Purpose:
To encourage you to develop a plan in your session BEFORE you start climbing
Where: wherever you like
This drill must happen BEFORE you start climbing. You may need to walk around the centre
When: BEFORE you start climbing
If you pull off the floor prior to doing this drill, you’ve missed your chance. This is even done BEFORE the warm up
The Drill:
The reason this is called The Confiscated Shoes drill is because that is precisely what I used to do with my younger students on sessions: I would ‘confiscate’ their shoes until they could tell me what they were going to do on that session. I didn’t really mind what they planned, as long as they knew what it was BEFORE they started climbing.
The drill has been developed from there but obviously, requires some self-discipline to, erm, confiscate your own shoes. Hopefully you get the idea though.
- Once you arrive at the wall, take your shoes out of your bag and place them next to your bag
- Now, without warming up or climbing anything, decide what you will be doing on this session. You may need to walk around the wall to decide but DO NOT CLIMB ANYTHING YET.
- There are no wrong answers here, you are free to choose whatever you like. The important thing is that your session has an aim. Suggestions include: a specific climb; a collection of climbs at a set grade; climbing in one specific area; socialising; easy mileage.
- Once you can (honestly) give the stated aim for this session, collect your shoes and complete your usual warm up before continuing into your session
This drill often combines well with the Check In On Check In drill.
VARIATION: consider seeing if you can add specificity to your aim for the session
The Outcome: How do you know when it’s working?
Over time, you should find that you naturally start to develop an aim for each session without the need to actively force yourself to do so