Friday glee doesn't understand why the shark

[rydra_wong]

The Friday post of glee is where you get to tell us about your climbing-related happiness this week.

It can be a new achievement or adventure, or just that you climbed and had fun; it can be that your favourite climbing wall is expanding or that you bought new rock shoes or that you found a cool ice-climbing vid on YouTube. No glee is too small -- or too big. Members are encouraged to cheer each other on and share the squee.

N.B. Please feel free to post your glee on any day of the week; the Friday glee is just to get the ball rolling.

To enhance this week's glee: for anyone who's seen Free Solo lately, here's what a free ascent of Freerider usually looks like, as demonstrated by Jacob Cook and team.

Except I don't think there's always an inflatable shark. The shark is optional.

Comments

[seasonoftowers]

I'm back climbing!

https://seasonoftowers.dreamwidth.org/18735.html

I have no idea how long it'll last - between being accident prone and the insanity that is my schedule, but I climbed, and had fun!

How long does it take for the problem-solving-eye to start forming? In my previous couple-of-months attempts, I always had a hard time visualizing what was going to happen on the wall - after a while I could do whatever the kinetic equivalent of subvocalization is and kinda feel a route and what I'd need to do for it, but I couldn't really do it in my head as much as...remember where the holds were, and keep that information available to my lizard brain to utilize as it sees fit in that split second

[rydra_wong]

How long does it take for the problem-solving-eye to start forming?

Well, I'm still working on it after ten years. *g* Though I'm autistic and dyspraxic as fuck, so my experiences are not going to be representative of anything except how my particular brain works.

I can generally imagine hand sequence beforehand, not always accurately. I'm working on being able to visualize where my feet will be (and the rest of my body) for each hand move, and I'm shockingly bad at it. Even though, like you, I find my lizard brain can do it fairly instinctively, and my technique's not bad. But for some reason I struggle to be able to think about it and plan in certain ways in advance.

[seasonoftowers]

How did your technique improve, btw? Lizard brain doing its thing?

Sorry for the belated reply

[rydra_wong]

Initially, learning from books and videos -- I can give you recs if you want? That helped build up a movement vocabulary. Watching lots of videos of great climbers. Then I think outdoor climbing has helped with my footwork, because the footholds are so much worse than they can be indoors.

But still, lots of drills! Things I read up on and then try to practice.

Don't worry about belatedness :)

[seasonoftowers]

Oh yes please! You always have the best rec lists

Re: Don't worry about belatedness :)

[rydra_wong]

Stuff that helped me hugely when I was starting:

The Self-Coached Climber -- AWESOME explanations of movement principles if you are a person who learns best by reading about things then trying them out
Neil Gresham's Masterclass Part 1, which the makers have now kindly placed on YouTube for free. Ignore the stuff about training, it's not stuff that you should be doing in your first year or couple of years climbing anyway, AND is now massively outdated and unsound anyway, but the demonstrations of movement principles are sound and useful. Production style is extremely Of Its Era.

Also I'm spamming rachelmanija with my favourite climbing footage to watch and learn from in the thread here:

https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/2261645.html?thread=25545101#cmt25545101

Re: Don't worry about belatedness :)

[seasonoftowers]

These seem great! Will definitely be watching/reading

Re: Don't worry about belatedness :)

[rydra_wong]

it's not stuff that you should be doing in your first year or couple of years climbing anyway

Sorry, I realize I don't know how long you've been climbing for -- I copied-and-pasted from where I recced this to someone else! Still true that you should ignore the training advice in this anyway because it's outdated.

Re: Don't worry about belatedness :)

[seasonoftowers]

Oh dear, I have only been climbing for multiple years chronologically - if we're looking at what actually happened rather than start/end dates, it's a bunch of couple-months regular climbing episodes, all indoors, with enough space between them that I'd forget everything and have to start from scratch. The mountain stuff I have been doing regularly involves being on my own two feet 99% of the time, and maybe short scrambling episodes mostly nowhere near vertical for the other 1%

[wpadmirer]

I'm planning to get a climbing day in next week after I see the surgeon about my appendix. I know that once I've scheduled the appendectomy, it will be a while before I can climb again. I'm determined to get one last session in before that time!

[rydra_wong]

Sorry to hear you have to have an operation -- hope it all goes smoothly and you recover speedily!

[wpadmirer]

Thank you! Fortunately it's not serious (as far as they're telling me). The appendix is enlarged and pressing up against other things (like my colon), so it needs to come out before it creates a problem.