Goal Setting
What Is Your Climbing Dream?
Free climbing The Nose (VI 5.14a) on Yosemite’s El Capitan, redpointing Just Do It (5.14c) at Smith Rock, or flashing Diaphanous Sea (V11) in Hueco Tanks sound like aspirational goals for most climber’s careers. For some, they’re goals for the year. For others, they’re seasonal goals. For a minority, they’re goals for the day. Regardless of how aspirational your goals may be, the first step towards achieving a goal is establishing one. This provides structure. Without a goal, whether specific like free climbing the Nose or a more open goal like trying hard on a rope, you’ll likely end up spending most of your time dangling on the end of your cord or sleeping on the crash pad. Goals motivate training. Climbing dreams drive us into the gym, force us to the crag, and push us cliff of improvement. Without a goal, we’re just aimlessly picking up weights just to put them back down again. As Bill Copeland said, “The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” Find a goal. Find a reason to push yourself. Find success.
What is the Goal?
Goals can be sorted into two types: Specific and Open Goals. Research has shown that open goals, ones that exclude specific or objective outcomes and tend to be more exploratory, result in higher perceptions of performance and greater interest in repeating the session. If you have a goal of trying to climb a bit harder, chances are you’ll push yourself in your session but also want to do it again. It’s simple and achievable. Open goals also allow for more exploration into the activity you’re pursuing. If you have a general goal of getting better at trying harder on slopers, you may find yourself two weeks into the nuances of a thumb versus thumbless hanging, the intricacies of wrist positioning, and how conditions affect different rock types. These types of open goals often focus on the starting point and then you grow from there.
Conversely, more specific goals especially ones made using the SMART approach focus on where you want to be in the future. This makes it more measurable. It allows for the people to truly envision the path to get there and simplifies things to some degree. However, it also creates higher levels of pressure to perform and a feeling like you’re lagging behind. Think about free climbing The Nose by next fall. That specific goal will help dictate your year a lot more than an open goal. While it comes with more intense demands and the possibility of failing at such a specific task, it also comes with a higher reward when completed.
George Doran first wrote about SMART goals in the November 1981 issue of Business Review. The acronym has been changed a bit but used heavily in promoting behaviour change in physical activity. In regards to physical activity a SMART Goal is:
Specific- There’s a specific area for improvement
The more specific your goal is, the easier it is to attain. “Getting better at climbing” could mean anything from improving your skills, to working on your mindset, to being able to do heavier weighted pull-ups. Even a goal like climbing 5.13 tends a bit unfocused as there are so many styles of the grade from 5.13 splitter cracks in Indian Creek to pumpfests in the Red River Gorge to powerful crimp routes in Rumney. But redpointing Living in Fear (5.13d) in Rifle allows for a more focused approach. Instead of spending time working on crimp strength, a climber looking to send the Rifle test-piece may focus more on the speed of their climbing to outrace the pump. Having a specific goal helps with establishing the sub goals needed to achieve that goal. When you know which mountain to climb, it’s easier to see the path to get there.
Measurable- It’s possible to quantify or suggest indicators of progress
One of the nice parts of climbing is the measurable. An ability to measure progress towards a goal will help significantly in making it happen. It’s easier to see the steps along the way and make each step to get to the ultimate goal.
Achievable- It’s within the individual’s capabilities
Setting a goal of flashing Just Do It by next fall when you haven’t climbed 5.12 edging routes will kill motivation. Unreachable goals tend to be counterproductive. Too hard of a goal will make the stepping stones to get reach the goal too hard and cause discouragement. Setting a goal that’s within reach makes a huge difference.
Realistic- the goal straddles the line between being demanding and attainable.
Like achievable, this section straddles what is achievable and how much time you have to achieve it.
Time-related- there’s a set completition time-frame.
Time-Bound- Having time constraints adds urgency to a task. Due to the variability of weather and conditions, most climbs have an optimal window for climbing. Imagine smearing up a granite slab in July heat in Camp 4. Donating rubber and skin in blazing conditions often creates more frustration than success. Each climbing area has its own unique season and optimal window to send. This is similar for life as well. There are times when you’ll have more free time for each objective.
What are the milestones?
With each goal we need both macro goals and micro goals. There needs to be a bigger picture of the goal as well as stepping stones to keep you motivated along the journey. Without these individual steps, there’s no way to jump from where you’re at to where you want to be. It’s important to identify the milestones, both the bigger and the smaller ones that will help you reach your goal.
What is the timeline?
As in a SMART goal, dreams need to have a performance date to help planning. When an end timeline has been established, then the next step is to determine how much time is available to dedicate to the goal.
How many climbing days and weeks do you currently have? How many could you have?
How many training days and weeks do you currently have? How many could you have?
After answering these questions, it’s important to note that quality rest should be scheduled into any training program. More training time does not lead to greater results. Targeted efficient training time does. Think about making intentional decisions on what is important. Then add in discipline and results will follow.
