[Johnny Brown]

What Joe said. Pretty much the most impressive footage I've ever seen.

+ lighter internal organs

What?

I hear what Stubbs is saying but she's inside that groove

I was expecting her to bridge up it, but she doesn't. Is it as valid as an a eight stone 'man' doing Voyager?

[Paul B]

Who mentioned validity? I only mentioned morphology, which I think makes a big difference. Maybe as I found the jump hard I should have got a boost up? (this is all flippant before anyone gets wound up).

[Stubbs]

I was expecting her to bridge up it, but she doesn't. Is it as valid as an a eight stone 'man' doing Voyager?

oooooh that's a par.

I assumed you only jumped off a beer towel Paul?

[Paul B]

No as I was in awe of "that Zaff guy" from Stick it at Apparent North,however he did off with my beer towel (accidentally I'm pretty sure).

[Andy B]

People look out for (and usually take the standard grade for) problems that suit them all the time. The fact that she's small takes nothing away from her achievement.

Being boosted to the starting holds is just the same as stacking pads to reach them. If they are the holds that everyone else starts from then it seems fair to me.

[Doylo]

Power of Goodbye is very nails for a Hueco V10, when we were there only Liam Halsey and Tyler managed it (both flashed it mind)!

[Fiend]

The voice of truth or another jaded pundit who needs to recalibrate his awemeter? 

Definitely the voice of truth :D

[Monolith]

Jesus Christ! What a hero! 8! For fucks sake!!! Amazing.

[Adam Lincoln]

Jesus Christ! What a hero! 8! For fucks sake!!! Amazing.

heroine 

[Monolith]

Gender plays no part in my ideology! That was so impressive. How has an 8 year old girl got me psyched!? For climbing before the jokes up.

[Paul B]

People look out for (and usually take the standard grade for) problems that suit them all the time. The fact that she's small takes nothing away from her achievement.

Being boosted to the starting holds is just the same as stacking pads to reach them. If they are the holds that everyone else starts from then it seems fair to me.

Yes but they'd be a nats dick either side of the regular morphology in most cases, if you go down to the 10th or 90th percentiles of a given distribution then you're going to see more of an impact. Do I really need to point out how much morphology effects grades on specific case problems or how almost every grading scale has something that it trips up trying to describe in order to back up my (general) point?

Watch the two videos; completely different moves, same problem same name. Damn good effort regardless, she's 8 and no doubt a wad. However, I feel people are blind if they think Xa or whatever is a representative grade for climbing a piece of rock regardless of any other variables. It just doesn't make sense and its why I think I personally pay a lot less attention to them than I used to.

[shark]

Yes but they'd be a nats dick either side of the regular morphology

Nat has a dick 

And Nibiles partner has had a sex op

It's all coming out today

[chummer]

I thought she was awesome, whatever the grade for her it's still hard, she is still only eight and she fucking went for it.
I can't believe the first thing some folk say after seeing that vid is 'ooh she's got small hands' and 'lighter internal organs' (what the fuck??), 'well it suits her' etc. Fuck a fucking duck. It's a good thing that 'we' on UKB don't tend to jump on media hype and we question things that some might just accept but for fucks sake in this case I think it's way off the mark, the girl did good, full stop. I found it pretty inspiring in fact.
I just hope her fingers last out and she's able to see it through and fulfill her potential.

[chriss]

I recall watching a Dosage DVD with Chris Sharma doing some problem in the Swiss with Dave Graham & Randy Pruo and he said- Quote ' skip all the bad holds, just take the big ones' this girl did the opposite and it worked for her.....
Problems have grades and sequences, but grades are subjective. If a problem suits you it's piss, if you can find a better sequence for yourself why the fuck not use it?
Well done that lass.

[Andy B]

Yes but they'd be a nats dick either side of the regular morphology in most cases, if you go down to the 10th or 90th percentiles of a given distribution then you're going to see more of an impact. Do I really need to point out how much morphology effects grades on specific case problems or how almost every grading scale has something that it trips up trying to describe in order to back up my (general) point?

Watch the two videos; completely different moves, same problem same name. Damn good effort regardless, she's 8 and no doubt a wad. However, I feel people are blind if they think Xa or whatever is a representative grade for climbing a piece of rock regardless of any other variables. It just doesn't make sense and its why I think I personally pay a lot less attention to them than I used to.

I think you are underestimating how big a role individual morphology and strengths play in most peoples bouldering. I think it comes significantly into play on the majority of problems for the majority of people, not just the 10th and 90th percentiles.

Watch the two videos; completely different moves, same problem same name.

This would be the same for videos of Parry and me doing most problems, (or many other examples of individuals), that's the nature of bouldering. If the first thing that pops into your head when you see this girls ascent is "yes but..." then that's up to you. I personally think it's fucking impressive, and wish I was good enough to climb that hard at 8 (or 10, or 12, or 14), regardless of how much it suited me.

[Paul B]

yes but..." then that's up to you. I personally think it's fucking impressive, and wish I was good enough to climb that hard at 8 (or 10, or 12, or 14), regardless of how much it suited me.

My first thoughts were, that impressive, read the next post, fiends post, and although over the top has something to it. Hence thats exactly what I said. I'm under no illusion of how hard some of the youngsters are climbing. I've witness first hand them crushing routes I'm dreaming of. With ease I'll add.
I think it'd be unfair to suggest I was putting her down in any way. It'd be a bit harsh given she's 8, I'm not that bitter.

I think you are underestimating how big a role individual morphology and strengths play in most peoples bouldering. I think it comes significantly into play on the majority of problems for the majority of people, not just the 10th and 90th percentiles.

Maybe I didn't explain my thought so well, I'm not underestimating how big a role morphology is in any way shape or form. In fact that was my point. You may do moves a different way to Mr Parry or Stu L etc. but they won't be as different as that of a child attempting the same moves as they are the extreme. If you take a cross section of climbers and then look at a factor such as span, kids aren't going to be falling in the middle of the distribution. That'll make some things dead hard, tending towards impossible (i.e. they can't reach the starting holds) and others which are unbelievably cramped, easier. You see it all the time, short people and big people don't find the same things easy. We've already made concessions in bouldering terminology for this with 'Morpho' being stuck in guides, these usually apply to people being tall enough etc. (IMO), however I'm fully of the belief that the reverse can be true.

[Drew]

I currently have two main climbing partners who I climb both indoors, and outdoors with. We all climb at a similar grade, however we all climb everything differently. Fair enough we all have slight different morphologies, but we never climb anything the same. We just have different strengths. I can't crimp or pinch, one of my mates can crimp the fuck out of anything, and frog like a bastard, and the other mate can pinch like no-one I have ever seen.

We have our strengths and we play to them. This 8 year old girl has a few strengths, and she plays to them. She won't be able to reach between the holds on Amandla, so she's not going to do that, but neither will I, so I'm not going to try it either.

As a side note, do any lanky bastards ever take reduced grades for Deliverance, or Submergence? Do they fuck!

[Monolith]

I'm unwilling to converse with anyone any longer who doesn't have at least an A Level module in biomechanics on the issue of anthropometrics.

As a side note, do any lanky bastards ever take reduced grades for Deliverance, or Submergence? Do they fuck!

Similarly, at 6 ft 2.5 in I find problems such as Magic Bus, Screaming Slave etc etc rather more difficult than the holds and positions present to my ability. If you're 1 ft off the ground, there's no room to deliberately sag to get toe hooks in or whatnot.  I digress sorry....

In this instance, let's not forget that most of us at age 8 probably struggled to lift a one litre bottle of lemonade off the deck. Props to this girl!

[Paul B]

In this instance, let's not forget that most of us at age 8 probably struggled to lift a one litre bottle of lemonade off the deck. Props to this girl!

Word.

The morphology thing could be discussed elsewhere but to do that I think I'd have to be more bothered than I am.

[clm]

paul. On another thread you are describing yourself as 50kg to 56kg. Im guessing theres not many others on here at that weight. (and thats coming from me with a reputation as a skinny fucker). I hope you havnt claimed full fat grades for everything you have climbed. I bet there are heavier 8 year olds in tne world.

[Paul B]

Like I said, the more I climb the less I understand about grades.

[dave]

You may do moves a different way to Mr Parry or Stu L etc. but they won't be as different as that of a child attempting the same moves as they are the extreme.

He's got a point here. That 8 year old would probably be able to lank past moves that Stu has to do.

[c.j.d.]

Get a life you picky fuckers.  Well done that chick.

[Andy Harris]

Quite incredible really. She even does that 1st move footles. I must admit I was struggling to think how someone so small would do the moves (this is a hard problem, i thought more 8a) and then she uses the most henious sequence. Those holds she uses are proper tiny and I would suggest far harder than the original. That gaston everyone else uses is very intermediate style, more of a Gaskins style hold. Very reminiscent of Ruth Jenkinson who had todo 2/3 moves for the normal persons 1 on all sorts of stuff like Caviar and Zeke.

[Andy B]

... Very reminiscent of Ruth Jenkinson...

Jenkinson or Jenkins?