Coaching with Jay : 5 weeks on...

Working with Jamie now for over 5 weeks and the journey has been amazing and very progressive (for both of us). His first attempt at leading a 4c was filled with frustration (his) and fear (mine) as I allowed him to begin lead climbing very early on (maybe our 2nd session I think?). The danger was that the combination of difficulty in clipping the the rope safely through the quickdraw and the sometimes overwhelming fear of being in a lead fall situation too early on could have been very regressive, but we took our chance. The quickdraws were clipped using both his hands while he bridged his feet in the corner! Some were clipped correctly and some were ‘back clipped’ but I made the decision to let him continue as we were going to have to take some risks in this journey, calculated but there none the less. If I had stopped him in that moment then he would not have succeeded a few sessions later on his first 6a lead up the main overhanging wall that demanded smooth clips with one hand whilst hanging on with the other in strenuous positions on the overhanging wall. From 6a we quickly moved onto a hard 6b project, which will take us longer but will act as a false barrier for harder routes I think, because it is not the grade that is the challenge but the style and sustained nature of the climb. When this one falls to Jay, then 6c will come quicker than this 6b. (I think!). Increasing Jay’s flexibility has been a focus and completely changing his climbing style so that we can slow everything down to a manageable climbing pace for him to cope with a higher level of difficulty (both physically and mentally). Jay's strength is not a problem at the moment but finding ways to positively change Jay’s climbing style has required much thought and experimentation. But the change has begun and he is moving differently now on the routes with a much more focused coordination and use of tactics that we have developed to wind our way round the standard challenges of lead climbing. It is difficult to understand just how hard Jay will climb, and yet, if I allow us to set any specific long term goals, then I suspect I will let us down with that strategy. So we must concentrate on only believing in the unbelievable and simply focus on a wider objective…

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dhGnOsdTXmXfl5_IK1p78p5znTJb7J7FG6cnRIv_M4k/pub

http://www.justgiving.com/MarkMcGowan01