Rock Climbing with Rob Pizem: climbing

Showing posts with label climbing. Show all posts

August 12, 2014

Planning to Send this Fall? How will you do that?

Contact Piz at pizem@hotmail.com for Motivational/Instructional/Entertaining Speaking Engagements, Climbing Instruction, Training and Weekly/Monthly Training Programs

Until then... Get outside and have an adventure!

piz : )

Thanks to my amazing sponsors: www.arcteryx.com www.camp-usa.com www.scarpa.com www.sterlingrope.com www.americanalpineclub.org www.brewersledge.com

This is the time to be getting ready and tuning up for your fall redpoint season.
How are you going to do that? Are you going to try the same old way as you have every other year or are you going to attempt to use a systematic approach that addresses your weaknesses?

Here are some suggestions to get ready! (they are in no particular order)

Pick an objective. That can be a climb or boulder problem, short or long, steep or vertical. If you don't have something to train for it is difficult to assess your weakness and then train with intent.
Be realistic but aim high. Don't just pick something that you are already close to accomplishing, choose something that is out of your comfort zone. By addressing all those areas that are difficult for you, you will become a better climber.
Assess how much time that you have to give to the training. You need to meet your lifes obligations so plan your training accordingly.
Identify training days and fun days (at the crag or gym). You can't make every single day a training day, you have to build in the fun and vice versa, you can't expect to progress if you just go and screw off all day in an undirected manner.
Find a training partner with a similar schedule or training plan. That way you have someone to psyche you up if you are slacking on a day or two. A partner allows you to climb routes too!
Build in rest time! Without rest you don't recover.
Plan Plan Plan and then follow through! That means don't spend your time climbing slab if you want to get better at overhangs! Choose your climbs and boulders to meet your needs. That might take you out of your routine but that is good, you need to step out to step up.
Get a trainer or a training book. There are many out there that are very good at helping people progress. We are never too good to improve! Be open to constructive criticism. Even Ondra needs a coach!
Make it fun! If you aren't smiling at the end of the day, then your taking it to serious. It's climbing folks, we are not saving the world or solving world problems. : )

May 23, 2014

Training with Piz: Pinch Repeaters

Work your weaknesses by creating a repeatable set of 4 grips that you want to improve upon.
Set either a time or number of repetitions (based on your level or best) and go from there.
No more than twice a week with rest between each set.

Have fun and

Get outside and have an adventure!

piz : )

May 15, 2014

Mothers Day

Orson a day after his first bloody nose.

Beautiful momma!

Rowan

Family project on Mothers Day. Remove barely living bushes, level soil, build bench, mulch, plant flowers, sit on bench!

Jane loves doughnuts and what better place to enjoy them then at the local doughnut shop!

Happy Mothers Day Jane. Thanks for being wonderful to the kids and me.

I love you tons : )

April 29, 2014

Playing in Golden

Playing at the Clear Creek water park.

Orson is a tank, no terrain will stop him.

Jane and top Jimmy

Don't fall in little one : )

Orson thinking about climbing the net that his older brother just tackled.

Rowan and Zack getting dirty.

More car seat time with the boys.

April 8, 2014

Zion New Free Routes!!

Contact Piz at pizem@hotmail.com for Motivational/Instructional/Entertaining Speaking Engagements, Climbing Instruction, Training and Weekly/Monthly Training Programs

Until then... Get outside and have an adventure!

piz : )

Thanks to my amazing sponsors: www.arcteryx.com www.camp-usa.com www.scarpa.com www.sterlingrope.com www.americanalpineclub.org www.brewersledge.com

I had a successful spring break in Zion.
Check out Climbing.com's summary http://www.climbing.com/news/sandy-wide-and-wild-two-new-free-routes-in-zion/

I will make another post with more photos and better descriptions soon!! Stay tuned!!!

Rough Canyon Hike with My Students

It started off cold and in the shade.

Good times on the ice and finding frozen waterfalls!

Don't slip!

Finding hidden hangouts.

At the bottom of a waterfall the ice was frozen and left behind huge chunks!

On the way back in the warm Grand Junction spring sun.

Mt Garfield with My Students

At the top on a windy day above Grand Junction.

It's a cool place to hang.

Yep, that is sh#t! Wild horse sh#t to be precise.

Getting there

March 13, 2014

St George,Utah Pizem Slide Show! March 25th!!!!

Andrew Burr Photos

Come join me and learn about the rock climbing in Lofoton, Norway.
24 hours of daylight, open access to all climbing and incredible scenery are just a few flights away!
I will share insights about his travels and why Lofoton is a hidden gem that should not be missed.
Sponsored by CAMP, Arcteryx, Sterling, and SCARPA

Tuesday night March 25 at 8pm
The Desert Rat in St. George, Utah

February 21, 2014

Zion Fun... I think

We went out to new route and all we found was dead animals. Was it a good sign?

I was not really psyched with my first anchor. The rock was bad and it took lots of bad placements on soft rock to just get here! Sterling Ropes all ove the place!!

Ben joined me after I hauled the haul bag up the wall. He was nice enough to jug next to it and help it get unstuck!

It was a jungle out there!

A wall hauler and a new static line from Sterling Ropes!

The views can not be beat while on a wall in Zion!

Me and my impression of Gene Simmons!

On the way down we were able to get down just by rappeling off trees! What a day. We made it up about 800ft only to find the loosest, rock that I have ever climbed, so we rapped back down to the back packs and headed out in the dark.

Good thing my ropes were 70 meters cause we would not have reached the bottom of this chimney/offwidth.

Standing under the choss!

Just following the beta for the route!

Summit Grapevine (Dallas,Tx) Gym Review

Contact Piz at pizem@hotmail.com for Motivational/Instructional/Entertaining Speaking Engagements, Climbing Instruction, Training and Periodization Programs

Until then... Get outside and have an adventure!

piz : )

Thanks to my amazing sponsors: www.arcteryx.com www.camp-usa.com www.scarpa.com www.sterlingrope.com www.americanalpineclub.org www.brewersledge.com

So this is a great smaller gym with more top roping and leading than bouldering.
The routes that I climbed were well set and the grades seemed right on par with other gyms.
I really liked how the setters used the features in addition to the smooth paint vs textured features.
This made it challenging to grab them and to stand on them if it was the slick feature.

With respect to training there was a speed wall (where the kids excel at and often win national competitions. I had never seen one, it is set with just a few holds and the kids figure out how to move quickly up through the odd shaped holds.
Personally, I would have set real routes on it because it was just slightly overhung and very wide. Perfect to set any kind of route on.
The training area is a second thought. They have finger boards poorly placed in a corner, they have a weight bench with just a few weights, they have a pull up bar that is free standing that is not attached to the floor so it can fall over if you were to rock it to one side.

In all I like the gym but the training area is lackluster. No systems board, no campus board, no real equipment, no space and no instruction for what they do have.

The bouldering area was small as you can see below. Get a lot of people in there and you will be falling on top of each other. It had the right amount of angles and plenty of holds to make up your own problems if you wanted.

There was an arch in the lead area that was quite fun and again well set.

Slick feature

Textured feature

Classroom/yoga/party room

February 7, 2014

Weekend Update: Summit Climbing Gym in Dallas, Slide Shows, Clinics and the Texas Mountaineers! Come on Down!

February 6, 2014

Treadwall Training with Piz: Power Endurance Training and Training your Eyes for Observing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnpQ8xe8Vu4&feature=youtu.be

There are a few ways in which you can train to get power endurance.
You can do pyramids or 4x4's while bouldering in the gym or you can have more fun (in my perspective) and use a Treadwall.

I can set a powerful problem on the Treadwall and then climb it an an appropriate pace.
Each move must be challenging/powerful.
Each move must require core tension.
Moves can be dynamic.
Holds can be good or bad.
Holds should work on your weaknesses.
You can incorporate side pulls, cross thru's, under clings, compression moves, matches etc.
No rest holds or positions should be set.

Once I can do the problem, I see how many laps that I can do without falling off in a row.
This video shows that I am just beginning to build my power-endurance since I fall off just a few moves from the start.
Once I can get 2-3 laps in a row, then I will add a shake on the fingerboard in between (typically for 1-2 minutes) between each lap. The hope would be that I would recover, but the reality is that I get more pumped because I am on tiny holds.
When I know that I am in good power endurance shape I can do hard problems in a row with the 1 minute shake on bad holds. I typically will shoot to be able to do 3 laps in a row with that method. (that is about a 70 ft route)

Get out there and have some fun being fit!

piz : )

January 31, 2014

Training with Piz: The High/Low Crimp Foot Cut

This is another way to work core tension and compression.

Grab the same crimp close to full span on a steep wall. (this is at 45 degrees)
Then cut feet and place then exactly where you were once standing. Choose awkward foot placements in order to increase the difficulty.

Repeat 3-5 moves in a row and then repeat with the opposite hand placement.

This is powerful and explosive and requires engaging your whole body from finger tips thru your forearms and core down thru your legs and finally ending at your toes.

A great move to learn how to engage every part of your body.

January 28, 2014

Training with Piz: Fingerwalking

Contact Piz at pizem@hotmail.com for Motivational/Instructional/Entertaining Speaking Engagements, Climbing Instruction, Training and Periodization Programs

Until then... Get outside and have an adventure!

piz : )

Thanks to my amazing sponsors: www.arcteryx.com www.camp-usa.com www.scarpa.com www.sterlingrope.com www.americanalpineclub.org www.brewersledge.com www.windx-treme.com

Fingerwalking

Shuffling on various sizes of crimps can be good. Start on a big piece of wood like a 2x4 and move down to smaller and smaller crimps. Ideally your feet will be off the ground, but you can have one foot on to develop the skill.
Every time that you move is with a small kip of the hips (pop up).
Be sure to use open hands and no thumbs!!

January 17, 2014

City Rock Climbing Gym: Training Review

Contact Piz at pizem@hotmail.com for Motivational/Instructional/Entertaining Speaking Engagements, Climbing Instruction, Training and Periodization Programs

Until then... Get outside and have an adventure!

piz : )

Thanks to my amazing sponsors: www.arcteryx.com www.camp-usa.com www.scarpa.com www.sterlingrope.com www.americanalpineclub.org www.brewersledge.com www.windx-treme.com

So, I rarely get to check out other climbing gyms. But family trips offer a few minutes after the kids go to sleep to sometimes try one out. Over winter break we found ourselves in Colorado Springs and I had an hour and a half at the City Rock Climbing Gym.

Because I was very excited to climb a bit, I made the best of that time at this cool place to train and climb. I was able to meet up with a random gym patron and trade belays instead of using one of the many auto belays. For me, the gym experience is about climbing with a partner and not trying to be alone inside a facility. The route setting was great and I had a good time trying to bang out pitches in such a short amount of time before closing.

The main climbing area was sectioned off from the rest of the facility which was nice. There was no worries about whether or not a slack liner, boulderer, other climber, or anyone would bump into you. Plus the walls were tall and slabby to wickedly overhung! I forgot what it was like to get pumped indoors (my local gym is only about 20ft tall which makes it pretty tough).

After my partner had to leave, I choose to explore the other facets of the the gym. There was a slack line area and a bouldering area that were spacious and popular. Lastly, the upstairs was the training area. This is what I was most interested in because climbing routes can only do so much.

There were three adjustable systems boards that were operated by a winch.All were 12ft wide by 12ft or 14ft tall. SICK!! The board at my gym is also adjusted by the winch method and I feel that even though it serves its purpose and works that it is not the best set up. The reason that I feel it is not the best is that the winch is typically only attached to the center of the board. This allows any dynamic movements to create movement or oscillation in the board, especially if you are on one side or the other.
My other observation was that there was no pattern to the placement of the holds. There was no way to work a specific hold type size or movement in a systematic manner. I feel that the systems board is an amazing tool to utilize in a gym but that most gyms don't set them properly.

Systems board can be used in a number ow ways. One of which to complete repeated movements of a certain type. In doing this you can really improve a certain finger strength, hand strength or specialized movement. I have many of these explained in past postings.
The other way to use a systems board is to climb a problem that works a certain skill set or holds and to then slowly lower the angle until it becomes difficult. Then send it at the steeper and steeper angles. What you will find is that you will have to relearn how to climb the route and how to grip the holds and how to place your body with each angle increase. It is very powerful. This is one way that the European climbers have been training for years!

The yellow photo shows their extensive campus terrain! I liked it. The slopers were poorly made though in that the screws stuck out and you could rip your skin on your palms. They need to be deep set. The padding was nice and the boards were spaced properly.

I really liked this set up, mostly. The bar is rigged on chains (which I don't like) but is two diameters for pull ups and whatever else you want to use it for (stretching and such). Plenty of space for multiple people to use it.

It is welded and painted.

In trying to use all their space efficiently, they have hung lots of training camps rungs for finger boarding. My problem is that you can rest your arm against the wall which effects your finger boarding.

Overall, it is a great place to train at and it has lots of potential!