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.
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| 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...
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