This came up on another thread, so I thought I would pose a question.  Since regionals and nationals have to be zone, why aren’t the locals?

I believe that the venue holding the (local) comp has the option to use points per hold or zone format if they so desire.

The progression, in my mind, will eventually have open finals with zone format at all levels but I don’t think we are ready for this yet.

Zone requires a little more logistics when setting the problems and I am not sure if most gyms have individuals completely familiar with setting in this manner. It does require a little more than just boxing the hold in the middle and calling this the bonus hold.

The idea with adding this format to nationals, then regionals, and then eventually locals is to allow both the competitors and gyms throughout the country to become more familiar with a format most had little experience with previously.

Since this is the format for international comps, zone format was instituted to better prepare any athlete who decided to compete overseas. This has worked well with the youth side, where our rules and comps are run in exactly the same fashion as the World Youth Championships so our athletes wouldn’t have to contend with an unfamiliar format as well as the challenge of competing in groups larger than they have ever seen before, in front of crowds larger and louder than they could ever imagine, etc.

With this training and experience, all the kids had to worry about was climbing and succeeding. It is our hope that, as the development of this sport continues, we will send more and more adult climbers to international competitions; using this model, it is believed our athletes will be more prepared using zone than other systems as they can develop strategies for competing within zone comps they can transfer to the world stage.

Hope this helps!

Chris Neve
CEC Adult Climbing Coordinator
http://www.competitionclimbingcanada.com

As comp organiser and route setter, the route setting for zone or by point is similar. The difference for Zone format, is to think of two boulder problem in one. The box hold/bonus is the one that should separate the two boulder problems.

The Zone format is way easier to judge, something to consider.

D

I’ve been involved with competition climbing for a long time; as a spectator, competitor, routesetter, judge, organizer and coach. In the mid-90s when every competition was a little different we played with lots of different scoring systems. From this experience I say zone is the best format for serious bouldering comps.

Here’s a few reasons why I like zone:
*It is the easiest to set for.
- Set a crux before the zone and a crux before the top.
- Setting a point per hold route is difficult to make each move roughly the same difficulty. If every move is worth roughly the same amount of points then each move should be just as difficult.
- It allows you to use features and intricate movement that can’t be judged by distinct holds. Big features, cracks, mantles etc… all involve more than one ‘move’ but may use many or only one hold. Having a single ‘zone’ to separate the route allows you to use these techniques as a routesetter.
*Easier to judge. Other than the issue of control there is not much to bicker about here.
*Puts more emphasis on getting to the top of a boulder problem, which is the whole point of the boulder comps anyways.
*Is the international standard.

There are some drawbacks for sure. It does require that the routesetter understand the field of competitors well. They don’t have to be a great routesetter but they do have to be able to tweak for a field. You can’t just set a ridiculously hard 20 move boulder problem and hope the better competitor makes it farther than other competitors, you actually have to make a problem that only one of the competitors can figure out/do.

Here are some other criticisms I hear for zone:
- Zone is hard to understand. One of the things I can’t stand is the argument that ‘point-per-hold’ is easier to understand for spectators. In zone topping a problem out is the most important, how hard is that to understand? You’re not going to be able to convince me that the average spectator remembers how climbers A,B and C did on routes 1,2,3,4,5. They’ll remember which ones they topped out but not how far they got. In fact the best comps I’ve seen have a projector with a running tally of the competitors so the crowd, no matter how educated, can follow along. A great idea.
- Zone doesn’t reward a climber, even if they make it much farther than other climbers but not to the top or zone. This one is correct, zone does not reward a climber that doesn’t make it to the zone or to the top. I personally think that is the correct approach. If a climber makes it to the last move but can’t complete the problem then much more credit should be awarded to the climber that did make the last move.

Mike