On Saturday morning in Glendalough I was given a little gem of advice by Barry. He had said it to me in Mall Hill on Thursday but it hadn't really clicked with me yet...
We were running around the problems in the Ruins, fairly flying up each of them as a warm up - After that we went over to Andy's Arete and I was slipping and slipping again on that famous foot placement! It was clear I was getting a little frustrated, it seemed like the same mistake again and again -
Barry then said to me that the problems we sent as a warm up in the Ruins shouldn't be discounted. Warm up is just as important - He said you have to keep sending stuff (as in anything!)
It's kind of clicked with me now -
If I keep falling off the same difficult stuff all the time, I'll forget what success is. It's far too easy for me to discount what I've done in my warm up circuit, as 'not good enough' or 'not what I'm here for'... Or even worse, not bother with the 5+ and 6a problems cause they might tire me out before the grade pushers, which for me are the 6c and 7a lines that keep me oh so focused and coming back for more!
I now think it's important to remember what moves I make in warm up problems and more importantly the top outs - not just go through the motions and 'get it out of the way' before I start what ever project happens to be pick of the day...
Getting to a new level, number, whatever is fantastic, no feeling like it, but the bread and butter moves on the easy stuff is what's getting me there.
Need to remember that!
well written - in sports climbing, they recommend much of the time that for every redpoint project you send, you should be trying to onsight another 9 (of a lower level obviously!). Similar concept with bouldering I suppose, you have to continue to consolidate at the easy stuff to improve your upper limits....
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