UKC

I thought about putting this into wall topic but reassessed to reach more folks

just watched this:  youtube.com/watch?v=9_J2SX56btI&

I was slightly taken aback and disliked the idea of a unique event (Olympics) put forward as a potential commercial venture Moonboard style.

Am I just old and a lefty anti-capitalist?

In reply to French Erick:

For me it isn't just about anti-capitalism; rather it's the stifling of innovation. Quite likely it will happen though, sooner or later. I'd be surprised if a company like EP wouldn't run the Olympic wall at a huge loss if they thought they would make it up in wall sales all over the world as a result, and organisations like the IFSC and the IOC would jump at the chance of making their flagship event more cost effective.

What wasn't mentioned in the video was that they would be losing any and all potential for setting problems outside the range of their structure. Yes, they may be able to set almost all types of currently popular problem on it, but constraining creativity isn't a great idea in my book. In ten years time though, they'd redesign it and walls around the world would be faced with an impossible choice.

But then again I'm still not over the fact that they ruined speed climbing by precisely fixing the route. I thought it was way more interesting watching people figure out better sequences as they progressed through the rounds.

In reply to French Erick:

Yeah, I’m not sure how this pans out in the longer term but it doesn’t sound like a great direction to be heading in…

In reply to French Erick: its just a supervised kilter/moonboard then isn't it?  Are you bothered by those? 

In reply to French Erick:

To me, the 'Titan' wall didn't look anything more special than loads of other walls. It's surely more about the choice and setting of whatever holds & volumes that the setters add to the base structure. It's not hard to find walls that have a slab, a vertical bit, a steeper bit and a roof. Let's not standardise 'the base' just to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Moon/Kilter/Tension boards have a much small footprint and provide enough opportunity for dedicated, globally-standardised comp.s.

Right now, I'm not a fan and see no benefit to this concept - we don't need this thing. (well, I sure don't!)

In reply to wbo2:

Not fussed about moonboards (and similar) in the context of training. I don’t really use them regularly either.

 In the context of innovative, creative events, I don’t much like the idea as mentioned by John upthread.