Climbing Paradigms
Hi Steph
I’m sending you this question because I see that you run lots of women specific climbing courses, and obviously are an experienced female climber yourself.
In the last few years there’s been a lot of very positive work to encourage more women to try climbing and to progress in climbing. I live in the UK and over here we have the Womenclimb organisation as well as the Womens’ Climbing Symposium and the Womens’ Trad Festival – all amazing, positive operations and I’m so happy to see that more women are being encouraged in this life and body affirming sport.
My question to you is: do you have any advice on how to encourage women to be confident and to celebrate their climbing ability?
To explain my question; I have been reaching out to lots of women climbers recently and joining in with womens’ climbing groups. As a rule these groups tend to be very supportive but so often I notice an odd mentality, in which everybody is really keen to verbalise negative thoughts (“I’m too weak for that route”, “I’m scared of leading”) and everybody downplays their ability. I myself felt too ashamed to mention the grade of a recent redpoint that I was proud of sending. It seems as though nobody wants to be shown to be ‘the best’ for fear of being singled out. Because of this negative mentality, sometimes psych can be quite low.
From my experience of climbing a little friendly competition is a good thing! (“Well done on sending that route, I best gear myself up to send it too”) and why not talk about what you’re proud of? (“I really want to get on that crimpy route; I’ve got strong fingers so I think that it’ll suit me!”). I know that quite a few women join all female climbing groups because perhaps they lack confidence but I think a culture of positive talk might help with that.
Any advice or insight from you would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you
Clare
Hi Clare,
Thanks for getting in touch and for your questions. Confidence is an enormous part of climbing, and life. It’s something I think about quite a bit also. I agree with you that gender can appear to have a connection with both under- and overconfidence. Frankly overconfidence concerns me (and irritates me) a lot more than underconfidence, because having an unrealistic view of one’s abilities is often dangerous in extreme environments. Being willing to take risks even while questioning one’s abilities, cultivating a “beginner’s mind” and having a great deal of respect for gravity is a real balancing act, in my opinion. In recent years in my women’s clinics, I’ve seen women navigating that balance very gracefully and offering uncomplicated support to each other, along with respect for both the environment and themselves. It has been extremely inspiring!
I think that many sports and outdoor activities are caught within a paradigm of quantification and competitiveness. For those who want to participate for reasons outside that paradigm (community, confidence-building, fun, health, adventure), those elements can create feelings of pressure that may get expressed as an upfront lack of desire to be competitive or quantified. I think the most important thing is to be conscious of those paradigms and understand that we do not have to accept them–our climbing experience is our climbing experience and does not have to be dictated by anyone else’s perception of what climbing is or what has “value” in climbing. The paradigm of “firstest, fastest, mostest” is just one paradigm, and it does not have to define the experience of all climbers. Having that understanding can remove the feeling of pressure and allow people to really blossom and enjoy their time on the rock. I would encourage you to think deeply about how these paradigms may influence climbing and people’s experiences, and have that conversation with your group: it may open doors to a lot of creativity, freedom and totally unexpected directions!
Steph
