So it's been quiet on the blog front. My hands are up, my head is bowed, my body language spells apology. However the silence on the blog front normally indicates that I've been busy like a bee, a notoriously busy insect.
The problem is with the nature of the business that has been going on, is that it leaves very little to actually report, phrases like, 'we might have sourced some excellent bouldering matting' or we have finalised the interior designs on our scale plasticine model etc don't really convey the progress that is being made. The progress is always inching forward, inexorably towards the point where something definite happens. Every single step before the definite is simply a possibility, no matter how possible it seems, until it is signed, dated and binding, it is nothing. Little undermines a man more than a promise unfulfilled!
What I can say for definite is that we have entered a critical phase, within ten days we will make an announcement. What it will be depends on the outcome of various processes over the next week. I am however very positive, but then you need to be an eternal optimist to support the peseverence to survive the string of setbacks and problems that befalls any project of this nature.
Your patience, you willingness to come back here and check to see if anythign is happening, is appreciated and I hope to rewards you soon with seriously cracking facility.
Hold your breath...
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Monday, 13 September 2010
Inspirational
I have just returned from four days at the World Cup inspired and psyched out of my tiny mind. Filled with ideas for getting young people and normal people and aspirant hard climbers to aspire to dizzy heights and enjoy the bliss of pulling harder than you ever thought you could.
Near five hundred youth from around the world arrived at EICA in Edinburgh to climb on the world stage. Now in Britain comp climbers get a lot of grief sometimes, frequently attacked with cynical swipes of 'What have they ever done outside' or 'I bet he couldn't do that at Malham' or some equally trite quip. I deplore this, I really do, because these people are not taking into account that someone has taken years and months to prepare to to express all of their training and hard work in a six minute window. No second chances, one shot. Competition climbing is a form of expression in the diverse church of climbing and to be overly critical based on deciding it is lesser because it is not outside is to misunderstand the whole art of competition climbing. What I can say is that in that environment, the British Team that I work with were brilliant, four made the semi finals in field where 8a onsight is the norm. Our team supported one another, climbed their hearts out in front of the world and were a slick professional unit.
It reinforced that climbing is a community of people with a shared passion. People prepared to cheer on their competitors, to mingle freely with people from other nations and to be inspired by the grace and style with which the person who just beat you did their route. If the United Nations could conduct themselves like the comp climbers I was privileged to spend four days with, our world would be a hell of lot better.
As for what have they done outside? The best onsight grade of any of the climbers I think was 8b+ and there were a fair few who had redpointed 9a outside, I lost count of the people who had redpointed 8c. This is girls and boys and across all the age ranges. Now is the bit where somebody says, 'Aye but that is long European fitness routes, all steep thuggery blah blah blah' and then moves on to cite some obscure Limestone route in Peak/Yorkshire with loads of invisible holds etc that nobody could ever onsight.
Anyway, enough rant from me - check out the brief review on the IFSC website:
">http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/?page_name=home&category_id=28&item=356
Near five hundred youth from around the world arrived at EICA in Edinburgh to climb on the world stage. Now in Britain comp climbers get a lot of grief sometimes, frequently attacked with cynical swipes of 'What have they ever done outside' or 'I bet he couldn't do that at Malham' or some equally trite quip. I deplore this, I really do, because these people are not taking into account that someone has taken years and months to prepare to to express all of their training and hard work in a six minute window. No second chances, one shot. Competition climbing is a form of expression in the diverse church of climbing and to be overly critical based on deciding it is lesser because it is not outside is to misunderstand the whole art of competition climbing. What I can say is that in that environment, the British Team that I work with were brilliant, four made the semi finals in field where 8a onsight is the norm. Our team supported one another, climbed their hearts out in front of the world and were a slick professional unit.
It reinforced that climbing is a community of people with a shared passion. People prepared to cheer on their competitors, to mingle freely with people from other nations and to be inspired by the grace and style with which the person who just beat you did their route. If the United Nations could conduct themselves like the comp climbers I was privileged to spend four days with, our world would be a hell of lot better.
As for what have they done outside? The best onsight grade of any of the climbers I think was 8b+ and there were a fair few who had redpointed 9a outside, I lost count of the people who had redpointed 8c. This is girls and boys and across all the age ranges. Now is the bit where somebody says, 'Aye but that is long European fitness routes, all steep thuggery blah blah blah' and then moves on to cite some obscure Limestone route in Peak/Yorkshire with loads of invisible holds etc that nobody could ever onsight.
Anyway, enough rant from me - check out the brief review on the IFSC website:
">http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/?page_name=home&category_id=28&item=356
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Ninja monkeys (British Youth Climbers)
Psyched for next week already, nothing to do with the bouldering wall, but it is the British round of the world youth series in EICA (Ratho to most of us). As a British Junior Team coach, you go to these events and get totally inspired by the performances you see and I thought I might just recommend to everyone that you go have a look.
This is a pictorial representation of the juniors - ninja monkeys - some of them may not appreciate this, but basically it is a gesture of respect from me but in comedy form!!
The reason I mention it is that I've been doing a lot of work on the coaching stuff for the wall and it gets you thinking about how you want to help people improve. One thing that occurred to me at the last British team event where we had a superb friendly comp against the French, was that I watching 12 year old boys and girls onsight 7c. This gets you thinking about the average. X years ago 7c didnt exist etc, Sebastian Helenke ((German Junior) has onsighted/flashed every 8a he has tried since his 14 birthday)).
So I got to thinking do we limit ourselves by measuring ourselves against those around us? The weekend warriors of Catalunya in Northern Spain all send 8's at the weekend because it is normal. In Britain on routes, we seem to plateau at 6a+/6b. Many of our female climbers rarely progress past V5 despite women like Shauna Coxley and Suzan Dudink demonstrating that girls can send seriously hard problems.
Would we all climb better if we did what the wonderful Malcom Smith was alleged to have done, locking himself away, whipping himself into a state of paranoia about how everyone is Sheffield was going to kick his ass something rotten. He emerged as some kind of mutant from his bedroom to obliterate! How much of this was due to his punishing schedule/genetics/determination and finally nobody to compare himself to, to then say, it's ok I can ease off now, I have reached the limit.
My personal belief is that everyone is able to climb V5 or 7a sport from climbing twice a week if they think about what they do when they climb and apply a little bit of training theory. I would argue that they should be the average. Cast your minds forward, if the 12 year olds of now are onsighting 7c, what will they be doing in ten year when they are peaking physically and with all that experience behind them? When (as it will become) a regular news event for the pro's to be onsighting 9a and we as normal people all expect to climb 8a most trips out - what will have changed? Only our expectations I would contend. Can we use this knowledge of knowing that even if we are quite good now, in ten years our abilities would make us punters to change how we climb today to liberate us from comparison and begin a journey of exploration of our own capacities?
If you think you can or you cannot climb 'V10' I would argue that you are probably right!
Be inspired, go see the youth climb at EICA (Sept 8-12th).
This is a pictorial representation of the juniors - ninja monkeys - some of them may not appreciate this, but basically it is a gesture of respect from me but in comedy form!!
The reason I mention it is that I've been doing a lot of work on the coaching stuff for the wall and it gets you thinking about how you want to help people improve. One thing that occurred to me at the last British team event where we had a superb friendly comp against the French, was that I watching 12 year old boys and girls onsight 7c. This gets you thinking about the average. X years ago 7c didnt exist etc, Sebastian Helenke ((German Junior) has onsighted/flashed every 8a he has tried since his 14 birthday)).
So I got to thinking do we limit ourselves by measuring ourselves against those around us? The weekend warriors of Catalunya in Northern Spain all send 8's at the weekend because it is normal. In Britain on routes, we seem to plateau at 6a+/6b. Many of our female climbers rarely progress past V5 despite women like Shauna Coxley and Suzan Dudink demonstrating that girls can send seriously hard problems.
Would we all climb better if we did what the wonderful Malcom Smith was alleged to have done, locking himself away, whipping himself into a state of paranoia about how everyone is Sheffield was going to kick his ass something rotten. He emerged as some kind of mutant from his bedroom to obliterate! How much of this was due to his punishing schedule/genetics/determination and finally nobody to compare himself to, to then say, it's ok I can ease off now, I have reached the limit.
My personal belief is that everyone is able to climb V5 or 7a sport from climbing twice a week if they think about what they do when they climb and apply a little bit of training theory. I would argue that they should be the average. Cast your minds forward, if the 12 year olds of now are onsighting 7c, what will they be doing in ten year when they are peaking physically and with all that experience behind them? When (as it will become) a regular news event for the pro's to be onsighting 9a and we as normal people all expect to climb 8a most trips out - what will have changed? Only our expectations I would contend. Can we use this knowledge of knowing that even if we are quite good now, in ten years our abilities would make us punters to change how we climb today to liberate us from comparison and begin a journey of exploration of our own capacities?
If you think you can or you cannot climb 'V10' I would argue that you are probably right!
Be inspired, go see the youth climb at EICA (Sept 8-12th).
Monday, 30 August 2010
Update
Crispin, our creative inspiration has returned from a trip to the imposing cliffs of Inishmore in Ireland and he brought back a design for the bouldering wall too! Its only a prelim design so I wont be going out on the web just yet, but when we are happy with it, I will post it as a video file.
Those of you who sent in support letters - thank you soooo much! I was chatting to our planning case officer the other day and he was overwhelmed by the support - this doesn't mean you shouldn't get others to send some in mind! More cannot hurt!!!!
Planning is ticking along,but we have to resubmit some drawings showing where the car parking is going to be. If this is the biggest hurdle we face, then hopefully nothing should really hold us up.
I am currently spending my bank holiday creating the coaching programmes for everyone from beginners to seasoned individuals looking to really give their climbing a boost. I hope there are some real training monkeys out there who fancy a drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket type training session!!! All good fun!
That is it for now - hope everyone is getting out and getting some action in, please do the odd problem on my behalf, I would appreciate that. I am just grateful I have a training board in my loft - without it I would be lost!!!!
Monday, 23 August 2010
Controvesy!
Seems I accidentally started a forum discussion on UKC last week by asking about for female boulderers! Rest assured people, there will be no preferential or discriminatory practices taking place - just when you are thinking ahead about how you might like to construct your staff team, you put the feelers out there to see what the chances are of being able to make it so! Nothing untoward!
Anyway, we are in some mystical stage of box ticking and sort of feeling like being in a slight limbo as we await planning permission, we have had to respond to some minor issues, but mainly on how we intend to divide up the car parking area. This has caused a slight delay, but way less than some walls have experienced getting permission so no complaints from us.
I am pouring over some product catalogues currently, pondering what holds to buy, what kind of staff uniform shall we have, I even printed off some little fashion drawing templates to sketch on some designs, but then it turned out that i cannot draw, so i quickly stopped what had clearly become a displacement activity!
By mid September the plan is to produce a 3D walk around video of our digital model of the site to get everyone all excited. Job adverts should be made public in September too which is very exciting as for me it is the people I am going to be spending a significant portion of my life with for the next year. Who will those 'lucky' people be?
Has anybody seen E9 climbing gear? It is sold in Climb Newcastle and I reckon it looks great but thought I would ask the people for some thoughts. Andy Earl seems to have no issues crushing stuff wearing their climbing pants and he is very flexible so they must pass the highstep test!
Also still looking for climbing tradesmen willing to do an exchange - if you know anyone - point them in our direction!
Tara for now!
Anyway, we are in some mystical stage of box ticking and sort of feeling like being in a slight limbo as we await planning permission, we have had to respond to some minor issues, but mainly on how we intend to divide up the car parking area. This has caused a slight delay, but way less than some walls have experienced getting permission so no complaints from us.
I am pouring over some product catalogues currently, pondering what holds to buy, what kind of staff uniform shall we have, I even printed off some little fashion drawing templates to sketch on some designs, but then it turned out that i cannot draw, so i quickly stopped what had clearly become a displacement activity!
By mid September the plan is to produce a 3D walk around video of our digital model of the site to get everyone all excited. Job adverts should be made public in September too which is very exciting as for me it is the people I am going to be spending a significant portion of my life with for the next year. Who will those 'lucky' people be?
Has anybody seen E9 climbing gear? It is sold in Climb Newcastle and I reckon it looks great but thought I would ask the people for some thoughts. Andy Earl seems to have no issues crushing stuff wearing their climbing pants and he is very flexible so they must pass the highstep test!
Also still looking for climbing tradesmen willing to do an exchange - if you know anyone - point them in our direction!
Tara for now!
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Hard bouldering women required, GSOH....
No not a lonely hearts ad, but a quick search to see if there are ladies out there to fulfill a job or two I have lined up for later this year. Now lads, don't get disgruntled yet. I have already had four or five male job applicants despite not advertising any jobs yet! I will be advertising formally soon - so patience!
I am going to need a part time and full time female boulderer for coaching and general duties. I am looking for someone who is bouldering around V6/7 or above and is super interested in climbing movement and training. Your knowledge base doesn't have to be huge, but the enthusiasm to learn about it is critical. The jobs are not available yet, this is just a preliminary search to see if there is anybody out there interested and to chat.
Contact me at boulderliverpool@googlemail.com
I am going to need a part time and full time female boulderer for coaching and general duties. I am looking for someone who is bouldering around V6/7 or above and is super interested in climbing movement and training. Your knowledge base doesn't have to be huge, but the enthusiasm to learn about it is critical. The jobs are not available yet, this is just a preliminary search to see if there is anybody out there interested and to chat.
Contact me at boulderliverpool@googlemail.com
Not many hoops left to go...
Morning all! We had an engineer visit our site yesterday and check out our proposed designs and building - we now have what appears to be the verbal green light on our ideas! We are just waiting on the written report coming back to confirm the details, so this is brilliant progress and we all went out for a fried breakfast to celebrate, I know, totally unhinged party animals
As such, we are now looking around to make arrangements with people for help. We would like to find keen bouldering tradespeople who can exchange a few days work for passes, so i you know anyone or are anyone in the trades who would like to be involved, then fire off an email to boulderliverpool@googlemail.com so we can work something out.
I was also at the Kendal Outdoor Retail Show on Thursday looking to find us the very finest rock climbing products available to humankind and I was really pleased with the responses of some companies in offering to helping us get off the ground with a decent range of bouldering gubbins. A nod is due to Evolve and Scarpa and new kids on the block (at least in shoes) Edelrid for their patience in dealing with my questions. More news there as it happens.
If I can apologise for the delay in posting, I took the opportunity of there being a pause in the workload to go climbing, sorry to say folks, but it was roped, 7 days on at Kilnsey, with the overhang providing shelter so that despite there being some rain every day, I got to climb everyday. That said, after day three, the recovery function failed to kick in and my climbing became hopelessly feeble, enough excuses! I am re-chained to the computer and will not be leaving unless it is to t-nut a board or something!
As such, we are now looking around to make arrangements with people for help. We would like to find keen bouldering tradespeople who can exchange a few days work for passes, so i you know anyone or are anyone in the trades who would like to be involved, then fire off an email to boulderliverpool@googlemail.com so we can work something out.
I was also at the Kendal Outdoor Retail Show on Thursday looking to find us the very finest rock climbing products available to humankind and I was really pleased with the responses of some companies in offering to helping us get off the ground with a decent range of bouldering gubbins. A nod is due to Evolve and Scarpa and new kids on the block (at least in shoes) Edelrid for their patience in dealing with my questions. More news there as it happens.
If I can apologise for the delay in posting, I took the opportunity of there being a pause in the workload to go climbing, sorry to say folks, but it was roped, 7 days on at Kilnsey, with the overhang providing shelter so that despite there being some rain every day, I got to climb everyday. That said, after day three, the recovery function failed to kick in and my climbing became hopelessly feeble, enough excuses! I am re-chained to the computer and will not be leaving unless it is to t-nut a board or something!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)