You Aren't Strong Without Strengths

I’m starting to see a troubling trend in climbing that’s becoming more common as we search for physical “standards”. Someone will take an assessment of their strengths, see a “good enough” number next to a measurement and decide not to train that attribute. 

And that should bother you.

Here’s the thing, these assessments (which I use as a coach and am a fan of when used correctly), require context behind them to be most useful. Think of an assessment as a snapshot in time. It tells us exactly where you are in that moment. As important as it is to learn where you are, it’s just as crucial that we look at where you came from.

If I see someone who climbs below V12 that can one-arm deadhang a 20mm edge, it’s natural for me to think, “That’s strong enough that it’s not a primary concern for them to continue progressing.” However, I need to follow up by asking what their training history is. If that person has spent very little time directly training their fingers before, then it would be absurd for me to not have them try it out. You can spend 25 minutes a week hangboarding (that includes rest times between hangs) and still see amazing results. That’s such a small investment that it would be silly not to give it a shot.

Most of us have certain aspects of training that we respond to better than others. If you “naturally” have great endurance or power or finger strength, then it’s worth seeing if a little bit of training can make it even better. Yes, a 20mm one-arm deadhang is sufficient for climbing in the low double digit ranges, but what if adding 30 minutes of hangboarding each week could turn that strength into a super power? 

This same type of oversight shows up when we confuse being good at something with the people around us being bad at it. I’ve met climbers who don’t see a need to strength train because their baseline strength is already better than all of their friends. That’s cool and all, but what if you had the potential to get significantly stronger with only a little extra effort? Are your friend’s abilities the best measurement of what your potential is?

We aren’t strong without strengths. As cool as assessments and standards are, they can easily leave people settling for “good enough” when they have the potential to do much more. Sometimes your “low-hanging fruit” might look like a strength to the outside observer. If you know of something you're good at without trying or from very little effort, see if you can exploit that a little more rather than coasting on talent and only trying to level up the things that come less naturally to you.