Climbing Solid?
Dear Steph,
I guess I’m looking for some advice:
Without sounding big headed climbing is something that I’ve always had a natural ability at,
although when I was younger I didn’t have the chance to focus on climbing. I’m now 22 and
have started to dedicate more time to climbing, its an amazing escape for me and I love
the beauty of just letting my body move on instinct.
I live in the UK and at the moment can only boulder indoors, like I say I’ve only really started
putting serious time into my climbing in the last 6 weeks or so, I’m currently climbing
at 6b, basically I don’t want to fall into any massive traps.
What would you suggest I work on to help keep my climbing solid and controlled,
I love climbing on tiny holds because of the precision and delicate moves but
feel insecure on sloping holds.
Any advice would be gratefully received, I don’t particularly want to climb really hard
stuff but I want what I do climb to be controlled and focused.
Thanks
Bec
Dear Bec,
Thanks for writing to me. It’s great that you have a specific idea of what you’d like to focus on, in the way climbing feels when you do it. I think that’s already the first step.
One way to feel more in control when you climb is to repeat moves again and again, and really take them apart, just like you do when working a project at your limit. When you first try a move and you can’t do it, usually you try it until you can do it. If you want to really take it apart, you should keep trying it more, after you can do it, until you find the way to do it with the least amount of energy. This is just like yoga–at first certain positions feel painful and hard to stay in, and after a lot of repetition, your body feels more comfortable. When I go through this exercise in climbing, it also reminds me of learning to play music. When I was young, I played piano fairly seriously. Sections that were hard took a long time to take apart and master. Being able to play a difficult section of a piece was not enough, because I wasn’t guaranteed to play it right when I got to it. So the first time of being able to play a hard section was so far from being done with my work on it, and was more like the beginning. It wasn’t ready until I could play that part backwards and forwards, and know that when I got there in a performance or a high pressure moment, my hands absolutely knew what to do. I think you can do this same sort of practice with moves or sections of a climb, and usually that’s what I try to do with cruxes. You can go from desperately squeaking through a crux, to feeling like you are climbing it with graceful efficiency, if you give it that kind of practice.
The other important part of climbing more in control is building strength. The longer you can hold on without getting tired, the more time you have. When you can take your time, you can find the best holds to use and the best ways to grip them, and be more relaxed in each move. We know climbing demands strength in every way, but improving your core strength and finger/upper body strength will really give you a lot of time when you need it. Knowing you have strength to spare, and that you can hang on for a while, also gives you a lot of mental confidence.
Doing all of these things will make you even more solid on the rock, and probably will also help you to push at your limit a little too, if you find yourself interested in that.
Enjoy!
🙂 Steph
