[remus]

Little flash of Vechio Leone https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckqk3sdDVjY/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[SA Chris]

Barely a flicker of acknowledgement! An impressive achievement?

[Fiend]

Just what's expected really.... 

[User deactivated.]

Barely a flicker of acknowledgement! An impressive achievement?

I would have been more surprised if he didn't flash it.

Also spotted in the comments, Will reckons the straight up that they are trying on Alphane is three 8C's in a row. I put that in the Darth Grader assuming no rests and in French money that would get 10a/10a+. Science 

[Bradders]

Barely a flicker of acknowledgement! An impressive achievement?

What is there to say? Exceptional climber, known to be exceptional via recent achievements, delivers exceptional performance.

I do think there's an interesting lack of discussion around Bosi's style, and what makes him so good, in comparison to Aidan where there's lots of chat about pinky bent fingerboarding and how impressively static / controlled he is, how he gets weight on his feet, etc.

What makes Bosi so good?! I wondered whether he's just a bit of a crimp waif taken to the nth degree (he looks pretty skinny in those pics on Vecchio), but then he's done plenty of burly things too.

Lastly this is a bit like an 8A climber flashing a 7B. Good, but not spectacular...

[SA Chris]

What makes Bosi so good?! I wondered whether he's just a bit of a crimp waif taken to the nth degree (he looks pretty skinny in those pics on Vecchio), but then he's done plenty of burly things too.

OK, maybe I'm too easily impressed. His secret is he was brought up on full sugar IRN BRU, gave him tendons like girrrrderrrs

[User deactivated.]

Barely a flicker of acknowledgement! An impressive achievement?

What is there to say? Exceptional climber, known to be exceptional via recent achievements, delivers exceptional performance.

I do think there's an interesting lack of discussion around Bosi's style, and what makes him so good, in comparison to Aidan where there's lots of chat about pinky bent fingerboarding and how impressively static / controlled he is, how he gets weight on his feet, etc.

What makes Bosi so good?! I wondered whether he's just a bit of a crimp waif taken to the nth degree (he looks pretty skinny in those pics on Vecchio), but then he's done plenty of burly things too.

Lastly this is a bit like an 8A climber flashing a 7B. Good, but not spectacular...

I've also been thinking about the differences between the two of them and I'm beginning to think that Aidan's bent pinky thing is probably a distraction for most people. He claims his pinky is the same length as his index finger, so I reckon it's his unique morphology that demands a focus on pinky strength/angle. In contrast, I've heard Will claim to be front 3 dominant and that he will happily drop a pinky. The point being that the specific style is probably unimportant, as long as it works for your own strengths/morphology.

What I think is likely more responsible for their success, and a common trait, is that Aidan and Will are both recent comp beasts turned full time rock climbers, still at an age where gains are optimal. They've both been through years and years of intense, structured training and continue to do so. Daniel Woods was one of the best of his generation (and still is!) for similar reasons, but training has moved on and is likely better structured and more advanced today than it was 10 years ago. At 33, Daniel Woods is no longer at an age where physical gains will be optimal (). Shawn Raboutou has a similar-ish background to Will and Aidan and I'd put money on him taking the Mellow crown from Daniel/Jimmy/Nalle over the next few years if he hasn't already.

TL/DR - be young and train hard with up-to-date training principles.

Aidan's seemingly microscopic attention to detail with regards to movement and reasons for failure are probably going to be more useful than pinky angle for anyone into projecting. I've been trying to apply this to my own goals. E.g. Simply stating "need more compression strength" isn't good enough. How wide is the compression, what is the angle between the holds and how long do I need to hold it for? Do I also need to move my feet while holding that compression?

[Wellsy]

Barely a flicker of acknowledgement! An impressive achievement?

What is there to say? Exceptional climber, known to be exceptional via recent achievements, delivers exceptional performance.

I do think there's an interesting lack of discussion around Bosi's style, and what makes him so good, in comparison to Aidan where there's lots of chat about pinky bent fingerboarding and how impressively static / controlled he is, how he gets weight on his feet, etc.

What makes Bosi so good?! I wondered whether he's just a bit of a crimp waif taken to the nth degree (he looks pretty skinny in those pics on Vecchio), but then he's done plenty of burly things too.

Lastly this is a bit like an 8A climber flashing a 7B. Good, but not spectacular...

He definitely seems to be very much in the "don't weigh much" camp which I guess is very effective for sport climbing as well (not that I know but most top sport climbers seem to be very light) He seems to have mega strong fingers on tiny holds but didn't he say he wasn't a fan of monos?

Aidan is just more obviously an animal on static full crimps, even amongst his peers, so it provokes a lot of discussion. But apparently Drew Ruana said both Will and Aidan are total freaks of nature and obscenely strong, proper "cellar dwellers" so maybe Bosi is like that too and we just don't see it so obviously displayed like with Aidan.

[Fultonius]

It'd be great to see some proper side-by-side beta & movement comparison videos of Wiil/Aiden&Shawn.

[remus]

He definitely seems to be very much in the "don't weigh much" camp which I guess is very effective for sport climbing as well (not that I know but most top sport climbers seem to be very light) He seems to have mega strong fingers on tiny holds but didn't he say he wasn't a fan of monos?

I think Will is 60-something kg? For someone his height imo that doesn't put you in waif territory.

[remus]

Shawn Raboutou has a similar-ish background to Will and Aidan and I'd put money on him taking the Mellow crown from Daniel/Jimmy/Nalle over the next few years if he hasn't already.

I'd say he probably has already. It seems pretty likely he's done Megatron, so he's got 2x 9A to his name plus a string of other super hard things to his name.

[Wellsy]

He definitely seems to be very much in the "don't weigh much" camp which I guess is very effective for sport climbing as well (not that I know but most top sport climbers seem to be very light) He seems to have mega strong fingers on tiny holds but didn't he say he wasn't a fan of monos?

I think Will is 60-something kg? For someone his height imo that doesn't put you in waif territory.

I honestly thought that he was sub 60, like Steve Mc, but fair enough. I guess he's a bit taller than Steve? I've seen Will in the works and he looked very light but looks can be deceiving.

[User deactivated.]

He definitely seems to be very much in the "don't weigh much" camp which I guess is very effective for sport climbing as well (not that I know but most top sport climbers seem to be very light) He seems to have mega strong fingers on tiny holds but didn't he say he wasn't a fan of monos?

I think Will is 60-something kg? For someone his height imo that doesn't put you in waif territory.

I honestly thought that he was sub 60, like Steve Mc, but fair enough. I guess he's a bit taller than Steve? I've seen Will in the works and he looked very light but looks can be deceiving.

Amongst non-climbers, just about every elite climber is going to look small/thin. Even 'big' Jimmy Webb is only high 70's despite being 6 foot something? Will doesn't look particularly thin amongst his peers to me.

 

[36chambers]

I wonder how many people are repping +15 kg one arm hangs on the BM2K middle rung for an "average" fingerboard session, see 3:43

[MischaHY]

Barely a flicker of acknowledgement! An impressive achievement?

What is there to say? Exceptional climber, known to be exceptional via recent achievements, delivers exceptional performance.

I do think there's an interesting lack of discussion around Bosi's style, and what makes him so good, in comparison to Aidan where there's lots of chat about pinky bent fingerboarding and how impressively static / controlled he is, how he gets weight on his feet, etc.

What makes Bosi so good?! I wondered whether he's just a bit of a crimp waif taken to the nth degree (he looks pretty skinny in those pics on Vecchio), but then he's done plenty of burly things too.

Lastly this is a bit like an 8A climber flashing a 7B. Good, but not spectacular...

I've also been thinking about the differences between the two of them and I'm beginning to think that Aidan's bent pinky thing is probably a distraction for most people. He claims his pinky is the same length as his index finger, so I reckon it's his unique morphology that demands a focus on pinky strength/angle. In contrast, I've heard Will claim to be front 3 dominant and that he will happily drop a pinky. The point being that the specific style is probably unimportant, as long as it works for your own strengths/morphology.

What I think is likely more responsible for their success, and a common trait, is that Aidan and Will are both recent comp beasts turned full time rock climbers, still at an age where gains are optimal. They've both been through years and years of intense, structured training and continue to do so. Daniel Woods was one of the best of his generation (and still is!) for similar reasons, but training has moved on and is likely better structured and more advanced today than it was 10 years ago. At 33, Daniel Woods is no longer at an age where physical gains will be optimal (). Shawn Raboutou has a similar-ish background to Will and Aidan and I'd put money on him taking the Mellow crown from Daniel/Jimmy/Nalle over the next few years if he hasn't already.

TL/DR - be young and train hard with up-to-date training principles.

Aidan's seemingly microscopic attention to detail with regards to movement and reasons for failure are probably going to be more useful than pinky angle for anyone into projecting. I've been trying to apply this to my own goals. E.g. Simply stating "need more compression strength" isn't good enough. How wide is the compression, what is the angle between the holds and how long do I need to hold it for? Do I also need to move my feet while holding that compression?

I have similar finger anatomy and have also recently made exceedingly good gains on crimps by following a steeper finger angle in training. In fact my intension for the next training block based on this experience is to train front/back 3 in a high angle position to more specifically hit the index/pinky without having to add a load of weight. Since training it I've noticed that the difference between being able to lock off a hold or having to snatch for the next one/not being able to generate force properly can really come down to whether the pinky is engaged steeply enough. I think as long as you haven't got a very short pinky it's a good target for training if you're not strong in that grip position already.

[SA Chris]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CkvvuH6D4hR/

Looks like a new 8C.

[highrepute]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CkvvuH6D4hR/

Looks like a new 8C.

Video of first ascent, looks good.

[Felix14]

Alphane interview

[Fiend]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CkvvuH6D4hR/

Looks like a new 8C.

Video of first ascent, looks good.

The other one looks even better!

[Fiend]

Alphane interview

Very nice, clear eloquent and informative 

[Duma]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CkvvuH6D4hR/

Looks like a new 8C.

Video of first ascent, looks good.

There's a good vid of Aiden and one of the German beasts on this from the spring somewhere

[edshakey]

Aidan and Yannick Flohe. Both in a session!

[AndyP]

Alphane interview

So, is he implying that Terranova could actually have been the world's first 9A boulder?

[Felix14]

And burden the first 9A+?

[User deactivated.]

So, is he implying that Terranova could actually have been the world's first 9A boulder?

And burden the first 9A+?

I noticed both of those suggestions too!

The sport/boulder grade thing is interesting. Will seems confused that 9A's like Alphane and Honey Badger ( ) have only taken him a couple of weeks to do, but routes from 9a+ to 9b+ have taken much longer. There are a few possible explanations:

1. Top end sport is harder than top end bouldering. I find this one hard to buy into since the talent pool for bouldering and sport climbing is similar and the training methods in each discipline are also both similarly advanced. Jakob waltzes up 9b+ routes but got shut down by Sleepwalker 8C+, so it's not all one way traffic of multi-disciplinary climbers having an easier time with top end bouldering.

2. Will is even better at bouldering than he is at sport climbing.

3. More time has passed since he transitioned to full time rock climbing, he is on particularly good form right now and happens to be focusing on bouldering. He mentions that he's going to visit Stefano to try Excalibur, which seems to be a candidate for 9c. If he does well then I think we can just crown Will the king of climbing and forget the other points above