Bouldering: Powerful Climbing
Jul/26/2020 14:23:04
Bouldering is absolutely my favorite sport. It requires minimal gear, physical contact, and aggression. It’s a very social sport that gives you lifelong friends and the strongest bonds with people. Bouldering requires power and grace at the same time.
Bouldering is a form of climbing that is done on shorter walls. You climb without a rope, but there’s a huge soft mat underneath to fall on. Generally, bouldering problems (the routes you climb on) are more complex and require more muscle. You often spend more time on the ground than other climbing sports trying to figure out how to position your body in order to send (finish) the problem.
There are a few rules that you need to follow when bouldering indoors. First of all, your hands need to start on the designated starting holds. Sometimes, these starting holds can be one single hold, two holds, or a feature. Your feet can start anywhere, even on the wall. They just need to be off the ground if there are no designated footholds. Once your hands are on the proper starting holds and your feet are off the ground, then you can start climbing. Usually, every problem is color designated, so you have to stick to one color per problem. To finish, you need to get to the last climbing hold and place both hands on it.
Climbing a single bouldering problem can take countless hours. It requires a lot of trial and error to figure out the best way to send a problem. Talking to other people in the climbing gym helps drastically when you’re stuck and need help. They can give you ideas and even show you how they climbed the problem themselves. Even the best boulderers in the world talk with others in order to try and figure out how to send a problem.
When bouldering, you’ll often find yourself in positions that you would never have expected. There are moments where your body is stretched out farther than you could have ever thought. There are also moments where you’re sitting high up on the wall. There are even moments where you are upside down!
Bouldering is a very cool sport that requires a lot of strength. But, there are also easier problems for beginners. The grading system for bouldering problems start from V-0 and can go up to V-9 and even further. V-0 is more akin to a ladder and is extremely friendly for those starting out. So, even if you are a stranger to bouldering, you should definitely try it out.
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Posted by Anonymous
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