Hi Andy how you doing? I think the other thing about weight is the rate at which you wear down, skin and muscle fatigue etc. If you weigh 50% of somebody else then the amount of stress placed on skin by pulling on small crimps must be considerably less. This in turn means that you must get more gos on a given problem which in turn means you can get problems much quicker. It's like climbing at Rubicon, you often have to walk away because your skin has gone not your body and what could have been a full session on a problem turns into a few gos? This in turn means it takes days and not hours to tick some problems.
What has staggered me the most is the utter pillage of the Rocklands by Robinson & Woods.
but its amazing how many youths get seriously knackered fingers, whereas old bastards like me with over 20 years of climbing under the finger tips have never had a serious finger injury
As regards the skin issue, the younger you are, the better skin you have. The older you are, the less elastic your skin is, and the more prone to tears, splits, etc. you become. It also takes longer for you to heal up again.It seems to me that the modern generation of mutants have obtained their strength (and particularly finger strength) from training in climbing walls, but without a 'traditional apprenticeship' in rock climbing (like us old bastards had) I'm not sure they will be able to maintain their awesome level for too long without serious repercusions on their bodies. Maybe the 5 years I spent pottering up easy rock climbs as a kid (before modern climbing walls were invented) was what my body needed to learn how to recover from the abuse I was giving it. Its way too easy to get really good really quick these days, which might explain why so many of the promising youths burn out dead quick. Of course, this isn't true across the board, but its amazing how many youths get seriously knackered fingers, whereas old bastards like me with over 20 years of climbing under the finger tips have never had a serious finger injury (touches wood). Mind you, I am shite and I've got hands like bunches of bananas.....
I think being prone to injuries is fairly consistent to favoring the crimp
Quote from: Paul B on August 02, 2008, 01:25:54 pmI think being prone to injuries is fairly consistent to favoring the crimpI doubt theres any evidence to corroborate that.
Being prone to finger injuries is caused by getting strong too quickly for your tendons, pulleys, etc. to cope with the stresses - not by favouring one hold type over another. Crimps, finger cracks, slopers, pockets - all will blow out tendons, ligaments and pulleys if you pull to hard. My point is that nowadays its possible to get hideously strong so quickly that your hands have little time to adjust to the forces being put through them.
Quote from: dave on August 02, 2008, 02:51:56 pmQuote from: Paul B on August 02, 2008, 01:25:54 pmI think being prone to injuries is fairly consistent to favoring the crimpI doubt theres any evidence to corroborate that. I doubt there is, however if you use the search function the most common injury that sticks out to me is the A2, highly stressed under crimping. Are you seriously arguing that crimping is no more risky than open handed?
People who favour openhanding and only crimp once in a blue moon or in extremis are more likely to injure themselves crimping because they're not used to is and not prepared for it.