Climbing on Slopers… 😩
Lately I’ve been realizing how fixed my mindset has been around physical performance in climbing.
When I first started climbing, I was always considering what I could accomplish with more practice, patience, and effort. Sadly, over time I’ve settled into a more fixed idea of what I can or can’t send, and that fixed mindset has led me to avoid climbs that seem hyper-specific to my weaknesses.
This climb has been up since late September, and although I loveeee dynos, I simply looked at the slopers and thought “nah, can’t do that.”
But last week half the gym was set up for a youth comp and with only a few climbs around the gym to do, I decided to give it a try.
I ended up having such a blast trying hard on this climb. Each attempt I managed to get one move further and learn a little bit more. After falling off the last sloper before the finish, I called it a day, rested up, and sent it on the first attempt the following day.
Instead of saying things like “I’m bad at Slopers”
I’m learning to shift my mindset to saying “I need to practice more slopey climbs”,
“I should try extra hard on slopers”,
“I want to spend more time finding good beta on climbs with slopers”
We all possess an incredible capacity for growth but it’s so easy to leave it untapped when we give ourselves prefabricated conclusions about what we’re capable of.
If I always tell myself I’m bad at slopers I’ll never get better at them, if I always consider myself a weak climber I’ll never get stronger.
Progress is slow but a belief that will grow over time is essential for accomplishing it. Going into the new year I’m hoping to adopt a growth-mindset toward my climbing and hoping to break through some of the long plateaus I’ve been struggling with.
#bouldering #climbing #indoorclimbing #rockclimbing