A busy couple of weeks

Its been manic here!!  Last week I spent an evening coaching the Beacon's "Next Generation" climbing team, this week I worked with Dave on some of his sticking points, bookings are coming in for the Open Course, and I am trying to finish up all the little niggling bits for the new website and sort out some posters to send out to climbing walls and to have at the upcoming Fort William film festival and LLAMFF (the Llanberis Film Festival).  So its all go! 

In reviewing the last week or so, what themes have come up?

Firstly, there is something for me about being totally honest with yourself.  Working with the teenagers in the Beacon team was great, as, unlike many adults I have worked with, they were pretty honest about their fears, how much they were committing to moves, and how far they were willing to push themselves.  It was also great to work with Dave, where we spent a lot of time thinking about all the sneaky ways we hold ourselves back without even realising.  The brain is great at developing what we call 'safety behaviours' - little mental crutches or strategies we adopt to make us feel safer.  Unfortunately, these safety behaviours become insidious (eg checking our belayer has 'got us' at the top of a climb, fingering a hold but then letting go before you actually try to move up on that hold, getting your partner to let you come down before trying what looks to be a hard move, etc) and serve to reduce our comfort zone.  So its important to have someone help you notice all the little things you do to stop yourself getting to that point of no return, where you are pushing right up against the edge of your comfort zone.  It could just be saying "I'm tired", or only doing routes you know, and so on, its different for everyone.

The second theme (pertinent to me right now given the time of night I am doing this!) is, balance.  Pushing yourself in climbing is all very well provided you have the mental space and energy for it.  But if life is stressful and hard at the moment, back off a bit!!  Take some time out for yourself, climb just for fun, and leave the pushing until things calm down a little.  You are only human!!

You can take a sneaky peak at the new website whilst its under development here but keep checking back as its not finished yet!!  And if you are thinking about booking onto the open workshop, get in touch asap as places are filling up fast.

And on that note - I'm off to relax!!