Climbing

To climb with your inner child:

“If you look at little kids, they almost all know how to climb, intuitively, really well. Then as you get older, if you don’t grow up climbing, [your] body forgets that a little bit. [So] you can certainly learn from watching kids. And as climbing has developed as a sport and people started climbing at younger ages, climbing has progressed tremendously. And a lot of that has been from the older generations learning from the younger generations. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, the movements were all very precise and static … kind of robotic. And then kids started climbing and started climbing like monkeys, with their feet swinging around and really dynamic. And all of the old-school guys said: ‘Well, this is crazy! It’s inefficient, they’re wasting all their energy.’

But actually, that ends up being a really good way to climb. That’s how the higher edge is being pushed: kid style, climbing like a monkey.”

— ClimbMax manager and climbing coach David Sharratt

Photo by Jason Sandford

 

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