thank you – mary anne radmacher
a working author and artist

I can see times where James struggles with things where I can clearly see how he might do it better but it doesn’t matter. It’s not one of those things that has a right and wrong way. It’s just climbing. There are techniques that help, but each body is different so some work better for some people than other people.

There are no rules, other than those of physics. Full arm extensions are more resting yes. But this post seems like you are really beating yourself up. I say yay to 5.8. I climbed at the 5.8 level for quite a while back in the day. And I still am only climbing 5.9s. So what!?! Am I getting a workout? Yup. Is my flexibility getting better? Yup. Do I care if I am the worlds best climber and make it to some made up tournament? Nope.

Rock climbing is just that…. climbing rocks. I think calling is a “sport” is simply for the lack of anything else to call it. In my book it’s not competitive other than the casual sort of “can I climb what you climbed”. Even that is totally subjective.

James out climbs me plenty. He is way taller and weighs less. I out climb him sometimes on lefty routes or some other odd angle stuff I have experience with. You climb stuff that is a challenge for you and you try things that you haven’t before and you work on them until you conquer them. That’s all it’s about. I don’t think you are “Doing it wrong” in the slightest. You are learning how to use your body on the wall, which is EXACTLY what we are all doing. As for exercises that will help you climb. I read once that the only conditioning for climbing was… climbing.

I am sure I am taking this waaaaay to far, but I worry about you looking at the negative instead of the positive. Like you said, you ARE getting stronger, and you ARE getting better. Most people don’t start out climbing 5.11′s. You are right on track IMO.

Climbing with boys just doesn’t let you see that very well cause they are just stronger. And those little kids in the gym don’t help either. But trust me, date night comes, and you see regular people climb; even big strong guys who think they need to pull themselves up cause they were in the marines; yeah, they will make you feel good. Hahahah.

But really, I just wanted to say, books get written and that does NOT make them law. It’s a good reference, but there is no “right” or “wrong” to it. It’s like life. There are self help books, but really, you just figure it out as you go along.

Hope that helps.

Coach Lou Ettore

Remember to take it slow — particularly if you are running. If you run into any snags, please stop by the fivefingers fan forums at my unofficial fan site for VFFs (birthdayshoes.com).

Justin