What I Learned In A Decade Of Climbing

whilst looking through some old climbing footage recently it occurred to me that this year marks 10 years since I first started climbing a decade of climbing later I feel like I've learned a lot and I also feel like I've made pretty much every mistake in the book I've also been incredibly fortunate to work with some of the best pro climbers and climbing coaches in the world during my time on YouTube and today I wanted to share the top 8 things that I've learned in nearly a decade of climbing lesson number one is you don't have to be a stronger climber to be a better climber so this is a slightly controversial one but I feel like climbers can often obsess over things like finger strength how many polyps they can do really intensive Off the Wall training programs whilst overlooking more efficient ways that they can improve their climbing climbing consciously and with intention consciously working on your weaknesses focusing on things like mindset how we speak to ourselves on the wall paying attention to things like flexibility and Mobility are all part of the puzzle of what makes a good climber we can often find quicker and arguably more valuable and long-lasting improvements when we start to focus on things that are not so rooted in strength and move towards technique instead if we imagine for a second that this pizza is climbing you can see that it's made up of lots of parts with only one small part being strength and everyone knows that every good session starts with pizza I'm just kidding every good session starts with caffeine the real Pro tip is that every good session starts with an effective warm up one of the best pieces of advice that I ever received was from my good friend B she suggested that I try to reframe the way that I saw a warm-up so for probably around 10 years I've always seen the warm-up as the thing that comes before the fun part of my session that I just have to get through so that I can start the fun part which is climbing I had a session with me not too long ago where she helped me to try and reframe how I saw warm up and where it fit into my session to help me have a longer and a more valuable session so practically what does that mean for me what that looks like is kind of twofold it's the mental reframing of how I view Walnut and trying to like get used to warmer for something that's actually just as much a part of the session as the fun climbing part and actually holds a lot of value for me if I treat it in the right way and the second is actually consciously picking my warm up to suit the goals of the session if I'm working on power if I'm working on balance and flexibility if I'm going to be going after like project Boulders I might tweak my warm-up to suit uh what I'm trying to achieve that day that day my next lesson is that your climbing will likely benefit from some variety so there's lots of different ways that you can add variety to your climbing some of the important ones I think are making sure that you're experiencing different climbing settings so perhaps that is the gym perhaps that's the actual setting of the boulder problems and there's a lot to be said for hold literacy so just adding to your repertoire of holds that you know and are familiar with can make a huge difference experiencing different setting Styles different gyms if you're an outdoor climate different types of rock also some really fun ways that you can add variety to your experience of climbing when you're climbing with climbing partner so for example something that Nathan and I always find a really fun drill or exercise is a drill called copycat so Nathan and I climb quite differently we talk about that quite a lot on the channel what we'll do is I'll pick out a problem that can be climbed into different and varied ways Nathan will do it the way that Nathan will do it I'll do it the way that I would do it and then we'll both try to copy each other's method to see what variety we can bring to the experience of that Boulder I find that's just a really good way to open your eyes to different ways of climbing different ways of problem solving equally playing games like add one or eliminate can be a really fun way to spice up what you have available to you in the kind of gym and my next lesson my next lesson is to not Overlook the importance of rest and recovery so I mean a few things by this paying attention to things like proper nutrition making sure you're getting good sleep making sure you're leaving time between sessions for adequate recovery sometimes less really is more so for me rest and Recovery looks like trying to pay attention to getting in good nutrition and not overlooking the importance of a good night's sleep this video has been made in collaboration with Emma sleep recently I've been trying out my Emma sleep premium double mattress and so far we have been loving it new mattress week is like new sheets day but 10 yeah something that Nathan and I have been loving especially is the memory foam topper we've never had a mattress with a memory foam topper on before and it is super comfortable something that I've been particularly impressed about with art and Mattress is that it comes with a 200 night risk-free trial it also comes with a 10 year guarantee so that's as long as I've been climbing guaranteed I really do recommend investing in the best night's sleep that you possibly can so if you would like to try an Emma Sleep mattress for yourself make sure you don't miss out on a huge summer sale with up to 55 off if you'd like to get an additional discount you can use the discount code on screen or you can use the link in the description of this video to go through to check out their sale my next lesson is you don't have to stick within the confines of the setting at your gym and in my opinion you should be encouraged not to the root Setters do a really good job of creating really fantastic fun challenging Boulders for us to play on but I believe there's a lot of value to be found in thinking outside of the box and creating your own all the problems creating your own bold problems and your own moves by using the multitude of holds available to you at The Climbing Gym it can just be a really fun and creative way to spice up your climbing so something that I like to do fairly often is if I'm trying a problem that is a little bit too hard for me I'll add in an easier hold equally if I'm trying a problem that I know I've done before I'll try and add in a harder hold to make the problem more challenging or to force like a slightly different move within that folder so for example this purple one I have done before I'm going to try and make it more challenging for myself by adding in this yellow axis hold in the middle yellows are I think one by the hardest circuit at the hangar so I rarely get a chance to feel theater Hall I don't try them all too often so I'm going to spice things up by adding in this yellow to this purple line so by adding and taking away holes you can effectively add to the amount of stuff that you have to try in the climbing gym it's basically like every day is new set day if you have the creativity to make Boulders for yourself well hasn't been reset in a while not a problem with the hang of those yet all the time but if the wall hasn't been reset in a while just create your own borders for your own root Setter a really good example of that in practice is this red Boulder that I was trying at my last session at hangout reading past these surrender slopers they look a lot better than they were I absolutely promise you I'm into this crimpy section and then you can see here that I need to get my right foot out to the right and go for this kind of like Palm down reach you move to the next red hold I couldn't do that no matter how much I tried so I just subbed in this white hole here and then I went for the yellow as well because hey why not my next lesson is if you're serious about trying to improve your climbing look into an in-person climbing coach so I'm really fortunate to have been able to work with lots of different coaches throughout my time on YouTube there's a whole back catalog of me working with various different coaches that you can check out to learn by proxy but really I think there's so much value in working with someone one-on-one who can look into your specific strengths and weaknesses and help you to improve in person in person climbing coaching is an investment that not everyone is in a position to make but you can access climbing coaching in a more affordable way such as joining onto a group session for example The Hangout runs lots of Socials and coaching sessions that you can access weekly you can also make use of a whole catalog of climbing resources and content on YouTube videos like this videos that I've run with coaches videos on other climbing channels that have a wealth of information on technique tips to help you improve your climbing that don't mean that you have to book a climbing coach with all that said I really would recommend if you're in a position to do so getting in touch with someone who can run you through an in-person session also you can ask a friend to film you so I spend a lot of time watching footage of myself climbing and honestly I think that there is so much to be gained in terms of like knowledge and information about how you climb and what your strengths and weaknesses are by watching footage of yourself climbing if you haven't ever filmed yourself climbing before I really recommend that you do watch it back and see whether or not it marries up with what you think is happening on the wall because oftentimes what I think is happening on the wall and what is happening on camera are completely different and there's a lot to be learned in that Gap one thing that has come through consistently in coaching sessions I've had over the past couple of years is the importance of your lower body and specifically your hips and the positioning of your hips as you climb so on this particular climb you can see that my hips are pretty much glued to the wall whereas if I bring my hips out it certainly becomes a lot more difficult to hold this hole and F all off I can relate this back to two particular learning points over the last few years one being my like Eureka moment in my session would be about Base building and the second being my second Eureka movement with Alex Waterhouse GB climber on the Arc of your hips and how you generate movement through your lower body a really important concept when you're doing Dynamic movement is to think about like the Arc of your hips while you're doing it so you start in close and then you come up you're always falling out so when you're like coming out from where you're always falling out so what you need to focus on is to start with the hips out doing the move you have time with the hips come in and then come back out so that gives you way more time than if you go up like that and you're always falling out thrust the hips in loads more time with that in mind I wanted to show you a move on this white V5 V6 at Hangar wedding where with the correct hip positioning I could actually take my hands completely off chalk up and keep going because of correct hip positioning so my last and parting lesson is one that is perhaps a little bit corny but absolutely true and that is that climbing will never stop teaching you things and you will never stop learning one of the most amazing things about climbing is that it always has something to teach you it's amazing to think that I've been climbing for nearly a decade and thank you so much for being a part of that for the last couple of years it really has meant the welcoming and I'll see you in my next video bye

Channel: Hannah Morris Bouldering

Views: 57,537

Keywords: bouldering, climbing, climbing girl, climber girl, rock climbing, lessons from climbing, climbing techniques, climbing tips, climbing lessons, climbing coaching, bouldering tips, bouldering techniques

Id: 68WPvZ54v2g

Length: 11min 5sec (665 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 31 2023