UKC

Been working on this app in my spare time for almost 2 years. It's still in beta but I feel it's finally polished enough that I can ask for comments

I'm a climber from Sweden and heard about UKC from climbing abroad with friends from Wales. I made the app because it's something that I myself want to use. My hope is that the app will enable climbers to help eachother improve by learning from the experiences of the entire community!

The app, called Psyched, compares how hard you climb, and how well you perform in tests with other climbers (who do the same thing). The point is to see what you are strong or weak at (and how far away you are from others who climb as hard as you).

So you do some tests, and the app compares you with other climbers and gives you a grade, such as "you are as strong as someone who climbs 7B in pullups but only 6C+ in weighted pullups".

You can also tell the app how hard you climb in bouldering and lead and it tells you the result it expects you to get at different tests.

Those are the most fun things for me but it also tracks your progress, you can add and compare with friends, and get a global ranking for each test.

At the moment the predictions are based on a handful of climbers and the accuracy will increase with more users. As soon as there's more data I want to tailor predictions to your profile so that, for example, tall climbers vs shorter may need different levels of strengths in some areas to reach a certain grade

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Here's a short video with the app: youtube.com/watch?v=_CJNHpiz2tU&

Free on app store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/psyched/id1095133373
Free with promo code on android play store: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mI4rOUK6AjkHDPv5SUNkaDRtdjB9X2au73j...

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

Looks interesting.

Is it available anywhere else so you don't need to create an account like you do at the Play Store (why do they make you do that just to download stuff?). I checked Aptoide but couldn't find it there.

In reply to stp:

I haven't looked into alternative app stores for android but that might be a good idea. I could put it up there too if it doesn't require exclusiveness. I'll check it out!

By the way, you need to create an account to use the app but I guess you could just fill in a fake email (won't be able to reset password if you forget though)

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

Don't mind an account with you and that app. It makes sense when sharing data. I just object to Google trying to manipulate everyone in to creating an account with them for things where it's not necessary. But nice to know it can be done anonymously if I wanted to.

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

Font comes up really small on Android.
Also I personally don't think it seems to correlate fantastically...
1-4-6 translating to 7A+ seems low, should be higher.
1s front lever being 7A+ also seems low.
Could just be oversampling indoor wads though.
Nice app. Can see it being useful and fun

In reply to stp:

Cool I tried aptoide but it doesn't allow me to put up different versions for different mobiles. You can try and see if it works for your phone though: http://psyched.store.aptoide.com/

In reply to tk421:

Good point on the font size. I'll try and come up with a solution for that, hard to fit everything on the screen sometimes

Yes, the accuracy will get better over time. It's all based on around 5-20 climbers right now (though increasing ) and will get better soon.

I'm thinking of adding a page where you can see how the test results correlate with grade. At the moment it's looking pretty nice

P.S. You seem damn strong for a 7A+ climber! (making a wild guess)

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

This is a really nice idea, like you say you might learn something over time e.g. if you are short you need to be able to do more pullups or suchlike...

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

Downloaded, I'll check it out when I'm down the wall

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

Great idea.

Im trying to download it through the 'play store'for android. Cant find it?

Any direct link for android users?

Cheers

In reply to Oogachooga:

Thanks Take the promo code from here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mI4rOUK6AjkHDPv5SUNkaDRtdjB9X2au73j... and you redeem it in the menu in play store.

If you can't be bothered (it's one dollar on play store right now, couldn't set it lower) then: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.psyched

Cheers!

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

Thanks ive downloaded it now. I was searching for 'climbing strength app' before not 'psyched'. Missed that one

The text is unreadable on my phone mate. Samsung galaxy somethingorother. Which pretty much renders the app unusable for me.

Will see if its any better on the tablet and report back.

In reply to Oogachooga:

Restart the app, i got a squiggled readout first time. Restarted it and fine.
Bit small the font, like others have said.

However, i feel like its a decent attempt at an app and not wildly off the predictions already. Good job. A little cheeky expecting you to do one armer pullups on both hands to count as 1 rep lol.

Ps what the hell is a pistol squat and a dragon flag?
Like it so far.

In reply to zimpara:

Pistol squat. 1 leg squat leg in front I think mate.

Dragon flag, no idea!

In reply to Oogachooga:

Cool. Those are quite spicy on stability.

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

Yep, font size sorts itself second time around.

Cheers, a good few exercises to work through.

In reply to zimpara:

I'll try and figure out what's going on the first time you start the app. Are you using android or iphone?

Could you maybe send a screenshot with where the font is small (via the feedback option in the app)? I'm not sure if I've been able to reproduce it. Thanks!

Do you think it would be better to go with the strongest instead maybe? I want it to be consistent between excercises so would have to change everywhere.

There's a description for every test if you click them

Thank you for the feedback!

In reply to Oogachooga:
Do you use android or iphone? Any screenshot with the small font problem would be great! (and the first start problem too if you are able to reproduce it!)

I thought about if you should be allowed to hold onto something when doing pistol squats but decided against it, though I'm not entirely sure it was the right call. You can stand on a box if you have trouble staying on your heel though!

Thanks!

Edit: It was zimpara who talked about stability, sorry I got confused

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

I also experienced tiny text when I first opened the app which has now resolved itself. (Nexus 6p)

I put my max lead grade as 7c+, then input my max weighted chin up (the only metric I know because I've done it recently). The app suggested I should be able to do 39kg, I put in 48kg and the app said this equates to 7c+, that doesn't seem right?
I'm guessing that perhaps it is using my boulder grade to calculate the suggested target, as my boulder grade is set as 7A+ and a 48 kg chin up gives me 7B+.
This isn't really representative for me as I rarely boulder, I'd prefer my stats to be generated with a weighting towards lead data as that's 99% of my climbing, what would happen if I entered no boulder grades at all?

Also, pulling power has always been my main strength (excuse the pun) and based on knowledge of other climbers' abilities, I'd expect to be way above the curve on that metric, 7c+ seems very low. I'd probably be behind on other metrics but I would have thought my chin ups would put me into '8' territory. Like you say this will hopefully improve as more users input data, right?

Aside from that, since the text became the right size, it's a very slick app in general, good work!

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

Me again, I've been having a bit more of a play, I've entered info for the campus board challenge.
Apparently my score of 1-4-6 gets me a lowly 7a+, I don't think I know anyone who maxes out at 7a+ who can come even close to a 1-4-6!
I was then a little cheeky and lied a bit about my campussing prowess, to see what results I would get.
If I could do a 1-4-7, I would get an equally paltry 7b+, but if I could do a 1-5-7 then I am instantly elevated to a God-like 8b+!
Aside from the weird jumps in grade, I would consider 1-5-7 considerably easier than 1-4-7, increasing the two-handed pull from the start position is much easier than increasing the pull from the offset second position, I'm pretty sure that should be swapped around.

I imagine the grade jump is due to a small sample size and limited amount of data to take the predictions from, but is it possible to look through the data to manually spot glaring gaps like this one and adjust accordingly? If you could plot the data to a graph, things like that should be easy to spot.
On that subject, anonymous scattergraphs for each test would be a cool feature to see.

In reply to Dandan:

I'll look into the problem on android tomorrow and see if I can reproduce it.

What did you put as stable redpoint lead/boulder? The grade it is telling you is stable redpoint lead or boulder so with that in mind 7c+ means you're very strong if your PB is 7c+. I don't remember if the app actually tells you that it's predicting stable redpoint grades though... I'll check and add it if it's not there!

Great stuff about preference for lead/boulder/both. I've been thinking about adding this but wasn't sure if it would matter, I'll add it soon! Yes it would be solved by removing one of them (stable redpoint grades) but let me improve it instead

You're right, all of this will get progressively better with more data and you're helping too! I think campus board is a test that doesn't have that much data yet. I also need to add the size of the rungs (quite large to test body over fingers) and I hope that will improve things!

Yes I have a rough scatterplot at the moment that I need to fix up. I hope I'll have time to add it soon!

Awesome feedback! Thank you!












Great feedback!

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

I'm also a bit confused about this 'stable' grade, especially for redpointing, it's a bit subjective isn't it?
A max grade is a max grade regardless, but a 'stable' grade seems pretty hard to define to me.
When I do redpoint, it's something that I'm pretty confident of eventual success on (otherwise I wouldn't put the effort in), so surely my highest successful repdoint is also my 'stable' redpoint grade, i.e. a grade that I'm confident I could achieve in a redpoint style on most occasions.

Perhaps you could qualify it with stable grade being a grade you can generally redpoint in less than a certain number of attempts?

Apologies if there is some well known definition of a 'stable' grade and how to work it out, it's not something I've ever heard of.

A max grade seems more useful to me, as an example, my max redpoint grade is what it is mostly because I don't get to climb outside that much, so haven't had a lot of chances to work harder routes. My physical strength is above average for my grade and would indicate that I should be climbing harder routes, this is what I would hope your app would show. I know my data would affect that stat but I would expect to be an outlier on a graph, at least until I can get my redpoint grade up.

In reply to Dandan:

I think you'll find everyones, or near everyones strength is way above their grade.

Mine especially, climbing partners even more so.

In reply to zimpara:

I'd have to disagree, in my experience there is a broad variation between a climber's strength and their ability, I've certainly not seen any significant tendency for people to be overly strong. There is certainly a tendency in younger male climbers to be overly strong, but that's a pretty narrow definition of 'everyone'.
My wife climbs 7a and can't do a chin up, is she overly strong?

She climbs 7a, or redpointed one once, lead or toprope?

I climb 7a, in that i redpointed one once, I'm unusually strong in comparison then, but dog the occasional 6a sports route.
And have never lead nor onsighted a 6b or 6b+

In reply to zimpara:

7a second go on toprope.
All moves on several other 7a's and 7a+.
Lead flash 6b+.
More onsight 6a and 6b than you can shake a stick at.

Shh now.

In reply to zimpara:

Well, I had a look at this and I climb far harder than any of the grades indicted for the strength tests. This seems to be aimed at gym monkeys?

In reply to Dandan:

Yes, stable redpoint/flash is subjective. The problems I find with PB redpoint and flash are
1. you are better at certain styles of climbing
2. incorrectly graded problems
3. they are only correct if you climb outside quite a lot
And these would have a great impact on the grades.

So the idea was to introduce the, albeit subjective, stable redpoint/flash where you expect to be able to do most problems of this grade regardless of style (and would also allow you to add your estimate to the mix if needed).

For example, I found a 7C boulder that I could do all the moves on quite easily but I'd say I'm only stable around 7A+.

I'll try and improve the description of the stable redpoint/flash in the next release!

In reply to Richard Hermanson:


Thanks. Found the store but number of applications listed is zero?

In reply to Richard Hermanson:
Hi Richard, any updates on your app yet?

Just re tried all the initial fitness tests, and I'm encouraged to see I'm improving consistantly on hang times/max weights.

Nice little app!

In reply to stp:

Sorry I didn't get any notification that a reply was posted. It was up for a week or so but since it didn't work with multiple versions I later decided to remove it. If you want I could send you an apk instead?

In reply to zimpara:

Sorry for the late response. Nice to hear that you're making improvements! Personally I'm working on my weighted pullups (I didn't know that was a weakness of mine before starting this).

I've put up some updates and I'm currently working on another that will improve the predictions

In reply to Richard Hermanson:

Nice one. How many downloads does the app have now? Will update it tomorrow