Davis Stewart describes Synergy Climbing and Ninja as a "climber's gym." The sprawling facility - a partnership between world-famous climber Lisa Rands, Tennessee Bouldering Authority and "American Ninja Warrior" Isaac Caldiero - opened on East Main Street earlier this year, and is already carving out a name for itself, says Stewart.
Much of that has to do with the routes, he says.
But what makes a good route? We sat down with Davis, Synergy's head route setter, to find out.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE A GOOD ROUTE?
I would say it's very movement-based, so it translates well to outdoor rock climbing. It's not tweaky* ... it flows very well. It happens less on the lower-end grades, but typically we like to get creative with the movements that we're trying to force on the wall in route setting. There could be another way to do it, but if we do a good job, we will force the movement that we want.
*Tweaky: The opposite of fluid, when a move or hold is uncomfortable and unnatural-feeling.
WHAT'S MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU WHEN SETTING A ROUTE?
Safety is one. We don't want to put a move on the wall that's dangerous ... whether it's the fall could be dangerous, the way that you're doing the move, or a finger or foot getting stuck in a hold or something like that. The other big thing is creativity, keeping it fresh, doing new movements. Diversity of style is another big thing ... Also, accessibility is a big thing in route setting - probably one of the biggest things. We have a lot of strong, short climbers here, like 5-foot tall ... so we need to keep an eye out for the moves not being too big. A lot of gyms fall flat when it comes to that.
Photo contributed Jennifer Bardoner / Davis Stewart, Synergy Climbing and Ninja's head route setter, says he gets his inspiration from watching videos, climbing outdoors and listening to the gym members.
WHERE DO YOU GET INSPIRATION FROM?
I watch a lot of climbing videos ... so if I see a cool move in a competition, I'm like, "Oh yeah, I want to see that on our wall. I want to try that for myself." And then the same thing goes for outside. If we get inspired by a move that's outside and we want to replicate it in here, then we'll put that one move on the wall and then set a different entrance and a different exit to it.
HOW OFTEN DO YOU SET NEW ROUTES?
We set twice a week - Mondays and Thursdays - and we do it by zone. We'll set like a 20-foot section of the wall at a time and there'll be maybe 15 new boulders that go up in that section. There are 12 zones in here, so it's like a six-week turnover.
DO YOU EVER SET CUSTOM ROUTES?
I definitely do. If someone has either a move in mind or one of those simulator boulders that they're trying because they want to replicate a move outside, if I know what boulder they're talking about or if I've seen a video of it, I'll try to at least put the moves that they're trying to work on on the wall. Or if someone just has an idea and I'm like, "Oh, yeah, that's a good idea," I'll try that.
... [Trying] something that's out of your range is the best way to improve ... [There's] a lot of falling on a move that is too hard ... but that's the only way to learn to move and get better at it.