Taking the Coaching Plunge!

I booked some coaching lessons for rock climbing. I'd reached a plateau that I couldn't seem to improve from and decided that it was maybe something I wasn't seeing. I knew I was strong ish but what I didn't know, really, was just how good or bad my technique was. So it was time to be honest.

I'd seen an advert from Rockover Climbing Wall, Ladies Night with coaching from Suzan Dudink. For obvious reasons I didn't pay too much attention but then shortly after, a new advert appeared offering the coaching to anyone, male or female and for a fantastic price! The coaching would be 4 sessions of 1.5 hours per session and in groups of a maximum of 8. I booked on the Tuesday and 2 days later I was at the wall and ready for my first session.

On arrival I was told that I was the only one to have booked on the course, so tonight would be a one to one session! Fantastic was my first reaction of course, one to one coaching with one of the best climbing coaches around, what's not to love?! Then it dawned on me that I would be the only one climbing.....for one and a half hours......solid, no coffee breaks, no standing around looking cool......just me, climbing.......gulp!

I was introduced to Suzan and right away I was on the traverse wall doing my stuff. Not very good stuff as it happens! "ok now do it again but this time no stepping through" came the shout from Suzan. So I did. then she started coaching......."try not to hop when swapping feet, try rolling one foot over slightly and placing the other next to it", " make sure you position your body over the foothold properly before reaching for the handhold", "hips into the wall", "climb with your whole body not just your arms".

And so it went. It was onto the wall proper next and into the problems. Every move I made I had to think about my body position first. If I moved my arms too soon I was told to come back down and do it again. Work out the problem, climb it til I climbed it properly then move on to the next. As I said earlier, the session lasted 1.5 hours......it felt like 5mins, the time just flew!

It was I believe, the most productive 1.5 hours climbing I will ever have. I won't go into the mechanics of the training here, I'm not qualified and anyway, I think this is something you should discover for yourselves to be fair. But I will say it has been kind of a eureka moment for me. At the end of the session I was shattered! Out of breath, sweating and my core ached. My arms on the other hand felt absolutely fine, like they hadn't done a thing in fact. And that was the eureka moment because they hadn't done anything, not really, my feet and body had done the work!

just to prove I was trying really really hard!