I have just returned from an epic trip to Kalymnos! It was a bit of a mixed bag of climbing coaching and a bit of personal climbing at the end, but hey, its all good :) I was in one of the most beautiful climbing destinations on the planet with good friends and always in the sun - living the good life!
Coaching Week
The coaching week was aimed at kids who are already experienced climbers, keen to develop their climbing skills further and also to transfer their indoor training to outdoors. All of those attending compete at regional, national or international level, and I feel that it's important for them to have other focusses outside the competition and climbing gym scene. Climbing trips outdoors offer a different challenge free from the same types of pressures that are often put on the kids at competitions.
During the week my aim was to get all the kids to climb as much as possible, to tick a few harder routes and to have lots and lots of fun. Needless to say everyone gained a lot from the trip!
On the first day, despite everyone being tired from travelling, some of which had spent numerous nights sleeping in other cities and countries before arriving on Kalymnos, they all got stuck into climbing. I was eager to get everyone moving on rock ASAP so there was no wasted time. As any experienced climber knows, it takes time to assimilate to climbing on rock, especially if you climb mostly indoors, so you've got to make the most of your time when you get the chance to get out on rock.
David sending "Spartacus" (7b+) on his 2nd try
As the trip commenced everyone looked like they were slowly getting to grips with the features, trusting their feet on rock (especially smeary feet) and even trusting their hands on rock, something which is often overlooked (you need to relax on the holds and not over grip). The one thing most people struggled with was the tufas, a feature only found on Limestone that requires a very unique technical style. The technique required to climb on tufas is difficult to acquire quickly and it requires complete confidence and trust in your body movement. Initially this is really difficult to do, especially if you are relatively inexperienced in rock climbing as you need to trust the small slopey features of the tufa for both your feet and your hands. The one person I felt really developed a good style on tufas during this trip was Rhiannon - initially she was very wary of these features but as the trip went on she looked more and more comfortable until eventually she was onsighting routes up to 7a+ using tufas! She made a very impressive onsight ascent of "Les Amazones" (6c), 2nd go on another classic tufa 7a and flashed the tricky 7a+ "Nickel"! All of these routes required good tufa technique to climb - well done Rhiannon!
Kirsten Gray climbing IVI (7a+)There was a few issues with confidence pushing on rock, especially on the sharp end. To some extent everyone had an issue with this, but it's only natural and I challenge anyone to say they have never been scared whilst climbing - I still get a little nervous... Especially when taking 20m lobs off the top of the Grande Grotte! What was really good to see was everyone breaking through the mental barriers throughout the trip - of course it wasn't easy and sometimes required more pushing from me (and Sam - you don't want to be saying "take" when he's belaying, he doesn't even know what it means!). I guess what everyone has to remember is that the transfer from indoors to rock isn't just technical, it's also mental. The environment is completely different and everyone will have a transitional period, sometimes it's longer for one than the other... I definitely noticed the change in environment when I went from outdoor sport to outdoor multipitch. Climbing 8b+ from a hanging belay is terrifying... 7a Verdon slabs on multipitch are no less scary!
As the trip commenced everyone was getting a bit more into the style. Kirsten Gray was climbing very well after a shaky start getting her first 7a flash on rock followed closely by her first 7b+ then her first 7a+ (in that order). The 7b+ was no slouch at the grade either as it was the uber classic "Spartacus". The 7a+ "IVI" she should have flashed but got a little nervous during a runout after the crux. After what seemed like an hour of shouting encouragement to press on she down climbed and sat on the rope... When I lowered her she looked at me and said,
"Why did you let me down! You should have pushed me harder!"
Of course... It's my fault :P Good to see though that some kids like being pushed...
Rosie on the super classic 6b "Pterodactyl"Errin and Rosie were mostly top roping during the trip, however, towards the end of the trip Errin took to leading a few routes and even managed a 6b+ on lead which was a massive step from last years trip to Siurana where the hardest top rope she did was 6a+. Adding to that, at the beginning of the week she was struggling with some 6a's, by the end of the week she had climbed several 6c's (one of them Onsight) and even managed a 7a Onsight! If you can Onsight 7a as your hardest grade then there is loads more potential there! Rosie climbed a tonne of routes from f4 through to f6b and certainly got in the mileage - I think the best part of Rosie's trip was taking the big swing at Jurassic on our final day :P
I was massively impressed with David Miedzybrodski in Kalymnos in terms of his approach to ticking routes. He is very calculated most of the time, taking the time to work sequences after he's given the Onsight the best possible attempt. He came close to 4 or 5 x 7b+ Onsight/Flashes and did all of them on his 2nd attempt. He even redpointed the massive enduro-fest "Priapos" (7c) on his second attempt. He made every 7b he climbed easily Onsight including "Gladiator" and "Lulu in the Sky" with the exception of "Aurora" at Kalydna.
This was interesting as I found "Aurora" pretty steady, however, when I climbed it I knew David would struggle... It has a very technical tufa section and is very exposed with a bouldery crux right at the end. Needless to say David got to the top, but after a lot of falls throughout the tufa and in the final crux sequence - but this was all for the good of him and I reckon he gained more knowledge on his weaknesses and areas he can improve upon on this route than any other! Kids if your reading this - it's important to be all round when your young especially, try and get in as many different styles as possible and work routes that you genuinely find hard and challenging as opposed to routes that suit you. If you don't work weaknesses like this it will limit what you are able to climb when you are older.
Spartacus sector - home to classics such as "Daniboy" (8a) and "Spartacus" (7b+) - I climbed Daniboy three times this trip just because...
So altogether it was a great week of coaching for the kids, everyone achieved something grade orientated, developed new skills and challenged themselves beyond their comfort zones - I think these courses are invaluable for the development of aspiring climbers and I'm looking forward to running more in the future.
It has to be noted as well that there were four other young scots also out in Kalymnos at the same time who weren't part of the coaching trip. Rory Cargill, Rebecca Kinghorn, Scott Donaldson and Max Milne were also enjoying the wonders of Kalymnos. Rory managed his first 8a "Fun de Chuchunne" a few days ago and Rebecca redpointed the very tough "Daniboy" (8a) making her the 2nd Scottish female to redpoint the grade (and the youngest). Max I have been told by my Aussie friends has been ripping up Odyssey sector and acting as bolt gun for them on occasion :P Good work Max!
In the evenings we would meet up as a larger group and eat out together - any restaurant that suffered us that night would literally come to a standstill as there was around 30+ scots in total half of which were kids between 2 and 16 years old! MADNESS!!!
Climbing Time
Day 1
After the coaching week ended, I spent a few days climbing with some good Australian friends of mine, Lee and Sam Cujes. I first met Lee and Sam 2 years ago on a trip to Kalymnos where we spent a good few weeks climbing lots and laughing at our ridiculous Scottish and Australian accents... They find my habit of saying "down a wee bit" when stipulating to be "lowered down a little lower" absolutely hilarious... much to both our amusement :P
I also had the pleasure of making some new friends from Australia, Lucy Ellis, Tracie Hua, Erik Smits, Cathy De Vaus and Adam Demmert.
On my first days climbing I went to Galatiani Cave with Sam and Rhiannon for their last day on the island. I had always wanted to go to Galatiani as I had heard there was a number of good 8a's and 8a+ there to try and onsight. Gaz Parry had satisfied my curiosity of the place and told me that the routes were actually all excellent if a little soft in the grade. 
When we arrived, I warmed up on the first part of the 8a+ "Seur D'hommes" which was given 7a and when I got to the chains, I just continued going for the 8a+. Immediately after the chains was a tricky couple of moves followed by a good knee bar rest. After this it was steady all the way and before I knew it I had succesfully onsighted the 8a+. Not a bad warm up :P
Rhiannon and Sam both did the 7a to the left, an awesome looking route that I unfortunately missed out and then I managed to onsight both the other 8a's at the crag, "Debout Le Morts" and "Zero Chichon". Sam finished off with a 7b and trying a 7c which he got high on the onsight whilst placing clips, then I finished off with the same 7c onsight "Gegoune" which I think might be the best 7c I have ever done!
Day 2
On Day 2, I met up with another very good friend of mine Andre Hedger. It was good to catch up with Andre again on a trip. We met up in Ceuse briefly this year and saw each other at the BLCC's but apart from that I haven't seen much of him.
I dragged Andre to Telendos as I wanted to do an 8b there called "Glaros". "Glaros" is situated at an amazing crag called Glaros and takes the steepest line through the central part of the crag. The holds are pretty much all positive and includes only one hard move that I found a little tricky.
The climbing on it involves a lower sustaine dsection of climbing that probably equates to around 8a level in difficulty up until a singularly hard move around 3/4 of the way up the climb. The move in itself isn't hard on it's own, just low percentage as it requires good accuracy at catching a gaston sloper in a crack which you can't see from a sloping pinch in a bunched up position... I fell from this move twice before catching it and doing the route to the top!
Andre had a good day managing to tick 7c+ on his first day on Kalymnos. The 7c+ was a particularly tricky one called "Breakfast on Pluto". Interesting to note that the way Andre did it was really hard and could be 8a, whereas I have since spoken to others who actually missed out the crux of the route by traversing out right. Makes sense to do this as it follows the line of weakness, we just didn't know the holds went out there so we did a stupid bouldery move instead :P
On the way back we opted for a spot of training on the boat...
Day 3
On my third day I went to Arhi sector in the morning and Secret Garden in the afternoon with Lee, Sam, Andre and Eric. I was super keen to try and onsight the 8a+ classoc "Ne pas toucher a ma bite" but failed just shy of the chains... On my 2nd go I fell of the 7b+ start because I'm an idiot and didn't look at the sequence... So I lowered and then did it straight away :P Without a doubt the best 8a+ I have done on Kalymnos... so nobody do it before it becomes as polished as "Angelica", the other 8a at the crag which is basically a marble wall now...
Greeces greatest invention...Lee and Andre both had goes on "Angelica" but unfortunately didn't get it, although Andre's onsight was inspirational, he fought basically the entire way and fell off at the final crux... Close! Later on in the trip I heard he onsighted another 8a :D Good effort dude!
Later on in the afternoon we went to a sector I had not yet visited. It's name is Secret Garden and many of you who have been to kalymnos will probably have visited this place. In all honesty, I didn't expect much as I was unsure how many more great crags can be found on the island... but I was blown away by the sheer quality of pretty much all the climbing here. Maybe a bit of an overstatement as the low 6's on the left looked rubbish... but everything right of them was gold! I climbed an epic 7c+ onsight on the left side called "Savina" followed by an 8a+ that I almost onsigted then did 2nd go called "Flood Gates". This was a great route but the crux had to be the 6c first pitch which I thought was absolutely nails!
Day 4
On my final days climbing in Kalymnos, we went back to Secret Garden. Sam had a project 6c there on the left which she was eager to finish off and I was really keen to see her complete it. I put the clips in for her and even found a cheeky knee bar rest before the crux. She had been trying the route the past day with Eric but had fallen off the crux move, a hard lock to a bad sidepull hold. The difficulty in the move is the requirement to be accurate when your tired especially when the hold is quite blind and round a corner. 
Tracie being a hero on "Kalydiva" (7c)
On her redpoint attempt she made it to the knee bar rest without a hitch and managed to get slotted into the resting positition. The shake out seemed to do the job as she managed to completely static the crux and before long was mantling out on top, but suddenly she was stuck and sturggling a little on the top out... everyone on the bottom was watching with bated breath unsure if she would make it... luckily she pulled it out and continued upwards to the chain :D Effort!
I warmed up that day on a 7c on the right called "Kaly Diva" which had super nice moves if a little crimpy and grim for the skin. I met a Polish couple who climb at Ratho trying the same route which was a funny coincidence as well.
After the 7c I tried to onsight an 8a to the left called "Narcissus" which I only missed out on the onsight by one move!!! The top crux proved to be really hard actually and it took me a bit of time to figure it out. Thankfully I did it 2nd go despite forgetting the sequence and doing it completely different anyway :P
After that I went over to try a 7c+ called "Syrtaki Lessons". The day before I met a Finnish girl called Roosa Huhtikorpi and watched her go for an amazing onsight attempt on it. She powered throgh what was definitely the crux but unfortunately messed up a little higher - onsighting is a tough game! She quickly despatched it afterwards. I hadn't really taken anything from watching her attempt as I was preparing myself for the 8a+ at the time so I still had an onsight attempt at "Syrtaki Lessons". In the end, I was very tired after having had a really hard 4 days climbing, I did the lower crux fine which was supposed to be the crux but I made the same mistake as Roosa and climbed onto some slopers out right. I had to hang them for quite a while until I decided that hanging about was not helping me and I opted for mantling the slopers with the help of the tufa on the left... I later found out this was a stupid idea but thankfully I managed to pull it off and I made it to the chains for another 7c+ onsight :D
The Future
And that pretty much concludes my Kalymnos 2013 trip... I am eager to get back next year, I really want to get stuck into projecting some of the harder routes here and I think I need longer than 4 days dedicated to this, so I am going to have to put some time aside for this :P
What now? Well, I have a very busy week ahead of me... I am setting in Denmark for a competition all next week and after that I am heading to Terradets in Catalunya! I am really psyched about this trip as I have not been to les bruixes sector before and it looks absolutely mega there :D A lot of routes in the 7c-8b region, perfect for onsighting!!! I am going on a mission for onsighting, lets see what happens...
One boy I coach who has in my opinion, an affinity with climbing, is Connor Moore. He has just turned 11 years old and I have never met anybody who loves climbing as much as him. To say, being "obsessed" with climbing describes Connor, is a bit of an understatement... I'd say he defines the term "obsessed"! Anyone who remarks to his piano teacher that the difficult part of his piano recital is the crux obviously has climbing on the brain.
Connor and Katie Moore at SYCC's
Connor has been training really hard this year. His goal was to make finals at the YCS earlier in the year but unfortunately, his regional category (Youth D) is one of the strongest I have ever seen with nearly every boy in the top 5 capable of making finals! Connor just missed out this year but thankfully it didn't hold him back, instead it only made him more determined.
Since then, he has been climbing in Spain (Siurana), demoed for YCS Finals and even beat me at speed climbing :P In Siurana earlier this year he showed his true abilities on rock by climbing 7a+ on one of the boldest, most daunting sectors of Siurana, El Cargol. To have achieved this at his age is amazing and goes to show what hard work and determination can do for you.
Connor battling it out in Siurana
Connor has just redpointed his first 7b at Ratho as well (YCS Girls Youth C Final Route). This was a big project for him and he has finally completed it which was amazing to see :D Not only that, but on the same day he onsighted his first 6c on lead, another big accomplishment for him! This all happened two days before the Scottish Youth Climbing Championships, his last big competition goal for 2012. He had obviously peaked just in time for the competition and I was hoping he would do well. Here is an account from Connor himself:
Connor Moore looking determined on his 7b project
08:45
First I came in and had a quick look at all the routes, then I got warmed up realising that they were not doing a group warm up! (THAT WAS ANNOYING!) I warmed up doing 1,2,3,4,5, then did some stretches and finished my warm up with 4* v1, then 2*v2.
09:15
I route mapped my routes (black estimate 6c+ and a white 6a on the gore text wall). The black looked really reachy over the gore text sign and at the final crux. There were four cruxes overall. Each crux used slopers and rockovers so I thought I would do ok. The last move looked hard. I knew I would have to do a half rockover and then jump dynamically to a reasonable jug. The white looked all positive and pretty easy.
Connor making the very balance, subtle and delicate press move into the horrible sloper hold on his first 7b... This move requires brilliant balance, co-ordination, skill and commitment!
09:30
The starting order for my group was put up at the top of the arena steps. There were ten boys in my group so that meant four places for the final. I found that I was to climb first. I tried to take this positively but found it hard. I asked Scott what route I would be doing first. Unfortunately he said it would be the black as my first route.
09:45
Nat demoed the black and made it look very easy. I wasn't sure if I could make all the reaches. I knew I would have to be dynamic in places. I did one last warmup and got my harness and 5:10s on. I was then ready and psyched for the route. I started the route fast and in no time at all I was four holds from the top. I chalked up for the last crux. I knew this was going to be hard. I had my left hand on a sloper and my right foot on a small positive foot hold. I started rocking over half way, bumped up and went for the move. I found that I easily reached the hold but didn't manage to stick it. I think I had actually gone just beyond the hold. I came off on the third last hold. I was slightly annoyed and realised that everyone else in my category had a good chance to get it. Euan Farmer was up next and think he just slapped the same hold. Then it was Matthew who got to the same point again. Then time flew and Rory Whyte was up. He took his time below but in true Rory style managed to stick the crux and top out. So it was Rory in first followed by me, Euan and Matthew joint in second.
11:00 ish
Everyone topped the white apart from one boy. So it was me, Rory, Euan and Matthew through to the final.
Connor on Qualifier 1, the white 6a+/b
12:00 ish
I wasn't too fussed about the speed competition, but thought it would be good to keep warm. I did a practise speed climb and then my two qualifiers pretty much one after the other. My route was only to the half way mark and I was allowed to use the extra jugs. My qualifying times were 9:06 and 9:00 seconds which put me into the speed final as second fastest.
15:30
I was in isolation in the booulder room. After 5 minutes in the boulder room we all came out to map the final route. My final route was a purple (7a+ but didn't know it at the time) to the left of the justice wall and a route that the youth c boys had in qualifiers. I was pleased because I had watched David and Sam top this earlier. We then went to isolation. I went over my route map and tried to match up the holds on the route to holds in the boulder room and to match moves on the route to practise moves in the boulder room. I was now raring to go. I was nervous, but knew that the purple was my kind of route and felt quite confident in my head.
Connor in the Bouldering room trying out my new UpSkill Knee pads!
16:00
I came out of isolation not knowing how Euan and Matthew had done before me. I started the purple fast then got to the horrible pockets and hesitated. I then worked on to come to one of the last cruxes where I had a horrible slopery crimp and had to go to a crimp being dynamic. I made the move and continued to the top with some fairly technical moves. I was really pleased but wans't sure where I had come. Rory was up next and started slower and came off about half way up. Unfortuneately he hurt his finger. My Dad thought it would be close between Matthew and me as we were the only two to top the route. Buzz told me the route was 7a+. I was really pleased. 
Connor setting up for a hard lock into a side-pull from which he can get a quick rest and then into the crux!
16:45
I was up against Thomas Ryan in the semi finals of the speed. I heard that Thomas beat me by 0.02 seconds and think our times were about 8 seconds. Euan Farmer won the speed and I came third after winning the runners up race against Matthew.
18:00
I was second on the podium for routes and third for speed. Katie came third in her routes and fifth in speed (which was also against the older youth D girls). David also came second in the routes. 
Conz out
Youth D Podium (Euan Farmer 3rd, Connor Moore 2nd, Matthew Fall 1st)
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Tonight I was coaching young David Miedzybrodzki at EICA: Ratho. David did a brilliant job competing in probably the hardest category in last weekends YCS, the Youth C Boys. He placed 4th in the event but is pretty psyched to see if he can improve on that in further rounds in an effort to get a place on the Scottish Team and make the finals.
The coaching session today was based largely around returning to the competition routes and boulders that he struggled with on the day. Out of the three competition boulders, there were two that David didn't manage. He was definitely capable of doing them, but sometimes its not just about whether or not you could do them after work, more whether or not you can spot the sequence quick and make the right decisions on the day when there is more pressure.
The first problem we looked at was the volumes only problem. This was my favourite out of all that where set and is certainly a work of art in terms of comp route setting. It was subtle, technical and very dependant on trusting your feet, weighting them appropriately in the right direction and body position. If you didnt weight your feet enough in the right direction you would slip and if you didnt have the correct body position the holds would feel terrible.
David and I discussed the problem and its nature, we watched videos of other competitors attempting and climbing it and we worked on it a great deal during the session. David seemed to struggle with the final move in particular. My opinion was that he wasn't mantling far enough leftwards i.e. not trusting his left foot on the volume, but he got it in the end by doing a pretty crazy bridge against the side corner and slippey blue volume. Check out the vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAFfM2V5P2M&feature=youtu.be
Here is a video of Sam flashing the same problem at the YCS R1. Its really interesting to see the different ways both kids do it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-EUvCDsNJw
After his successful ascent, we moved outside into the freezing cold arena and had a shot at his final route, the Orange 6c! This route is no joke probably the hardest most techy 6c I've ever seen. I'm tempted to phone up Gresham and Dawes and ask them to see if they would grade it as a solo, cause i think it might be harder than "Indian Face" E10!!!
David climbed exceptionally well on this making it far up the route, further than he had on the comp day and fell on one of the final moves just before the last crux. He then began work on the upper section, working out the sequence, all the foot and body positions and repeatedly attempting the desperate final mantle. In the end he did every move and managed the route in roughly two or three sections, so he will definitely be back for this one.
After climbing, we finished off with a core session in the gym and then headed home.
Its the kids like David that really inspire me as a coach and make me want to continue helping them in any way I can. He has tonnes of motivation, focus and a definite drive that will aid him endlessley towards climbing success.
ROBZ OUT]]>
Unlike a YCS, we did 5 routes instead of 3 as well as 3 boulder problems. The psyche eminating from the group was inspiring to say the least. I can't put into words just how amazing it is seeing the next generation of Scottish climbers being brought up in the current scene.
The first two routes in each category where pretty easy, but the level soon rose. Every group got to try at least three different routes from the YCS round plus a few extras.
The best part of the route climbing day had to be when watching Scott Donaldson on his onsight attempt of the hardest route from the YCS, the Orange Slab!!! I graded it f7a, but its probably physically only f6c, but on a technical perspective probably f9c+ : P It was one of the techiest routes I've ever climbed in my life! Scott's attempt on it was amazing not only for his technical ability to get so high, but also for his sheer persistence and determination not to let go. Its this attitude that separates good climbers from the best. I first saw this element in Scott's climbing whilst with him in Siurana, Spain. During the whole trip he didn't fall off once despite being thrown into the deep-end on routes harder and more technical than he has ever been on before. Here's a short clip of Scott making his high point on his onsight attempt. To give you a little background on the situation, I left him on the route after he had started climbing and had reached a tricky point in which he hung around for a few minutes figuring it out. I left for a good 10 minutes only to return and find him in the exact same spot! I was super impressed, so I gave him a key bit of beta which he used and scraped up the arete into the second crux and onwards to the top...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H1p6CDdRpE&feature=youtu.be
Onwards to the bouldering room. The problems set for the comp were interesting and thought provoking, perfect for a mock comp. The kids got 3 problems to try each in a YCS style format with a judge and spotter in their respective groups. Everyone seemed to be getting a lot from trying the problems, especially Busby's volume problem (video in the last blog). It was impressive to see young Max "The Future" Milne top that as well as every other problem bar the hardest Fluro Yellow V7 that only one person topped (Flash), Jack Gomersall. Jack also made an impressive (and very scary) onsight of the purple 7a on the new comp wall.
So once again a very successful day coaching some of Scotland finest youth climbers. Next weekend I am up in Aberdeen once again for yet another coaching session, can't wait : D
ROBZ OUT]]>
Right now, I am 21 years old, the oldest of our group is probably in his late 30's to early 40's and the youngest is around 18 (although by the afternoon, our friend Kitty is arriving and she will be the youngest at 17). I have been climbing a lot with guys in the group in their early to mid 20's mostly but also I have been hanging around the younger ones a lot (18-21). Its really interesting, because one of them in particular (the youngest one) far from reminds me of myself at the same age... I watch this guy cooking, cleaning, being responsible, thinking about things logically e.g. packing extra food or water for the crag on a hot day or just generally thinking about things more maturely. When I was 18... in fact even now, I don't think I think about things nearly as much as this. When I was 18 I was a total liability, a bit mental and probably would be in a lot of trouble if it wasn't for people looking out for me all the time when i was on trips. I can even remember when I was 17 having to leave France early on a trip because I didn't eat any fruit or veg for 4 weeks and was wondering why my stomach was killing me! This kid is really independent and it impresses me so much at how mature he is for his age.
On the other hand, we have my friend Ollie : P Who reminds me exactly of myself when I was 18, a bit crazy and gun ho, but he definitely is better with his cooking than I was (he at least sticks in a can of tomatoes and some meat with his pasta rather than having it without anything : P ).
My point is, that people mature at different rates and this needs to be something factored in when dealing with kids when coaching. These examples are of course taken from a trip perspective and isn't the same when dealing with them at the wall, so my next examples will be more coaching orientated.
In Edinburgh, I coach a lot of kids, varying from very young (7 years old) to teenagers (18/19). Throughout every age bracket, you can get a multitude of different maturity levels from very serious youngsters who just want to be the best to angry teenagers who like to tell you that your wrong all the time - and of course it goes the opposite way round as well, noisy, unfocussed youngsters and keen-bean, psyched teenagers. Its important that you know what you are working with as this will determine how you work with them. It's part of the fun of the job when you have such different personalities together, you have to change you strategy for coaching them all the time. I think no matter who you are working with though, they have to have a mutual respect for you and not think they can walk all over you. I have made mistakes in the past when working with kids, giving them too much leverage over me (because I am a big softy) and in the end it doesn't work out as a good coach to pupil relationship. Its important for me that the kids i coach see me as their friend and not like a school teacher or instructor, someone they can count on to support them when they feel down, psyche them up when they are going for something hard and trust when giving them advice. Its a difficult balance to get right, but when it is right, its the best way to be...
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I have finally returned from Kalymnos (Greece) and am back in the motherland of haggis, fish suppers and indoor climbing : P So for those not friends with me on Facebook/Twitter, I missed my flight from Schipol (Amsterdam) airport to Glasgow... What a dunce! I decided that 13 hours in an airport would be better spent watching films than sleeping as I was paranoid about missing my flight... Turns out that a few hours sleep in a 48 hour period isn't that good for you and drowsiness and a chance of uncontrollably falling asleep are side-effects... Who knew? Long story short, I fell asleep with only an hour to go, half way through Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (great movie). Despite being asleep in front of the flight gate, the helpful KLM staff didn't think it necessary to awake the sleeping boy in front of them when a mister Robert Phillips hadn't shown up to the flight desk... It's not their fault, I'm an idiot for not setting my alarm, but hey, at least they could have woken me up : P
Anyway, another 2 hours skimming through the wooden clogs outfitter store and I was away back home. As soon as I touched down in Glasgow, I was off to EICA: Ratho (home) to have my first bouldering session in 3 weeks and to meet up with Rory Cargill and his dad Ewan. The Cargills where once again providing a place to stay for the night before my Group coaching sessions with the GCRS crew the following day. I love staying with the Cargills, it's lots of fun being in a household with loads of kids, they're always making pancakes in the morning... YUM!
This weeks coaching with the GCRS crew was focussed on helping them get to grips with their first block of training. The first block comprises largely of endurance based training to help them build their fitness before the start of the YCS rounds in January. The larger program is geared towards finals, so those that have made it through will be on top form for then.
At the start of each group we did a short warm up comprising partly of running to an HRT Alien head hold and poking it in the eye then back to the traverse wall and doing a short traverse. After this, we started training doing some 2x4's on routes (2 sets of a lap of 4 routes). The aim was to reach a level 3/4 pump (max 85%) on the first route and then sustain it through each consecutive route. It was hard work and some of the kids got the level wrong initially, but by the end, everyone was happy with it (at least I think they where, maybe they where too exhausted to say anything else). After 2x4's, we did a couple of sets of 3 second locks aiming for level 4/5 (basically max intensity) and then to finish off, a set of stick game circuits aiming again for level 4/5 - they will all sleep for a week : P
The funniest part of the day was when I saw little Max Milnes new t-shirt. In a previous session, we had been giving each other nicknames, Max's was "Future" on account of how strong he is... His t-shirt was blue with a picture of a ninja monkey on it with "I am the Future" written on it - AWESOME!!!
The end of the day came quicker than expected (coaching these kids is just too much fun). I was picked up at 8pm by Phil Jack, my sole Aberdeen based adult coaching client. A month ago I had set his board up for training, but since then he had acquired lots of new holds and I was up to help him re-set his circuits and boulder problems. We had a really good day on the Monday, a full on session that involved lots of boulder setting and circuit setting. We made up a good lot of problems between V4 and V7+ for Phil to work on and circuits around the f7b+/c range for him to get fit on. He'll be cranking out 8a's in no time at all.
I am now back in Edinburgh, but not relaxing just yet, this last week has been a tiring one. I went to TCA for the first time on Wednesday night with some friends of mine, Ian Paterson, Neil Glover and Neil's wife Katie Glover. We had an excellent time playing around on the boulders. It wasn't exactly a training session, more just climbing until failure : P by the end of the session I was destroyed, so much that I'm still feeling it two days later! The last time I was this knackered was after 2 days climbing a 70m hanging belay start 8b+, certainly not at an indoor wall. I must admit, my strategy during the climbing session wasn't the best, but we all have our little weaknesses, mine is excitement on seeing all the brand new awesome looking boulder problems just waiting to be climbed : P
As I said, after two days I am still exhausted! I haven't been climbing well at all this week and I must say that I'm looking forward to a bit of rest next week. I still have a weekend of coaching in Ratho (Saturday) and Aberdeen (Sunday) ahead of me, but after that, hopefully I'll get some rest : )
I'm going to try and get to the TCA twice a week for my bouldering sessions. It's going to be expensive going through, but I see it as a worthy expense for the world class facility and training benefits I'll see from it.
Here's to a winter of dedicated training for Spain...
ROBZ OUT]]>
This week despite the weekend has been fairly busy... I've had some work at Ratho, a Ceilidh, a night out with two of my best friends (Geek and Buz) and a heck of a lot of training! I've been training so much recently, I'm feeling pretty strong at the moment especially on the circuits! The circuits I set at Ratho have just been getting harder as the week goes on e.g. One of them started as:
V7->V5->V6
And has since turned into:
V8->V5->V7->V5->V6->V5
I think this bad boy might be 8c? The others are at least 8b or 8b+. I've also been hitting the Beastmaker pretty hard and making good progress on max hangs. My one Armers skills are also getting better, I've been aiming for max 3 Armers and I'm hitting that with only 6kg off when I'm fresh : )
Anyway, the 1:1 sessions I've just started went really well! I'm coaching five young beasts from Aberdeen, four of which I had on Sunday - Rosie, Ben, Rory and Max (Thomas couldn't make it as he's in Font - fare enough : P).
I had all of the kids last week as part of a separate group session with "Granite City Rock Stars" club. It was better to have these 1:1 sessions with them though as I learned far more about them as individuals and can better provide for them coaching help and additional training advice. Thanks again to the Cargill family for keeping me for the second time running in a week!
On the Sunday night I got to check out my mate Phil's new training board in his garage. The job for Sunday night was to re-set this for circuits and bouldering training (more so for circuits). As Phil works mostly off-shore, it is absolutely imperative that his training whilst at home is perfect! He needs the best circuits and problems to train on and shouldn't have to worry that they aren't good enough or not doing the right thing. We spoke a lot about training that weekend (i never get tired of it) and between chats I set up Phils board (40 degrees) up. On Monday evening we had a session on it, building the perfect problems for reps, circuits and strength/power training. I even added my own project problem for when I return next time so I can gauge my own progress : P a cheeky V9/10 maybe? I could do it in two halves after a days climbing at Orchestra Cave and the circuit building session, so next time we will see if I can actually finish it!
On the Monday afternoon, we headed to the famed East coast sport crag... Orchestra cave! I've been psyched to go here for a while, a brief chat with one of Orchestra Caves main bolters (Tim Rankin) last week settled it for me. We abbed into the cave after a bit of difficulty finding the damn place : P I stupidly didn't clip the static line into the quickdraws on the way down and found myself a good few metres short of the ledge and only metres above the raging sea! I had to jumar back out and correct my error, oh well, it was at least a good warm up. Eyeing up the crag, there was a few obvious lines bolted, a chalked up face on fat sloper jugs and edges going through very steep terrain (Crescendo 8a+ - Tim Rankin's recent FA), another blocky granite overhang (Blobstopper? 8a or 7c+?) and a cool looking arête which is apparently around 7c+ yet awaits an ascent. I was really keen for the mega 8a+ that tops out the crag "Dangleberries", however was unsure of which one it was. It definitely wasn't the most obvious line and certainly wasn't chalked up at all, in fact, it almost looked slightly wet if I was correct in assuming the line it took... I had a look up at the awesome looking "Crescendo" (8a+) that Tim had recently crushed - chalked up and looking real good I felt I had to have a burn. I went for the Flash (having seen a video of Tim on it already) - Upon first pulling on the holds it felt really greasy, the problem with Orchestra Cave apparently. Despite this, I went for it and managed to pull myself up through the first crux. I tried to get a rest higher up but the jug was damp and just made my hands more greasy, instead I pressed on into the meat of the route, some filthy crimps before a big move to a jug. I got here not really knowing what to do and greasing off everything just decided to take (punter!). I worked out the moves and climbed it to the top from there. I lowered some more and ran over the sequences a bit before returning back to the ground to rest. The climb itself is very nice - it has a very basic sequence and suits a strong board climber who likes circuits (lucky me). On my second go I decided not to bother resting and just went straight through the two cruxes pretending I was on one of my circuits back home (resting is cheating of course). Turns out that bad tactics such as not resting works on greasy, scottish sport climbs.
This was my first 8a+ in Scotland, interesting as I've climbed a lot harder everywhere else : P In all honesty, it felt fine when I climbed it... I wasn't pumped or remotely tired and felt as though I could have gone for the crux at least one more time before the easier ground. As I'm not acquainted on this rock type and have basically zilch experience with the local area I can't really judge grades. I know that I've done a lot harder 8a+'s, but I've also done easier ones. It probably is 8a+, but it needs more ascents to confirm, especially from the locals who know the local grading. An awesome climb in a stunning cave that has to be the best sport crag I've visited in Scotland so far (not a lot to choose from though). I recommend this route for every keen Scottish sport climber and especially for those wanting a power endurance 8a+ that might be a bit greasy, but no doubt is quality three stars : P
I'm currently travelling in the train on my way home, psyched for another week of training that will take me ever closer to my dreams of 9a!
PSYCHED!!!
ROBZ OUT]]>
Anyway, first thing today (10am) I was running the Competition Climbing Teams (formerly BRYCS) training session. This involved a heavy amount of mileage based training on the wall, basically climbing at a very low intensity but doing a lot of it! It can be difficult to keep all the kids attention during these sessions since some go to as young as 7 years old, but generally the kids seem to all really enjoy the sessions and are genuinely enthusiastic about having a weekly updated program that they will see progressive improvements from.
Todays session, I was stuck with the WAD crew, Hannah, Eilidh, Sam and Robert! These kids are something else I can tell you, they are all fantastic climbers but also so much fun to be around, time flies when I am with these guys and its actually pretty sad that the session ends after 2 1/2 hours... The most important thing i've noticed when coaching kids in large numbers is grouping them right. Obviously, I know all these kids pretty well now and I have an idea of who works well with who, so its all good, but you can't get anything worse than two kids who do nothing during the entire session but yap yap yap and muck about! Todays session (at least in my group) worked out a treat! Hannah and Eilidh worked really well together, both at similar levels physically and motivationally speaking. Hannah and Eilidh are two very switched on climbers, both have very nice technique on the wall and are pretty strong when it comes to cranking out those deep locks too. Working together instilled a bit of healthy competition between each other, something I really like to see as it motivates the kids to push harder during training but also encourages the forging of friendships.
On the other side of me, I had young Sam and Robert, two ridiculously strong kids with way too much crazyness between them for me to handle! Despite their lunacy, they actually worked pretty well together and seemed to be really good friends too, I think this pairing is gonna be good for future sessions as well. At times maybe they mucked about a bit, but they got through their training, and in the end we saw some pretty incredible performances by the two of them on a particularly tricky 6a!
The training these kids are doing is a progressive plan I built to prepare them as much as possible for the Youth Climbing Series coming up next year! They will have to maintain their focus through a 9 month plan until the big day of the event... if they can hold out, then they should be in the best shapes of their lives! They are already so incredibly talented, all we need to do now is focus that talent and motivation to give them the greatest opportunity possible for achieving a good result in the YCS rounds and final!
If you are interested at all in what the EICA: Ratho Competition Climbing Team (formerly BRYCS) is, let me illuminate. The climbing team was made to support those kids who show motivation and talent and who wish to compete at a national level. It is by invite only, which means you can't simply book on to it, you have to have proven yourself first. Being a member of the team gives you access to a number of climbing coaches on a weekly basis including myself, a training program to follow every week and a chance to meet other motivated and talented climbers of a similar age (7 - 13 years old). If you are interested and want to find out more, just contact me via the contact page on this site, or come and talk to me at EICA: Ratho (I am pretty much a resident there nowadays).
After the training with the competition team kids, I had a bit of a break, then moved onto the more experienced advanced team kids, Angus Davidson, William Bosi, Megan Saunders and Gabby Stewart! These kids are at a stage where they are looking at placing finals in British Championships and getting places on the British Team, one of which (Angus) is already a part of! Training these guys can be very challenging as they are already such great climbers, the techniques and skills I teach them are much more subtle and a lot harder to develop. Yesterdays session with these guys took the form of a competition format isolation and on-sight practice, this is basically putting them into an identical situation as if they were going into the finals of a competition. The finals of a lead competition include isolation (an area out of view of the walls and routes they need to climb with a small bouldering wall to warm up on), 6 minutes to view the route you need to on-sight, a call number (when its your turn to climb), the walk out to attempt your route, 40 seconds to view the route, and finally 6 minutes to attempt the route on-sight! This is what we replicated and each of the kids had to on-sight a route under these conditions. Watching them climb yesterday was very inspiring, Angus managed to successfully on-sight his route whilst William came close but with no cigar. Megan climbed really well on her second route getting reall high and into the overhang, however, time ran out for her on-route and she couldn't finish. In lead competitions the 6 minutes is usually enough time to top out your route, however, the routes at ratho tend to be very long and winding (this one in particular) and the 6 minutes might not always be long enough. In the end of the day though, all the competitors are put under the same rules and if its a longer route the competitor needs to be ready to switch on speed mode and try and top out within the 6 minutes!
Unfortunately for Gabby, she was very tired that day and had to come down early. Gabby is the type of girl who just loves to train and follow a rigid, structured plan! She fights very hard and trains very hard and its something that I have come to admire greatly about her. Even when she was knackered she still wanted to continue, but sometimes, even if you don't like it, you have to admit that enough is enough and just rest. Its only when we rest that we get stronger!
After the session, Will Carroll (Photographer and local climber) took some pictures of the kids climbing. If you want to check them out, visit Wills blipfoto site or check out all the photos on his flickr site
A good end to a great day! I'll finish off the blog with a switch of the roles, now I am the photographer and Will is the climber : P
Peace Out
ROBZ
- Will Carroll cranking it out on a new 7b @ EICA: Ratho!
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