Breaking New Ground at CCS Nationals

Posted on April 17, 2013 by chauncey

This weekend, climbers representing universities from all over the nation will compete in the Collegiate Climbing Series (CCS) National Championships. Climbers compete in all disciplines of sport, bouldering, and speed climbing. This year, we get the privilege of sponsoring the speed national championship with the 2013 edition of our Twin Dolphin Timing competitive system.

A little bit ago, we got the chance to interview John Myrick, the CCS Director and previous USA Climbing Speed coach. He gave some fantastic insight into the upcoming CCS Nationals, and what climbers can do to train specifically for speed climbing in the Sport Climbing Series just underway.

Myrick 1

Years climbing: About 33 years

Years coaching: 14

Team/gym you coach for: Team ARG (Austin Rock Gym) & The University of Texas

What gets you excited about speed climbing?

Speed Climbing takes a tremendous amount of poise and physical ability to excel at. If you give it a serious try you will realize that it’s a legitimate discipline and [that] training specifically for speed climbing [will not only] help you be a better speed climber, it will also help your bouldering and sport climbing.

Would you mind expanding on the vision of CCS and where you would like to see it in 5 years?

The vision for the CCS is pretty simple: to see climbing become solidified as a collegiate sport. I’d say we are well on our way to accomplishing that. Some of the main hopes I have are to see more resources become available for the athletes such as more scholarships, better facilities, more research done specifically on climbing which will help coaches, and more support for climbing in general due to increased exposure at the collegiate level. Another vision I have is… to widen racial diversity and socio-economic diversity in our sport.

Climbing is mainly an individual sport. How can teammates help each other succeed?

Your individual goals become important for the entire team not just yourself. When you are training in a team environment you can push yourself way beyond what you would be able to do on your own. When a motivated group sets a goal and works hard to achieve that goal, the outcome can truly be amazing. I think one of the things we are all most proud of about our sport is the positive atmosphere and encouraging energy we have at our competitions.

Myrcik4

CCS nationals combines all three disciplines of sport, bouldering, and speed climbing. How should climbers divide their training time?

Nationals does include all three disciplines so you have to have a well-rounded team. I recommend spending the Fall, pre-season focusing more on power and bouldering along with strength and conditioning and cross training. During the Competition season I recommend putting more emphasis on stamina/routes as well as ramping up your speed training. You also have to focus more on onsighting, strategy and the mental game.

What is your overall practice structure for a speed training session? It is better to focus on speed or technique?

In my opinion training for speed climbing has three main components: developing your technique, conditioning and then polishing your skills for maximum performance. When you are developing your technique, it’s mainly a matter of getting used to going fast, getting your hand eye and foot coordination down. Developing the agility, body control and mental acuity takes a good deal of practice. Next, you have to build the power, explosiveness and stamina required to be good at speed climbing. Finally, if you are preparing for competing on the Standardized World Record Route you have to spend time a lot of time perfecting your sequence. Each of these components require a lot of repetition. It all boils down to muscle memory.

Myrick 2

How can gyms support their own athletes at a local level?

The best thing the gyms can do is to support the teams and the coaches. Holding comps for your region gets the community more into supporting the cause, plus it helps your staff get better at setting. Investing in training for your setters, investing in new holds and training apparatus helps immensely. Doing these types of things for a gym can be a time stress and financial burden, but I think the positive ramifications the investments will have on your gym over the long run are immeasurable.

Thanks, John! We will be updating everyone on how CCS Nationals goes. Thanks for all your ongoing support.

Happy Speed Climbing!

2013 IFSC Speed Climbing Rule Changes

Posted on April 1, 2013 by landon

I wanted to give everyone an update on how the new 2013 IFSC rule changes will affect championship level speed climbing and, in particular, the athletes and the timing system. The changes are really quite good as they start to tighten up the way speed competitions are held and make the entire event much more fair in my opinion. [On a side note, Twin Dolphin Timing has been invited to participate in the working group that will help set the certification standards for IFSC compliant timing systems for 2014 and will be USA Climbing's representative to the IFSC in this matter.]

While the rules are more stringent, they are in line with similar rules for starting races in other major sports such as track and field and swimming. This will definitely help the sport mature in a serious way.

Athletes and coaches who understand these changes will benefit by achieving faster times and have no surprises at the first high-level speed competitions of 2013.

First, check out the official IFSC 2013 rules and particularly section 8, Speed. A quick summary the major changes include:

a) start protocol has changed (Seciton 8.9, Climbing Procedure), commands and time to get situated on the wall have been specified and yellow cards defined.

b) false start detection now includes measuring reaction times and declaring a false start if climbers reacted to the start faster than 1/10th of a second.

c) climbers must be absolutely motionless during the start

d) false start penalties are severe – only one false start allowed during the competition without penalty. The next false start results in an invalid time (DQ).

e) the start signal will be given at a random interval no less than 0.5 seconds from the “Ready!” command and no more than 1.5 seconds.

The 2013 Twin Dolphin timing system is being modified in order to support these features and be IFSC compliant. Changes and new features that are currently underway and will be debuted at the USAC Adult Nationals at Movement in Boulder April 5-6 will include:

1) Audio race commands

a) this alleviates the potential lag or jump-start between an official’s voice command and his press of the button. The system audio commands to the climbers will be exactly synchronized with the start of the race. The audio commands will be “Climbers at your marks”, “Ready!”, and a start tone given 0.5 to 1.5 seconds after the Ready! command.

Once the Ready! command is given, the timing system takes over and the official has no other option but to interrupt or abort the race and reset the clock.

b) In the case of a false start, the audio will -Immediately- emit a referee whistle blast followed by a “False Start” command.

c) the start tone is similar to the sound of the start for Olympic swimming.

2) Up to the first 1/10th of a second of the race, the system will measure how long the climber’s foot is in the starting block after the start tone has been given. If the foot is in the block less than 1/10th of a second after the start tone is given, the false start audio is emitted immediately. This rule is meant to keep climbers from anticipating the start at a fixed point in time.

Staging for the race is very important. The IFSC rules specify that the climber when called for his or her race should first approach the wall and adjust the timing system’s foot sensor for his or her lane. You have 10 seconds in which to make the foot sensor adjustments.

After that, the climber should approach the belayer and attach to the belay. Once on belay, the climbers will move to an assembly position (what I would call a staging position). Once in the staging position, the official will start the protocol with “At your Marks” and the climbers will take their position on the wall.

The start position is one foot and two hands on the preferred start holds, one foot in the timing foot sensor. The climber only has 4 seconds to get into position from the “At your marks”.

Once in the start position, competitors are to remain motionless. Any motion and the official may call a false start.

There are allowances for the competitor saying not ready when the Starter gives the Ready! command, however, for practical purposes, this is nearly impossible to time since the start tone will come very, very quickly after the Ready command is given. My advice to athletes is to make sure the Starter knows there’s an issue before giving the Ready command.

The one clarification I need to get from the IFSC is about what is meant by one false start per competition. If you have a multi-round event, multiple days, I think it would be onerous to have one false start for the entire event. I think what may be intended is one false start per round (qualifiers, semis, etc.) I’ll get back to you on that one. In the meantime, just know that false starts are viewed severely in 2013.

I hope this helps you as you start your speed climbing training programs for 2013.

See you at Nationals!

Landon Cox

Sneak Peak at 2013 Speed Climbing Sensors

Posted on March 31, 2013 by landon

Here’s a sneak peak at the new 2013 speed climbing foot sensor from Twin Dolphin Timing – if you’re coming to the USAC Adult Nationals in Boulder this coming weekend, you’ll see its debut there. 2013 sensors now have an acrylic top, laser etched light bar is now positioned directly in the middle. Last year we saw a little confusion from first time speed climbers about what the light bar in the heel of the sensor was for – should you step on it, put your toe up to it, ignore it? Solved that problem this year by making the sensor symmetrical the light bar in the middle. Step on the light bar, break the laser beam – same as the hand sensors.

2013 Foot Sensor Twin Dolphin Timing 4

The hand sensor has also changed a lot based on some feedback we received from coaches, particularly, Kyle Klinkscales of Team Texas. The 2012 hand sensor was four inches high so if you hit it high or low time after time during training sessions, climbers hands would tend to get sore across the palm where the bottom edge was.

2012 Speed Climbing Hand Sensor

Using that feedback as a guide, we redesigned the hand sensor as well to be nearly four times larger and have a low, flat profile to the wall.

2013 Speed Climbing hand sensor

The sensor is four inches wider and eight inches taller, and the light bar is an additional three inches wide compared to the 2012 model.

The hand sensor bolts onto the wall with a 3/8″ hold bolt in the top hole and two 1/4″ diameter set screws in the bottom two holes. This design lets us use a thinner base because the wall itself becomes the backing for the sensor.

We think the new hand sensor will be noticeable improvement for climbers and coaches. Hope you like it,

Landon Cox

US National Speed Climbing Records – Indoor

Posted on October 20, 2012 by chauncey

Today is a big day. This will mark the first compilation of US speed records ever documented from different competitions over 2012, with one record occurring in 2011. The records are separated by categories, with a female and male each holding one record in each category. As I researched the results and began compiling them side to side, I couldn’t help but notice how fast some of the younger climbers are becoming. Speed climbing is becoming more competitive as younger athletes train all year round, specifically for speed climbing. It’s becoming harder for a climber to excel in all three disciplines of sport, speed, and bouldering. The field is stronger than ever before as speed climbing gains respect and popularity.

Bailey Dickinson and other strong climbers, with records of their own shown below, represent a new competitive era for speed climbing. While these records were compiled from official results postings from USA Climbing and IFSC, as a disclaimer, the times cannot be 100% comparable. The gym walls and routes could be slightly different, and different timing systems were used at worlds versus nationals.

Some nationals were not held on IFSC certified walls, possibly leading to minor differences in results. However, both USA Climbing national competitions in Boulder and Atlanta used our Twin Dolphin two-lane competition system as the official speed timer.

We believe this compilation to be the first and fairest representation of the records our talented speed climbing athletes have achieved. We’d love to hear from you if you have any information to add or correct.

Adult Nationals Speed Climbing 2012 2

Date

Event

Contestant

10m Time

15m Time

Bailey Dickinson – Speed Climbing Champion – Interview

Posted on October 20, 2012 by chauncey

Reigning national champion, Bailey Dickinson, is the first female to break the seven-second barrier on the 10 meter wall. Bailey is a 16 year old junior from Johns Creek, Georgia. While balancing her rigorous schoolwork, competing in the school rowing team, and applying to college with aspirations of PA school, she trains with USA Climbing coach Claudiu Vidulescu. Her home gym is the infamous Stone Summit Climbing gym, where nationals has been held multiple times. We asked her to expand on her need for speed in an interview this past month…

You’ve experienced a breakthrough for US women’s speed and set a new standard- breaking the 7 second “wall”! How do you feel knowing you are the fastest female in the nation?

It feels unbelievable to have reached this height and to realize that all of my training has paid off in this way. I had my sights set on earning the “National Champion” title since I finished my climb at the World Championships in Imst, Austria last year. I knew that everyone in my category was quickly improving and that I definitely had to step up my own training for the new season. I’m thrilled to have set a new record and to have run a time faster that 7 seconds in competition. For months before the competition, I’d been stuck in the 7 second range and those last weeks of training before the comp must have just bumped me to where I needed to be.

How do you train for these events? What aspects of your training have given you the most success?

I try my best to do as many runs on the speed wall as I can year round. The more you practice, the more time you drop. The new electronic timers that my gym purchased for our wall have helped me in my training tremendously because I know that the times I run are 100% accurate and that there are no flukes in the hand-timing system that I used to rely on. Before Nationals, I attend a special training camp focused on preparing for the competition. Aside from practicing laps on the speed wall and attending the [USA Climbing Team] camp, I also joined a local gym this summer and forced myself to run frequently and train fast twitch with my dad. Instead of competing in climbing during the “off season” this year, I’ve picked up the sport of rowing at a club near my home and think that all of the muscles that I develop through the sport will only improve my speed climbing ability for next season.

What is your biggest fear or challenge going into a race, and how do you handle it?

My biggest challenge is focusing on myself in competition. I tend to over analyze the other competitors and psych myself out because of their performances. I fear slipping on the first move of the route and not getting the chance to prove the amount that I’ve trained to everyone in the audience. My coach, Claudiu Vidulescu, has definitely helped me improve the most as a competitor. Claudiu is an extremely strict and inspirational coach. He doesn’t hand out compliments so when he tells me that I’m improving or having a good practice, it’s really special. He’s also worked with me to develop a strong competition mindset and to focus on myself and my own goals. After my final run at Nationals, I was proud of myself and felt accomplished because I saw pride in his eyes.

What is the most satisfying aspect of speed climbing for you?

Setting a new personal best is the more satisfying aspect, for me. Especially with the official timers, I know that every time I run is accurate and I keep a running list of all of my times at every practice on my phone. Knowing my own best time motivates me to push for an even faster next climb.

Any pre-race rituals? After race celebrations?

Before races, I eat food that makes me happy to try to calm myself down. My nerves normally overwhelm me and I really try to focus on staying relaxed and not focus on other people’s performances. I also drink a lot of water. Before a competition, I normally eat a lot of scrambled eggs and milk. I tend to feel too nervous [to eat] in between rounds of the competition which is why I consider my breakfast the most important meal for a race day. Before I climb, I listen to pep talks from my friends and coach but make sure to leave a large space cushion for my music. Rap music really psyches me up before a climb. The energy of the music and the inspirational words excite me and mentally prepare me to climb at my best.

It seems speed climbing is just developing in the US as a serious sport. What does it take to be competitive at the world level?

In order to compete at the world level, you need to have a strong head and competiton face. I try my best to look calm when I walk up to the wall but really, the nerves are eating me up. Nerves and pressure get to everybody. They’re just something athletes learn to deal with. I’m so excited to see how far speed climbing goes in terms of popularity. I can’t wait to see how fast American women are in 10 years!

What advice would you give to someone trying the IFSC speed route for the first time?

I would suggest watching someone that’s familiar with the route climb it before you hop on. The sequence is extremely confusing and discouraging to someone that has never attempted the climb. Go slowly on the route for a while until you know where to place your hands, feet and how to position your body then you can add some speed. I’d advise anyone that feels discouraged by the wall to keep in mind that the holds feel deeper and the sequence flows much more easily the faster you climb.

What are your speed climbing goals for the next year? What would be your ultimate achievement?

My ultimate goal is to improve at every competition that I am a part of. Next year, I hope to win Nationals again and maybe set an even faster record. At Worlds next year in Canada, I plan to place higher than top five and podium!

Inhale 3D – tutorial site on making 3D products

Posted on October 15, 2012 by landon

If you’ve been interested in any of the Twin Dolphin Timing blog articles on how the system was made, I’ve started a companion site devoted to CNC, laser cutting, and 3D printing called Inhale 3D. It’s going to be going into more detail on 3D technologies for making real stuff.

When it’s related to Twin Dolphin Timing products, those articles will continue to be posted here.

Got some new stuff in the works for Twin Dolphin Timing – stay tuned.

Landon

US Speed Team Competes Today!

Posted on August 31, 2012 by chauncey

There’s nothing quite like watching the fastest climbers on the planet duke it out at the Singapore World Youth Championships. Today, the top youth in our nation, many of them the top men and women period, will get a chance to prove themselves on the world stage. The energy at these events is monstrous, fun, and quite inspiring. These competitors have trained and pushed themselves to the max for months on end to be able to represent the US in such a thrilling event.

Despite some delays for rain (the wall is outside on the beach), the speed qualifiers will occur tonight around 8 or 9pm Pacific Time with the finals proceeding tomorrow. You can watch it live at www.ifsc.tv. Some of those competing include favorites Charlie Andrews and Josh Levin, among many others. Definitely be watching for these guys- they have major potential to medal and shatter previous world records.

Something I love about these athletes is the camaraderie they share with each other. They may be competing for the same podium, but they’ll support the heck out of each other, scream at each other to go faster, and hug after its all over. You just don’t see that same kind of sportsmanship in many other countries, and it speaks volumes of their character and ambassadorship overseas. These are the youth that are setting the standard for the next generation, and they deserve our support.

There are some awesome photos posted on Team ABC Boulder‘s Blog that can be viewed at http://teamabcboulder.wordpress.com/author/routesettergirl/ or you can follow the event and results on IFSC’s event facebook page https://www.facebook.com/wych2012.

So from all of us across the nation- GO TEAM USA!!!

Chauncey Cox

Chief Speed Climber Representative

Up Next: First National Speed Records Report and USA Climbing Coach Interview- If you have any previous USA Climbing-sanctioned competition results within the last year, please email us at info@twindolphintiming.com. Subscribe to our mailing list at www.twindolphintiming.com to be the first to receive it!

Wrapping up 2012 USA Climbing Nationals in Atlanta

Posted on July 27, 2012 by landon

I was so busy at the end of 2012 USA Nationals at Stone Summit Climbing Gym, packing up and traveling home, then catching up from being gone, I didn’t really get a chance to post an update about the speed climbing finals and event overall.

For the last several years at finals, the athletes and USA Climbing have put on a great speed climbing show. The lights go down, the spotlights come on, the music gets cranked, the crowd is raucous. This combination really gets the climbers revved up and boy, do they crank. This year was no exception and was the best speed climbing event we’ve had in the US to date.

Take a look at a couple of these videos below taken by various audience members and I think you’ll see some of the excitement that the national speed climbing finals generates. This is what it’s all about, folks – sheer effort, determination and speed. It’s awesome.

Highlights from the speed finals event starts around 3:00 minutes into the video and goes through about 3:40. The whole video is great if you want a highlight reel of the entire event, sport and speed climbing. When you watch the speed climbers, keep in mind these athletes are going up a wall with a 5 degree overhang. The older youth are running up an overhanging wall that’s rated at 5.11a. Like most masters, it’s the ones that make it look easy that are really good and these kids make it look easy.

The next video is of Bailey Dickinson setting a new female speed climbing record for her category – watch to end and hear a “little” excitement which I presume is from her mother – you gotta love it. These events mean a lot to the climbers and their posse.

I’ve been at this speed climbing thing for quite awhile and this year I was impressed by two things:

How deep the speed climbing field has become in the US
How fast the female youth climbers have become

The male youth climbers have always been fast and have had world-level contenders, but the field has gotten so much deeper that there are multiple contenders and the races are becoming a lot closer. It used to be one male would dominate each category, but now there are multiple speed climbers who are very competitive in each category and makes the races closer and a lot of fun to watch.

The female youth categories likewise have gotten deeper, even though we’ve had numerous past world-level contenders, but more strikingly, the whole field is faster. Lets face it, there were a few years in the recent past where it was a almost painful to watch some of the older female youth categories race. Not any longer. The improvements I saw in the female field is a lot more like the difference between high school girls basketball 20 or 30 years ago and what it is today. They’re blazing. Bailey Dickinson, shown above, smoked some of the male racers. You gotta love what’shappening in female youth speed climbing.

I’m really hoping we see more podium time in Singapore youth world championships this year in speed climbing.

As far as the speed climbing timing system goes, it was a flawless event. By the third day, we had all the rope’s directionals completely in the groove and there were no false triggers caused by ropes hitting the sensors. Every race went like clockwork and I was very pleased with the timing system. Jim Concannon, chief judge and past USA Climbing president, and Pete Torcicollo, USA Climbing president, had some very nice things to say about the timing system during the awards ceremony and it did my heart good to feel that the timing system had contributed to raising the level of speed climbing events.

The Hoosier Heights climbing gym in Indianapolis bought the timing system we used on the left lanes, left wall for the C/D category at Nationals and took it home with them from the event. I was very pleased to see that. Twin Dolphin Timing now has speed climbing timing systems in two of the largest gyms in the United States, Stone Summit and Hoosier Heights. I can’t wait to see how a whole season of competition speed climbing with a national-caliber competition timing system will help the overall field for next year’s nationals.

It was a great event I was honored to be a part of Atlanta 2012 speed climbing.

Landon Cox

Speed Climbing semi-finals, Atlanta 2012

Posted on July 6, 2012 by landon

Another great day of speed here in Atlanta. Fastest time of the day was Josh Levin (male/junior category) with a 5.07s for the 10 meter wall.

Tomorrow most categories have been whittled down to the top 8 speed climbers and they will be matched head-to-head by ranking. Running order is slowest to fastest (though slowest is a big stretch for these guys…if you made it to finals, you are by definition fast.)

This is a camera phone type shot USA Climbing posted on their Facebook page showing a race during semi-finals.

Notice Bob Lockhart on the perch to the right of the speed wall. Bob’s the famous camera man who has been the nationals photographer ever since we got involved with competitive climbing when Chauncenia was 8. I’m looking forward to getting ahold of some of his shots of the speed event. Will post when I can.

Speed climbing in Atlanta

USAC Q1 Speed Climbing 2012 a Success

Posted on July 6, 2012 by landon

It was a marathon day with wave after wave of speed climbers and there were some great times turned in during the qualifiers. We went from about 3pm to 8:30pm to get through all the categories. There were some long breaks in-between because the schedule posted to the internet was off some.

The timing system worked great. We made or are making a couple of adjustments to the directionals. The climber’s rope was a little too close to the left lane’s sensor and in one case on the IFSC wall, the left lane pre-triggered because the rope grazed the sensor and broke the laser beam.

We moved that directional over one bolt hole and it didn’t happen again. The same type of pre-trigger happened on the C/D wall for the same reason – rope swing, so we need to add a directional there.

Other than that, I thought the speed qualifiers were a complete success. Another big day today for semi-finals and though the field has narrowed considerably from qualifiers, it’s still a large field until finals.

Twin Dolphin Timing Systems

Competition Speed Climbing Blog

Breaking New Ground at CCS Nationals

2013 IFSC Speed Climbing Rule Changes

Sneak Peak at 2013 Speed Climbing Sensors

US National Speed Climbing Records – Indoor

Bailey Dickinson – Speed Climbing Champion – Interview

Inhale 3D – tutorial site on making 3D products

US Speed Team Competes Today!

Wrapping up 2012 USA Climbing Nationals in Atlanta

Speed Climbing semi-finals, Atlanta 2012

USAC Q1 Speed Climbing 2012 a Success