Learning from a bad day of climbing

We all have them, bad days.  A bad say SUCKS and can quickly roll from bad to horrible.
One of the most frustrating things for me can be when I have a bad day of climbing.  Climbing requires such a level of mental concentration that if you are in the wrong mindset a simple move can seem impossible.

Yesterday I had one of those days.  As I got to the gym I wanted to climb but as I started to warm up by leading some easy routes I was just having the hardest time.  Normally routes that I can walk up without a thought were giving me the hardest time.

Like any bad day the realization that I was below personal part started to effect me even more.  As I got inside my head, questioning my ability the balance and moves just were not coming together.

During a break in our climbing, (Val was cranking up some really impressive routes) I decided to go look at one of the bouldering problems that a large group o f climbers were crowded around.  It was a new route set up by Daryl, requiring some very precise static moves followed by a final dynamic lunge to a hold.

After watching some much stronger climbers try the moves and swing off the hold post dyno, I decided to give it a shot.

At the point right before the dyno, as I was balancing on the foot hold trying to get ready to launch for the big move, the bad day started to fall away. All I was focused on was balancing on this precarious foot hold, hugging the wall, and getting ready to spring to this hold just out of reach.

On my third attempt the route came together.  I was able to balance, inching to a good launch point, and finally whirl my free arm in the direction of the hold. Contact was solid, I swung hard and hung onto the hold. WOW that felt good.  Topping off the problem, I realized that even though I had only accomplished one hard route that day, It was a great day of climbing.

Thinking about it later I realize that the difference was I had been able to focus while on that hold.  Due to the extreme difficulty of the task at hand, my mind naturally pushed everything else out.  So even if that 5.10 was giving me trouble, I was able to execute the harder move simply by letting my day fall away.

We all have days in climbing.  Sometimes all it takes is forgetting that your having a bad day and restarting with a fresh attitude.  The deeper I get into the climbing sport, the more I realize what an important role the mind plays in our abilities.

Cheers.