You are lucky to have the facility which enables you to start to evaluate asymmetry. Although, since I presume you had a hand in building it, it might be more than just luck! If I were a coach, I would use a couple of system type boards at different angles to objectively assess a set of standard climbing moves bilaterally to pinpoint weaknesses. I'm not aware of anywhere in London that has such a set-up unfortunately. They all have campus boards of course but these should be just one of several devices to systematically train movement not the only one.
I'd say it's worth working on. It's similar to the beasty boys assessing individual finger strength and grips and training the weakest ones. There is some evidence, though not consistent, that symmetry predicts performance and strength asymmetry predicts likelihood of getting injured in elite athletes.
No nothing to do with me. No system board (I know the board we are talking about isn't technically a system board) in the whole of London?
But Vollyball is fundamentally symetric, ie you always do the same thing with the same hand, so I don't think it's that surprising that this has a part to play in injuries. Climbers should aspire to be asymmetric right? To what extent can technique and sequencing overcome the dominat hand problem.
Should say as well, I don't believe this to be a strength issue but one of coordination.
I'm not sure I follow this. Do you mean that climbing movements are usually asymmetric? My point was there is equal likelihood of coming across a powerful left hand gaston move as a right hand one so it would seem sensible to assess and train to be equally strong on left and right gastons. I'm sure we all work around strength (or coordination or flexibility) asymmetries that most of us are unaware of. That doesn't mean that being aware of them isn't useful and something that might be worth addressing.
I'm not sure that those weakness couldn't be improved quite quickly.
I agree crimpletely with you
My point is that they haven't been, by people who use these setups fastidiously. I was suggesting this could be down (in some part) to underlying genetics etc.For movement analysis and working on such things then yes but I remain to be convinced that they'll iron out every asymmetrical weakness you may have.
I'm using strength in the sense of 'the ability to extert force', not as a synonym for magnitude.
The principle of working your weaknesses would suggest C.
I was hoping someone would point out that Wall X had just installed an all-singing and dancing system board so I could have a play on it.
Are the holds produced specifically for this type of board? If so are they mirror images of each other or is each hold totally symmetrical?
Paul what have you done to my eyes? Jesus! I hope it's toned down a little in the flesh?
One thing i've noticed recently is not just in the hands but you can look at the foot rubber of your shoes -- at least with mine ive noticed the left shoe noticeably less worn than the right -- either not using or just pushing/pulling hard enough with the non-dominant foot.
The rubber goes first on your strongest leg because you apply more pressure with it, surely? All the above is true but I think that's the dominant factor, definitely is for me. My rubber always goes on my right foot first, my right leg is way stronger than the left.
