Attention all regional championship climbers:
From Coach Tyson:

some of you are having a hard time finding the schedule for saturday. scroll down on the regional page of the usac website or just look below.
please make sure you show up in time for iso.
thanks
tyson

UPCOMING COMPETITION: PNW Regional Championship

• Please check in at the South Entrance (follow yellow signage)
  
  
• when: Saturday May 16th
  
• where: ClubSport
  
  
• address: 18120 SW Lower Boones Ferry Road | Tigard | OR | 97224
  
  
• phone: 503.968.4500
  
  
• format: ON-SIGHT
  
• registration deadline Wednesday May 13th 10:59pm PT/11:59pm MT
  
  
• sessions -
  
  

• Session 1 Categories FYD, MYC, FYB, MYB, MYA
  
  
• 7:30am iso opens
  
• 8:15am judges meeting
  
• 8:30am iso closes & open to 1st round spectators
  
• 8:45am competitor route preview
  
• 9:00am climbing begins
  
  
• 9:15am speed climbing begins
  
• 11:15am end of climbing for 1st session
  
  

• Session 2 Categories MYD, FYC, FYA, FJR, MJR
  
• 9:45am iso opens
  
• 10:45am iso closes & open to 2nd round spectators
  
• 11:00am competitor route preview
  
• 11:15am climbing begins
  
• 11:30am speed climbing begins
  
• 1:00pm end of climbing for 2nd session & GYM CLOSES for pre-finals preparations
  

• Finals for all Categories -- Top Ten Climbers from each category
  
• 2:00pm iso opens for finals
  
• 2:45pm judges meeting
  
• 3:00pm iso closes & open to finals round spectators
  
• 3:15pm competitor route preview
  
• 3:30pm climbing begins
  
• 5:00pm end of finals
  
• 5:30pm/6:00pm awards and divisional invitations (subject to change)
  
  

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Pain Box

I thought this applied perfectly to climbing

“There is a certain amount of pain that we must experience in life. There is no escaping it. Life just isn’t easy and there is a certain amount of suffering that we will all have to endure,” local UNLV philosophy professor explains to me on a climbing trip to Mount Charleston.
He said, “This is the only theory I’ve come up with that is really useful.”

“Imagine the amount of pain you will experience contained in a box. You can’t escape the pain but you can decide which form of pain you want to experience. You must either experience the pain of failure or the pain of working hard towards goals. Life comes down to a deciding the ratio of hard work to failure.

My students often choose laziness over failure because they have tried before and failed and in some ways it is easier not to even try because there is at least an excuse for sub par performance. If they try to do math and still fail they have acknowledged that it was worth their time to pursue and have proven to themselves that they are not capable. It’s easier to dismiss math as not important and not cool because no one sees you fail.
Another teacher at the school is notorious for assigning copious amounts of homework to prepare students for AP government test. When students were complaining about it, I tried to teach them the pain box theory and ask them if they would rather experience the pain of writing papers and reading now or the pain of failing the AP test later.

Teachers often make the decision to suffer in different ways. If I suffer on the weekends to plan good lessons class goes well and students are successful. If I have fun or relax and plan boring lessons I suffer when students are in the classroom. Clearly I can’t spend all of my free time planning amazing lessons so the ratio of suffering is somewhere in between.
The other part of the theory is that as you become more successful it takes exponentially increasing amounts of effort to decrease the suffering caused by failure. As you become very nearly perfect at an activity it is very difficult to improve without expending huge amounts of energy.

As usual this applies perfectly to cycling. In a race you decide if you want to suffer chasing down a break or attacking. You decide if you want push through the pain on the five mile hill. In the final sprint you decide just how much you can make your legs burn and how many risks you are willing to take. The winners are those who suffer the most while they train and on the race course. Winning brings happiness but as you advance it becomes more an more difficult to improve. Winning the Tour de France takes almost complete devotion to the hard work side of the pain box. Most people do not have the drive to do this.
In my own cycling career I’ve decided not to focus on success and downplayed the pain of failure by making it less important. My excuse is that I stayed late to help my kids and am usually too exhausted to do anything but base pace after work. And the pain of sprinting to not get last seems less than the pain of watching my kids fail and knowing there was something I could have done to fix it.

Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009

OK, so this has nothing to do with climbing. I just thought it was pretty cool. Enjoy...and then go climbing.

Here is the link for the edgeworks comp this weekend in tacoma. please register. it is a huge favor to those running the event when people register before hand.
http://edgeworksclimbing.com/

also, i will have the hotel info for nationals to you soon. and if you havent booked a room for the divisional, please do so. i sent the info out a little while ago.

just to confirm, divisionals is in sacramento and the national is in utah.

thanks
tyson

One more thing:

Hi, All.
I wanted to bring up an issue that has been ongoing this season. I have come across, during the check-in process that there are quite a few non-members/new climbers that have no idea what is expected at check-in or the event process itself. I have had several parents become upset at the fact that they were not made aware of the gym waiver and/or the non-member forms w/ a $5.00 fee submission aside from already paying the gym registration fee ($35/$40). Other times, minor-aged climbers attend without parents and do not realize the need for parental signatures or putting out the non-member $5 fee.

I am looking to you, the coaches to educate and follow up with climbers and families prior to a competition. Send them to the PNW web page or have them email me for info. I can have business cards made up if needed...whatever it takes. I can send out alerts a week prior to an event as a reminder. Two day alert can also work. What can I do to help make registration smoother during check-in? Bug you to make sure your climbers and their families know the information. What can you do to help me?...make sure your climbers are prepared and registered with forms signed by parents, front and back and pay the required fees.

Thanks for listening. As always , please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions, concerns or suggestions. Have a great day!


Emmy
______________________________________
Emmy Surma & Leslie Copper
USAC Regional Coordinators: Pacific Northwest
USAC PNW site: http://usaclimbing.net/regional/regional_news.cfm?region=pnw

Hey Everyone, please check this:

Hi, All.
This week during your team practice(s), please mention to families to check the USAC site for their climber's(s') 3-local comp requirement status prior to Regionals. Edgeworks is the final local comp and it's not too late for them to have their climber(s) attend to fulfill the 3rd local requirement. Send them my way if they have any questions. Thanks.


Emmy
______________________________________
Emmy Surma
USAC Regional Coordinator: Pacific Northwest
USAC PNW site: http://usaclimbing.net/regional/regional_news.cfm?region=pnw

Seattle VW Comp Info.

so here is what the schedule is looking like for our comp on april 4th.
please check the times so you show up at the right time.
also note that the iso times are set in stone but the start times are subject to change cuz we dont know how many people are coming.
thanks
tyson

2009 USAC vertical world onsite contest schedule

please note iso times are set in stone, but start times are an approximation.

time

8:30am iso opens for first session (MYD, FYC, FYB, FYA, MJunior)

9:15am judges meeting

9:30am iso closes

9:35am competitors meeting

9:45am route preview begins

10am climbing begins for first session

11am iso opens for second session (FYD, MYC, MYB, MYA, FJunior)

12pm iso closes for second session

12:05pm competitors meeting

12:20pm first session ends

12:25pm route preview for second session

12:48pm climbing begins for second session

2:33pm climbing ends for second session

3:15pm awards

ABS NATIONALS (or...Trower and Emily, read this)

here is the link to this coming weekend full nationals schedule. please go over this and make sure you are positive about the times of where you need to be. do not be late for anything.
here is also the youth running order, please check it out.
http://www.absnationals.org/08/details/index.htm

here is the format for the finals at nationals.

For the last two years, we have had three problems per category during the Finals round. This year, we will be doing four Finals problems per category with four – minute climbing periods. There will be a 30 second transition time between climbing and rest periods. In a nutshell, the climbers’ Final round will look like this:
- 4 minute climbing period - 30 second transition
- 4 minute rest period - 30 second transition
- 4 minute climbing period - 30 second transition
- 4 minute rest period - 30 second transition
- 4 minute climbing period - 30 second transition
- 4 minute rest period -30 second transition
- 4 minute climbing period

Registration for Regionals- DO IT!

and now, a word from Tyson:

here is a note from matt at the circuit. please remember to register for regionals asap. this is not something to slack on. you will not be able to register the day of the comp.
do this now.
the circuit is doing something unheard of and offering refunds to those who pay the $90 and do not make it to nationals. so please do not let the cost of the event stop you from attending. we have been training for this all fall and winter lets go out and give it our best.
please read the below note from matt,thanks
tyson


First off, I would like to remind all of you that we are still trying to go all out for a great comp!

Pricing is the big question on everybody's mind, so lets get right to it. I have spent hours on the phone with the USAC over the past two weeks trying to unravel the $90 fee. Unfortunately, their price to register for Regionals remains at $90. Youth climbers have to register through USAC at $90 if you want to move on to Nationals. Registration is supposed to start tomorrow morning, but it looks like they have started already for some reason. See here: http://www.usaclimbing.net/home.cfm

If youth climbers are not worried about going to Nationals, the entry fee for the comp will be $60. The price for adults is $60 as well.

HERE'S THE BEST PART! PLEASE HAVE ALL CLIMBERS INTERESTED IN NATIONALS SIGN UP THROUGH THE USAC AT $90. IF THEY DON'T QUALIFY FOR NATIONALS, THE CIRCUIT WILL GIVE THEM $30 BACK. THAT'S RIGHT, ONLY CLIMBERS WHO MAKE IT TO NATIONALS END UP PAYING $90.

I DON'T WANT ANY COACH TELLING THEIR CLIMBERS THAT THEY "DO HAVE" OR "DON'T HAVE" A SHOT AT NATIONALS. IF THE CLIMBER WANTS TO TRY, THEY SHOULD TRY. PERIOD. PLEASE NEVER JUDGE THEM, AND ALWAYS LET THEIR EFFORT SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. I DO NOT AGREE WITH THE USAC BASICALLY SAYING THAT YOU NEED TO HAVE A SHOT AT NATIONALS TO BE A PART OF THEIR ORGANIZATION. HOW RIDICULOUS IS THAT?

Anyways, I'm pretty much sick and tired of dealing with the USAC, and want to put all my efforts into giving the Pacific Northwest climbers ONE HELL OF A COMP!

Regionals will be all day, one-day event, with the approximate schedule as follows (definitely subject to change):

• Youth Onsight Round One: 9am-1pm (FD,MD,FC,MB,FA,FJr)
• Youth Onsight Round Two: 1pm-5pm (MC,FB,MA,MJr)
• Adult/Open Redpoint: 11am-2pm (Beg,Int,Adv,Masters,Open)
• Adult/Open Onsight Finals: 5pm!

I think we're probably the first gym to try a Redpoint during an Onsight. Should be exciting! This comp is definitely for spectators and parents as well as climbers. Also, please check the Circuit website, www.thecircuitgym.com, whenever you need to know what is going on.

I'll figure out the isolation times this Friday and email everyone again. I'll also have the $60 registration form online and in your email on Friday.

Please pass this on to other coaches or interested people. And let me know if you have any questions or feedback.

Oh, one more important decision needs all of your input. Should we call the comp "USAC Bailout" Comp or "Money Back Guarantee" comp?

Thanks for your support everybody. Unlike some organizations, we really do appreciate it!

Matt
Matt Slayton - Operations Manager & Team Head Coach

The Circuit Bouldering Gym
Mon-Sat 11-11 & Sun 11-7
6050C SW Macadam Ave.
Portland, OR 97239

www.thecircuitgym.com
(503) 246-5111