Personal Climbing Renascence, must you be born again?

[caribe]

so, maybe I need to stop being such an arrogant shit head and change my perspective on things.

Thanks guys for helping me get Phil to this point.

[512OW]

From the young phenom, Adam Ondra:

"In my early climbing years, I climbed almost just on-sight. Nobody advised me to do that, but I think it could be good advice for other climbers. I felt it is natural. It would not even come to my mind to be on one route more than one day. I would rather postpone it for a year later. "

"If I found some mega-hard project and I knew that I would need many attempts to send it, I wouldn’t try it but instead I’d wait a few years to get better and send it fast."

Now, seeing that he's done "Open Air", calling it his hardest ever... possibly and probably the worlds first 15a, in only 9 tries...

I wouldn't even think of projecting a route way over my head until it was apparent to me I wouldn't get better by climbing stacks of routes within my 5 or 6 try ability, with the occasional 10 try project thrown in. Just seems like a waste of time.

[Crankmas]

good thread caribe and interesting insight from the contributors

[ahab]

In my early climbing years, I climbed almost just on-sight.

early years? isn't he like 15? he must have been crankin' 12s, in utero.

[tutugirl]

Strong...my a** I am just plain stubborn. This sometimes is good and sometimes is bad. I was a ballet dancer before so yes I might have balance. I had no upper body strength, it took me 5 months to do one regular pull-up and I tried everyday and I lifted weights 3 days a week. I did not start early, I started at 34. It took me 1 1/2 years to get to the 12a level but just like Kris said it takes lots and lots of climbs at the lower levels to get there at the same time you can't be shy of the next level when you feel ready. The best thing I did was climb with people that were awesome so I could learn awesome technique, I thank Tony Berlier, KC and Rene for that...if you don't learn bad habits it helps a lot. I am by no means a great climber, I don't intend to this full-time all I want to do right now is find out how much I can push it, how old I can be and still improve, and most of all how much I can climb and continue climbing before RA (rheumatoid arthritis) gets the best of me...

[512OW]

I'll add this.

Before you make any attempt at getting "strong", paying attention to efficiency of movement, fluidity, and body positioning should be priority 1.

[512OW]

In my early climbing years, I climbed almost just on-sight.

early years? isn't he like 15? he must have been crankin' 12s, in utero.

Well, according to his 8a, since 2002 (at 9 years old) he's done 547 routes graded 13b and harder, 171 of which are 14a and harder.

To put it in perspective, in that same time period Dave Graham only did 350 routes at 13b and harder.

I'd say he has more experience at climbing hard than nearly anyone...

[Meadows]

paying attention to efficiency of movement, fluidity, and body positioning should be priority 1.

I had written my suggestions and accidently deleted it when I tried to edit. Here goes again ...

Technique is key to having a more efficient and comfortable climb. Caribe is wicked strong, but he climbs like a typical guy. Grab hold, pull up.

Something I've noticed about my climbing is my movement - I was moving off my arms. I'm not the most fluid [yet], but I found something to help: when you make a move, see to it that your feet are within the width of your body. If one foot is high and outside the width, you focus the movement on your upper body rather than the core. Reset your feet (typically, for me, that means bringing my left higher - I move more with my right). Now sometimes a move requires the foot outside the width of the body and that warrants a drop-knee or heel-hook (my fav!). It brings the movement back to center.

Here's what you should do - get on a climb that's easy for you and just practice concentrating on your movement. Super Pinch at Solar is my favorite for this because it flows well.

Down climb routes because you are forced to guide with your feet. Sunshine & Moonbeam are useful for this so you can stay on TR. Down lead Fuzzy (juggy section) when you're comfortable with that.

[captain static]

Before you make any attempt at getting "strong", paying attention to efficiency of movement, fluidity, and body positioning should be priority 1.

I took a private lesson from Jason and Tiffany Campbell that did more in one day for my climbing ability than months of training. They watched me climb a couple routes and gave me an assessment. The first thing Tiff said to me was you don't need to get any stronger. They gave me some pointers on footwork and some excercises to do on footwork including inside and outside flagging exercises.

It is not always easy to assess you're own strengths and weaknesses in technique because you cannot watch yourself climbing. Try to get some input from people like Meadows, TTG, Odub, etc.

[anticlmber]

i forgot about that caribe, you do climb like youre about to crush every hold for something that happened in your youth. relax, breathe, have fun. take your shirt off and oil up.