You Can't Do If You Don't Try.

Each failure.. ..will increase your chances for success at your next attempt
Og Mandino (1923 - 1996)

First off sorry about the long time since my last blog, time has been in short supply of late. I was considering writing a piece about some technical aspect of climbing, body positioning or slab technique or something similar but recent climbing based activity has slightly altered the content of this wittering.

So instead I am going to share with you this little nugget of wisdom:

If you want to do a climb, you first need to try it.

If your aim is to climb 8a (a very common goal) doing some training is excellent, working your weaknesses, getting stronger, improving stamina and a host of other things is all very good. But if you don't get on an 8a you'll never do an 8a. This is true at any and every grade. So if you aspire to a certain grade, pick a route/boulder problem of that grade that you think will suit you and get on it. Even if you're dogging your way up it or working each individual move. Then go away and address the areas of your climbing that fall short. Or alternatively decide that the route/problem you thought was the one for you in fact isn't, and then you can get on a different one until you find one that does suit.

There is an obvious caveat here of course. This doesn't work so well with trad onsighting, I'm certainly not suggesting that if you fancy on-sighting a bold E8 you should just have a go. Trad on-sighting is a different game, and is definitely NOT covered by this post.

Of course the alternative is to not be bothered about reaching a particular grade, after all it's not all about the grade is it? Is it?

See you at the crag, I'll be the one hanging from a bolt of a route a few grades too hard for me :o)

Footwork - The Very Basics

I dazzle you with that footwork.

Bobby Darin

Think about where you want to put your foot
Put your foot there
Don't move you foot again until you need to

Simple.

OK, so it's a bit more complicated than that...

Think about where you want to put your foot:

Which foothold do you want to use? Which part of the foothold? Which part of your boot do you want to use? Will a toe be most effective? Or an outside edge? Or a heel? What will be the orientation of you foot? In which direction will you be applying force? Etc...

Put your foot there:

Exactly there where you have been planning, not near there or around there, or there but at a different angle. Put the bit of your boot that you want on the hold on the hold, and put it on the bit of the hold you want it on. Be precise.

Don't move your foot again until you need to:

A sure sign of sloppy footwork is constant little adjustments, if you're foot is in the right place and at the right orientation it shouldn't need to be moved.

Obviously these are ideals to aim for, even climbers with very good footwork will spend a lot of time not using their feet in this perfect manner, after all smears can creep, sequences can be misread, other things can happen. But if you can aspire towards following those three simple guidelines then you'll provide yourself with a sound base on which to build good footwork.

Newton Roolz

Ye cannae change the laws of physics.

Scotty, The Enterprise

A few years ago in the face of some apple based inspiration Newton came up with a handful of rules regarding the operation of the world around us and, with the exception of the weirdness that occurs when you look at very small things, these rules have remain pretty much unchanged. Which is nice, but what's this got to do with climbing?

Well I'll tell you. Often when someone (usually but not exclusively Mr Dawes) performs some mind-bending feat of climbing it is described as if the individual was “at one with the rock” or “as if the laws of physics don't apply”. It's all very inspiring sounding but in terms of learning and improving your own climbing pretty much valueless. Nobody can cheat the laws of physics, there are two elements to climbing:

Your biology which will limit what your body can do

The laws of physics which will limit what a body with your biology can climb

So when somebody out-climbs you it's not because they are “at one with the rock” but because they are doing something which you are not. It may be something as basic as they are stronger than you, or it could be a minor positional tweak (their flagging foot is 5cm further left than yours giving them a more balanced position). But whatever the difference is it certainly is not their oneness with the rock (or any other equally meaningless flim-flam). If you want to improve don't accept that a better climber than you is “just better”, work out what the difference is and then you have a weakness to address. And don't fall into the trap of thinking it's just because they are stronger, that may well be the case but it often isn't (more often than most people realise...).

Having said all the above lets not completely remove the romance from climbing. I've had days when the sun has been shining, it's been cold and crisp, the crag has been deserted and a flurry of soloing has gone effortlessly and as I sit on the crag top drinking my cup of tea with the dog lying at my feet I will think back to how a few minutes ago I was climbing at one with the rock. Because after all when the analysis and training is complete who doesn't deserve a little inspirational flim-flam back-patting?

Know Thyself

Until we see what we are, we cannot take steps to become what we should be.
Charlotte P. Gilman

If you want to get somewhere you've never been before (Basingstoke for example) then it's handy to have a map. But that map is worthless if you don't know where you're starting from. If you know where you are then the map becomes very useful and can (if you read it correctly, and it's an accurate map) lead you to exactly where you want to go.*

Improving at climbing is a lot like trying to get to Basingstoke. It's all very well and good reading various articles in magazines and on the net about training but if you don't know where you are it's very hard to take effective steps to get somewhere new. So before embarking on a new cycle of training utilising the latest research on micro and macro cycles and such like take a moment (or indeed several moments) to assess where you actually are in terms of your climbing. I know you've read this “self assesment” stuff before, but that's because it's true.

How you do this appraisal of your own climbing is quite important. That's not to say there is a “right” way to do it and all other options lead to failure and disappointment, but it's helpful to keep in mind why you are doing the review. The idea is to give a reasonably accurate picture of where your climbing is and (very importantly) where your weaknesses lie. Some people will construct tables scoring different aspects of their climbing out of 5 (or 10), some people (like me) will have a slightly less structured (but no less accurate) view of their climbing. It really doesn't matter the exact approach you take as long as you can draw effective conclusions from your results.

I will however give two top tips for assessing your climbing:

1) Avoid overly general statements

“I'm good at slabs” is too general. People have said to me “you really like slabs don't you?” several times over the years, the implication being that I am good at slab climbing based on me having climbed some tricky slab routes. It's a fair comment but in terms of assessing my climbing almost meaningless because when I reply “yes I do...” there is an unsaid series of caveats rolling through my head “...as long as they don't involve bridging, or really reachy moves or very small sharp holds or anything involving frog legs or...”. To the extent that saying I like slabs is not saying very much. Rather than “I'm good at slabs” the thinking should be a bit more specific:

I'm good at smearing on slabs

I'm good at high-steps

I'm good at balancing on slabs

I'm bad at bridging

Etc etc

2) Don't get bogged down in minutiae

This is the opposite end of the scale, if you know you can hang on for 5 seconds on a 15mm flat edge on a 40º board and 3 seconds on a 10mm flat edge on a 40º board and 7 seconds on a 15mm edge on a 30º board and etc etc etc etc, then you know a lot but (dare I suggest) you may be over-analysing? Whilst you need enough data to assess your current climbing weaknesses and strength too much data will muddy the waters, perhaps all the above would be better said as “pretty good on crimps on steep ground”?

Anyway as so often in life the ideal is to aim for the middle ground where you have enough information to make an assessment but not so much that you need a supercomputer to analyse the results. The scoring system seems like a good starting point to me so maybe try that first. Once you have some information you can start to address your weaknesses and imbalances in your climbing, and that's where progress is made.

*Having a coach is a bit like having a GPS in that the coach can work out where you are then give you directions to Basingstoke from there. Although obviously the more involved you are in the process and the better you understand your climbing the sooner you'll get there. Also, in common with a GPS, you need to tell your coach you want to go to Basingstoke. Otherwise he might direct you to Swindon, and nobody wants that do they?