New Years Resolutions

It's getting to that time of year so personally I know I'm thinking about what I'm going to be thinking about and aiming for next year.

It's easy to go with the attitude of going to the wall, or going out doing routes/mountains/whatever with no focus whatsoever. Just turning up and doing whatever you feel like, seeing small bits of progress every once in a while. The closest anyone gets to a plan is when it's a couple of weeks before the summer or before a trip, they run off to do some mileage at the local wall to gain some stamina....

But like all in all other sports, it's easy to integrate some rough plans and see even better gains - it all  revolves around the fact that your body gets bored of the same stimulus. Go to the wall day-in-day-out and just go bouldering, you're body will stop adapting to the same repetitiveness after a few weeks and you'll start to slow down in your improvements. Not completely stop improving, but your body just doesn't adapt as quickly. So variation is key.

Because I have a preference for route climbing (and bolted at that), I follow a rough variation of the systems as advocated by Eric Horst's book and numerous other plans - adapting to a block of fitness at the start to develop the basic adaptions to the body, then a few weeks of strength work, then a couple of weeks of power work (think dynos/campusing or explosive type of movement) and then a couple of weeks of trying hard routes (or intervals) if you see it mentioned online before going on a trip. I don't completely drop all other activities when I'm focusing on an area but will just reduce the amount I'm doing of it so my body can develop overall at the priority - e.g. I'll reduce the amount of climbing I'm doing massively when doing strength work as I don't want to be too tired from the aerobic work - so perhaps 75% of my week is strength work and the other 25% is a variation of general climbing, etc.

Another method of stimulating improvements is just modifying the amount of climbing you do. You normally go and do 10 routes at the wall? What if I was to tell you that in some other countries, they do 10 routes as a warm-up, and then do another 10 routes of difficulty, and another 5 to warm down? Why not try and increase the amount you do in a session by 10% every time (e.g. do 11 routes the first night, 12 the next, etc.) until you've increased by 50% and then start trying 10 harder routes and increase again. Variation is key!

This isn't for all, but perhaps you've been looking for an excuse to progress (at whatever your favorite discipline is) and this might be the time to think about it?......

Saturday psyche: 8b/V13 flash

Nalle Hukkataival flashing Crown of Aragorn (V13) from ZeroSkillz on Vimeo.

Nalle Hukkataival flashing a V13 boulder at Hueco Tanks joining the elite club to do so - only 5 or so people.

Hard. Core.

Comparison of movies....

I posted these on Facebook, but thought they deserved linking from here.
One retro (taken from the classic training book, Performance Rock Climbing - warning, 20+ minutes in length):




One recent (this week, produced by Adidas, now the proud owners of FiveTen):


On October 15th 2011, Adidas team athlete, Sasha DiGiulian became the first American women to climb the grade 9a (5.14d) with her historic ascent of "Pure Imagination" in Kentucky's Red River Gorge. Keith Ladzinski and Andy Mann (Three Strings Media) were there to capture her efforts and tell her story.

Turn off the sound before watching the videos, and enjoy the 2nd one!

In comparison to this (which I find hard to watch with the sound on), I came across this wonderful documentary on Christian Core, the first person to climb this problem (Gioia, the first V16/8c+ problem by all accounts after Adam Ondra, above, repeated it for the first time a couple of days ago).

Possibly one of the best interviews with a professional climber and I love his comments on climbing and traveling - makes me want to go on another trip! With some proper training beforehand first ;)

Thoughts? Do you want to travel to see different areas, or is climbing that you love just in your local area/country?

Personally, I could quote from the documentary - climbing was a fantastic means to go traveling. Something that I could use to see new locations, climb on amazing other rock, etc. Grades and performance were only a part of the experience, something that could develop through the years. Thoughts? Or is this too deep a question for the middle of the week :)

Update: I just posted this on Facebook about the Ondra video: "It's strange - I find Ondra's screaming very hard work to listen to - he's just not an enjoyable climber to watch in comparison to many others (although that 8c/8c+? onsight earlier in the year is stunning), but completely admire the full-on determination he brings to getting up routes/problems. Think I could learn something from him.....
As a quote on Twitter said this week: ""Ambition can outstrip ability with effortless ease." He may not look the strongest climber, but he sure can pull like one!

Review: 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes, by Dave MacLeod

Dave MacLeod, of hard trad/sport/ice/mountain fame, came out with this different, fascinating book (Amazon link). The short description is that its' text heavy, feels like you're reading a novel, but full of countless insights and ideas on improving your own performance by not falling into the usual traps. But it is very text heavy, in fact, it may as well not have any cover image, the rest of the book is so sparse for imagery!

This is most definitely not a beginner (as in 'I only started climbing a couple of weeks or months ago' beginner) but for anyone else, and especially if you haven't climbing overly long and want to skip many of the mistakes made by others, read this. Although, did I mention there's a lot of text?

Anyone who reads this blog and climbs a lot will recognise the common pitfalls: turning up at the wall with no plan, or getting distracted by other people's plans. It tries to turn you to focus your efforts into your goals.


This is definitely worth a read, but probably with a highlighter so you can go back through it again, or give to your mate so he can read the important parts.

9 Out of 10 Climbers Make the Same Mistakes: Navigation Through the Maze of Advice for the Self-coached Climber (Amazon link).

BBC sports personality of the year contender almost included a climber?!

The final World Cup Bouldering event of the year highlights - all can be found here






You know your sport is becoming more mainstream when you find out that a young GB athlete made the top-20 and almost the final top-10 of the BBC Young Sports Personality of The Year Award 2011. See the article here about it here.


What's interesting however, is if you got to the finalist page on the BBC and look at the list. All of the sports that made it (and usually make it) are traditional, well developed sport: athletics, boxing, rugby, etc. Times, they are a' changing.


If you want more info on how climbing is progressing in perception and visibility in the UK, Natalie Berry wrote up a great post recently about a trip to Westminister to promote for possible Olympic candidacy - I didn't know that Dame Kelly Holmes was a rock climber:

"She is a keen climber herself, and told of her trips to Fontainebleau, Stanage and of her fascination with the sport."

It's interesting, my climbing background (i.e. it being a non-mainstream sport, under the radar for most people, etc.) means that I see some of this in surprise/bemusement to see it getting publicity. How long before it's being discussed at Olympics....................