Ten Minutes to Trying Harder

One of the most important factors in climbing harder is using great tactics. Unfortunately, more isn’t always better with tactics. Once you learn the power of good tactics it can be hard to step away from them. We can get stuck in a nearly endless cycle of wanting to do bigger links, trying to find better beta, and waiting for better conditions. The more you develop your tactics, the more important it is to know when to hit pause on being strategic and just knuckle down and try really hard.

In our recent podcast episode about when to use Systematic Tactics vs. Battle Mode, we discussed the Ten Minute Takedown drill and how useful it is for developing the ability to swap back and forth between spending our time on tactics vs. focusing on effort.

This drill has been a part of my coaching repertoire for years, and it’s something I’ve seen great results with for people who:

• Overthink the process of working out a climb and finding beta.

• Skip ahead to giving send go’s too quickly and exhaust themselves trying bad beta.

• Have a mental block around how long climbs should take them. They spend more sessions than necessary working things out when they could have just tried harder and sent in one or two days.

• People who struggle to perform under pressure because they rarely experience “now or never” moments in climbing.

With how valuable this drill is, I thought it would be helpful to put a video together that walks through what this drill looks and feels like, for anyone interested in incorporating it into their own training.