When I was in south america working for the MTS. I had to teach some american teaching and outdoor education strategies one of them below was called the Johari Square. This isn’t some fancy foriegn name, but the first bits of the names of the two people that came up with the model. Joseph and Harry, they design it to explain how self-disclosure by you, and telling by a supported person, as well as joint discovery and observation by other we can find out more about ourselves, and perhap those around us.
What has this got to do with rock climbing? Well at the very least we need to know as much about our performance, and some of that will be blind to us, as we can’t watch ourselves, hidden from us as we can’t know how other people find us or unknown because we simply haven’t relised that we don’t know somthing about us. This is were peer coaching or a professional coach can help.
Why it is important to know as much about yourself and maybe your climbing partner. Well research is starting to explore these dyadic (two people groups) relationships. What seems to be emerging slowly is that when people know more about the each other they form more cohesive teams, with greater levels of confidence in their joint ability. An example of this might be when a belayer that really knows how you climb, and knows how to encourage you when the going gets tough, or may actually recognise when you are climbing into a serious position and response with positive feedback. You might even know whether or not your climbing partner is feeling on form today, simply because you know each other inside out.
So if you want to know what is Blind to you – ask for feedback from a coach or climbing partner….
…if you want a belayer or coach to be able to understand you better, then you need to reveal you Hidden Side through disclosure
…if you want to find out just what you or anybodyesle doesn’t know about you, engage in some discovery together together, and through observation by others and yourself you might be able to find out new things about your performance.