brought this a very long way. the level of professionalism is unmatched.
any one else have some thoughts on the weekend?
scs youth nationals 2011
(11 posts) (10 voices)-
Posted 10 months ago #
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Are the results posted anywhere and does anyone have any videos to post from the comp? I always find the USA climbing finals inspiring from a setting point of view. Congrats to all involved in the setting and organizing.
Cranky.
Posted 10 months ago # -
I found results.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Agree with Tyson. I remarked to Mike how it appeared they are really discovering how to set in that gym in comparison to last year. I am psyched to see you put ladies in the roof. I was a little disappointed NOT to see more roof action with the big kids, but PSYCHED to see the little kids get some roof action. Great work there.
Where I would like to see your setting elevate for next year is this. Try to eliminate/or limit scored holds that are not intended for sequence.
The team definitely elevated the overall quality from the first year there. Really great job gentlemen.
Posted 10 months ago # -
This was our first visit to Stone Summit with the Oklahoma Climbing Team and we were blown away by the place. It was one of the best all-around comp experiences we've had. Our team members really liked the routes. They commented that the holds were almost always good - it was more the overall length and linking of moves - which I thinks works well, in terms of setting, for this style of comp. I understand the need for certain divisions to up the hold difficulty (talking about mainly crimpy or intense one/two finger pockety stuff) but for the most part it's not necessary and you risk injuring an athlete. I liked the style of setting with this comp because it tended to require linking difficult sequences rather than having an out-and-out show-stopper hold.
One of the toughest things about being a climber/coach/routesetter is sitting there and just WATCHING! I wanted to get on the routes so badly.
Female A semi route was really incredible - 40-50 of horizontal climbing.
It would be amazing to be able to set routes in that gym. If you ever need a guest setter, let me know.
We're looking forward to next year.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Lets here from some of the setters! Behind the scenes insight and info are always cool. Wetmore did a little write up that i enjoyed reading, anyone else?
Posted 10 months ago # -
i must agree that the routes were really nice this year. i also like seeing the little guys and ladies get into the big roof. im sure it threw them for a loop. i did notice a few bottlenecks in some of the routes during the first and third days, however those that did get past often got separated nicely on the third day. truly great job done by the whole crew!
Posted 10 months ago # -
First of all, what an amazing facility. The walls themselves give so much creativity to the setter. It is pretty amazing.
Overall the smoothest setting of a major event that I have been a part of. I think Mr. Helt has this comp, and this gym, down to a science. We only had three days to get the routes on the wall, and I was very worried we would be working into the wee hours of the night trying to get it done. To my surprise everyone killed it. The crew was super efficient with getting skeletons up and tweaking them fast. I had a blast at this comp, and as always, I learned a thing or too about my setting. That is why I do these things. To improve my trade. I would work this event every year! wink wink Mikus.
-Bret
Posted 10 months ago # -
The route setting was certainly exciting this year! The diversity of walls for each category was great and I was excited to see how many setters there were to bring such variety of styles.
That being said, for the sake of discussion, I want to bring up some criticisms I have. I know that every setter has his/her opinions about what is good vs bad or safe vs unsafe and these are just mine; take them or leave them.FYB Q2- There was a mono that the runner showed to be the clipping hold about halfway up. Personally I do not see a place in youth setting for monos, no matter how good the feet are or the angle of terrain, even if it's the easiest move on the route. There is just too much risk to a young climber's fingers and I do not feel that the mono was the only hold out there that could have forced the sequence. Even a 2-finger pocket would have been an improvement.
MYA-JR Final- The 360 spin below the slab. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-a-5YF4Ew8 at 4m45sec, although Alex does a pretty good job with the rope) I think this move is super cool to watch and depending on the hold choice it can be difficult to read and really challenge the climbers. The concern I have is for the number of climbers who became entangled in the rope as they executed the move (once or twice around their neck...). If it had been 1 or 2 people I'd chalk it up to poor management on the competitor's part, but I ended up seeing more than that have an issue with it. At some point safety should trump the cool-factor of a move. We talked about this particular issue at the coaching symposium after the event with one of the setters and it was chalked up to the fact that the 3 forerunners simply hadn't had that problem. The forerunners are adults with a huge amount of experience and are climbing in a relatively calm setting, the competitors have less experience and are zeroed in on winning.
Ds and Cs on the roof- in general a great idea to get the little folks off the vert/slab! It should be considered though, after the event in the finals, that maybe little kids bodies have not yet built up enough musculature around the neck and back to remain supported in a horizontal TR fall with an adult belayer on the other end. This was one of those times where it just happened once and was probably a freak accident, but is still an issue to consider.
The point I want to make with all of this, is even though it may help the sport to progress for the viewership and may even be fun for many of the competitors to be able to do the same moves as they get to see their idols do in the adult comps, it is the route setter's responsibility to not create hazardous situations; they shouldn't have to consider their own safety when deciding to go for it or not, adults are a different story. We want these kids to be around for a while so they can show the euros what's what as they get bigger and stronger.
I want to finish by saying once again that on the whole the comp was well-run and I liked the routes! Thanks for all the hard work everyone put into it and I look forward to an even better one next year.
-JeremyPosted 10 months ago # -
Hey all, Mike Helt here Chief Routesetter for this event. First I'd like to thank Stone Summit for allowing us to take over their gym for a week and their amazing support of USA Climbing.
Second I'd like to thank my setters:
Kyle McCabe
Luke Bertelson
Mark Mercer
John Muse
Scott Leeper
Remi Samyn
Ian MacIntosh
Bret Johnston
Ryan Sewell
Dave Wetmore
Ross Halverson
Chris LocrastoTheses guys showed up in Atlanta fit and ready to set amazing routes. The scope of work for this event is daunting but this crew handled it with professionalism and dogged hard work. I respect and admire each of them and it was a privilege to be their Chief.
Ok,
Qualifiers:
Routes 1&2 were for the most part harder than last year with top-out percentages ranging between 98% and 12% with most around the 70-75%. For some Q2's we had complete separation, which is a bit early in the comp but made for easier work in Semis and Finals. I would expect to have harder Q routes next year with top-out percents between 50-75.FB Q2 mono: FB's are definitely old enough and strong enough to handle a "jug" mono on vert with great feet. I think the size of feet and the difficulty of the move should definitely be taken into account when encountering or using a mono. We would never use a mono if we felt it would injure a climber of any age. I've heard climbers complain about every hold style ever made from pockets to sharp crimps to even jugs ("they hurt my palm!"). We always take pain into consideration but if we listened to every climber and set only what they felt was comfortable we'd have routes with sandwiches at chair rests, fur covered jugs and Tempurpedic finishes.
Semis:
This round had some of the best routes in the comp. We wanted complete separation for all categories and for the most part we achieved that (In future events this may change to add a bit more drama to finials and a few more tops in semis. But than again maybe not!). The one cat that always seems to stymie us is the MC's. Even though their route was easy 5.13 we still ended up with a 7-way tie.The other route of note was FB/FA which was the pink jug haul on the roof. Historically these cats do not do so well on roofs so we made the bottom quite juggy ending in an off-ramp that was a bit too abrupt. Some would call that a bottle-neck which implies that the majority of competitors fell at the exact same spot. But if one looks at the results one will see that there was separation for FA down to 8th. For FB it was indeed too hard of a ramp. We learned from this and made changes to the FA route to smooth out that crux. The V3-4 upper section was set to separate the strongest in the cat which it did quite nicely with one FA finishing the route.
Finals:
Going into Finals we had a MC 7-way tie for 1st. Scott Leeper had the challenge of breaking that tie on the top-rope roof. We talked about moving his route to a more standard wall zone which would have been easier terrain to break ties with but Scott wanted the challenge. He nailed it with a dramatic one-top finish by the last climber, earning Scott the coveted "Best Route" award (voted on by the setters).The MA/MJR cat featured the notorious 360 on La Boob. This move took some bold routesetting by Mark Mercer and was fantastically forced. As for the safety of the climber: If the climber clipped before entering the sequence there was no danger of the rope getting tangled. However if the climber moved onto La Boob and the 360 sequence there was the possibility that the rope could get caught behind the climbers back. We thought that it was pretty easy and obvious to make the clip before entering the 360. In hindsight we should have put a blue X to force the clip. The other great move on this route was the vert "slow dyno". This subtle dyno forced the climber to come to terms with their mental state and address confidence issues. It was too bad that the top clip was too hard because the top moves would have provided for hot sports action.
We only had 4 tops in 10 routes for all of finials. This of course should have been a lot higher. We run the risk of making them too easy and having super-finials or making them too hard and no tops. Whats the best, one top per route of course. This just helps us remember that setting is not a science and we can't predict what is going to happen. All we can do is try harder next time.
In the end the routes did a great job of separation, inspiration and perspiration. A few aspects I'd like for us to work on is a more diverse climbing style throughout a categories rounds. We heard a call for more technical sequences. However, due to the overwhelmingly steep nature of the wall and the strengths of the climbers, setting tech sequences can be difficult (though not prohibitively difficult).
As for the top-rope roof: We really had no idea how the climbers would perform on the roof making it a huge gamble. But the kids eat it up and spit it out with a smile on their faces. MD had it for Q2 and did just fine with no injuries. We figured the C cat are mostly leading in their home gyms and could take any TR fall. I was sorry to hear about the one injury but it turns out she was OK and was smiling at the awards ceremony. (to my knowledge that climber had previous spinal injuries which made her susceptible to further damage no matter what kind of fall she took). Any fall on that roof route was never just straight down but rather a swinging fall closer to a lead fall into air. It should be noted that every climber and coach knew there were roofs at Stone Summit and should be prepared for any terrain, even roofs. Who knows what they might get next year.
At National Championships climbers of all ages should prepare for grown-up routes with hard clips, serious rope management and a variety of moves, hold styles and wall angles. These are supposed to be the best youth climbers in the country and if they want to win they're going to have to prove it.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Congrats to Mike and the other setters on what seems to have been a great event.
Posted 10 months ago #
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