“Planning is an unnatural process – it’s much more fun to do something.
The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and desperation”
- Sir John Harvey-Jones 1924 – 2008, Industrialist

I’ve been meaning to write this one for a while but life and work have gotten in the way so it’s been a bit of a long road to getting to it! As mentioned on another interesting blog for those motivated by the sport of climbing, Doylo’s Blog had a good personal reflection on his own past year, and the lessons he learned and the forthcoming strategy for 2010. As it happens, Dave seems to have remembered he has a blog and decided to update it also with his own current plans and process he’s going through right now – sounds pretty organised!

I mentioned it a bit here when I took a longer-term view of my own progression from when I started climbing all of 11/12? years ago – sheesh! – and even on reflecting about my experiences so far in Sheffield and the potential for increases.

so, looking back on 2009, I can only say it’s been insightful also in so many ways. I’ve learnt what my natural baseline is now (after going for months of just intermittent climbing) and what many of my strengths were for this reason. I’ve also learnt of the weaknesses – imbalance of pocket to crimp strength, lack of power for burly moves, a lack of belief for harder routes sometimes. All good experiences and brilliant to reflect on now so that I can improve in the future. I was at a seminar today in relation to my course and one of the quotes was “when you share your learning, it grows instead of getting less” (an old 5th century Tamil poem). Well, to the two top-level climbers who answered my calls for advice, I owe you one and to keep the karma going, I’ll continue to share my learning on this blog and a bit on irishclimbingcoaching.ie so hopefully some of it will be of use to someone! LOL Having said that, I’ve always got a lot to learn myself, most notably in getting strong not just in your fingers so I’ll be picking some people’s advice

So, in taking another quote from the seminar – “the future belongs to those who prepare for it today” (some bloke called Malcolm X made that one – like Dave’s post, I have a rough plan to follow for the forthcoming months to prepare for my summer plans (so would probably benefit most people in my hemisphere). And in the interest of sharing, my next couple of posts are going to be my own plans. As part of those posts though, I’m expecting comments and thoughts – this discussion is a two-way thing. Hopefully you’ll get ideas of my own plans, and hopefully some can advise on what they think I should really be focusing on……

The topics (and I’ll update as I finish more)
- overall training plan for 2010
- strength work-outs (fingers, shoulders, etc.)
- fitness
- things that haven’t worked and failures

Are the Amazon links at the bottom of my posts annoying/useful/distracting?

Good training books from Amazon:
9 Out of 10 Climbers Make the Same Mistakes: Navigation Through the Maze of Advice for the Self-coached Climber

Performance Rockclimbing

Self-Coached Climber: The Guide to Movement, Training, Performance

Jerry Moffatt: Revelations

KILDARE, IRELAND (Irish Climbing Coaching) – Following on from the previous theme, hopefully you’ll have been thinking about what keeps you motivated.
For most people, what keeps them motivated is the aim or desire to climb a new, harder grade.
Obviously, if you’re going to put some time in on a discipline, it makes sense that you actually enjoy what you’re doing as it’ll help keep you going when you’re busy, the weather is crap, you’re tired, etc. – i.e. what keeps you motivated?

So, now that you’ve an idea of what keeps you ticking, relate this to your aims goals for the year. This all links to what we’ve been talking about regarding goal setting. Most importantly, what you practice at, you’ll get better at. So if you’re hoping to improve your traditional climbing level, it makes sense that you’re going to have to focus on this type of climbing. Same goes for bouldering, sport climbing, etc.
What we mean here is that if you’re going to focus on trad climbing (taking this as the primary example as it’ll relate to many of the climbers in Ireland), you’re going to have to make sure your stamina is emphasized while training. Likewise for bouldering, it’s largely bouldering and strength/fingerboarding work that ye should be thinking about. Makes sense?
Having said that, I am going to contradict myself here a bit by saying that don’t completely disregard the other disciplines. While stamina is absolutely critical for trad climbing, if you’re not strong enough to do the moves it doesn’t matter how long you can stay on the wall. Trad climbers need to focus on some bouldering or strength training more than boulderers need to practise for some stamina!

Another idea to consider, and only slightly off-topic , is that of the motivations that come from those around you. If you’re looking for a catalyst for improving your climbing and staying motivated, make it an idea to climb with new people/strangers every once in a while. Just taking the effort to meet and climb with new people will help keep you on the path that you’re aiming for!

O.k., I’m not going to elaborate on this more today – it’ll take a few blog entries to get you thinking about this! We’ll start giving you an idea on the concepts of making up training plans in the coming days and weeks (although a climbing coach will be required to properly explain it all!).

Set yourself some time today and take 10 or 15 minutes to write down your goals for the year. Keep it short – don’t try to over-extend yourself! It might just help you realize what you need to think about to improve this year.

Image Credit: Unknown climber spitting off a project in Rodellar, Spain. Photo by Keith Ladzinzki – one of the best climbers in the states at present.

- Neal -

LIMERICK, IRELAND (Irish Climbing Coaching) – Continuing on from Nigel’s post last week, I’m left with the task of compiling how to translate motivation to your own situations. Stay with me here, I’ll try keep it concise and to the point!

Firstly, motivation will come in different shapes and forms for everyone. Like everything else in life, what motivates you will be different to what motivates everyone else. Makes sense?

People get motivated for multiple reasons. Get stronger/faster/better, friends are involved – they’re all valid reasons. For most, climbing will be about recreational fun, for some others it will be push themselves to the absolute limit. Some will be to challenge themselves, to beat your friend at the next IBL or on route(s!), to be the best(!)

In short, you need to give yourself a reason, or a goal, to remain motivated. If you find yourself turning up at the wall just ticking off a few routes – ask yourself; is this what you want?

What motivates you? -This is a key question to answer…..
For a lot of people they won’t be completely aware of why you train or climb, meaning that motivation goes through dips and troughs as you get distracted from your goals. Don’t forget, the Real World (family, friends, partners, work, fun) will all do their best to interfere in your situation! It’s a case of keeping yourself focused and in check – which will help you reach those goals you’re aiming for.
Take those negative issues and focus them on positives – again, see Nigel’s entry for a prime example of this!
See how this relates to goal setting? Try and relate it to your goal setting as mentioned previously on the blog. Make sure that the goals you’re setting correlate to what keeps you motivated – that’ll keep focused on what needs to be done.

Image Credit: The author’s hard work & motivation during the previous year pays off – lowering off from 8a+ (Asia Shadow Play, Thailand)!

As a Junior at a climbing comp., I somewhat foolishly revealed a major personal ‘dream’ to a well known and respected climber on the scene then. I was told I was being unrealistic and the word ‘never’ was actually used, but I didn’t have the confidence to tell them exactly where to go and so shrugged it off. This one, small and careless comment had other plans however. It stuck fast in my mind and soon – I was consumed, it burned like a fire inside of me. I began training hard every day, with hindsight I was very lucky not to injure myself and also lucky that the age I was at meant the gains made, became a very solid foundation for the future.

7 years later, one of my closest friends and I found ourselves locked into respective long-term projects, in a well known climbing area in North Wales. Matt was attempting a long, sustained line right at his limit. Three months of focused effort found him falling from the final insecure moves, far beyond the crux, tens of times. My own efforts focused on a mere 6 moves right at my limit of the time. In my case, failure was much swifter. 3 moves in I met what was to become my Nemesis, one move shy of still hard, but less insecure ground. I fell from that move somewhere in the region of 400-500 times (this is not an exaggeration), many times almost reaching the key heel hook. The drives home following these sessions were quiet affairs, usually interrupted by random and unprovoked expletives or moans of “why” and “so close”, escapee’s from a tormented internal dialogue? We both understood.

Success for both of us came on the same day a short while later. Matt keeping it together for the last few moves of his line before latching the final hold screaming and clearly elated. Spurred on by his effort, I gave everything to holding the swing, reaching the heelhook and sketching my way to the top of my own Nemesis. The pressure instantly lifted, but this felt different, there were the usual shouts of success etc. but something was missing. Unfortunately motivation is a hugely complex beast. There was no lasting elation, only a feeling of relief. Soon after, another throw-away comment finalised a series of events that led me to give up climbing for good. Had I understood what was happening at the time I could have intervened before things progressed too far. In the end, ‘for good’ turned out to be almost 18 months, but it took a good friend to persuade me to return to the sport (for which I will be eternally grateful).

It’s not all sombreness though (there is always surfing after all ) and as for the throw away comment as a junior; less than a year later I had shown my critic just how wrong he was and possibly showed myself that what is possible is limitless….even if motivation isn’t always.

Climbers are very critical. I know, I was one of the critics for far too long. I now realise the effects this can have on others. Chase your dreams like there is no tomorrow and shove the people who say ‘can’t’. Don’t let other people define your limits, they’re usually wrong and lack ambition.

The Spark that Re-Lit the Flame: Thanks to Rob Lamey for the Video!

I really feel a bit weird putting something so personal on the net, but I hope that some people who do find themselves in a similar situation (there is one in particular – you know who you are) maybe gain some tiny insight from it. More practical tips on keeping your motivation topped-up are to follow later in the week.

- Nige –

People often set very general goals and leave it at that. E.g. ‘I want to improve my climbing’ (for anyone interested, these are known as subjective goals) this is good, as the individual has obviously had a think about roughly what they want to achieve. However, in order for you to use your goal setting effectively and also to give you the best possible chance of achieving them, we need to delve a little deeper. We need to develop objective goals, these are more specific and ‘guided’ goals. These can be broken down into 3 broad categories:

• Outcome Goals – These are goals that focus specifically on the outcome of a task, often a competitive task e.g., Win the the Irish Bouldering League, or as Neal mentioned, become the first Irish climber to climb 8c+.
• Performance Goals – These are goals that are generally measured against previous personal performances e.g., climb my first 5a. And are generally more specific in their outcome e.g. get 5 moves further on your current project route.
• Process Goals – These goals focus on specific tasks, such as certain areas of technique e.g., keep my centre of gravity over my feet.

Next, these goals need to be further refined and so we apply the acronym MASTER
Measurable – Goals need to be measurable, otherwise, how would you know if/when you reach them.
Attainable – The goals need to be challenging but not unrealistic.
Specific – There’s no point in just saying ‘I want to climb harder’.
Timed – A point in time must be applied to each goal as a guide to when it should be achieved by.
Engaging – If the goal doesn’t interest YOU, you’re far less likely to achieve it.
Revisable – If the goal is looking unlikely, it is changeable.
So, now lets take a look at our goal of climbing 8c+ again and apply these few simple principles.

Now our Outcome Goal becomes ‘Become the first Irish Climber to climb 8c+, by climbing XXX route in Rodellar, Spain, by the 30th of June 2008′ ( No pressure Neal )

A Performance Goal on the road to climbing 8c+ may be ‘On-Sight 5 8a+’s of XXX style by the 15th of May 2008′.

A Process Goal may be ‘Keep right leg flagged out on the crux move of said route on every subsequent attempt’. A bit more vague on the ‘Timed’ aspect, but still a good goal.

On top of using MASTER and setting Outcome, Performance and Process goals, what else needs to be considered?

• Develop short, medium and long term goals as required. This is advantageous as the reaching the short-term goals provides a good motivation boost and also helps to keep you on track, however, by setting too many goals, things can become confused and less effective. 3 goals in each category is a good number, but better to start out with fewer until you get used to the goal setting process.

Short terms goals could just be for the current training session/days climbing or for the next week or two, mid term goals could extend from weeks to months and long term goals may extend for a number of months, possibly even years. Think about goals for Olympic athletes, they may realistically extend for 4 or even 8 years!

• Record your goals – this is where keeping a training diary really helps, it allows for later review and it’s there in black and white.
• Making your goals public has been shown to increase commitment to the task in question (Locke, 1996).

So, in summary, without the waffle:
- Define your more general, subjective goals.
- Set Outcome, Performance and Process Goals.
- Use the MASTER acronym to guide your goal setting.
- Develop short, medium and long-term goals, but not too many.
- Record your goals on paper.
- If you’re comfortable, make your goals public.

As an example of some of my own goals for the next while:
For those of you who don’t know me I had surgery on my shoulder recently which I am recovering from and so most of my goals at the moment are focused around this.
My main Outcome goal at the moment is…. To get my shoulder back to full functional strength by the 3rd week of March, it’s not a classic Outcome goal, but it is the overriding one at the moment.

My Performance Goals are:
1) Improve one specific aspect of my shoulder flexibility (External Rotation) to 90% of the ‘good’ shoulder’s range, by my next Physio appointment (4 weeks time).
2) To improve my internal and external rotation strength to 90% of the ‘good’ side by my next physio appointment (4 weeks time). At the moment it’s at 80%.

I consider these to be mid-term goals at the moment.
My process goals are:
1) Maintain good scapular (shoulder blade) position throughout all of my exercises in today’s session.
2) Complete 4 sets of 6 reps of bicep curls with green Theraband (the elastic stuff). 3) Don’t snag and snap this length of Theraband….it’s getting expensive!!

I understand that my current goals may not be the best examples, as there’s a bit of jargon in there, but the information above should point you in the right direction. The bottom line is that goals, whether you acknowledge you’re making them or not, are one of the foundations of success. Get your head around it now and you’ll be well set up.

Reference: Locke, E. (1996). Motivation through conscious goal setting. Applied and Preventative Psychology, 5(2), 117-124.