Boulder sit start

[heelhook]

Hey guys, I wanted to ask you about your take on sit start on boulder problems. Is there any benefit to it? I can hardly think of any sport routes that have a sit start, is there any other skill transfer to sport climbing I'm not taking into account?

I'm asking because I recently started the power phase, never done bouldering before, and I find the sit starts very unnatural and that my knees hurt at times. I've also found my lack of flexibility to be a surprisingly limiting factor as I have to sit with my butt sticking out a lot.

Thanks!

Pablo

[MarkAnderson]

Indoors, the benefit of a sit start is that you can get a longer problem (more moves or bigger moves) out of a short wall. Outside is the same, and sometimes a sit start with a low crux will be much safer and easier to work than a problem that starts from your tip-toes and has a crux several moves up.

I'm not aware of any routes with a sit start that anyone takes seriously, though I'm sure someday someone will create one.

Anyway, if you practice them, sit starts become much less awkward. I remember having a hard time with them when I first started bouldering indoors, but within a few months I was an expert.

[heelhook]

Awesome! Thanks for the answer, I'll keep working on it; it's just so frustrating to spend so long moving my ass in the pad!

Btw, there's one route with a sit start, Ali hulk in rodellar, I think it goes from 9a to 9a+ with the sit start.

Merry Christmas!