Tadaa: Mental Magic

        Every once in a while on a day when I’m a little pissed off, a little antisocial and a lot discouraged... magic happens! You’re ingredients for magic may differ, but something about this combination lights a fire inside me and I’ve recently discovered how to make it roar. 

It started with evaluating the move that I kept falling off in the simplest of terms (okay, perhaps it involved some shoe chucking and potty words as well). Move out to the left pinch, toe in hard on the squared right foot and launch/cross to the bad sloper.

Take a guess as to why I fell off that move? It’s going to sound silly but the reason I fell is because I couldn’t hold on.The holds sucked! I was getting to them but I fell...over and over and over again until I was on the verge of pulling my own hair out.

Magic Wood Frustrations
Photo creds: Wolfgang Kendler

Yes, I could have evaluated the momentum I was generating from my legs or the angle I was at when transitioning through the cross, but I didn’t. I was angry and I was a cavewoman. My answer was simple: You are not holding on hard enough. 

Once I decided that my issue was brut strength and not technique ( lets face it, angry people want to punch things... and the closest feeling I was going to get to that in a public setting was slapping my way through some thuggy moves) something amazing happened! I channeled all my focus, hatred and anger onto my fingers and like little daggers they just... stuck. They stuck like glue to the holds they were peeling off only moments before. I didn’t hit the holds any better than the first billion tries and I didn’t change my form. I was simply angry enough at my fingers for denying me a bad day’s remedy of thuggy boulder problems. When I finally got up there again I squeezed as if I were Alex Honnald on a free solo, as if falling was not an option.

It is amazing what the human mind is capable of. Seldom do I first-handedly experience these ‘mind over matter’ moments that continue to fascinate humankind. I mean, I’m not soloing El Cap and I’m not lifting a car over my head...but I am sticking a move that I couldn’t do before. And hey, it’s the little things that count right?

Climbing with the power of the mind instead of the power of the body is an untapped resource. I’m not talking about sequencing or the ability to dial your beta. I’m talking about believing without a shadow of a doubt that you, in a particular moment in time, are unquestionably capable of what is in front of you.  

I’m still learning how to access this mentality. For some reason it only appears once in a blue moon when I’m mad enough to start shoe-chucking. But now that I know it’s there... that magic exists, I’m sure as hell going to try my best to learn its secrets. You should too! You just need some magic and a little fire...

Stinging Truth

      Does anyone else have that one painfully honest friend? The one that will actually tell you if you look fat in those pants... Well, if you have that friend, you’ll know that as much as you hate their stupid and insensitive opinion, it matters more than everyone else’s combined. The way I see it, negativity can produce two things: disregard or determination.
       So you look fat in those pants, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to keep wearing them, even though they don’t fit or work? Even though they bunch and crunch and restrict your movement? Or, are you going to change something about yourself so you can fit into those beloved pants that you are so determined to wear?
       In case you haven’t caught on, the pant thing is an analogy! And that painfully honest friend... well, her name is “Tour De Bloc”. A Climbing competition is a friend that will always say “you look fat in those pants,” The question is... are you listening?
       After running into the same hurdle twice in a row during finals... I realized it was time for a little self reflection. For those of you that don’t know me, I’m a gangly 5’10” climber.... typically not hosed by height. However, the last two comps have felt rather scrunchy for me. Women’s 4 at the November 30 CCC TDB and Women’s 2 at the Jan 11 Elevation Place Comp ended up costing me big time.

What a high-step shouldn't look like - Me

      These problems shared an identical move directly after the bonus hold. Essentially, bring your foot up to your ear (when you are my height) and rock over onto that foot. When I couldn’t do the problem in November, I decided to shrug it off because it wasn’t my style and we all have problems that simply don’t fit our strengths... Yesterday in finals my jaw literally hit the floor when I saw that same awkwardly impossible high step that I was somehow supposed to conquer.

What a high-step should look like - Erica Carlson

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   It didn’t go so well... I cruised the problem to bonus and literally ejected myself off the wall as I dynamically tried to hop my foot up on that stupid high crimp. But this time, instead of walking away from the competition saying “that problem just wasn’t my style,” I chose to do evaluate it. The reoccurrence of this obstacle taught me something painfully honest about my climbing. Reluctantly, I will be working on flexibility and vertical type-writer stye shoulder transitions for the next month/s. Yay, party in the house, right? NOT!                                                                                                        I’m determined though, to do whatever it takes to reach my goals, even if that means listening to the advice that I don’t want to hear. I can’t spend all my time and energy playing on strung out balancy slabs when things like scrunchy high steps keep appearing in finals problems. “Learning about your weaknesses is like discovering a gold mine, for this is where your potential for improvement lies” If you look fat in your pants, which I’m sure you do... Figure out a way to make them fit.

Happy New Year!

It’s a brand new year, the starting point of goals, commitments and resolutions for people across the globe. Since my education no longer forces me to write critical essays about Milton or Chaucer, I’ve decided to start writing something a little more personal. Thus, my new years resolution is to start blogging! Climbing has taught me about who I am, what I love, and where I want to be more than any other information source on the planet. I’m not the best climber in the world, but I have a big dreams and belong to an amazing community that pushes one another to be the best that they can be. This is my chance to give back and share with the climbing community about my successes, failures, goals, adventures, freak outs... and whatever else comes up! Let’s bring on the new year!