Top Rope Technique Class: Week 4

For the last class we pretty much just went over what we had learned and climbed.  We had some things pointed out to us that we needed to practice as we went.  

We did learn about heel hooks and toe hooks.  They are using your heel or toe to hold onto something (hook onto it) to help with balance or to move from one place to the next.  We went over dynoing, which is where you let go of the wall completely to grab another hold (like jumping or leaping), I'm not so much into such things, it scares me to let go of the wall with all my limbs to move to another place.  And then there is dead pointing where you grab on while moving upwards but part of you stays touching the wall.

And then there was more practicing.  I am so glad we took the class we've learned so much and I am constantly seeing our climbing skills improve as we go to the gym each week.

A few other terms we went over earlier and I just never put in a blog, I'm sure this isn't a complete list but this is what I could think of now:

Beta: Information given to the climber while they are climbing by someone else 

Redpoint: to complete a climb without falling or resting after previously having unsuccessfully attempted the route.

On-sight: climbing the route the first time you attempt it without falling or resting and without receiving beta from someone else on how to climb it

Pumped: When your arms are so tight from climbing that you can no longer hold anything or use them for normal functions

The 1st Annual Crock Pot Cook Off: 2011

This past Christmas a few of us received crock pots so an idea was born, we would have a crock pot cook off where we all got together and brought something to eat.  The something had to be cooked in a crock pot of course.  After hearing it was going to be held at mom's house I volunteered to have everyone over at our house for the first annual crock off.  Everyone had a blast and the food was incredibly tasty!  It was rather amazing the way it worked out, even though no one really told people what they were making we ended up with various desserts, appetizers, main dishes and even a side dish or two.

Dani and JP made an awesome trophy for the winner, I believe the plan is to pass it along each year.  We all decided it was so much fun that it had to be an annual event!

Here are the dishes that were brought:

Sara's Corn dip, I hear this was very good (it has Jalapenos in it so I didn't have any)!  She won the first annual crock off!

Meatballs (by Amy)

Pam's little smokies

 

Pam's Mac and Cheese

JP and Dani's Beef Bourguignon

Mom and Dad's Lima Beans and Ham Hawks

Dad's Chicken dish, I dunno what to call it but it was very tasty!

Amy's Three Berry Cobbler

Dani and JP's Blueberry Cobbler

Chad brought along Nala and she and Rosco had a blast running around outside playing in the yard.  Rosco isn't as young as he once was though, Nala wears him out completely (and all the running around aggravated his limp he sometimes gets, but I think he had fun anyways).

Top Rope Technique Class: Week 3

Week three didn't bring about too much new that we learned, it did teach us some important skills but it didn't add to much to what we had been doing.

  

First we went over stemming.  A stem is used in a chimney or when you have two vertical walls next to each other. You put your feet and arms out and apply pressure to the holds such that you are almost pushing yourself up.  Your arms should not be higher then your shoulders when stemming.  At any time any two parts of you should be able to hold you up.  We learned about hand/foot matching as well while stemming, if my hip hadn't been so out of whack I think I might have even been able to do that.  (that is where you put your hand and foot on the same hold).

The other thing we went over is route reading.  Every time you climb you should try to read your route before you go.  Start at the beginning and work your way to the top.  Use your hands in the air to determine where you would be putting your hands as you climb.  After going over the hand holds look again to see where your feet holds are, you may not determine every foot hold you will use but it's important to determine where they are so you don't miss one that really would have helped.  Identify the crux (the hard spot) of the route and try to figure out how you would get past it, if you can't figure it out exactly try to find a couple different ways you might try it.

We also went over some climbing features and what they are called. We went over flakes (an thin outcrop of rock that sticks out of the wall and can be used as holds), cracks (they are what they sound like), chimneys and a few other things I just can't remember.

Then we practiced.  My hip wasn't feeling all that well so I climbed pretty horribly.  But the movements we learned stemming have been good for me to use in other climbing situations since.  I found the stemming to be particularly difficult as I could barely reach the two walls we were going between.

Sinus surgery here I come

Surgery just sounds scary to me, but I've always had sinus problems and I honestly don't recall the last time I didn't have a stuffy congested head.  So, I am going to be having sinus surgery April 21st sometime in the afternoon to hopefully get my head feeling better.  No more pressure and congestion, that just sounds amazing.

I will be having my septum straightened as well as some of my sinus passages enlarged and some of the inflammation removed.  There are a bunch of technical names for all of that and I honestly don't have a clue what they are.  When I know more I'll add more to the blog.  I just ask for lots of prayers as I go through it all.

Top Rope Technique Class: Week 2

The first thing we went over on week 2 was smearing.  Smearing is pretty much using the wall with your feet when there isn't a hold there.    We weren't able to really practice it much but it can be handy at times, especially if you're on a surface that is a little horizontal as it goes vertical.

We then went to working on body movement and shifting our weight such that we have a good foundation.  To practice this we climbed the practice bouldering wall with one hand and then tried climbing with no hands.  Climbing with no hands is freaky and I must say I'm a wuss when it comes to getting very high on the wall if I don't feel like I am going to stay on the wall.

Next we went over what I think might have been the most useful thing for me in the whole four week series.  We talked about flagging and when to use it.  You can flag away from you, behind you (crossing over leg) and in front over your other leg.  Flagging helps you stay balanced when there is no hold for your foot, it gives you momentum and it increases your reach.  As a person with short arms and legs it has made all the difference in reaching things I would not have otherwise been able to reach.

We went over the knee drop to give higher reach.  In a knee drop you turn your body in and put your knee down and the other goes upwards, this gives you greater reach as well.

I think this class was probably the most beneficial for me as a climber.  This is where I learned that I can use the wall to help me, I can use my arms and legs without holds and I can reach things I never thought I would be able to reach otherwise.

Snowshoeing Take Two

We went snowshoeing for a second time this weekend.  This time we went with Jeff, Chad, Sara, Nala, Richard, myself and Rosco.  The dogs had a blast running around and playing and I'm pretty sure all the people enjoyed themselves as well. 

The goal of the hike was to enjoy Lake Kachess and find a snowshoe cache.  We enjoyed the lake but even after uncovering an entire suspended log no cache was to be found.  Bummer.  The Lake was gorgeous!  I am so glad we stopped on the way in so that we saw the reflection in all it's glory.  On the way back it was wet and drizzly and the clouds hid the beautiful reflection.

More work for me

So I've started a second job, it's an at home job and I should be doing about 10-20 hours a week on it.  It's hourly pay, so it's much better then the ChaCha gig I was doing.  The new job is as an Internet rater, if you're looking for a second job (or just an at home job) and are fairly good with a computer. That's about all I can really tell you about it but it's a pretty good deal really I can tell you were to go to find more info. I have a friend that has been doing this for awhile and has been paid so I'm fairly certain that it's legit.  There is a test you have to pass to become a rater and I VERY much recommend reading the entire guide they send and checking all the examples if you do decide you want to give it a try.  The test is hard and time consuming and you generally only get one shot at it. 

I do intend to make the $150 at ChaCha needed to get paid but after that I'll probably stop, it's just far to much work for what I get paid.  It is nice knowing about current things people are asking and ChaCha certainly opened up my eyes on a lot of things going on in kids lives that I had not really thought about.  I guess I've lived a fairly self inflicted sheltered life.  So, it was good for me, I'm glad I did it, but $.02 an answer feels like it is a waste of time really.

So, as if I hadn't been busy enough recently, I'm now adding 10-20 hours of work on top of it all.  Good stuff.  But it's all working in the right direction so that's good.

Top Rope Technique Class: Week 1

So I'll start this blog and the subsequent class blogs by saying you might find them a bit boring.  They are pretty much just here to go over what we covered in class.  I thought it would be nice to place it all in one place for myself for future reference and to solidify what I learned.  So, feel free to skip these if you want.

In our first week we learned about simple techniques, the type of holds and various footwork.  I'm gleaning some of the descriptions and pictures from the Internet to describe what all we learned.  It's just easier then typing it all up myself, all the gleaned information is in the smaller font, hopefully I made it all big enough you can actually read it.

The first thing we went over were the various types of grips and holds (these aren't exclusive, things can be multiple types of hold at once as well):


Crimp: the most natural and stressful way to grip a rock hold; characterized by hyper extension of the first joint in the fingers and nearly full contraction of the second joint.



Gaston: best described as a handhold that is only good from the side; you must hold it with your elbows pointing out and palm facing away from you.



Jug: a massive, easy to hold onto hold.



Pinch: a hold where you must pinch using your thumb and fingers to hold on (they vary in size).



Side pull: crimping or using an open hand grip on a vertical or near vertical hold.



Sloper: sloping hold with very little positive surface like palming a basketball.



Undercling: grabbing a hold with the palm facing up.



Open Hand Grip: gripping the rock with the first joint in the fingers and keeping the hand open. This is the safest hand position for your joints.
(This grip we actually didn't go over in class but it seemed like good info so here ya go).


Next we went over straight arm climbing, we practiced climbing in the back room using the straight arm techniques.

Straight arm climbing: Keep your arms straight as much as you can (i.e most of the time). The basic climbing movement is to keep arms straight, move feet into position to reach the next hold, pull up momentarily to reach next hold, arm straight again to move feet, and so on. This helps you in lots of ways but the most important benefits are reducing the muscular effort from your arms and being able to see what's going on at your feet much better than if your face is pulled hard against the wall.

After practicing the straight arm climbing we learned about matching our feet.  There are three ways we learned to match.  Hop, Controlled and Both feet on at the same time.  These are pretty much the way they sound; for the hop you hop from one foot to the next, for controlled you place one foot on top of the other and then slide the lower one out, and for both feet at the same time it sounds just like it is, you have both feet on the hold at the same time.

We went over edging, it is very important to have proper foot placement on the holds.  The front side of your foot is the edge you want to be climbing on.

Edging is a climbing technique involving the placement of the very edge (either inside or outside edge) of the climbing shoe on a sharp hold. Edging is the most simple and most common approach for standing on holds but, even so, requires some practice to obtain the very best footing. On smaller holds, it becomes something of an exercise in precision.

We went over Step Through and Back Steps, I'm not finding a very good definition of these online so I'll give a really quick overview kind of definition that is completely based on how I remember it.  The step through is when you step in front of your other foot and the back step is when you cross your foot behind you to improve your reach.  We practiced this back in the training room as well.

We went over rotating on our feet to switch directions and practiced doing that as well.  It's very important to be able to do this, I'll have to do lots and lots of practice on this one!

We also learned about having quiet feet and practiced that going up and down the training wall.

Quiet Feet:  This technique has nothing to do with keeping the noise down in the climbing wall, its just a simple technique for good footwork. Avoiding jumping or scuffing your feet up the wall as you move your feet means you have to get in balance to place them carefully.

Static vs. Dynamic climbing:

Static movement is the most basic and common of climbing techniques/movement. It involves moving with control and without great haste to the next hold. Using this is great for most situations.

Dynamic movement is a move where the climber propels himself/herself with a short burst of energy to the next hold. This is very useful if performing the same move static requires too much sustained physical power. This can be the case when the beginning of the move allows the climber to be in a more stable and powerful stance on the climb, but the middle or end of the move will either put the climber off balance, position the body in such a way that the muscles cannot be efficiently utilized, or both.

So that's pretty much our first class in a nutshell.  We probably learned other things as well, but I'm kind of writing this after the fact so this is what I have.
 
Various things in this blog were copy and pasted from these articles or blogs:
http://onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.com/2006/08/climbing-beginners-top-5-technique.html
http://www.rock-climbing-for-life.com/rock_climbing_101.html
http://students.cis.uab.edu/keith826/Page_2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edging_(climbing)

Some hockey pictures

Just a few pictures from the game we played on 3/5/11.  I was feeling pretty sick during this game, but I think a couple of the pictures turned out okay.  I'm very thankful Richard has been taking pictures for everyone to see!  I hope you enjoy!  

 

Me with my usual line mates; Cisco and Greenie.