Very insightful, and can’t help but seeing Sartre in this work. By making the unfamiliar familiar the dread in facing a multitude of possibility’s regarding failure is lessened. But I can also see how this can create a divide from our perception of ourselves as climbers and the climbers we actually are. For example, I worked a sub-limit v9 for far too many sessions perfecting almost every move in isolation. I went to the climb with the expectation of sending every time, but when reality didn’t meet that expectation, I felt inauthentic. In the face of that uncertainty it made so much harder to will myself to get back out to the boulder. So I completely agree, a middle ground must be found, if not solely for the sake of performance but for sanity. Great piece once again.
Maybe different scene, but I almost feel like people need more tolerance for uncertainty. More climbs are far more sub-limit for people than they realize, it's unlikely one needs to be certain on how to do every move. Having radical acceptance for uncertainty is also different than removing it entirely, having total certainty that something is going to go your way is not even worth the challenge sometimes.
I think climbers around the V8-12 range tend to err on the side of certainty and higher level climbers are the opposite, I do think it's exponentially easier to fluke easier climbs
I listened to Zach Galla talking on the Careless talk podcast recently and he mentioned something similar on Shaolin. He suggested that he had dialled the first jump so much, and fallen from the second one so much, that he had almost convinced his mind and body that that was the goal (ie: fall on the second jump). Yet when he returned the next year, he remembered all of the positions and moves etc, but was able to make it to the top. So like you said - it’s definitely very important to strike a balance between having all of the links absolutely dialled, and a ‘normal’ level of uncertainty when climbing. I would also guess it might be less rewarding to climb if one removes all of the uncertainty.
Very insightful, and can’t help but seeing Sartre in this work. By making the unfamiliar familiar the dread in facing a multitude of possibility’s regarding failure is lessened. But I can also see how this can create a divide from our perception of ourselves as climbers and the climbers we actually are. For example, I worked a sub-limit v9 for far too many sessions perfecting almost every move in isolation. I went to the climb with the expectation of sending every time, but when reality didn’t meet that expectation, I felt inauthentic. In the face of that uncertainty it made so much harder to will myself to get back out to the boulder. So I completely agree, a middle ground must be found, if not solely for the sake of performance but for sanity. Great piece once again.
existence precedes essence on the proj!
Maybe different scene, but I almost feel like people need more tolerance for uncertainty. More climbs are far more sub-limit for people than they realize, it's unlikely one needs to be certain on how to do every move. Having radical acceptance for uncertainty is also different than removing it entirely, having total certainty that something is going to go your way is not even worth the challenge sometimes.
Nice short one!
I think climbers around the V8-12 range tend to err on the side of certainty and higher level climbers are the opposite, I do think it's exponentially easier to fluke easier climbs
Fun read, climbing way above my level!
I listened to Zach Galla talking on the Careless talk podcast recently and he mentioned something similar on Shaolin. He suggested that he had dialled the first jump so much, and fallen from the second one so much, that he had almost convinced his mind and body that that was the goal (ie: fall on the second jump). Yet when he returned the next year, he remembered all of the positions and moves etc, but was able to make it to the top. So like you said - it’s definitely very important to strike a balance between having all of the links absolutely dialled, and a ‘normal’ level of uncertainty when climbing. I would also guess it might be less rewarding to climb if one removes all of the uncertainty.