UKBouldering.com

Focus - on what? (Read 14931 times)

hstmoore

Offline
  • **
  • player
  • Posts: 100
  • Karma: +14/-0
#50 Re: Focus - on what?
March 03, 2015, 11:07:30 am
I've just got back from my first european sport trip and two things that really stood out to me were i) confidence and familiarity with the rock and ii) route reading.

i) Confidence. The rock in Chulilla was limestone and I haven't done much UK lime, mainly grit, so I found it hard to see which holds were good/bad, to the point where sometimes I would just have to to suck it and see as I couldn't judge the holds in advance. This meant that I lacked the confidence to commit/just go for it before I got used to the rock
.
Also, falling. I mainly climb trad, so when I'm soloing or on a long run out I don't really mind (I'm in a different headspace), but the prospect of falling and certainly being likely to fall still scares me. Practice falls are certainly a good way to address this. But, for me, when I encountered new rock is Spain, I was again nervous because of the unknown quantity.

From the above two points I would therefore recommend spending your first day/s out there getting used the rock and, in particular, taking practice falls. I think that getting comfortable with these things will pay dividends.

ii) Route reading. As I found it hard to see which holds were good, I found it difficult to read a good sequence from the ground/a rest. Fortunately, although this may be different where you're going due to the angle at the rock, at the grade I was climbing (up to 7b) there were sufficient rests which facilitate reading the routes at intervals.

I think that the above two problems can be addressed with one action: get on some rock that is as similar as possible to the rock you'll find in Spain. Practice lots of onsighting for route-reading on the fly type skills, and redpoint sequences you can't immediately read so you can work out the movement/skills required on that type of rock. Also, take loads of practice falls, and then take some more - getting this confidence will help you no end.

Hopefully these actions will help a lot and won't expose you to injury!

jwi

Offline
  • *****
  • forum hero
  • Posts: 4240
  • Karma: +331/-1
    • On Steep Ground
#51 Re: Focus - on what?
March 03, 2015, 01:57:39 pm
Also, on warm-ups: try to increase the speed. Practice reading the rock quickly.

 

SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal