Sit start and defined start ethics

"HOW" you start a boulder can be a tricky game. The best example of this is The Story of 2 Worlds 8C. Dave Draham put it up in 2005 and described it as a "pure sit start" to The Dagger. Dai Koyamada did the first repeat but later UKC said his ascent "wasn't legitimate", as they said he started 40 cm to the right of the original Graham start. Koyamada came back and did it again laying from the ground with his feet on the starting hold, calling his Low start variation 8C+. Later, it was found out that UKC was wrong and Graham did come forward saying Koyamada had started on the right holds, in the first place.

Today, The Story of 2 Worlds is with close to 20 ascents one of the most repeated 8C's in the world and actually due to new sequences and knee pad, some have actually suggested 8B+ for it. At the same time, several of the guys repeating it they have not done it from a sitting position but instead from a crouched position, i.e. using one foot to establish a heel hook before taking off.

In general, Americans are more in favour of defined starting holds from a crouched position in comparison to the Euros mainly opting by starting from the butt. In the defined start, you are supposed to establish your position before start moving just like in comps, meanwhile, on the sit start you are not supposed to do any butt bouncing in order to facilitate the first move. The advantage of the American crouched start is that size does not matter meanwhile the advantage of the sit start is that it is often more obvious. On the other hand, what now seems to be an obvious sit start on The Story... created a lot of controversies.

So what is the best solution in regards to sit starts and defined starting ethics? Basically the ethics that have been used is that it is up to the FA to decide and in order to repeat that boulder and grade, you should start as the FA did. Personally, I do think the FA should opt for a start that does not add a hard move and which is fair for everyone but also that stacking pads is not a problem as long as this "How" is described.

Back to The Story... As Graham (179 cm) did define it as a sit start I think we should follow the FA starting ethics. If this means that shorter guys like Koyamada (165 cm) need to use two pads I am fine with that as long as it is described. Checking different videos, besides several guys do not start sitting, there exist different beta from the sit start which could also be used as an argument for advocating sit starts instead of crouched starts.

It should be mentioned that sometimes like for No kpote only, the second proposed 9A but later downgraded to 8C, the sit start needs to be defined as it traverses in the beginning and you could also start sitting from 2-3 moves in. Please forward your comments and questions?