I was appalled to hear about friend A's recent climbing trip. Apparantly one of his companions, friend B, who had planned on projecting some really hard but classic lines, became really 'humble'/'shy' (i'm not to sure if that's the right term to use) when they met fellow climbers at the crag and started making small talk. B will apparantly claim to be working on or checking out a much easier line. There were a couple of issues that struck me:
1) B used to be someone with a mind of steel. No matter how unfit he was, he could still manage to pull the rabbit out of the hat and get routes done. This was evidently due to his strong mental mindset, which i consider to be the creme de la creme of the climbing circle in Singapore.
2) Why do you pay so much money and fly so far only to go there and claim to work on or check out routes that are well within your capabilities? Shouldn't you be checking out the lines which you have been watching countless videos of, prior to the trip, so as to psyche yourself up for the pathetic training conditions we have in Singapore?
I think the issue here is not about being 'humble' or 'shy' but rather B's self belief which has somewhat waned.
On my recent trip to Yangshuo, i had the opportunity to observe some SMU students climbing at the same crag, some of whom were really strong indoors. Most of them would have no qualms about crimping a foothold in the gym but i realise through my observations that some tend to get shut down when they encounter something similar outdoors. This is probably due to the lack of experience outdoors which will change with more exposure to natural rock and more importantly the lack of self belief that the route is within their capabilities.
Allow me to leave you a quote which i read somewhere(can't remember where it was from):
"The mentality of difficult climbing can be the challenge sometimes and seeing through this difficulty is a very important ability. When you are exposed to another level, you rise up and you learn to believe"
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ReplyDeleteSuper interesting perspective about the mental mindset. Now that I had the opportunity to witness some mighty good climbing by young ones on my visit...I must say that the future, based on their performance in the gym, looks bright. I personally feel that they are alot stronger than I am in terms of bouldering. And with some simple math, if I can climb a buncha 5.14s in a single season, these kids will absolutely crush given the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI definitely believe that climbing is a mental game. Especially now that I'm approaching 40, all the more I have to rely on psyche to bring on my A game. I'm definitely not a strong as I was a decade ago but when you're all fired up, very little stands in the way of sending...barring foul weather, skin & injuries.
You're right about experience cos with all the years spent climbing, I do have tons of tricky up my sleeves to get around cruxes without powering through them.
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out over the next decade. I really hope that the next generation can live out their potential, and the way I see it, they already have it.