Circus training for climbing

[pigsteak]

funny funny guys..no one ever said take off more than 4 weeks.

[pigsteak]

in fact, I bet professional football, bball, abd baseball payers all take at least a month off in the off season....trust me, climbing is no more motor skill oriented than these.

[dustonian]

funny funny guys..no one ever said take off more than 4 weeks.

Seriously. If you wanna train day and night and enjoy it, then by all means do it. But if you find yourself aching and burned out mid-to-late October as I did, then you should perhaps reconsider (notably, I didn't have this problem while living in Yosemite)... if you have other athletic interests, then pursue those... or read a book, go skiing, ride a bike, knit a sweater, bake a pie, whatever. Not everything revolves around how hard a number you're climbing, after all. For me it's completely re-energizing and I come back in January way more motivated and fresh... but that's just me. After 17 years I'm not too worried about losing a month's worth of "fitness" (& tendinitis)... besides, it's a good excuse to get out and bolt projects for next season (which ironically is probably more abusive than climbing itself!).

In any case, I do wonder exactly what people are training for right now... I mean, the prime season just ended 3 weeks ago and now you're already busy punishing your connective tissue for... March? Weird. I can see it for a competition climber, but for the average, run-of-the-mill 5.12 or 5.13 climber (who has to climb 5-10-15 years to get to that level) it seems kind of overzealous in my opinion. But then, I just climb for fun, so what do I know?

On another note, back in my Cirque du Soleil rigging days I would take some of the acrobats out climbing pretty often (gymnasts/Spanish web/silk/trapeze)... these people are utterly amazing athletes, climbing hard 5.11 on their second day out, 12a/b on their third, and onsighting the slackline like it's a field intoxication test!

[the lurkist]

If taking a month off sounds so absurd and is difficult for you to imagine not flogging your body for 4 weeks, perhaps that speaks to the problem....
Can you say asymptote/ plateau?

[dustonian]

Also let's not forget about Craig Berman:

http://www.rockandice.com/articles/keit ... bermanator

[climb2core]

Interesting history of the Terminator, a chipped 14a route that Craig Berman sent at age 19...

http://www.basilisk.com/ekclimbing/ekTerminator.html

[Yasmeen]

tbwilsonky: Nice! I was waiting for the 7-ball routine, though... don't be shy!

dustonian: That's awesome about the Cirque du Soleil athletes - it would've been fun to be at the crag that day and seen people's faces.

SCIN: If you want to work on your trapeze game, come on up to Newport on the Levee over the summer. It's great for your back.

[SCIN]

Why are you guys being so mean and fucking with me over the training I want to do? You treat it like it's a joke or something. It obviously works. Look at Tbwilsonky. He pulled off the greatest circus trick of all times and it was obviously due to his juggling skills. He actually found the elusive "best bouldering in Kentucky".

[rjackson]

Why are you guys being so mean and fucking with me...

They just don't get it.



NOTE I found that wearing the really big shoes and tripping a lot seriously helped my footwork.

ALSO I know that there's another thread, but I would highly recommend any of the Harlem Globetrotters videos for inspiration during rest days.

[JR]

I wouldn't be surprised if David Graham jogged(to keep his weight down) to the circus(all about them skilz) 2 days a week and took 1 month off(to recharge) in the winter and summer. No wonder he is such a good climber!!!