[ShortRound]

I had read that too, I was trying to make a joke.

Must make better use of those emoticons in future.....

[slackline]

 

[shark]

I had read that too, I was trying to make a joke.

Stick to the day job. Talking of which are you able to take this friday off again?

[ShortRound]

Stick to the day job. Talking of which are you able to take this friday off again?

Unfortunately not, running out of leave days and want to save some for March when the left hand side might be drier. Sunday is a possibility providing the wife doesn't object (too much) to me climbing on the only day off she has this weekend......

[comPiler]

Seb
10 February 2012, 11:26 am

I first met Seb in October 1984. It was the start of my second year at Nottingham University. I had been climbing for a year and was by then Secretary of the Mountaineering Club.

It was freshers week and one of the duties was to man the Club's stall enticing Freshers to sign up to the Club and part with their cash. We usually got lots signed up but there was a high dropout rate of those that actually went on to take up the sport.

One of the club members, Pete Dalton (Dolly), brought a couple of his friends with him. One of them was tall and loud with a 9 inch rainbow coloured mohican. He rode in on a skateboard and signed up. His university membership card instead of the normal passport ID photo had a picture of an oilrig. He did a circuit of the hall and disappeared. I thought 'What a prat. That's the last we'll see of him'.

I was, of course, wrong. Seb went climbing with Dolly and got the bug. It was severall weeks before I climbed with him. We went to High Tor on the bus. It was a rubbish November day. I did Highlight and Original Route in horrible weather just to get something done. Although he admited later he got scared he didn't show it on the route and it didn't put him off climbing. He was incredibly determined, obstinate even from the outset. Once at Millstone we needed to get back for some do. Seb kept trying and trying Technical Master. Pissed off, we all went and waited in the car. We had to wait for some time before he trotted up beaming having done it and couldn't understand why we were annoyed. 

Seb moved in diffrent social circles to me at Uni. He lived with Dolly and other whacky types in a large madhouse on Lenton Boulevard which seemed to revolve around clubbing and trendy parties. I was (and remain) unfashionable and a pub man. Dolly's bedroom was a windowless room in the basement. Seb got frustrated at trying to get Dolly up early in the morning to go climbing. One morning Dolly was woken to see breakfast being lowered to him from the ceiling on a tray. Seb had cut a hatch in the floor.

Seb and I climbed together a lot over the next few years putting up new routes in the Peak and had some great trips around the UK and a long trip to Norway. I distinctly recall the pressure of competition as he got better which spurred me to push myself to onsight my first E5 by the absolute skin of my teeth. (Jermyn Street though it was given E4 at the time).

I gave up competing with him shortly after.

We went to Froggatt and I tried to solo Heartless Hare which I'd led some time before with a siderunner. Seb stuck his head over the top of the crag and started pulling faces and making stupid noises to make me laugh. I backed off the route. Gritstone had never suited me, slabs especially, I reasoned. Seb soloed Heartless starting a campaign that led him to onsight all of the Great Slab routes over the next couple of weeks.

He was away...

Source: The Shark

[Fiend]

I once burnt Seb off on a problem at a Foundry bouldering comp. Admittedly he was trying to do it stylishly and statically and I just lunged and scrabbled my way up...

[comPiler]

I really wanna see those fingers
26 February 2012, 7:34 pm

Hold the front page, WTF, OMG, LOL etc It's official. I have stronger fingers thaqn Steve McClure!!

This isn't some random Steve McClure with a beer belly I met in a pub but the actual 58kg 9a Ste Mac of steel mutant finger strength fame. When I say I have stronger fingers I specifically mean my back two fingers on the Foundry beastmaker.

Yesterday during a lull in the Youth Climbeing series comp I was chatting to him  comparing notes on our training besides the beastmaker. Without warming up I was able to comfortably hang the small pockets with my back 2 which is something he has been training towards but not done yet.

As I have always regarded my fingers as uncommonly weak for the grade I climb so this was a bolt from the blue. So what does it mean?

Me first. Further messing about revealed that my back2 were disproportionally stronger on the pocket than my mid2 or front2 combos. When using the back 2 there was also some kind of sidewise action going on that meant that in the pocket my pinkie was in a half crimp and almost hanging off the joint whereas for the the other two combos I was in an open position that was weaker. So lesson one. The relative lengths of diffrent fingers to each other in respect of diffrent holds matters not only because the fingers are forced into different angles but also because there are diffrent ways to hold the same hold. Take the final pocket of Powerband. I can get all 4 fingers in a half crimp on that whereas most mainly cam the front 2 in where there is a constriction or, if your Barrows, then a mid2 finger drag works best.

Turning to Steve his world class finger strength is based on his amazing ability to bone down on 4mm wide minging crimps which very few can hang let alone pull on - one  after the other. However, his ability to use better first joint holds is not as good as many it seems. In addition he is also working other weaknesses by practicing one armers on slots. However, the fact he has got so far without addressing these weaknesses shows what leveraging stand out talents can do.

So rather than taking a general view of having weak fingers it would be more instructive to analyse the various facets of strength - contact strength, hang strength, foot-on, foot off, differing finger combos, grip types and the ability to either hang or pull on the holds. I'm sure in more developed sports they do this sort of thing as a matter of course.

Source: The Shark

[Fiend]

Well go climb some 9bs then!

[shark]

Well go climb some 9bs then!

Know any that depend exclusively on shallow back2 pockets ?

[Fiend]

Nope. Try asking someone like Steve McClure, he might know?

[abarro81]

Finger strength on specific holds is definitely a weird one. Mark has a similar thing with back 2 - he seems to be able to lock his fingers somehow in the small (lower) pockets, and thus easily burn the likes of me and bob off on those holds. Even on holds which 'should' be the same it can be very specific to finger length/size etc I think - e.g. there are 4 finger edges which Bob can hang 1-armed and I can't, but there are 4-finger edges which I can hang 1-armed and he can't, all just depending on how the holds fit your fingers.

My conclusion is that whilst fingerboarding is good training, and getting better at hanging holds will help you climb harder, actual performance compared to others on any given hold is fairly irrelevant unless you can burn them off on all holds and grip types. Also, I think it points towards the fact that it's probably good to mix it up - if you're down the foundry then don't spend all the time hanging off the beastmaker, play around with the other boards too since the holds will put your fingers in subtly different positions and thus I think gains might be more transferable to 'real' holds.

Incidentally, I actually front 3 crimp the powerband hold, though many do mid 2 drag it.

[Johnny Brown]

the fact he has got so far without addressing these weaknesses shows what leveraging stand out talents can do.

Are you suggesting Steve's stand-out talent is 'boning down on 4mm wide minging crimps'? Because I have heard, from a considerably higher authority, that it is in fact TENACITY.

[shark]

Well put - better than my blog post in fact which was a bit of a brain dump. Yes I recall it was you that told me about others doing the two finger drag rather than it being your way of doing it.

Also I'm not sure that geetting carried away with working the full variety of grip types is required if it distracts from training/applying full force to your main and preferred grip types is what will get you up the routes and perhaps work a wierd grip type if it is something that is causing you problems on a specific move.

As you once said (hopefully quoting you happy this time) "there is more than one way to skin a cat / crush a route" 

[shark]

the fact he has got so far without addressing these weaknesses shows what leveraging stand out talents can do.

Are you suggesting Steve's stand-out talent is 'boning down on 4mm wide minging crimps'? Because I have heard, from a considerably higher authority, that it is in fact TENACITY.

I'm only interested in the physical aspects of talent.

Motivational/psychological aspects are in a box marked "difficult" next to another one marked "technique".

[Nibile]

I found out that to hang the small pockets back2, I needed to half crimp my ring finger and try and get the pad of the little on. not dragging them. also, I need to squeeze them together, otherwise the two fingers split, knuckles pointing out in opposite directions, and I lose grip.
it's happened to me on rock also. I remember that for a route I used to tape my mid2 together, otherwise a pointy undercling would split them and I could not pull.

[comPiler]

Soap
18 May 2012, 8:10 am

Setting: 8.30am on a friday morning in a kitchen in Sheffield,  

Me: What are we doing next weekend ? I was thinking of going to North Wales. Someone I know is having a 50th birthday party there.

Her: (Checking calendar) Tommy is in Edale all weekend but Ben and Poppy aren't doing anything specifically other than the usual

Me: So it's OK if I go?

Her: (Pained look on face) I suppose so. I guess you will be leaving Saturday morning

Me: Or Friday night...

Her: We never get to do anything together.

Me: What do you mean? We've been to two black tie dos over the last two weekends.

Her: No, we never get to do anything spontaneous like other families

Me: Other families are boring

Her: What I mean is I come home on Saturday knackered and take all day to recover and by the time I think it would be nice to have a picnic or a bicycle ride you're off climbing or something

Me: So you don't want me to go?

Her: I didn't say that

Me: I don't mind not going. We can plan to do something else instead

Her: That's my point, its not spontaneous

Me: Shall we plan to do something spontaneous

Her:

Me: How do you fancy a weekend in North Wales next weekend...

Source: The Shark

[ShortRound]

  Brilliant.

[Wood FT]

Soap
18 May 2012, 8:10 am



Me: Other families are boring

right on

[iain]

 

[slackline]

Enjoy the party in Wales!   

[rich d]

So are you going?

[shark]

So are you going?

Negotiations will resume later this evening

[rich d]

Make sure you do, this is more exciting than waiting to see if you can sleep in a car with a sleeping bag in a carpark in Scotland without getting too cold.

[tomtom]

(just)

[Duncan Disorderly]

Bravo

Reads like an episode of my life

:D