Saturday Syke

Dave Graham is a primary inspiration for this website with his constant search for new boulders and the meaning of life through climbing.

Repost: McColl Training Frog-style

Sean McColl joined the French World Cup Training Camp.

My focus is result-driven medium-term (6 weeks - 1 year) programming. 2 days of training with no objective results is interesting, but not a high value, data point. What struck me was the balance of specific and general elements in the training. The specific element was choosing to climb World Cup style routes. The general element was not focusing on individual limiters or what training happened in the days before or after.

Create Your Own Climbing Media Network

Given the inherent power of the internet, everyone can create their own climbing media network (see mine on the right sidebar).

If you don't care about latest and loudest ascent by the youngest climber (I don't), you can ignore it and the sites that choose to cover it. If you don't want to watch uninsightful interviews in climbing shorts, fast forward through them (I do).

I don't dislike those forms of climbing news; I don't care.

Therefore, I don't speed any time or attention on it.

I make a conconcious choice on what I watch and read. I let everything else slide.

Saturday Syke

I spend days on this project, preparing the landing and working the moves. Then, I choose to give it away. I rather see it exist in the world now than wait.

A Light Chance of Falling

Bayesian inference is a powerful heuristic to understand the world. Basically, it states that predicting the future is based on the past.

I use this concept to understand how to train and perform. I tend to fall on the same type of move (over and over). My prior probability of failure on large, rounded feet and big pulls on pinches is relatively high. My prior probability of failure on crimps and topping out a climbs is relatively low.

That means if I want to maximally train I need to focus on the former. My posterior probability of failure will be high (aka I will more fall on lower grades) but will decrease my prior probability of failure in the future. On the other hand, I should focus on my strengths if I want to maximally perform (low posterior probability of failure).

Practicing, Rehearsing, and Gigging

In music, there are times to run the scales in the woodshed to become dramatically better. Other times, get the band together to become a seamless music making machine. Then comes the gig, time to perform.

Steve Vai's brillance was honed through practice. Black Flag became great through rehearsing. The Beatles laid the foundation to change music through gigging.

However, the easiest path to improvement is a balance of each.

Climbers by default gig too much. Almost always projecting. Sometimes they rehearse. More time spent practicing the scales of climbing is a direct path to better gigs.

Saturday Syke

Count to Six and Die

The video and the climb are both ART.

Jason Kehl Does The Work!