Wolfgang Gullich soloing Seperate Reality in Yosemite
Now for those of you who don’t know I have another blog that I tend to rant on, as well as put some articles and mini-topos on. When I was dreaming up name I came up with life in the vertical. It was only recently, when my housemate was looking for pictures of Wolfgang Gullich, I went up stairs under the vague recollection of having his biography that I found I had stolen the title for my other blog from the title of this book ‘A Life in the Vertical’.
Why am I writing this on here, well the answer is Gullich was one of the first people to train for climbing, and train in a big way. He basically revolutionised the concept of climbing, moving it from obsessive past-time where some people performed better than others to a more athletic ‘sport’ where an intense training programme lead to some phenomenal ascents.
More than that in his life time Wolfgang was attributed with many training quotes, and it is these that I would like to share with you.
“THE HARDEST PART OF TRAINING IS MAKING THE DECISION TO START TRAINING AT ALL”
“THE BRAIN IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MUSCLE FOR CLIMBING”
“IT IS TRUE THAT CLIMBING ONE FINGER POCKETS PUTS A HORRENDOUS STRAIN ON THAT FINGER, IN THE MEANTIME, THE OTHER FINGERS ARE ALL SPARED”
“WHY DO I CLIMB? BECAUSE IT’S FUN”
“YOU NEED TO STAY CALM AND COLLECTED”
“CLIMBING THE nth GRADE IS NOT JUST A QUESTION OF HAVING SUFFICIENT POWER”
Wolfgang was an amazingly strong climber yet, from his book and even these ‘sound bites’ above, you get the idea that he also focused on the psychology of not only performance whilst under the intense pressure of lead climbing or soloing, but the use of goals in climbing and life to stay motivated.
As such I like to think that this blog offers some of the cutting edge insights into the psychology of climbing, as well as a few more regular training and coaching ideas, as well as some more traditional ropework skills, but If there is anything you’d like to be covered then give us a shout.