Tondé Katiyo is an international route setter, coach and trainer. Setting for gyms and competitions around the globe. His RIC framework and vision on setting has been adopted by many in this modern world.
Table of contents
His aim is to create an experience, its not grades that will be remembered but the movement. Seeing someone come back to try and try a boulder you have set is the biggest compliment you can get.
The start
Growing up in Zimbabwe he started climbing at the age of 12. A teacher, Christophe Ducouret introduced him. While he was studying art in Canada in 1996 he walked in on a bouldering setting course with Fabrice Guillot. The teacher encouraged him to join as he said he would like it. These are now almost prophetic words as he never stopped after that.
Tondé Katiyo Bouldering
The Bouldering achievements of Katiyo are not know of. Although he sets boulders for the strongest competition climbers there is no documentation of any of his highest climbed grades indoor or outdoor.
Tondé Katiyo and setting boulders
Bringing outdoor climbing indoors. Translating movement into physical objects, Making climbing. Words that come to the mind of Tonde when he puts his skill into practice.
Holds and volumes are the tools, creativity is the connecting factor to the finished product: a climb that a climber want to try and try again.
“Winners don’t win by being strong at their strengths, they win at having few weaknesses” Tondé Katiyo
Tondé Katiyo advocate of the boulder setting skill
The boulder scena has evolved from small boulder gyms to the Olympics. From single gyms per country to multiple per city. Entrepreneurs have seen this evolution and evolved with it. Yet the conditions of the boulder setter had a more difficult time to evolve with this growing world. Tonde has been advocating that boulder setters are worth a fair pay, good training and have one of the most important roles in this sport. Without setters there will be nothing to climb in the gyms.
He advised and warned new setters: It’s a high demanding physical and mental job and the entry level pay is low.
Creative team play
Aside from the demands of the job physically and mentally this route setting job is relying on team work. It’s not a one man job to set a boulder. One person might have an idea and a creative concept but the boulder is tested and final decisions about safety and grade are made together.
A boulder is an experience that is highly influenced by the body dimensions. Setting a boulder requires a creative mind to create a boulder that fits a general public that varies in sizes and weights. And for all those people the boulder has to be appealing, safe and enjoyable, preferably a memorable experience.
Seattle bouldering project
February 2013 Katiyo was hired by the gym Seattle bouldering project as head route setter. Here Tonde made a few changes that reflected his philosophy.
First he introduced 270 volumes. With these he introduced firstly a new consistent collection of boulder shapes.
Second he introduced color coded circuits. He did not mention it, but it does mimic the circuits of Fontainebleau. The boulders with the same colors are the same grade and can be a training challenge to climb in a single session. This gave also the possibility to take out the colored tapes on the wall that were less appealing.
RIC framework
The Risk, Intensity and Complexity framework introduced by Tonde helped to set a step beyond grades. Each of these are the dimensions of a boulder. Each can be graded on a scale of 5.
Risk
Describes the risk of failing at a or multiple moves in a boulder. Imagine a dynamic boulder problem. Jumping from one hold to another might be an obvious move, it might not even cost a lot of energy, but the risk of falling off is big.
Intensity
The physical demand of a boulder. It might be obvious how to do a move, it might be very easy to grab the next hold. But when the hold is placed in an overhanging situation where the whole body is hanging from a single hand or a few fingers it will be very intense to finish the climb.
Complexity
The third aspect of the framework is less obvious. I have been building on a few boulders myself lately and I got the assignment to build a boulder that had a high complexity. So the boulder that I build was made of just a few holds. And if you had a look at it you would be taking a few looks before you would start it. And that is complexity. On average an experienced climber
This framework explains how different boulders can have the same grade but can feel totally different. An overhanging problem can have the same grade as a slab, but the overhanging one will be way more intense where the slab will probably be way more risky.
Sources
- Team Heavy — Tondé Katiyo — Interview covering Katiyo’s background, climbing career and approach to route setting.
- Climbing Business Journal — Movement Study: From Drill to Competition with Tondé Katiyo and Amin Abbasi — Discussion of movement analysis and the transition from training drills to competition climbing.
- Urban Climb — A Conversation with Professional Routesetter Tondé Katiyo — Interview about his career, route-setting philosophy, grading and advice for aspiring setters.
- Climbing Business Journal — French Setter Remakes Seattle — Video about Katiyo’s work at Seattle Bouldering Project and the changes he introduced to its setting programme.
- Power Company Climbing — Setting for the Future with Tondé Katiyo — Podcast discussion of his ideas about route setting and its future.
- The Nugget Climbing Podcast — Tondé Katiyo, Part 1 — Interview covering his background, coaching and approach to climbing.
- The Nugget Climbing Podcast — Tondé Katiyo, Part 2 — Follow-up discussion exploring his coaching and climbing philosophy.