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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Author

A valuable lesson

Winston Smith

30/07/2010
1:04:47 PM

My wife reckons I’ve got two left feet which was a problem when I turned up at the St Peters climbing gym last night with two right-foot climbing shoes – the result of shoving stuff into my backpack in the dark.

The solution was to hire a pair of clunky hire shoes that were OK for length but which felt like clown shoes on my narrow feet.

Not wishing to drag the chain, I decided to not let the “bad” footwear, or my whining about it, ruin the session.

As a result a strange thing happened – my footwork seemed to get better!

It seems that worrying about the quality of my footwear made me use my feet in a more active and beneficial way – placing feet carefully and deliberately, gripping with my toes, in short being much more technical in the way I placed my feet. (It probably also helped that I’d been reading David MacLeod’s book “9 out of 10 Climbers Make the Same Mistakes” in which he talks at length about making your feet work harder).

Even on the smallest holds or when smearing – where my fear was greatest that I’d slip – things went well. It was probably the best – and most tiring – session I’ve had in a while.

It’s not often in climbing that forgetting something turns out to be a bonus.

IdratherbeclimbingM9

30/07/2010
1:20:15 PM

Ay, I am stoked forya Winston. Thanks for sharing the lesson.

>It’s not often in climbing that forgetting something turns out to be a bonus.

You are right. This also applies to the chosen rack. I have found some climbs (talking free climbing here), way more satisfying when fear of the runout is faced. Instead of overcoming the climb with the pseudo-courage found in gear, the reliance on 'self', and technique, is much more fulfilling.

Duncan

30/07/2010
1:49:28 PM

My old flatmate once pulled the same trick, except that he jammed the right foot shoe onto his left foot and bouldered anyway.

voodoo

30/07/2010
1:52:48 PM

I find expensive, high performance shoes do nothing for my climbing in the gym. Even the smallest foot holds in the gym are many times larger than the thin creases we climb all day on outdoors. And with the wall textures being like the world's largest piece of 40 grit sandpaper, smearing is just an exercise in rounding all the edges off your $250 shoes. I'm definitely a proponent of the save your goodun's for the crag and keep some cheap and cheerful's for the gym. Not only are you right in saying that your foot technique needs to be careful and considered with the lesser shoe, but you also get the added bonus of the psychological edge of ditching the toyotas for the ferraris when you face up to that big project on the weekend! :)

$80 sale shoes all the way, I say. (although it only takes a quick glance around the gym for me to realise this advice well and truly swims against the tide!)

MonkeyBoy

30/07/2010
3:39:03 PM

I love my old red chillis that are moore like comfy slippers for a bit of gym work and even warming up on the crag they have been re soled a few times and were never event every tighht in the first place - I find it (as mentioned above) really makes me concerntrate on my feet placements when warming up and training. I also like to try tougher problems in them and then if there is a tricky foot placement thats stumping me, crack out the nice and tight good shoes and it makes a massive difference - Its probably 90% mental and 10% in the actuial performance shoe but it feels great to change up those shoes and then smash the boulder problem / climb

dimpet

30/07/2010
5:01:24 PM

I think the age of the shoe/resole makes a bigger difference than the type of shoe.

martym

31/07/2010
7:54:03 AM

Haha, I found a pair of shoes that fit my foot perfectly, Mammut Bulldozers, so I have two pairs and have done that many times!
I was actually considering painting the right pair or something just so it wouldn't happen again...

On the footnote topic, I love the small gym on the right hand side at St Peters, you can hands-free a lot of the routes there, so you also don't lose juice when you go to tackle the overhanging stuff.

Olbert

1/08/2010
11:27:01 AM

I found exactly the same thing!! On a recent trip to QLD I wore out my A shoes in the first couple of days and by the end of the trip my B shoes needed resoling too. I am now back cranking at Nowra in my C grade shoes normally reserved for lending to bumblies and deep water soloing. I found that unless I am doing a route that has hard technical footwork or a hard heel hook move it hardly makes a difference.

mikepatt

2/08/2010
11:08:16 AM

Hi Rod, I hope the valuable lesson you've also learnt is to check your gear before you head out. Arriving at the the gym with two right shoes may have been an interesting exercise, but arriving at the base of Federation Peak and finding the same problem would be a real bugger...

There are 9 messages in this topic.