Training Status Update 2 - Bouldering Competitions 2009-2010

After an unexpected win in a bouldering competition in early October 2009, I changed the focus of my training to bouldering related strength and away from the items on my list.

For those of you who don't know, bouldering is a form of rock climbing which focuses on powerful, technical moves but trades in the rope and harness for a relatively small wall and a crash mat. Most boulder "problems" as we call them, are 5 metres tall at the most.

Having dominated my training focus for nearly five months, I thought that it would be relevant to post my results in the comps in this update. The last competition ended today and this post will function as a record of the season.

Most of the competitions work in the same way. You have between 15 and 25 boulder problems to climb within the time constraints of the competition. If you climb a problem on the first attempt (on-sight) you get ten points. A second attempt gets you seven points and a third attempt gives you three or four points (depending on each comps rules). Any successful climbs after three attempts yield the competitor a single point.

If a competition has a maximum score of 200 points for example, it will have twenty boulder problems.

The four comps can be seen in the diagram above. The "King of the Mez" competition at The Castle and "The Southern Indoor Bouldering League" (which was held at six different venues) were both league type comps. King of the Mez had four rounds and The SIBL had six. The "East Versus West" competition had two rounds. Finally I entered the first round of The Works climbing walls indoor bouldering league in Sheffield.

I thoroughly enjoyed this competition season and am happy with my results. Therefore I've decided to enter the British Bouldering Championships in June.

Congratulations to Bodley Zhang who won the SIBL and Grzegorz Karolak who won The King Of the Mez. I learnt a good deal in competeing against them and the many others this year.