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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Mind games, visualisation & being in the 'zone'. 6-Aug-2005 At 10:25:09 PM socialclimber

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A little deception I've been using to good effect lately is not to look in the guide. A few weeks ago we went to an old, out of the way crag that had some new lines on it. At the time we thought no guide existed for it. I got on what I decided was a 17 to warm up. I had to work for it but I made the onsight with no falls. To cut a short story shorter, we got hold of a guide for the crag a week or two later. The "17" was a 20. at the time, I was very comfortable on 17's and only doing 20's on a good day, and I ceartanly didn't onsight them.

I've done another half a dozen 19 and 20's , trad and sport, in the same fashon, since then and now I'm actually looking at lines I know the grade of but judging if I can do them from what I can see rather than what I've read.

I accidently got myself into a good headspace but what it resulted in is a better focus. I'm thinking about what gear I'll need and how I'm going to employ it. I'm working out sequences and lines before I get off the ground. So I'm not dragging redundant gear up trad lines and I'm climbing more efficiently on sport routes.

Over all, while I still have to work for them, I'm no longer at my limit on 20,s. Thats a solid three grade improvment in about six weeks. I've challenged myself to be doing 23 sport routes by Xmas.

This is really worth a crack. Next time you are at an unfamiliar part of the crag, don't open the guide book, just look at a line and ask yourself if you can do it. Works for me.