Shorty Beta Project Intro - The Approach
A photo from a recent bouldering trip away at the Grampians with Epsilon Wall in the back ground!
Photo credit: Angus Henderson
I wanted to kick of the 4 part series of the Shorty Beta Project with why I had created it in the first place. Being a shorter climber myself at 5ft1 with a negative ape index I had experienced many moments of frustration with not being able to reach a hold that my taller friends easily could. Whilst it’s can be easy thing to to blame the route setting and my lack of height this wasn’t very helpful for my climbing progress as both of these things are outside of my control.
I was listening to a podcast one day on the Struggle Climbing Show with Nina Williams being a guest speaker, something that she had said really stuck with me “height is just a mindset”. I sat with this and over time this simple mindset shift prompted me to approach reachier moves as a movement puzzles and an opportunity to get creative with how I could best use my body on the wall.
This is something I do everyday as a physio when I modify climbing movement around injury to enable my clients to continue doing what they love, why not approach being a shorter climber the same way. Let’s look at what we’ve got to work with, our current strengths and the constraints in place e.g. our height and wingspan and see what we can do (hint: lots!).
I made a decision going forward to focus on what I could control and am constantly building on climbing movement skills as well as training to get stronger off the wall and more mobile where it counts most. There are so many strong female climbers that are from 5ft to 5ft2 who have learnt how to use their strength to their advantage and become creative with reachier moves on the wall. Lynn Hill, Beth Rodden, Brooke Rabatou and Nina Williams are all incredible climbers in their own way and are all short and super strong!
In my own climbing physio clinic I had begun to see shorter climbers coming through after I began to share short climber tips through my online e-mail newsletter, Insta posts and just through conversations I was having with other shorter climbers during my sessions at my local bouldering gym. Over time I had begun to see what was helpful to train by seeing results in real time not only in my own climbing by for my clients as well!
Not only did I begin to realise that by becoming a better and more creative with climbing movement and getting stronger opened up so much more climbing but now I could actually do the problems and routes that I previously found too reachy! I began to once more enjoy climbing after a simple mindset shift on how I approached my climbing practice and instead begun to view being short as a climber as a creative challenge rather than a hinderance.
After a day out bouldering at Grampians. Don’t forget to enjoy your climbing and always remember why you started in the first place.
This is how the Shorty Beta Project came about, I hope you enjoy the 4 part series I have created to help give you some tools on how to best use your body better on the wall to get the most out of climbing practice as a shorter climber, written by a shorter climber. You may even surprise yourself!
________________
Next up is Part 1 of the Shorty Beta Project: Where it helps to be mobile as a shorter climber.
