We had a warm dry day. We went climbing with a couple of friends over to Stover Rocks near us. Jean belayed me up over a leaning overhanging climb. You should come out east to learn to climb overhangs. The Gunks are about 3 hours from us.
The one on the left is a lot harder than than the one on the right.
HEY! HOWS IT HANGING? Good to see ya-OLDTRADGUY (RalphStover! (Ralff=Barf its a pit! but look how great climbers make Lemonade!)
As to the Ted-talk Lori shared~Ye-hah! that boi can ride! ~~While I get that some times in life you have to throw for things & sometimes from or to an out-of-balance stance, keeping one's composure when ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE is what separates the wheat from the chaff...(To find balance ~a calm mind~ An important 'skill' for Leading) -climbing as a form of meditation, as a way to quiet the racing mind... Remember to breathe...
The constant search to find equilibrium ~ To surf just below the breaking curl, in the sweet spot ~On the 'Foam Ball~pushed-up ~ to be able to rush the barrel, get tubed & rip-it back over the breaking wave....Surfing for the explanation
Carl , from your neck of the woods, Turn down the volume Pick your own sounds
We had a warm dry day. We went climbing with a couple of friends over to Stover Rocks near us. Jean belayed me up over a leaning overhanging climb. You should come out east to learn to climb overhangs. The Gunks are about 3 hours from us.
The one on the left is a lot harder than than the one on the right.
Video of me doing Nameless Arete
John
Oh, man! You got a move on! Your gymnast talent is all over the place. What grace, John! What an inspiration you are!!!
I haven’t watched any of the videos people post before this last one that Dragons posted, so I didn’t know it was acceptable to make technique comments. Since four other people voiced what they saw, I guess I can do the same: You described getting pumped. What I saw was that you spent a lot of time with your elbows bent rather than straight arming. Your legs were straight. The way I manage to straight arm a lot of the time is by dropping my hips and going into more of a slight squat position. That way your hands and feet can be in the same place as before, but your arms are resting rather than working. The large muscle groups in your legs are doing the work and they won’t get tired like your forearms do. Depending on how you are gripping the hold, you can squat straight down or with your hips shifted a bit to the left or right to maintain the balance and optimum grip.
Not sure the words explain the motion adequately, but something to think about.
phylp wrote: Dragons, you add music to your videos!!! I could be mistaken but it looks like you are wearing a pair of flat-last lace-ups in that video. A stiffer shoe would take a lot of weight off your arms.
I wear the Scarpa Helix... I thought they were pretty stiff. Any suggestions? The #1 thing I look for in a shoe is fit, and then other properties. I've found it difficult to find a shoe that fits well.
I used to wear 5.10 Coyotes. The sole is really soft, but it seemed great for slab.
Mark, I'm actually subscribed to Rockentry! But I haven't watched a lot of his videos. I've only watched a couple so far (I spend more time watching Magnus Midtbø and comp videos).
The main reason I take video footage of myself is to be able to examine what the heck I'm doing, and hopefully improve from that, since I rarely get feedback of any kind. I had a good training session from a coach about a year ago... The reason I post to this thread is to get (hopefully helpful and not hostile) feedback, and also encourage others. If you have any suggestions or feedback, I would love to hear it!
phylp wrote: I haven’t watched any of the videos people post before this last one that Dragons posted, so I didn’t know it was acceptable to make technique comments. Since four other people voiced what they saw, I guess I can do the same: You described getting pumped. What I saw was that you spent a lot of time with your elbows bent rather than straight arming. Your legs were straight. The way I manage to straight arm a lot of the time is by dropping my hips and going into more of a slight squat position. That way your hands and feet can be in the same place as before, but your arms are resting rather than working. The large muscle groups in your legs are doing the work and they won’t get tired like your forearms do. Depending on how you are gripping the hold, you can squat straight down or with your hips shifted a bit to the left or right to maintain the balance and optimum grip.
Not sure the words explain the motion adequately, but something to think about.
This ^. I saw the same thing and remember doing the same thing when I started climbing. Even better is to get in a routine of one arm straight and the other just dynamically getting dropped below heart level to recharge with blood. Think of it as a constant shake out rather than stopping to do it.
No. I mean when you're working it out together. You might not be able to do it, but you both are working it out. I don't mean beta spraying I mean both of you working the moves, figuring it out.
Dude. We need to talk about your choice of music. At about the 1:56 mark I was connecting with the Mother Goddess while experiencing Navel Connection to the Source of the Eternal.
LOL Carl you're such a funny guy! Yeah. It's a problem finding tracks with sufficiently generous licenses. You can't just use anything as background music. It has to be either public domain or attribution required, and there's not a lot out there. I searched for something more energetic, but I couldn't find many tracks that long.
Or I was watching you climb; elegantly, if just a little too thoughtfully. You climb wonderfully.
Thank you, but... no I really don't. That was an onsight attempt, and I am not happy with how I did it.
You got shut down because you second guessed a lot of moves and spent a long time thinking about what to do. Looks to me like you simply pumped out.
Yup, that's pretty much what happened. I tried to figure out the sequence from the ground, but I didn't have a good feeling about my plan. And my plan did not work.
My main question (other than why the Mother Earth Goddess Sleepy Sleep Time Deep Breathing music?) is why is your video called '*failing* on the pink 5.9 2020-02-04'? I didn't see any *failing*. I saw someone climbing really elegantly.
Ah that's very nice of you, but I don't feel it was elegant. I can do a lot better, and I do much better on lower grades. I want to get better at these higher grades. To me it was a fail because I fell - but I also don't think there's anything wrong with failing on top rope. Failing is trying but not succeeding. Pretty much everyone does that. If I weren't failing, then I'd be stuck on the 5.5s for the rest of my life. It'd be fun, but where's the challenge in that?
My bf flashed the route! Here's a comparison I patched together of me, vs my bf, on this lower sequence.
Anyone who is interested can click on that image and open it in a new window to view it at a larger size. My bf stepped up with his left toe on the lower hold, and his right toe on the upper foothold, with his right side turned to the wall, facing left. Whereas I moved up with the opposite footing, which kind of forced me to face into the wall. I wound up trying to move up with a foot out to the right, which threw me off balance. I wound up spending much more time on that lower sequence, so I was exhausted by the time I got higher. My bf is definitely a stronger climber than me (more muscle power). He said that he felt there was a layback involved, whereas I was not planning to layback the bottom; I didn't see how without good opposing footholds. It kind of worked for him, but it's not a real layback; the main thing he got right was moving up his feet left-right as opposed to my right-left movement.
The main takeaway I got from this is that I'm not sequencing my footholds when I look for the sequence from the ground. I tend to focus on what I'm going to use for handholds. I didn't consider the import of which foot I wanted to lead with, or whether I wanted to be facing in one direction or another.
phylp and Señor Arroz - usually, I do try to keep my arms straight. However, when things get difficult, my technique usually (always?) breaks down. The signs of that are that I start pulling with my arms more, which is pointless because my arms just get exhausted, and my feet start slamming against holds. I'm not sure if this is something that can be trained away. My form just falls apart as routes get harder.
One thing that confuses me: people say to keep your arms straight. But it seems to me that the price of keeping your arms straight often means weighting them more. Here's an example:
This is a 5.8 that I climbed earlier that day. I had an easier time on it, and I felt pretty good in this position. I took a seat backwards and I was scoping out the wall for my next move. So my arms are straight, but my butt is kind of hanging out there. This means there's less weight on my feet which should be doing the work of holding me up, and more work for my arms. So how do I straight-arm this without making my arms and shoulders do so much work? If I were standing in closer to the wall, my arms would bend in, but there'd be less weight on them and more on my feet.
This is the associated video: I'm much happier with my performance on this one. I think it could have gone more quickly and smoothly, but it was clean.
One thing that confuses me: people say to keep your arms straight. But it seems to me that the price of keeping your arms straight often means weighting them more. Here's an example:
The crucial thiing is this: If you hang on a straight arm you're carrying the weight with your skeleton and ligaments. If you're locked off with a bent arm, you're carrying the weight with muscle and burning enormously more energy doing so. Also, as Phylp described it, with straight arms and bent legs you're squatting but still carrying weight with your legs. Just think of your legs' ability to carry weigh vs. your arms' ability. Night and day.
Dragons, I'm sure this video of Jain Kim has been posted before (maybe by you). She models straight arm technique. An added bonus of leaning back from the "rock" is that your feet stick better than when you're standing straight up on your toes. youtube.com/watch?v=dEzTMwX…
wendy weiss wrote: Dragons, I'm sure this video of Jain Kim has been posted before (maybe by you). She models straight arm technique. An added bonus of leaning back from the "rock" is that your feet stick better than when you're standing straight up on your toes. youtube.com/watch?v=dEzTMwX…
Hi wendy,
Yup, I've posted that before It was after watching that video that I started to try to mimic the way she climbs in that video. Just watching that single video has helped improve my climbing.
Here's Kim Ja-In in 2018 where she climbs a sustained overhung wall. Very impressive! Just wow! When I look at it, I wonder how to train for something like that. She uses a lot of straight-arm technique, but there's no way my arms wouldn't burn out after that much overhung climbing. I'd probably fall off after 3 moves. There's another video which shows her training on an overhung bouldering wall for a long time. That must be part of it. Here's the bouldering gym (her family owns a bouldering gym, so nice!):
How many routes do you climb before you feel that you are warmed up enough to make your more "serious efforts"?
And how many serious efforts do you make?
By serious effort, I mean routes which are at or near your limit, to the point where you might fall.
Personally, I'm still working this out. Since I go to the gym once a week, I want to climb as much as possible during that session. I usually stay for about 3 hours. If I want to try something at my limit, I usually warm up on only 2 moderates (which for me is 5.5-5.7) before attempting something more difficult (5.8-5.10). If I warm up longer than that - i.e. keep climbing easier routes - I'll tend to fall on the more difficult attempts.
I wanted to thank everyone here for your support as I muddle through a big life change. This is harder than I expected. I'm dumping dozens of boxes of stuff I've carried for decades... asking myself how I can possibly toss Jeremy's fifth grade report, or newspaper clippings from the day of Erin's birth, etc. Stuff I did at UCLA. I just ache with every box I toss, but it's getting easier.
I thought I would be selling my home in March... but already someone has made an offer. It's all moving too fast. Now I suddenly cannot recall a single reason I wanted to move to Joshua Tree. Did I have reasons? Seriously... what the hell was I thinking? ------------------------ Last week at Pipeworks I hit an unexpected wall... and you guys helped me see it differently. Thank you to Tim for calling it a 'plateau'. To Senor, Helen, and everyone else for some encouragement. I didn't realize how seriously I took the full stop... it really felt (and feels) like this is my limit. I slept on it, and decided, what the heck... maybe I don't know everything. Maybe there is a path to the next level.
Yesterday Ryan came in with a more intense attitude... we did some light hangboard exercises, talked about antagonistic muscle work outside the gym, cardio... but mostly that now we're focused on harder routes. Pull strength, finger strength, endurance... power... it's really a new game. It's taken me some time to understand that I'm EXPECTED to fall, a lot now. Over the next year we would be working on technique, strength, strategies for climbing in the 11's. (no mention of the Bat Hang yet, so there's that.)
I have not been able to say that my plan is to move. I can't make the words come out of my mouth. This has been a collaboration and relationship that I didn't expect ... and probably won't have again. Likely whatever grade/level we leave off at will be my limit in the gym. As usual, Tony sitting there watching me work these harder routes... with the Kleenex. He's waiting for me to be able to say goodbye... I don't let go easily.
Meanwhile... I've taken to calling the Bouldering Room the "Meditation Room". I love the vibe there... so many thoughtful people, having their sandwich and contemplating their next route. It has taken me a long time to be willing to try ANY unroped climbing, but I am starting to see that these short routes are good for working out specific problems. I am not willing to drop far or take many chances. This one was just so I could practice pulling on overhangs... but I would like to climb less square to the wall.
Well, I’m nursing a finger injury. I tweaked it on our last day in J Tree (Christmas Day), didn’t really notice it at the time, but it swelled up that evening. I’ve been busy and haven’t climbed too much since then, a couple gym days and maybe 4-5 days outside, mostly slab routes which doesn’t bother it too much.
Went to the gym last night, and although I tried to be careful, it’s super angry. Making an appointment with a hand therapist today as I suspect I have a collateral ligament sprain or tear. Incut sidepulls are the worst, and I’m pretty sure I know what caused the injury - moving off a low sidepull with poor feet that twisted the finger, in cold conditions with no warmup after climbing 7 days out of 8. Stupid.
There’s a lot about collateral ligament injuries in the other threads, but has anyone here ever gone through it? I know they take forever to heal - like most finger issues do.
Obviously, it is your call, but I would tell Ryan. Unless you're really not sure about the move. Are you worried he won't be committed to your training if he knows you are leaving? Does he not read MP?
dragons wrote: This post is for the gym rats in our crowd:
When you go to the gym:
How many routes do you climb in one session?
How many routes do you climb before you feel that you are warmed up enough to make your more "serious efforts"?
And how many serious efforts do you make?
By serious effort, I mean routes which are at or near your limit, to the point where you might fall.
Personally, I'm still working this out. Since I go to the gym once a week, I want to climb as much as possible during that session. I usually stay for about 3 hours. If I want to try something at my limit, I usually warm up on only 2 moderates (which for me is 5.5-5.7) before attempting something more difficult (5.8-5.10). If I warm up longer than that - i.e. keep climbing easier routes - I'll tend to fall on the more difficult attempts.
dragons.
Yesterday I climbed 6 or 7 routes that for me are 'easy'. I had already been at the gym warming up a full hour before we started climbing... doing some stretches and easy bouldering, and some light climbing on our hydrolic wall. I'm learning that those first easy routes are the perfect ones to work on technique... quiet feet, taking good rests, straight arms, engaging shoulders, hip swings. When you are not maxed out you can really focus on technique. Later I climbed 2 routes that were near my limit. At the point of exhaustion, technique goes to hell (for me). You are so right to video your climbs so you can have a look and see what might be improved. I now film nearly everything (and delete it later). On these harder routes, when you are absorbed in just staying on the wall and finding the next move, it's hard to analyze what's going on. With a video you can pull it apart and see what you want to change.
I may post my cool-down route yesterday... one nice thing is to find that what was one 'at your limit' one day becomes your 'walk in the park' route. But once again, even on cool down, you can focus on technique, and see how you climb when you are really tired. Sounds like you are doing everything right!
dragons wrote: Nice video, Lori, thanks for posting up!
Obviously, it is your call, but I would tell Ryan. Unless you're really not sure about the move. Are you worried he won't be committed to your training if he knows you are leaving? Does he not read MP?
Maybe a little of everything, dragons. For sure it's just an emotional time for me. I was waiting to know 'for sure'... like, actively house-hunting in Josh and having a plan and a date.
I'm taking my good-byes in measured doses right now. One thing at a time.
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