I’ve been writing blogs for a while now and I thought I would take a different spin on this one.
THE BEGINNING
For me climbing start in 2013 when a friend from work invited to me come along climbing with him. I don’t really remember the first time I walked into Rockface Climbing Centre and I don’t remember why I kept on going back, I know I was looking for something new as I had been a gym rat for years, I weighed just shy of 100kg at this point, which is not the greatest weight class for a climber but climbing for me was a lot more fun than the 3x10, 5x10 or 10x10 sets of deadlift, squat and bench that I was accustomed too. In all honesty I think that coming to climbing when I could deadlift 200kg, pull up bodyweight plus 60kg and bench press 120kg really held me back, I was “Too Strong” and I use that term lightly to be able to feel for technique or climbing style and I didn’t even understand movement really.
Wind the clock forward a few months and we were still regulars there 4 or 5 days a week and we had moved to lead climbing up the overhung walls with the polished holds. Dom started to develop Medial Epicondalytis as a lot of climbers do and slowly started climbing less and less, without a regular climbing partner I turned to bouldering.
The Boulder Hub
Along came the Boulder Hub and I was hooked, the setting was different than anything I had experienced and there was Coffee!! It was pod machine coffee but who knew that Bouldering and Coffee were a match made in heaven! My eyes were beginning to open as to what “climbing is a movement sport” really mean’t, up until now it was a “I need to get stronger and fitter” sport.
Watching Alan and Christina climb was something else entirely. The rabbit hole grew wider and deeper to proportions I couldn’t even fathom, not even sure I can now but down the rabbit hole I continue on. Before I thought of climbing as only Stronger….. now it was beginning to become Momentum. Balance. Fluidity. In its essence Movement in its purest form.
All through my teenage years I was a dancer, from social, to teacher, to competing at National events I enjoyed the movement more than the showmanship. It was fun, all the things that climbing is but on the ground, not the wall. For me it is still enjoyable but dancing misses the “Try Hard” aspect that is essential in climbing. Sure there is lots of practice in dancing but no grit your teeth, no getting your hands dirty, which is something I needed. But how to apply this to the wall?
I needed a coach, someone to challenge me to move in different ways than my set movement patterns, someone with an objective view of how I moved and the techniques to challenge me to move in ways that suited the climb rather than me trying to force my set techniques or movement style to work. So I started training with Al, I think this period of my climbing life was the fastest period of growth I have had and it opened the door to being able to understand climbing at a deeper level and I don’t think I would be where I am today without it. We did almost no strength work, if we were in the gym it was to understand a movement in a more controlled environment but 99% of all of our session were focused on wall skills, movement skills or developing the mental fortitude to Just Keep Moving.
Somewhere in the 4 years I was regularly at The Hub, I began climbing outdoors, a whole new world of movement with sharp granite holds and the ever challenging angles of rock to crawl over. Sundays were my relax days, heading out into the bush with some mates to chill out and climb some rocks.
ROUTE SETTING
I set for about 1.5 years, with probably more mistakes than absolute gems haha, I think a lot of these mistakes arose from 2 major things, 1. my lack of understanding of movement and 2. my inability to make than movement or feeling happen on the wall. As my understanding of movements grows and my experience increases I will look to start setting again eventually, hindsight has taught me a lot about the mistakes I made as a setter and I know that as a coach the best way to get people to learn is to have them experience something for themselves, what better way to help climbers find new experiences than to set a climb with an experience, movement or feeling in mind.
INJURY
I have been relatively lucky I suppose in keeping away injuries, a few small bouts with Medial Epicondalytis which I was able to quickly stave off with my Personal Training experience and the help of some good Physio friends until the last few years, a rupture A3 pulley and FDS sheath tear affected a finger on my right hand and a bucket handle tear of my right knee meniscus requiring surgery to unfreeze my knee but we are getting back ontop of these, the finger is now 95% and the knee is pretty similar too if I was too guess and it afforded me the time out of my own climbing to really focus on my coaching side.
Competitions
Over the past few years I have done maybe 30 or 40 comps and something I have realised is that personally I do not get excited myself about competitions, they are not my focus for my climbing, I continue to do them because I enjoy the challenge, both mental and physical, how quickly can you solve problem x and complete it too, I use them as training goals or just for the experience. I have only ever competed in Open A and have placed from 4th all the way to Last. I choose to do them because I believe that it will add something to my climbing skill.
COACHING
I will keep this bit short as I have ideas for another blog on my coaching life.
In 2017 I was offered the opportunity to work at Portside Boulders as a Climbing and Strength and Conditioning coach, this has been the second biggest area of growth for me in my climbing life, I truely believe that you cannot understand something unless you have taught it.
Climbing at Portside for me has been instrumental in my growth as a climber both personally and professionally. The quality and variety of the routes are some of the best anywhere and the training facilities are certainly some of the best that I have come across in my travels, the relaxed community of people all striving to become better climbers is amazing and something I am proud to be a part of.
Where is my climbing at now?
If I was to summarise my climbing life, my climbing time is My Time, its there not only for progression but for my mental health, the endless supply of learning how to apply tension through 4 point proprioception and to entwine momentum, balance and fluidity through this tension is what keeps me coming back, the love for searching for new challenges in movement and being able through my coaching to pass on some of these lessons to others and hopefully have the same effect as Alan did with me and my relationship with climbing.
I have bouldered up to V10, although the subjectiveness of climbing makes this grade debatable, onsighted up grade 23 with my limited rope climbing experience of maybe tying in once a year haha, climbed at a national level event… well fell of the start sequence of a bunch of climbs, placed 4th at Westcoast blocs with numerous other competitions behind me, But I think the most noticeable thing for me is that the more I explore climbing, the more I look for the movement, explore movement the more I love this sport.
THE FUTURE
Its a funny thing to set climbing goals, I have grade goals in mind but at the end of the day grades are pretty subjective so I also have volume goals in mind too, I was once told you can’t claim you climb grade x until you have done at least 3 of them, so how cool would it be to climb 50 or 100 of a grade but mainly I dream of learning to perform move x or move y with better efficiency, to continue to grow my movement databank larger and larger to understand the scopes of movement I am not even aware of now….. But how do you set a goal around something so immeasurable?
I also have a dream to open a bouldering gym, I have location ideas and am formulating a plan and the skills to complete this dream. Somewhere in the future, in someplace we will be setting some climbs hahaha. Thanks for reading!
