I tried setting a boulder with no experience
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มี.ค. 2024
- This week I tried setting a boulder with absolutely no experience at all. Turns out route setting is harder than it looks! I might stick to climbing and bouldering!
Thanks to Angus from Torq Routesetting: www.torqroutesetting.co.uk/
/ torq_routesetting
You can try the boulder at Block10 in Dundee: www.block10.co/
Video work by Kieran Duncan: / kieranjduncan
Thumbnail by @Kim_Norrie - กีฬา
As a setter, it's really cool to see someone try route setting for the first time. It's not as easy as it looks, especially when you're on a time crunch and have to set multiple boulders or routes in a day. You're boulder turned out GREAT! It looks fun and intentional. You should definitely do another setting video on a completely different angle, like a steep overhang.🎉
Thanks so much for the kind words. Much respect for what you do 🙏
Mike went from a short climbing challenge into making a climbing channel. I love it!
I am a climber but no route setter. We have a small home wall for our kids and I am setting a couple of new boulders for them every couple of weeks. It’s so much fun watching them work it out and after a couple of „setting sessions“ I recognized a jump in efficiency. It’s so hard to guess the reach of a five year old though and they keep on beta breaking 😂
These kids are gonna be shredders. Good job!
Amazing to see more content on this channel. So excited for it!
More to come!
The missing piece of context here is that Torq (the freelance routesetting co) does its job unusually well. There are gyms all over the world full of uninspired problems set by routesetters who are getting paid for their work. i.e., there isn't just a chasm between punters and professionals--there are a lot of professionals who aren't actually THAT good at it. Full credit to Mike--I climbed all of this circuit a week ago without knowing the story, and this problem didn't stand out in a bad way from the rest of the batch.
I'm a routesetter, this was an awesome watch. You've just gone through what every single one of my setting trainees go through on their first go of it.
A lot of the setting process is finding the balance between getting the holds to do what you want them to do and listening to your body about what the holds want you to do. It's difficult and as Angus likely knows, it takes years to master, and many years to be able to be confident in it.
I love when people who have never tried route setting before try it for the first time. Would love to see you master this. ❤
I started bouldering 2 months ago, loving it so far. I think the most fun I've had in a sport ever, maybe longboarding comes close, but that's more just having fun and chilling. And I loved the video! Have loved your content since the start, I also love learning new skills and exploring hobbies.
really happy to hear you are enjoying it. Long may it continue.
me too man! I'm obsessed.
Was up in Dundee for work and got chatting to Mike while in the gym. What a super chill and supportive guy. He suggested some really great routes to try for a grade that I could climb and was great giving feedback on how I was climbing it. Was also mad impressed at him being able to do something I was struggling with while in his trainers
9:00 "sometimes you just gotta look at it from another angle" ahh moment 💀💀
hahahaqhaha so true ecks dee
Great job Mike! I love that you have a whole channel for climbing now, looking forward to seeing more!
This is awesome, when I first got into bouldering about a year ago your videos were really helpful to see someone else start at the beginning and figure out what climbings about. Now that I’m a year in the route setting aspect has been really intriguing to me, then boom, you drop a video on route setting. Awesome stuff keep up the great work, really excited to see what becomes of this Chanel
veryvery cool video Mike! I really enjoy the climbing "series" and you evolving into more and more aspects of climbing. Keep up the good work! Love from Norway
Started bouldering a few weeks ago, excited to see more content!
As a route setter it's really cool to see someone try setting for the first time and realising how hard it actually is 😂. Definitely feels like people underestimate the difficulty of catering to all different types of climbers and figuring out how to use the holds well! Overall an awesome and fun watch :) (the climb looks really fun too)
It looks like a fun climb. Well done Mike!
I love you Mike. Ever since I saw my first video of you I’ve been inspired to always continue learning. Love you man, keep up the amazing content
I appreciate that! Thanks for watching :)
I'm really stoked to see your bouldering progress! The boulder looks fun too (:
Thanks a lot. More bouldering vids soon
I always loved watching you, and now that you entered the climbing world I'm even more thrilled. Another climbing channel on TH-cam is always good
Thank you so much!
Aw man, this is so cool. Went to block 10 yesterday bouldering for the first time in a while and was trying the route you set for half an hour, hahah. I love the climbing videos, dude 😊
thanks for trying out the boulder!
Hahaha great video! Angus used to be my climbing instructor like 5 years ago at AVW, nice to see Torq get a feature
This is so cool, I really want to give route setting a shot now
As a route setter this fun to watch you go through the process of setting and realizing it takes a lot of creativity and a lot of trusting the process until something clicks. Good job though great set.
I've only routeset a few times but one thing that i found immensly helpful in getting started is picking a type of move and then working out from that, so "I want a kneebar" for example, then you set a kneebar somewhere on the wall and then figure out how to get in and/or out of it. Sped up my setting by miles, cause then you have a main feature to stick to and you won't accidentally end up with a completely different boulder halfway through setting
Super fun to watch! I've only been setting about a year, and it's really fun to watch you go through many of the things I remember myself working through when I started as well as some of my friends who've started setting more recently! It's easy to look at the pros do it and feel a long way off from what they're able to do, but this is a great reminder of where most of us start and how far we've come!
If you continue climbing, I'd be interested in seeing you try again once you've gotten stronger and been introduced to a broader set of moves/styles. I've found both climbing and setting to get more rewarding and fun the more time I spend with each of them :)
I lovvveee this new channel. I’m a big climber and you’re main channel is one of my favorites so this is perfect
Glad you enjoy it! More to come!
yesssssss, ive been waiting for thissss
routesetting is the best thing ever, or ye can be really frustrating to, but its so fun,. love it
I love that you made a climbing channel, cannot wait for more stuff here!
More to come!
im impressed by how the boulder turned out. it looks like a really fun boulder problem too! good job!
thanks. I thought it was pretty good. It just took an age to get it right! Thanks for watching :)
@@MikeBoydClimbs i really like the way you were thinking by how to solve it, even though you got a lot of help, the way it turned out was great ☺️
well done mike !!
I used to set boulders for our local gym. We couldn't afford route setters so we made due. It was great fun and you really learn how route setters think. The hardest part about setting is setting for grades that you cannot climb yourself or climbs that are so far below your level that you struggle to find what those the boulder is built for will struggle on.
Yeah I thought below or above my level would be hard. V3 was a perfect middle ground where I could climb it comfortably but it was still hard going. Thanks for watching!
This was a great wee boulder Mike! I enjoyed climbing it. Good guidance from Angus @torqroutesetting too!
very nice video. Really makes me miss working as a setter. theres so many things that go into it and the struggles you had are very normal. It looks to be very good first bolder.
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed the video
Love those dual tex holds! They're made by a company literally next door, very cool fellas.
was a very smooth boulder to Climb, good job man!
cheers pal!
I love every climbing video they are so good
thanks so much!
Omg love the climbing content!
nice! Plenty more in the pipeline. Thanks for watching
For the 1st set this is a good result, you can be very proud of this one! i wish I'd be able to give it a try:D thank you for giving setting a try ☺️✨ who knows maybe you'll return to it some time in the future of your climbing journey 😌☺️
again awesome work ✨
I think I actually will! Thanks for the kind words
You did well! setting is one of those things that looks easy but is fairly difficult when you're new, I feel like it's getting some recognition lately from channels like yours and Dave Macs, as a routesetter I feel more appreciated! lol
Totally agree with that. Way harder than it looks. I think routesetting will become more popular on TH-cam in the future for sure!
This is my thought process for route setting. First pick a grade range. Then I have a few different ways to get inspired; one is by building the route around a movement or move I want the route to contain. Another way is to build the route based off an overall feel IE crimpy, powerful, tensiony, cut loose, wrestley. I love routes in the shape of C's S's Z's as these create the most amount of movement and allow you to use a hand hold later as a foot hold. I think the biggest mistake I see at lower grade ranges in commercial gyms is making the route easy by adding extra holds. I think its always easiest to turn up and down the grade range by switching out holds in the same position or slightly rotating the current holds.
I'm an amateur route setter for top rope, and I just love it. It helps that we have ancient holds, and I know all of them, including the walls. For me I typically have a move in mind that I want to include, and I build the rest on feel. Stand in a position, what feels obvious, what feels interesting, what feels hard. And eventually, you'll have a route!
Great tips. I’ll try them next time I set (if the gym will let me!)
love the video! I think it would be better if you showed more of what angus suggested and explained to you why this and that are good or bad.
Have you considered a collab with the wide boys and their cellar?
Not sure I’m ready for the cellar!
@@MikeBoydClimbs Do it anyways if they'll have you! You can re-visit it later and make a nice comparison video, kind of like what you've done with climbing this far. Everyone we see in the cellar is always superhumanly strong, and even though they're struggling with some stuff it would be nice to see just how hard it would be for an actual human 😆
If I could have it my way you’d post every week. Love this content!
Got vids for the next 3 weeks hopefully!
Nice one Mike, solid boulder and good fun to climb. Maybe next time we can aim to set one before the timelapses battery runs out 😉
Haha we should probably plug it in next time. Thanks for your help 🙏
That’s a really cool boulder! 🎉
I started working at my local climbing center just last week, and I've already tried a little bit of routesetting. Had a similar experience - spent like 6 hours setting 2 boulders... It's really hard! But I feel like I have more confidence now, and I have ideas in my head for what I want to set, and I've made a habit of making simple sketches to remember them.
You’re still twice as fast as me then! Glad to see you are getting into setting
@@MikeBoydClimbsIt's all still a bit of a feverdream to be honest. I got into climbing because of your videos, and now I work at the climbing gym. Life is wild.
more bouldering! nice!
good job setting, mike boyd!
Working on it!
@@MikeBoydClimbs you're doing amazing! keep it up!
As much as your content is funny, this was a sincerely insightful video. Thanks for sharing.
This route got me humbled 😂 very tricky!
setting takes a lot of practice! especially lower grade boulders. great job in the end though. one advice I got when starting out was, "ask yourself what you want to teach with the boulder." so think of a beginner skill (foot switching, heel hooking, balance, or a high foot like you chose) and then tailor the climb around that.
That’s a great idea. I really should of started with that. I was very lost at the beginning!
So great to see you have a climbing channel now! (btw how do you like you LS Finale shoes?)
I think the finale are really good! Not the most aggressive shoe, but I've not felt limited by them yet!
That's actually pretty solid looking for a V2. V2's have some leeway on beta. V3's should force the climber to perform some intermediate move of your choosing (setting a circuit of V3's would help a climber practice intermediate moves of different types on each boulder; like crossovers, heel hooks, laybacks, etc). So the crux of a V2 is "a good beginner can do this with a couple different methods", a good crux V3 forces one specific type of climbing move that beginners couldn't do. In my local gym right now the V3 sets are good; one forces a heel hook / press up, one forces a couple of crossovers, one forces laybacks and a flag to finish, etc.
Good work! Practice makes perfect so it'll get easier as you go!
Yeah I’d say it’s probably v2+. There are a couple of ways to break it, but I feel they are all harder than the ‘intended’ way. Thanks for the insight!
@@MikeBoydClimbs it looked frustrating to start setting, but it also looked like you were learning a LOT as you went; and learning quickly! I don't know a lot, just started climbing a month ago and I'm stuck at V4 currently. But I had a healthy study of V3 over the last few weeks as I learned to apply the intermediate techniques. I've been watching routesetting videos to learn some insight in to *reading* routes, because that's a stumbling block on many V4 problems for me. I figured watching setting videos would give me insight in to the thought process on route design, so I could learn to read better, which .. hopefully makes cracking some of the projects I'm on somewhat easier and less frustrating.
You've been very inspiring on these climbing videos. I started watching your climbing videos before I worked up the courage to jump on the first wall this winter. And I have to say thank you so much for being that inspiration! Keep climbing!
I set climbing route and I heard that that's even harder. Since you aim for quiet a specific grade and have to factor in endurance and stuff as well.
Boosts my confidence a lot actually. I bolt on beautiful climbs within a couple hours. Interesting to see that that's not as casual as it seems nowadays to me
I'm super jealous! Its probably my dream to be a routesetter, but I just have no opportunities to do so yet. Building my own climbing wall isn't an option either. Watching you set being so new I'm sure will be fun :)
Hopefully an opportunity will come up for you soon. If you are passionate, it’ll happen! Good luck!
I think setting boulders becomes alot easier the more climbing experience you have since you'll get a better feeling for what kind of moves are possible, how to force certain moves, distances between holds etc.
Also knowing what kind of boulder you're going for (powerful, technical, slab, ...), other than just difficulty, and limiting your selection of hold helps
Absolutely. I really felt my lack of experience with bouldering was a factor here
Hey I climbed this orange a while back it was such a fun climb! Very scary top well set man :)
Thanks for the visit!
Great video! My software brain makes me wish there was some sort of simulations you could do to visualise different beta for different height climbers and also just move things around without climbing a ladder. But that would probably suck all the fun and art out of the process 😂
That’s exactly what I was thinking!
Always wanted to set. This video not only shows how fun it is but how physically demanding it is to. 10/10
Hopefully one day you’ll get to try it out! It’s really rewarding watching people climb your route!
It's a nice boulder with a decently complex finish for the oranges at B10. Climbed it tonight!
Thanks for giving it a go!
As someone who broke his knee 2 years ago and doesn't have full range of motion any more, high foot moves are the worst for me now - but that looks like a fun climb, you did well.
"That's exactly what I told him not to do"
"What do you think?"
"It's perfect!"
Had me dying 😂😂
I like this because it just shows how all consuming climbing is. After everything you have ever tried, climbing is the thing you have made a second channel for.
Absolutely agree.
no drinks on the mats! :)
When I set I usually have a specific move or beta in mind, and I try to set that first and make the rest of the climb work around that, do I wanna do a cool heel hook? Ok I try to set that and then the setup to that and finish
wow that's weird i literally clicked on this randomly from the home page and i was climbing there last weekend for the first time! and i couldn't do that orange haha super interesting though and i would love to try and set one for myself
As that’s so cool. If you send it let me know!
@@MikeBoydClimbs Went back again and managed to do it!
Angus just broke me... Can it be any more Scottish? Angus, his wife Bonnie, his son Hamish and daughter Lesley, all fans of bouldering, aye?
His girlfriends name is Saoirse which I think it’s Gaelic. So yeah… he’s super Scottish!
Hahaha his flatmate is actually called Hamish... 😂
?!?!?! How did I not know this channel existed?!?!?!!?
Don’t worry, I also suck at route setting. I do it for my school’s gym, and compared to some of the other setters, I basiclaly set like a snail
V0 at my gym🗣️🗣️🗣️
I’m a simple man. I see a Mike Boyd video, I watch it
Thanks so much 🙏
Curious how tall you are now, Mike! I am 160cm with a -6cm wingspan... so I definitely appreciate the efforts to make it short people friendly!!
167cm with +0 span. Mon the shorties!
Forcing a kneebar or a mantle or something in would have been nice. A kneebar may be a bit difficult on a slab, but it would certainly get interesting.
next boulder! Thanks for watching.
To be fair, setting an intricate slab must be harder than an overhang where the next step is more clear
I found it very tricky to get the difficulty right. It was very "easy" to make it nearly impossible or almost pointless. Thanks for watching!
@@MikeBoydClimbs Yeah I can definitely imagine. Really enjoying all the climbing content, keep it coming!
i really missed the critique from the real routsetter
What temperature is that gym kept at? Everyone had coats on
About the 10 Celsius. Good climbing conditions!
If you like climbing, you should try the game peaks of yore!
Do you know about how long the boulder will be up?
Around 6 weeks
Do you think it would have helped if you climbed harder grades?
Like just more climbing experience in general
Is it more of a route setting specific thing that make it hard?
I honestly think it would have been harder. It was easy to imagine climbing a “hard warmup climb” and setting that. That would end up v2/v3. If I climbed v8 it would be too easy and I’d have more difficulty guessing the grade
So i am sitting here and waiting for a new video to drop on you main channel not realising you went full climber mode! Come back! (jk, you have fun. Just don't forgen us.)
how does a boulder get graded a certain level?
From what I can tell it’s pretty subjective. It’s kind of an agreed upon level across the whole climbing community
♥♥♥♥
Did someone say V2 🚨
Why the goggles though?
I think it's for insurance reasons. Holds can break, splints, dust etc.
Was that dude super tall or are you super short?
first