route setting

well, how big is your wall? if its fairly small, you could just go with a symetric, sysem wall set up.

if your'e having some trouble try randomly putting up holds. you could do this by making cards for different hold and then draw them from a hat(if you will).

another idea might be to have friends come over and put stuff up for you

oh! adn maybe make soem routes to mimic projects of yours?

Go to the gym and look how others set. Like anykine said... Set stuff to mimic projects, gym or outside. Throw a bunch of holds up randomly and try to hold stuff that seems like it pushes your limits.

Drawing holds out of a hat is a good idea, thanks anykineclimb.

Unfortunately, there is no gym where I live (lex. ky.). I have done the random thing for a few years now, and that is where I seem to be gravitating towards my strengths rather than my weaknesses. I would have others over to help in the creative department, but I live in bfe. Anybody else get tired of clmbing just by yourself?

I have a pretty good set up in my barn, something that most would be envious of. I have 144' sq ft of 50 degree wall, 200 sq ft of 20 degree wall, and 200 sq ft of vertical, and I have holds to cover most of the wall.

Hey, if anyone lives in central ky all are welcome, just give me a holler.

If your weakness is slopers, set a route with nothing but, and commit to doing it as the 3rd or 4th problem everytime you get on the wall. If your trying to build strength in more than one area, set routes for each, and do each one every time you get on the wall. Do some easy routes to warm-up, then starting with the 3rd or 4th route, do nothing but those problems, with at least 2 tries each before moving on to something else. You know better than anyone what your weaknesses are, if gastons, set a route with all gastons; slopers, set one with all slopers. The issue isn't you setting routes to your strengths, it's you NOT setting routes to your weaknesses. You just have to make a consious effort to do it. Having random route setting, or friends setting routes for you won't make you work those routes, YOU need to decide to make an effort to do them.
Cheers!

I set sometimes too.....

This is what I have to say:

If you want to get stronger all-around, work on your weaknesses. If you are bad at slopers, make a slopey problem. If you are bad at long moves, make the moves long. You know what I mean... Try them no matter what ---- the more you try, the stronger those muscles will grow that you need to get better at your weaknesses.

SECONDLY, Do you climb outdoors? I LOVE to climb outside and come back and make a problem that includes the same movements. Take problems that you have sent and combine moves to make an awesome problem.

Enjoy yourself.

oops i kinda copied what other people said. I should have read before i posted, my bad guys!

sbp, I'd reccomend you set up a system wall in part of your barn.

if you don't know what it is heres a simple explanation:
Imagine a vertical line down the center of an area. an 8x8 works best or a little smaller. now all holds are a mirror image of those on the other side. set up a variety of holds in various locations. be sure to do the same with foot holds.

now do a move to one side. say, a pinch in left hand while reaching to a far crimp. you can do a couple "reps" or just one. then repeat for the opposite side.

so once you got the wall done, come up with a routine of 10 or so moves. As usual, be sure to warm up

I used to boulder at a small cooperative gym and they used the random method. The members would "set" from what was given. To me this seemed more like real climbing where the holds are what they are and the rock determines the problem. The twist that they used, however, so that the climbing worked your weaknesses was that they tried to orient the holds to the worst positions possible. _____________________________________________________________________ Support the Red River Gorge Climbers' Coalition. Join the RRGCC's growing group of friends on MySpace.

Setting the holds in the worst position seems like a great idea. Thanks Capt.

I found that letting others set problems is the best way to push your limits. Even though you set a problem that attacks your weaknesses, you're always tempted to "cheat." For example, if you set up a sloper problem, you might be tempted to replace a bad sloper, with a nicer sloper. Or give yourself a better foothold. If you let other people set routes for you, especially those with different strengths and body types, I think you then get a wide variety of problems.

A perfect example is the route setting party at RockRatz. I set up this overhung boulder type problem that suited my strengths. But the one that AKC set up was a more balancy and crimpy problem. I couldn't even do the first move! But AKC had no problem doing. Different people set different routes, and IMHO, you get the widest variety of problems.

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yeah and I had problems with your route!

Hummmmm. Seems noone wants to mention Brian's Problem. That, my friends, is difficult!!!!!Cheers!