Why Did That Work So Well?

Jul 29

When you’re struggling to create a new habit within climbing, start by focusing on the days when things go well and feel easy, rather than those days when you can’t seem to do anything right.

Our natural inclination is to dwell on the times when things go wrong or don’t happen according to plan. You leave the gym and realize you spent your entire session aimlessly wandering around and never really tried hard or focused. Instead of going to your default reaction, which might be, “Why can’t I just focus and do what I know I should? I want to get better, and this isn’t helping,”, think about the sessions when things have gone well effortlessly.

On the days when you went in, were super focused, and tried really hard, why was it so easy on that day? Did you have a plan for what you wanted to do before you went in? Were there specific people you climbed around? Was it a different time of day? Had you slept well the night before? Were there boulders you were excited about at that time? Search out the factors that make habits and routines feel easy and focus on replicating them.

The author on *Full Monty* in Hueco Tanks, a boulder that requires focusing on what’s going right rather than all the ways that last move can go wrong.

When things go poorly, instead of beating yourself up for it, reframe the problem. You’ll get more value out of replicating the times that things go well than you will from dwelling on the bad days. Bad sessions don’t make you a failure, they’re just data points getting you closer to a solution. It isn’t magic, it’s a process.

MORE TIPS FROM NATE

Taped Tips | The Setup Mistake Climbers Make on Hard Moves

One of the most common places things start to fall apart is at the very beginning of the move.

Taped Tips | The Secret to Hard Moves that Most Climbers Are Missing

We know spending time on a finishing link is smart tactics for hard climbs. So why not apply the same concept to individual moves?

Taped Tips | Go Ahead, Grab That Foothold and Be Adaptable

Learning when and how to compensate for a weakness is a skill. And skills need to be practiced.

Taped Tips | The Hidden Value of Lowballs

Lowball boulders, while not as proud, can still teach us new movement, new ways to utilize tension, and force us into finding new techniques.

When It’s Better to Think Inside the Box

I never thought I’d be recommending this, but some of y’all should be putting less effort into becoming technically better climbers.

Taped Tips | Stop Applying Training Principles to Climbing Performance

Training principles are important, but when they creep into performance, your climbing will suffer. Nearly every time.

It's All Uphill From Here

As you level up in climbing, so do the challenges.

Taped Tips | Connect the Dots: Where Climbers (and Coaches) are Going Wrong

We have become collectors of dots. But there’s one major thing that happens when we connect dots that is entirely lost in mass dot collection: critical thinking.

When Effort Isn’t the Issue

Do you really have terrible willpower? Or are you surrounded by distractions and obstacles?

Taped Tips | 3 Tips for Training for Climbing Trips

You have a climbing trip coming up. The rock is different. The style is different. Your pre-trip time is short and the number of days you’ll be climbing, even shorter…

Is Board Climbing Fixing a Problem You Don't Have?

Giving artificially low grades to climbs increases their perceived value for our training and development. The more something is mis-graded the more we naturally want to prioritize it.

The Invisible Influence of Grades

Discussion around grades can be so polarizing that many of us avoid the topic.

Consistency’s Caveat

Climbing starts off as this self-feeding cycle that has you wishing you could climb seven days a week. What happens when this cycle stops bringing improvement though?

Sharpen Your Saw

Experienced climbers are incredible at lying to themselves.

The Worst Interview Question

Look, it’s important to not let things get overcomplicated. Hunting for elegant answers keeps us from getting bogged down with minutia. But when we take it too far, we lose sight of the bigger picture.