tactics in climbing

We are onto our next pillar of climbing: mindset.

Addressing the mental side of climbing is just as important as the physical side and I'm excited to talk through this pillar over the next few weeks.

Today we are starting with tactics.

Broadly, tactics are the strategy you use to tackle whatever your objective is. More specifically, you'll use different tactics for a season full of goals, planning your sessions on a specific climb, or even how to approach a particular move.

Tactics are important for efficiency and focus. When you have some sort of a plan in place (even a loose one!) you can stay on track for what you're hoping to achieve.

Because the exact tactics you use will be specific to you and your objective, here is a general overview of how to create a strategy for your climbing:

1. Identify your goal(s). Putting down in writing or even just verbalizing your goal is a good place to start.

It may be scary to put it out there, but you'll be able to create a more effective plan if you know where you'd like to go.

Here is a goal setting workbook to help:

Let's say an example goal is, "I'd like to start projecting x boulder."

2. Identify important characteristics of your goal

From our above example, "x boulder has 6 moves and one of them revolves around a very sharp hold. I've never tried this boulder before so I will need to figure out the moves. I estimate this could take me around 4-5 sessions, so I will spend multiple days on it."

3. Identify your resources (skin, time, energy, access, etc.) and how much of each resource do you have?

For example, "x boulder is very accessible and I can get to it pretty frequently. This is part of why I chose it because I do not have much available time to spend during each session.

I've rested appropriately and my energy levels and skin are both good going into my first session on it today."

4. Make a plan

For example, "Today I want to try all of the moves on x boulder. Because I don't have a ton of time, I don't want to spend too much effort on any single move.

I'm going to limit myself to 3 tries on each move, saving the most skin intensive move on the sharp crimp for last.

I'm going to take good rests between my attempts so that my efforts are high quality and I can gain good information from them.

Lastly, I'm going to take video so that I can review the session later and make a plan for my next session."

Give this framework a try and let me know how it goes!