Goal setting is a scary thing. It forces you to step back and think about what you really want, and then because you actually wrote it down, now you've actually gotta do something about it. How do you achieve it? What do you need to do to get there? And more importantly: what do you need to give up to get there?

Goal-setting is the first step for the Strength Series at Go Vertical. This is how Juergen explained it: Say, you want to achieve this goal (maybe, its to on sight a 5.12)... if it wasn't for something you were doing right now, you would have already achieved it. So you need to give up something, change your routine, change your training pattern or change your habits in order to achieve it.

First we tried to objectively look at our climbing. There's 3 facets to climbing: technical (stemming, edging, laybacks, mantling, etc), mental (fear of falling, confidence, calm, focus, etc) and strength (endurance, power, brute-force, etc). If you're lacking in one area or all three, your climbing will suffer. You can be as strong as a professional weight-lifter, and you'll be able to climb some impressive routes, but without technique, you won't last long and you'll fall apart on more delicate moves. It turns out that I feel I'm pretty balanced between my technical, mental and stength aspects (or, that I'm equally deficient in those areas depending on your glass half-empty/half-full view). Basically, I've got plenty to work on in order to improve my climbing. One thing I know for sure: I've been lead climbing for over a year and I'm still only climbing 5.9's. Whether it be be mental hang-ups, strength deficiencies or poor technique, I haven't been able to break into 5.10's. It's kind of frustrating. But now I'm hoping this class and these goals will help me drive through that.

So... here's the goals I layed out for myself during the class. Hopefully writing these down and publishing them for the world to see (ok.. for the 4 people that read my blog to see) will help me to achieve them.

Medium-term goals

First we set out some medium-term goals. Things that we want to achieve within the next 3 months:

• Climb a multi-pitch sport route
• Become more knowledgable about outside climbing techniques
• Take a class at the EMS Climbing School
• Climb a 5.10+ on lead

Long-term goals

Next are the bigger ones. My Long term goals are both climbing and non-climbing related:

• be autonomous when climbing outside (be able to setup top ropes, sport lead routes, etc. be able to take people climbing who haven't climbed outside before).
• take a climbing vacation (travel somwhere just to climb -- Joshua Tree? Moab? Red Rocks?)
• increase my yoga practice (improve my postures, practice on my own)
• live somewhere that outdoor climbing is more accessible.
• start and actually finish a large knitting project (a sweater, dress, or jacket)
• find a healthy balance between home, work and hobbies
Tags : goals govertical strength
Responses[2]
Posted by Jessica on March 7, 2007 11:24:59 AM EST #

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Responses[4]

Posted by Jessica on March 7, 2007 9:52:59 AM EST #