If you’ve climbed for long enough, you’ll have met people who have movement ethics: no knee scums, don’t make it look desperate, style over everything. I used to be one of them… kind of. But somewhere between climbing 5.10 and climbing 5.12, I learned that it doesn’t matter. How you get to the top isn’t important: the only thing that matters is getting there at all.
The problem with perfection
I used to do a lot of dance, and dance is all about perfecting movement. You rehearse the same thing over and over, getting it as close to perfect as possible. And messing something up counts against you: if you finish a routine but you dropped a turn, it’s not a send. In climbing, though, it is. You could lick the wall, eat a banana, or call your mom on the wall, and it’d still be a send.
It took me a while to unlearn this perfection-above-all mentality. I bailed on a whole lot of redpoint attempts because I used the “wrong” hold, or my foot slipped, or I forgot the beta – I would just let go. This is definitely not a problem that everybody has. But I know there are a lot of perfectionists out there, so this post is for you.
Here’s a video of me looking desperate
This wasn’t a redpoint attempt per se – I’m hanging the draws and can’t remember the beta from trying it a year ago – but I’m still trying to send. In the past, I would have abandoned this attempt the second my foot slipped. But sending anything takes a really long time this way.
See how desperate I look? Not smooth, not dialed, not perfectly controlled. Right before this, I sent my first 12a-in-a-day. I would never have been able to do that if I wasn’t willing to forgo style. I sent the route beside this one early last year. It was my first-ever 11b. When I got down, two women at the crag said “you made that look so easy”. At the time, I thought that was cool. Now, I think differently.
So, what does all this mean?
In my opinion – this whole blog is just my opinion, you know – people get way too caught up on style and perfection. If we were gymnasts instead of climbers, sure. But we aren’t. There’s no judge, and no scorecard. It’s simply send or don’t send. So if you’re trying to make things perfect, you’re only doing your tick list a disservice.
But won’t perfection make me a better climber?
I’ve thought about this one a lot. I certainly thought perfecting climbs would make me a better climber. But it turns out that my “perfecting” skills were already pretty good. And the improvisation skills I’ve learned since then have been really valuable. Now, when I’m on a project and something doesn’t go as planned, I can run with it and still get the send.
If you’re a person who likes things to be perfect, I’d hazard a bet that your perfecting skills are quite good too. So, in short, the answer is no: perfection probably won’t make you a better climber.
In fact, the opposite could be true
Abandoning perfection has also helped my head. Now, when I go for a send, I’m committed to trying my best for it. I don’t try my best until something goes wrong. I try my best no matter what, and I go until I actually fall – or send. Accessing my try-hard is much easier with this mindset.
Go try it out for yourself. You’ll save a lot of time, skin, and attempts, I promise.
Featured image credit: Ryman Wiemann