UKC

Following an awards ceremony in London on 9th December, GB Climbing Team Member, BMC Ambassador and Silver medallist in the 2014 Boulder World Cup series Shauna Coxsey placed 2nd behind dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin in the BT Sport Action Woman of the Year awards.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=69364

In reply to UKC News:

Well done Shauna. I could make some sarky comments about dressage but with a great deal of self control I'll refrain.

In reply to pasbury:

As well you might but I've a suspicion that more people in Britain love horses and have a good idea of what dressage is than give a toss about competitive climbing.

In reply to UKC News:

Great news. Congratulations Shauna. Olympics next?

In reply to rice boy:

In what discipline? 100m?

It's a shame the write up about her on the BT Sport website is so full of stereotypical punter language. I think it's about time the non-climbing community are actually taught what climbing is. Rather than this perception that its extremely dangerous and and that you must be holding on by your 'fingernails' in order for it to be hard.

In reply to The Green Giant:

Probably about as misplaced as most peoples idea of what dressage entails

In reply to Maddie:

Dressage is easy to understand - a posh person puts on somewhat antiquated and uncomfortable looking clothing, sits on a horse and tries to make it dance.
Other people assess the quality of the horses moves. This subjective judgement is then used to pick a winner.

In reply to galpinos:

Which makes my point that there is no capital to be made from being sniffy about other people's interests.

In reply to The Green Giant:
I loved this bit:

>> Climbers are literally rock gods in Austria.

In reply to Mike Highbury:
Dressage? It's not what I'd call a sport. "Making horses do unusual movements" is how Ross Noble described it.

In reply to simes303:

Equally, climbing could be decribed as finding the most difficult way to the top of a rock.

In reply to Mike Highbury:


But it is Action Woman, which a dressage rider isn't, although she did compete against teh menz so maybe that balances it out a bit.

I thought Shauna did especially well, given the competition.

In reply to simes303:


Competition bouldering seems to me to be entirely about doing very unusual moves.

In reply to pasbury:

If we want climbing to get ahead as a TV sport maybe we should do it by getting a ride up the wall on the back of highly trained gorillas. Whoever can afford the largest and best trained gorilla wins.

In reply to Robert Durran:


But not on a horse, Rob. Wait a minute, there's an idea...

In reply to winhill:


Why isn't dressage action?

If we're being sniffy bouldering comps aren't an outdoor sport!

In reply to timjones:


It is. The idea of getting on top of a big scary animal which might get pissed off with all that prancing about at any moment and choose to kill me seems much more dangerous than bouldering above a big squishy mattress.

In reply to UKC News:

The award is about the women not their sport - its great to see a world class climber recognised in this context.

In reply to ianstevens:


I think I can spot where you might be going wrong.

In reply to Robert Durran:

But it's the "action woman" doing the moves, not a horse.

In reply to jon:

You mean an a cheval move doesn't actually involve a horse?

In reply to John2:

Depends if you climb one after the other... on the trot.

In reply to jon:

What on earth are you twits prattling on about? Major thread hijack.... Well done to Shauna - thoroughly deserved, great for her and great for the sport of indoor climbing. I never really used to 'watch' indoor climbing but I enjoy it now, largely thanks to her recent performances and profile. I've got a six year old daughter who's into climbing and I think it'll be important for her to have role models if she's going to keep it going.

In reply to Wry Gob:


Nothing wrong with a bit of good natured irreverence - it takes nothing away from the achievement. I imagine Tom Patey would have approved. I think the point is that both dressage and indoor competition bouldering probably appear equally absurd to the uninitiated. Actually, I'm sure dressage appears as absurd to a lot of horse riders as competition bouldering does to many climbers, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with either of them.

In reply to Wry Gob:


Let's hope she sticks with climbing then and doesn't take up dressage, it'd cost you a fortune.

In reply to Robert Durran:


I think indoor competition bouldering mostly only appears absurd to grumpy old climbers, to be honest. The uninitiated probably see something with a fairly simple and well defined goal (get to the top of the wall without falling off) and an obvious physical challenge (you have to pull yourself up on tiny holds / wedge your foot somewhere in the vicinity of your ear and then stand up on it) that represents a slightly abstracted / formalized version of a relatively useful human activity (climbing up stuff). I don't really know where the idea that it'd be totally baffling to the general public comes from.

In reply to Ramblin dave:

I think you may have a point there. Outdoor trad climbing is hardly a spectator sport, even for those who understand what's going on.

In reply to Ramblin dave:

Sounds like trolling to me.

In reply to UKC News:

Pavey should have won.

Here is the Daily Mail's coverage of the event.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2867555/Lucy-Mecklenburgh-disp...

In reply to Ramblin dave:


What I meant was that the moves that are set in bouldering competitions seem to be incredibly contrived and of little relevance to climbing on rock (in the same way that the moves that horses do in dressage seem pretty irrelevant to riding from A to B).. You may be right in that it might appear less absurd and contrived to non climbers who have no idea what climbing on rock is like to compare it with.

In reply to jon:


I predict that she'll be doing gnarly winter routes by age 12, but then rebel at 13 and demand a horse.

In reply to Robert Durran:

The similarity of dressage to bouldering is the ability of taking the basic skills and movements of each to an extreme level. The ability needed for the climber to carry out or the horse rider to encourage horse to make moves in a controlled manner to be able to succeed in their chosen arena requires a high degree of mental as well as physical strength.

I have never been interested in dressage but can see and appreciate the skill required just as I can see the same in someone with the skills needed for any high end climbing including bouldering.

The idea that dressage moves are contrived is rubbish as they are moves that horses can and do carry out when out in the wild just that certain aspects are focussed on and training required when a rider sits on their back. It is the same for climbers, any move carried out is within the range of human movement just that training is required to achieve it on a regular basis.

So by making dressage and bouldering competitions appear contrived it is just a way of sorting out the wheat from the chaff. Those that put in the training get the results.

So speaks someone with a horse and climbs although not as well as either of the top two sports women.

Cheers Martin

In reply to Lone Rider:


You could say, by that definition, that dressage and bouldering comps are very similar to elite level jumping, swimming, throwing or a number of other sports.

The major difference with dressage is that you have a collaboration between two different species, a master and a slave if you will (slave meant in its functional definition rather than forced labour)

What a bizarre tangent to this thread

In reply to Lone Rider:

Ok, but does practising dressage type moves improve one's general riding? And does working on the sort of moves they seem to do in bouldering competitions improve one's general climbing? (Actually, I'm sure that strictly speaking the answers to both questions are yes, but equally sure that there are probably better ways to be spending one's time to improve your riding or your climbing). Note that I have nothing against dressage or indoor bouldering competitions; I am just trying to explain why both, as extreme subsports, seem a bit baffling to many people.

In reply to Robert Durran:

I'm assured by my daughter that it does. She does dressage to a pretty high standard as her least favourite part of eventing.

She boulders to a pretty good standard too, considering how much time she spends on horses!

In reply to UKC News:

Well done Shauna, that is all.

In reply to timjones:



There was 8 Boulder World Cups and 1 Boulder World Champs in 2014, 6 of them were outdoors

In reply to daprince:


this isn't Facebook you know!

In reply to Graeme Alderson:

You can play tiddly winks outdoors, were they held on real rock

TBH i was playing devils asvocate. I was anticipating a reply that pointed out that dressage often takes place indoors, your post was an unexpected turn that neatly highlights the danger of allowing our preconceptions to cloud our judgements.

It's a shame when great sportswomen are honoured and people just use the opportunity to pick holes in or ridicule other peoples sports. To my eyes it was absurd that football was in the list of sports honoured, but why detract from the awards due to our own prejudices?