sticking to your resolutions

Its about this time of year that people who had big plans for this year start to wane a little on their resolutions.  If you have had a big climbing training plan for the year, sticking with the regime whilst the mornings and nights are cold and dark and your day job escalates its demands can be tricky.  

Generally, people have trouble sticking to their resolutions because they try to make changes which are too big.  We see what we want to achieve at the end of it and try to take giant steps towards it, often due to impatience.  Instead, think of it of being like a rollercoaster, which starts at a slow and gentle speed, chugging up the incline, building up to top speed towards the end of the ride.  This is how to change habits, take up a new challenge or training plan.  Take small, gradual steps and accelerate as your goal nears.

More useful tips can be found here

Coaching the next generation

This evening I coached the Beacon's youth team - what a great bunch of teenagers!  I spent a bit of time thinking about how I could adapt what I do with adults and what might be most useful to them, and they were great in being honest about what things they struggled with and asked some really pertinent questions.

We spent the evening in falling practice mainly, with some discussion about how our thoughts affect our behaviour and how this in turn affects and is affected by our physical state.  I will be going back in a few weeks time with some more individualised stuff to psyche up those who need to get motivated for competition, and psyche 'down' those who have a tendency to get too tense pre-comp and choke.

The great thing about teenagers is they are more honest and less polite than adults, so you soon know if you have hit the spot with them!  and they are also much better than adults at following instructions!  They were great at putting into practice a graded approach to falling practice, and some were brave enough to say they didnt feel ready to move on to above clip lead falls - so much more resistant to peer pressure than some adults I have worked with.  

An enjoyable session - I hope they thought so too (but I am sure they would have let me know if it wasnt!!)

Committing to moves

Yesterday I worked with Chris who has been climbing a while but had got a bit stuck. It was tricky working out what the problem was, but I think we got to the bottom of it.  It seems as though Chris was struggling to fully commit to harder moves.  This can arise for lots of different reasons.  It can be to do with low expectations of yourself (not thinking something is possible), fear of failure, lack of practice, fear of falling, lack of trust in the belayer, embarrassment or even not knowing how it feels to physically try at your limit.

Whatever the cause, the effects of this are easy to understand.  Its a vicious downward spiral, where you never climb at your limit, and so your limit gets steadily lower and lower - you dont maintain your limit/grade, it steadily drops.  We need to constantly push up against our limits/ boundaries just to maintain them, let alone begin to expand them.

The remedy takes a big commitment in and of itself.  It means challenging yourself systematically and regularly, and making sure that you fully commit to this, and not just pay it lip service.  Its quite a subtle thing to be sure of.  If you are doing routes/ problems that you are failing on, then you could be trying at your limit, but equally, you might be stopping short of giving something 100%.  Ask yourself, am I falling off naturally here (ie in the middle of a move), or am I paused and clinging on before letting myself drop off.  Its not easy to tell sometimes.  Our mind is so powerful that if the thought creeps in that maybe this is a bit too hard for us anyway, then we tend to tail off our effort.  Expanding our expectations of ourselves also brings with it painful possibilities - of losing motivation as we achieve fewer successes, altering how we see ourselves.  The trick is to choose small increments by which to expand our horizons, steps which might just be a few millimetres away, but very definitely within sight and almost within our grasp.

Partial success!

This week has been a marathon of beginning to overhaul my website and update it a little, and I have partially completed that task!  Getting a little more help from Dave tomorrow in a skills-swap which is great as really web stuff isnt my bag.  But have a look at what's here so far and let me have your feedback please!  Many heads are always better than one.

London Marathon

No, I'm not doing it, but one of my closest friends is running for the Outward Bound Trust, a great charity, in April.  If you can spare a few pounds, please can you sponsor him here.  He is training with a dodgy knee with a partial ligament rupture, so fingers crossed he can nurse it through the weeks to come and over the crucial 26 miles.  Thanks for your support!

New Year's Resolution - be more compassionate to yourselves

I came across an article (number 9) about negative automatic thoughts and negative self talk whilst browsing the web today.  Whilst reading, I reflected back on my own frustrations when not improving, and the clients I have worked with over the last 12 months.  Many people are literally kicking themselves over the things they cant do - frustrated and angry with themselves, they try harder and harder, all the while talking to themselves in a more negative and punitive way.  I heard people saying things like "come on you idiot! for god's sake sort it out!  Why do you always mess it up? why cant you get it right?! Why are you such a scaredy-cat!".

It can be hard to imagine the effect this might have on ourselves, after all its only us talking, right?  But imagine if you talked to someone else the way you talk to yourself.  Imagine if you spoke to a child the way you speak to yourself.  What effect do you think it might have?  We know that constructive criticism, delivered well, is helpful.  But a barrage of negative comments, delivered in an angry tone, is really bad for self esteem, motivation, and in fact doesn't help the other person alter their behaviour.  If we wanted a child to do something differently, we might be better off saying something like "try doing x next time", and we certainly wouldnt be inflicting a barrage of criticism on them would we.

So why do we do it to ourselves? It can be just being in a negative frame of mind, frustration, or it can be rooted in the way we were coached/ given feedback in the past.  Regardless of its origin, its important to try to become aware of it and begin to use different language with ourselves.  Try talking to yourself as if you were talking to another person, offering constructive advice to improve performance, rather than a litany of what is wrong.  Treat yourself with the compassion a child learning a new skill deserves, and let me know the results!

Beautiful North Wales

If only I was technologically up-to-date enough to have a digital camera!  Then I could show you the stunning view I found today at the top of Elidir Fawr, made all the more worthwhile by thrashing up through deep snow!

It was one of those days which makes you feel glad to be alive.  The sun was high, the sky clear and for miles in most directions, white peaks.  I sat at the top and just soaked up the view.

On the way over to Carnedd Y Filiast, small details grabbed my attention.  The curves in the snow made by the wind.  The square icicles on the wire fence.  The odd blades of grass poking through the snow.

What has this got to do with climbing?  Absolutely nothing, except as a reminder to do the things you love.  I think I can use the images I absorbed today to help me relax at times of stress, and the exercise did me good no doubt, but mostly, just being in such a beautiful place felt good for the soul.

I hope you can get out walking too :)

Happy New Year

Its always good to look back before looking forward and setting the direction of travel for the year ahead. How to sum up 2009? Well for me personally, this was a year where my health and fitness didnt quite go to plan, but even so I managed to climb the routes and problems I had in mind, but more importantly, I think I consolidated my technique and mental strength when climbing. This I attribute entirely to mindfulness practice - being mindful of my movement, regular meditation, and using body-centering techniques to manage fearful thoughts. Where does that leave me for 2010? I think, more of the same, some more cardio-vascular work to try to help me stay strong and fit, and to continue to enjoy climbing rather than getting hung up on improving - as someone who often 'chokes' psychologically, letting the improvements happen naturally seems to work best for me!

2009 was a busy year for Smart Climbing - I had a number of articles published , lots of private clients, and a jam packed open workshop, where we were lucky to have Lucy Creamer as one of our instructors. The June workshop gave rise to the short film which I hope gives an idea of the way the workshop runs, and I was really grateful to everyone who allowed us to film! Brave indeed and much appreciated. 2010 is already looking busy, and my intention is to continue to keep up with the latest psychological research in climbing so I can pass this on to you. The June workshop will be similar, but there are plans afoot to design a slightly more advanced workshop to put on later in the year for people who have already been on the open workshop.

I have worked with a lot of high achievers this year, who like me, suffer from 'choking' under pressure. Its been great working with them, sharing tips for reframing, relaxing, and refocusing, and helping them get the enjoyment back into their climbing. Enjoyment can get lost really easily when you are always focused on training and improving, and certainly if you have a perfectionist personality, it does the power of good to learn to play again with climbing.

So, happy new year to you all, enjoy your climbing, remember why you love it, and make that the focus of your 2010 climbing year :)