FIVE ROCK CLIMBING RULES FOR LIFE
I started climbing about 8 years ago. A friend of mine took me to an indoor wall and although I was, quite frankly, rubbish I knew I wanted to go back and improve. I certainly wasn’t hooked after my first climb but I didn’t want to give up either.
Fast forward a few years and, for health reasons, I took a bit of a hiatus but last year got back into in and I’ve been pushing myself ever since. In fact, one of my publicly declared New Year Resolutions was to take my first trad climb this year… I’ve since been reminded that I actually did one about 6 years ago in the Peak District but being as I forgot I don’t think it counts.
In my year’s of rock climbing I look back and think about all positive changes it’s made to my life. I’m not just talking about the physical aspects – strength, conditioning, core etc.
Don’t get me wrong, climbing is a great way to keep in shape but I think the sport can teach a lot of life lessons that may not be immediately obvious.
- Trust your instinct and judgement
- Keep momentum going
- Know when to let go. Hang in there – you can take a lot more mentally than you think you can, but give up if you need to and start again, don’t string it out until the better end until all your energy is zapped and it will take you even longer to muster the energy to have another go.
- Make a plan. It might be that you change it during the route – and that’s fine – but know where you’re starting and where you need to end up with an idea of how you’re going to get there.
- Make time to rest.