16 September 2012

Randomness in competitions

By Morten Gulliksen

To what degree should randomness be allowed in competitions?

In the girls World Cup boulder semi final I noted especially the frustration of Alex Puccio when she was not able to hold on to the slopers in the beginning of a problem. Was she too weak? Well not exactly, she is strong as hell! So what was it then? It looked like the friction had disappeared.


Bouldering is much about strength and with muscles comes body heat and sweating. If the slopers are close to the critical slip angle, that means the angle where harder pulling cannot make it stick more, the competition is no longer about the strongest or best boulderer. It's about sweating least, and at that special ambient temperature. Sweating is not especially trainable and should preferably not contribute to success in competitions, or influence grades outdoor.


Because athletes react different to heat it is important to make indoor boulder problems as temperature independent as possible. Good problems are set in ways that give the same ranking of the competitor’s independent upon the temperature.

When runners add spikes to their shoes the goal is to eliminate randomness and let the runner use as much force as possible without sliding. Chalk used in gymnastics and climbing is used for the same reason - to reduce the negative effect sweat has on friction.


By adding slopy slopers and reachy moves, a problem setter have great influence on the competition results. He can easily exclude very strong climbers from qualifying. Sometimes it is necessary to emphasize not only that high athletic performance should be the most important component for winning an indoor competition, but also for giving a high grade outdoor. If the technique is god, lots of hard training should pay off.


Godoffe's proposed 7A+ boulder in the men’s semi was topped by just 3 of the participants. There must have been a trick they did not see. By adding randomness to the sport, the lucky get happy but the rest become demotivated. Why train hard if you must roll a dice before you start?


By the way, to say a boulder is 7A+ gives no meaning without specifying the athlete’s height. The grade can differ a lot even if it is not reachy. The laws of physics tell us that a shorter climber on average should be stronger relative his own weight than a taller. How much equals their height ratio. Route and problem setters compensate this by adding reachy moves that are harder for the shorter. But it's a fine line. In the men’s WC route final today, Ramon Julian unfortunately suffered from this as he was not able to pass a reachy move, even after several attempts. A probable first place suddenly became a fourth.



A short list of things to be careful with in climbing competitions:

- Very slopy slopers

- Long reaches to slopers that becomes progressive better

- Long reaches when feet’s come of critical foot holds

- Hard moves on very thin crimps (favor the small)

- Long catches to small pockets (random factor)

- Slippy foot holds (random factor)

- Easy moves on very slopy pinches (sweat).


Things to include for challenging athletic performance

- Body tension positions

- Hard pulls and under clings

- Catches from no foothold positions

- Hard moves on positive pinches

- Challenge all the muscles and disciplines.

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