–

What’s the main difference between climbing and skiing? How each sport uses gravity. Movement is created differently in the two sports. When skiers commit to skiing down a slope, movement is created by the pull of gravity. Their intention is to balance their bodies over their skies and use the pull of gravity to create movement. Climbing goes against gravity. When climbers commit to climbing, gravity pulls them down and stops movement. Climbers need to climb in a way that creates movement. They do this by being intentional about how they choose to move.

–

We have a block of movement exercises that help students move intentionally. They learn how to create movement that allows them to trust their bodies and diminish mental interference. Achieving this requires them to work with gravity differently than skiers do.

–

Movement is not about stacking a bunch of individual moves together. Movement is created by allowing our bodies to flow through the individual moves, connecting them. We need to achieve two objectives to create movement: trust the body and diminish mental interference.

–

Trusting the body means we tap into its innate knowledge of movement. The body knows how to be in balance. Even when we’re in strange climbing positions, the body will direct us toward hand- and footholds so we can be in balance. We discussed this in the last lesson where we followed how the eyes directed us. We used the first hold our eyes saw.

–

The second objective is diminishing mental interference. The mind needs time to think. If we make individual moves, then the mind has a lot of time to think about each one. We make a move, stop and think about the next move, and then make the next move. This causes us to stop and go frequently, interrupting movement. To diminish thinking we climb continuously. Doing this changes the situation more rapidly, making it difficult for the mind to latch onto any one move, create doubt, and interfere with movement.

–

“Continuous” however doesn’t mean speed. The goal is to change the situation more rapidly. So, making small steps works better to create continuous climbing than climbing faster. The goal is to move the body so it remains in process. Making small steps and climbing a little faster than usual is enough to keep the body in process. The mind needs time to analyze the situation, which it does if we stay in static positions. By changing the situation more rapidly, we don’t give the mind an opportunity to latch onto any one static position.

–

Recently I taught this exercise at Sand Rock, Alabama, to students from a local university. They were beginners, lacking confidence. The upper part of the rock was overhanging. The students doubted their ability to climb through it. By having them commit to climbing continuously, almost all of the students were able to climb through the overhang. Some of their technique was terrible, using more energy than necessary or high-stepping. But we weren’t interested in perfect technique. What I wanted them to learn was experiencing what it feels like to commit to climbing when the mind told them otherwise. They could learn better technique on another day.

–

Continuous climbing is a powerful exercise for mental training because it pushes students through doubts that hold them within their comfort zones. Only by finding ways to continue taking action, when the mind wants to quit, do we realize more of what’s possible for us.

–

An object at rest has a tendency to stay at rest; an object in motion has a tendency to stay in motion. When we climb, we need to stay in motion to create momentum. We create momentum by climbing continuously. By doing something as simple as climbing continuously we trust the body to climb and diminish mental interference. Movement isn’t created by aligning with the pull of gravity, like in skiing. Movement is created by intending to climb a little faster and make small steps.

–
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Google+
Share on LinkedIn