Fear of falling

This indoor season at Klatreverket has seen some pretty good routes set by some surprisingly young and talented girls: Tina, Anine, and Hannah.

Tina set one route which was causing me a lot of grief. Not only were moves hard, but the top was committing and run-out. As if that's possible on an indoor wall.

I'd been working this route for a while, falling (or rather giving up) when the last bolt was at my feet, the next had to be skipped and I was getting pumped.

Around this time I bought Dave McLeods "9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes". Strangely enough he pinpoints the fear of falling as a limiting factor in sport climbing. And he suggests jumping from the anchors on every climb as the antidote to this fear.

So I decided to try this out. And, this may not come as surprise to you, it works! Tina's route has been sendt, allthough with a slightly different clipping sequence.

What is important though, which Dave stresses quite a lot, is that to overcome your fear of falling, you must fall all the time. It doesn't help to have one session where you practise falling and then think you're cured.

Oh. And make sure you have a belayer you trust. And buy the book!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Ut på tur

Som klatrer er man jo iblandt på klatretur. Og skal man på tur vil man være i form. De riktig avanserte snakker om å toppe formen. Som regel så innebærer dette for oss klatrere å trene hardere enn noen sinne. Er det rart det går i dass?

Selv om man lager seg et opplegg der man trapper ned på mengde samtidig som man øker intensiteten, får man likevel et problem.

Fordi man trapper ned på mengden, klatrer man mindre. Samtidig nærmer avreisedagen seg og man blir mer og mer gira. I tillegg til at man begynner å kjenne seg sterkere fordi formen begynner å komme, så er det jo nesten umulig å ikke trene livet av seg, bare fordi det funker så bra. Masse overskudd, sterkere enn på lenge. Så skal man sitte stille? Er det mulig?

Nei, det er jo egentlig ikke det. Så hva gjør man? Man kan bruke tiden til å tenke gjennom hva man ønsker med turen, se på klatrefilmene man har sett tusen ganger før eller rett og slett sove. For det skal også være bra for restitusjonen.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]