Defined in the dictionary as:
1. the act or an instance of motivating
2. desire to do; interest or drive
3. incentive or inducement
4. (Psychology) Psychol the process that arouses, sustains and regulates human and animal behaviour
When training finding motivation can sometimes be tough, especially if you are having to train at random times due to work, a lot of the time you can end up with only your own will power and creativity to create new problems on the board.
Having just spent a week in Scotland with the intentions of getting lots of snow and ice routes done and ending up just walking in the rain and low level cloud, i think my desire to walk has slowly been whittled down.
What is the reason you take part in a certain sport? It might be because you are good at the sport and excel pretty quickly. I can remember the first time i came climbing when i was 16 i was shocking, could barely get to the top of the bouldering wall, but one thing that stood out was even though i was no where near as good as some of the other people they were still really approachable and friendly helping out and wanting to see somebody else do well at the sport they are good at. This helped and inspired me to be honest, it made me want to go back to get to know these people and get better myself.
So carrying on coming climbing on and off for around 4 years i finally started to get more into it and climb on a regular basis and built up a group of friends within the scene. These helped me move from wall punter to outdoor punter and actually discover some of the beautiful places around the UK and abroad.
While walking one day in Scotland the weather was grim, my hood was up the wind was blowing so strong i was walking at a 45 degree angle to the side. How is somebody supposed to be motivated to go back out again the next day? What achievement are you getting out of it? What enjoyment are you getting out of it?
I suppose looking back at the days out there is the good times like when the weather does clear and you get a fantastic view of all the mountain ranges.
The point i am trying to get across is that different people find different aspects and styles of the sport enjoyable. For example Rich is just a boulderer and takes the time to train and get out to different venues around the world to climb so beautiful problems and hard ones at that! Chris is mainly a trad climber focusing all his free weekends on getting out to different cliffs and trying the classic 3 star routes. Dave is mainly a sport climber focusing on red-pointing hard routes both in the UK and abroad.
The three different styles can all interlink and the trips abroad are always spent with the evenings sat in socialising and having a laugh with friends.
It's a funny sport when some peoples motivation is to get to the summit of an 8000m peak and others is to get to the top of a 10 foot boulder but up a line thats 8b!
Two contrasting aspects but both have their own personal goal.
Goal Setting
I only started setting goals for climbing two years ago and i found that these can really help, the main reason being is that you can see an improvement in performance. You can go to a different crag and have something in mind to do, this will help you achieve the most out of a session. I find whenever i go to a new crag i try to flash/on-sight all the routes or problems up to 6c then should be aiming to get a 7a done within the session. Being flexible is required when visiting different rock types or places, i know going to Font or on the Gritstone that i should lower my expectations as it is a totally different style to what i am used to.
Using goal setting in climbing can transfer into everyday life, if you don't have any goals it is easy to just be a passenger and carry on day to day life in the easiest way possible. Everybody knows that if you do work hard you will be rewarded, so to me when walking in Scotland last week although sometimes it was tough to stay motivated i know that the goal is to become super confident at navigation in all conditions! This will help when i am on my MIA training and if i am ever in a situation with a group and the weather is bad.
My main goal in life is to be a well rounded outdoor instructor who can be confident of my own abilities in all types of situations from climbing to walking right through to kayaking or canoeing. I feel that this will help me to progress within the outdoor industry and then when at a high enough level specialise in a certain aspect.
Anyway enough chit chat back to the climbing and whats been going down!!
The week in Scotland was a total wash out in terms of ice climbing, heading up to Beinn Dearg we read that Penguin Gully a 3 star grade III is often pretty reliable and in condition from January through to late April. Certainly didn't look in condition to me it was a waterfall, which was such a shame because this meant without anymore cold weather nothing else would be in for that week.
The attention then turned to bagging a few Munro's, Munro's are the highest mountains in Scotland and there is 283 different ones in total. Having the books which gives you the routes is brilliant because you have a plan and a rough idea how long and far the day will be. Managed to get a total of 5 Munro's in the week even with the atrocious weather it was still good at times.
When i arrived home i was really keen to get back out and boulder on some real rock! The weather on Saturday looked as if it was going to totally wash out the whole of the UK for Sunday. But Owen had a back up plan with the new crag in Ruthin staying dry even in the worst conditions so we headed up to their. Wow it's a brilliant venue, it is like a mini Woodwell and some of the harder problems look really good, i was a bit cautious of my finger as this was the first time i had climbed on limestone in around 6 months. Still managed to get two 6c/+'s second go which i was pleased with and had a quick try at some 7a's which i think will definitely go next session.
Some photos below from the week in Scotland:
