Climbing with pro-climbers When a community opens its doors to share its values and knowledge
For two weeks, Rockbusters offered to its clients the opportunity to learn from the best to bring their climbing skills to the next level – Hazel Findlay, Klemen Be?an, Patxi Usobiaga, Adam Ondra and Pablo Scorza acted as coach for two weeks to help climbers understand better how to push their limits, train like pros and preventing injuries due to overtraining.
All climbers have experienced the adrenaline rush that comes after a climb on which they pushed their limits. Such an overwhelming and intense feeling of well-being and satisfaction! Climbing is a sport that requires not only physical strength and ability, but also a very strong head for it. Indeed, more than often, fear of falling or lack of confidence in one’s abilities prevent climbers to climb at their peak level. This happens to each single climber and therefore mental strength is as important as physical strength to make a strong climber.
Known for being the first British woman to ever climb an 8c, Hazel Findlay distinguishes herself thanks to her mental toughness. One of the boldest climbers in the world, Hazel revealed herself to be an excellent coach – her rare patience, teaching and human qualities helped climbers to overcome their fears on the wall and to control the negative internal dialogues that occurred in their heads. Climbers could talk with Hazel through their fears, explore the root causes of the problem and learn thanks to Hazel’s practical exercises to remove stress from the situation, control fear and overcome mental blocks. Chris Atkinson, famous leadership coach from the UK, attended the workshop and described Hazel as “pretty inspirational. She sort of seems to exist just in the moment while she is climbing. She is at ease and at peace. She is masterful at being calm and present. It’s really wonderful”.
Klemen Be?an, the 34-year old Slovene elite climber, helped the participants climb “a muerte” during the whole trip. Klemen likes to climb no matter where, when and what. He turned out to be a fantastic coach, always in a good mood, very patient and encouraging and full of wisdom such as “when you fall, do not say ‘no, no, no’, but say ‘yes, yes, yes’”. He gladly shared all his climbing knowledge and provided with excellent advice to improve that were tailored to each climber’s level. Klemen says that “it was a great pleasure to explain some new techniques and methods for improving and see they were listening to me and progressing on the way. I think in the end we all learned something and take home many good memories”. Ruud van Spanje, a 47-year old Project Manager from The Netherlands, explain that the best thing with Klemen is “that he still love being out there - that’s inspiring! His coaching was a pressure cooker way of improving if you’re open for it. It was a great experience!”
Pushing one’s limits was the motto of the second week with pro climbers.
From the start, participants jumped right into the life of a world champion with Patxi Usobiaga’s training. The training took place in Reus at Monobloc, a brand new, nicely equipped bouldering wall perfect for hard training. Patxi’s successes as climber are built upon hard work, discipline and determination. A world champion, he has built his explosive climbing style through intense PUC training using a campus board. For two days, he taught his methods, analysed participants’ strengths and weaknesses and gave clear goals to each of them to take their climbing to the next level. Patxi explained that “this kind of project is important to open the community to a wider group and share its values more broadly”. He added that he thinks “that this is just the beginning of a great adventure!”. Sabrina Wong, 40, shared her feelings about Patxi’s training: “It was great, he gives you the tools to design your own training plan and juggles the various levels of participants nicely”.
After draining the participants’ energy with focused training, the week went on with bringing everybody on the rocks with Adam Ondra. Adam started his coaching with a theoretical session where he explained how to onsight and red point routes. Participants watched with him videos of world championships to study each climbs’ strengths and weaknesses and Adam explained how to use this knowledge to improve climbing. The climbing on Siurana’s crags that followed focused on strategy and mindset. Adam patiently coached each single participant and gave personalised advice to take climbing to the next level. All participants successfully onsighted routes near the maximum of their level! Participants found Adam’s positivity and passion for climbing contagious. “He is inspirational, intuitive and thoughtful”.
The workshop ended with Pablo Scorza and his teachings on functional biomechanics. A physiotherapist with over 15 years’ experience, Pablo was able to combine his passion for climbing with his passion for physiotherapy. He developed a concept called “functional biomechanics” - it is a proven technic that helps prevent climbing injuries. It allows to develop a well-balanced body, whilst improving coordination, accuracy, muscle harmony, sense of balance, flexibility and strength. Pablo’s teachings helped participants to be more aware of their bodies, which ultimately helped them to send tougher routes. After such a hard week, Pablo was most needed to repair the participants’ tired bodies. The stretches are now a staple of their routine and they are climbing specific. He went beyond the physical and nicely combined it with the mental relaxation needed after a physically hard week.
And last – but not least -, a couple of words about the man without whom nothing of this would have been possible - Jan Novotny. A 39-year old Czech climber and founder of Rockbusters, Jan embodies what these trips are all about: a fun relaxed way to push your limits, to become a better climber and to take a glimpse into the way of life of the climbing community. When asked what they thought about Jan’s coaching, participants had one sentence that kept on coming back “Just fucking do it!” – this few words summarize beautifully Jan’s teachings: he pushed us all to be better climbers, bolder and just to enjoy the climb.
These intensive climbing weeks with elite climbers helped me develop my training, improve my mindset and learn how to prevent injuries. It totally helped me take my climbing to the next level – a rather recent climber whose maximum level was 6a, I was able last weekend (about three weeks after the end of the workshops) to onsight a 6c+, which I would have never thought possible a month ago. Hazel helped me get tougher and get pass my mental blocking, Klemen taught me that there is joy even when falling, Patxi showed me what it means to REALLY train, Adam gave me inspiration and advice on how to climb my best even when circumstances do not allow me to climb, Pablo inspired me with his knowledge, kindness and passion and I could make many valuable friends among which I am delighted to count Jan.
My take on this trip is that a lot of organisations conduct climbing trips. But none of them do trips that are so comprehensive -with including training, onsighting and physio -, and so fun to be part of!
About the author:
I have been working for the past ten years within the EU institutions and agencies, handling media relations and requests on topics as various as health, education and security matters. The EU was hit very hard in the past years by unprecedented migration flows and numerous terrorist attacks…lots of grim stories to handle for a media officer. I have heard and wrote about a fair deal of tragic stories and these have the potential to shatter one’s belief in mankind. I started to climb to take my mind off things and get some exercise. And then, I met the climbing community – some people that give faith back in core values: trust, honesty, loyalty, kindness, love for hard work and effort…this is why I dedicate this article to all climbers, pro and non-pro, that contribute each day with their passion to make this world a bit better.