From 'internally bricking it at VS' to 'steady at E1'

Thoughts from Tom Lawfield on being on the receiving end of coaching, despite doing this climbing thing for a job.

Tom, of Summit Guides, sought out my help to get him moving better, feeling better, and performing better on rock....despite having climbed himself for a long old time and having a qualification that makes people think you are some sort of rock god.

It's been so great to see him progress and be part of that journey, and seeing someone semi-regularly over a few years makes a huge difference. One of the things that has really stood out to me about Tom is his approach to learning. He has been really decisive and focussed, and he really has put the time in to practising stuff. He's also had a really open approach to learning - setting himself goals and wanting to progress, but also knowing that it won't be a linear journey and there are more measures to improvement than just pure grades.

I've learnt a lot from Tom as well as hopefully the other way round!

Here's what he had to say about being on the receiving end of coaching.

Tom guiding on the Skye Cuillin Ridge

Esther: To those looking from the outside in, you're an experienced climber, you have high level climbing qualifications (MCI/WMCI), and you must surely be a confident and accomplished climber already.

Many people would also just think that if you want to get better, then 'just go climbing more'! 

So, why did you seek out climbing coaching in the first place?!

Tom: Ha yeah, but you can always get better. Maybe it does seem unusual for someone already in the industry to be getting coached - I've actually had other instructors act a bit surprised when they find out. The thing is I went through the ski instructor quals - and in the skiing world no one bats an eyelid if people are getting coached, it's how you improve and how its done, so it feels very natural to me to have Esther as a coach.

Of course, it's a broad church, there are other pathways to improving performance, but bottom line, I'm not totally convinced 'going climbing more' is the clever solution. It certainly won't be the fastest or the deepest improvements gained this way alone - and the performer is much less likely to reach their potential. It could well make you 'good', but for most people it's unlikely to make them a great climber. 

There has to be a feedback loop to your learning, otherwise you're just ingraining bad practise, and the quality of the feedback loop is so much harder at every stage if you don't have a coach. Take me for example - I used to climb anxiously in cruxes - at the exact place I really needed to perform, so all I ended up doing by doing volume was training myself to be nervous in cruxes. By peeling everything back with you, and working on my headgame and technique I was able to make much better improvements. 

Obviously there will be outliers who seem to improve simply with volume alone, but I know for me, being coached is important for those deeper changes that go into building the solid performer. 

 

Voi Suisse, Gist Ddu

Esther: For me as a coach, it's been really cool to see you a few times a year for the past few years, and see you develop in so many ways. Our time coaching has varied in content and style, from long chats about movement, headgame and tactics, through to focussed climbing 'drills' both indoors and outside. We've included top rope sessions, sport climbing and bouldering as well as leading and seconding trad climbs, and keeping in touch via WhatsApp has helped with questions and thoughts along the way.

Can you highlight some of the things that have made the biggest difference to your improvement over the past few years?

Tom:

• The long game. I've really appreciated having the sessions spread across the last few summers, consistency is really important for me. I don't think I've ever made leaps in a single session, it's not how this game works - but I have over the longer term. I once read that people overestimate what can be achieved in the short term and underestimate what can be achieved in the long term, and I'm a big believer it that. I'm a slow burner, and patience is definitely helping.

• The variety and the 'interconnectedness'. I divide what we do into the technical and mental side, although the more I do, the more I see how connected they are in climbing. The learning content has been really varied, and it's been important to find just the right challenge level each session. Using sport, trad, bouldering and indoors has kept my interest up, especially when we've gone to new venues. I like the adventure of exploring that climbing allows, so we have been to some cool spots across N Wales and the Lakes. We've gone on to do all sorts of sessions - mantle shelving, pulling and clawing with the feet, lots of ways of approaching twisting and using the hips, pressing with the hands. Drills have been useful, sometimes its been more guided discovery, demos have helped a lot, or sometimes it'll be specific descriptions on how a move will feel that has made me understand.

• Footwork. I think the biggest single improvement is in my feet. My feet feel so much more precise and connected to the rock now - it really feels like they are working for me, and I can press my way up a climb, it's been a game changer after years of being very hand focused. I always remember the very first session, where we just mapped the footholds from the ground. I'd never given so much attention to the feet when route reading, I remember thinking 'ok this is different', especially when I'd get back at the end of those first few sessions and regularly my calves and legs - instead of my hands - would feel worked from getting so much back from the feet.

• The tactics and psychological side has been huge for my learning as well, and Esther really has a knack of knowing what makes me tick. When I started the headgame was just overwhelming - and while of course that's an ongoing element of climbing, a joy has returned to climbing that was being eroded by the fear element.

Tom guiding on the Skye Cuillins

Esther: One of the things I've noticed with you, is that you have made lots of conscious decisions on how to improve, and are very committed to your own learning. Aside from the coaching sessions with me, what else have you done in order to develop your own climbing. 

Tom:

• I'm really motivated by progress and learning - it's made the journey really exciting for me. The thing is, if I made it too goal orientated - say climbing such and such a grade next year, I either do or I don't achieve that goal, whereas if it's about learning and progress, I'm already succeeding, having fun and trying hard. By focusing on the performance rather than the goal it feels much more immediate, practical and motivating. Interestingly I get the same thing on a climb - if I focus on executing a move well, move after move, rather than being at the top, I perform so much better.

• Outside of the coaching days with yourself, the biggest things I've done are:

  • write a list of the routes that get me psyched, mine is just a word doc called Dream Climbing list, and I occasionally add in notes if I hear beta or can take a picture of it

  • have a training book. For the skiing it was a little red book, for this it's a little blue book. Everything goes in there. I find it helpful when it's not going well to look back at previous entries and see how far I've come

  • find mates who have similar aspirations, or climb harder than me, and not being afraid to train alone (I use my beastmaker a bit and I'm lucky to have The Beacon climbing wall on my doorstep here in Snowdonia)

  • and of course go climbing lots! I've also used 3 books - '9 Out of 10 Climbers Make the Same Mistake' by Dave MacLoed, John Kettle's 'Rock Climbing Technique' book, and Xian Goh's 'Smooth'. I also listen to the Lattice podcast, and started the StrongMinds online course. All of these are excellent, and have proved invaluable on so many levels, but I'm not sure anything quite replaces in-person; coaching, where the trainer gets eyes on you

Climbing on the Cuillins, Skiye

Esther: You've mentioned that some of our coaching has also improved your work. Can you explain how?

Tom: Yeah its really helped my work - as my own understanding has grown it's so much easier to coach my own clients. My coaching 'eye' has improved so much for good climbing, and I regularly include the stuff we do in our sessions in my own work both summer and winter climbing. You've provided a very good model for this and my teaching toolbox is definitely growing - I'm better able to set the right challenge, coach movement and the mental side, and I think I'm more empathetic to the learner, particularly as I see so much of the same challenges in other people, whatever their grade.

Tom rock climbing in Snowdonia

Esther: You seem to have a really great approach to challenge, fear and stress in climbing, and I've noticed you be really savvy and considered in when to push yourself (both physically and mentally), when to consolidate or do easier things, and how get that balance right, especially as trad can be scary and consequential.

Can you explain how you make those decisions and get that balance right?

Tom: Thanks! I think trad is a nasty feedback environment, it's not very forgiving, so when you decide to climb something that's a bit run out, you have to really go for it, all in. I've had a couple of instances recently where I've got to the crux, but not been able to decide whether I want to climb it or not and opted not to - so I don't always get it right from the ground. It's blown the onsight, but hopefully I'm mature enough as a climber to know when I want to go for it and when I don't. 

You can only do so much each session, so I just keep things practical and make sure I'm actively working on some aspect of my climbing every session, and that doesn't necessarily involve adding risk. I don't like to make big leaps, which also means I'm only just pushing the envelope in a small way, which keeps it safe and controlled.

In fact I'd go further and say sometimes as climbers, people get caught in the trap of trying hard all the time - when actually, especially during training, you have to take things down a notch.

A good example is when someone tells me to try hard, my brain equates that to moving quickly, I rush things and I end up pulling more with my hands rather than pressing more with my feet. 

Esther: What would you recommend to others in a similar position to you with their climbing?

Tom: An experienced Olympic skier-turned-coach once said to me that the goal is to be better today than you were yesterday - and it stuck with me. Decide your goals, and how you will get there. Be consistent and intentional, enjoy the process of learning itself and the progress will follow in time, whether you want to climb VS or E7, V3 or V12, 5c or 8a.

Tom guiding on Mera Peak

If you'd like to find out more about Tom, check out his website here: https://www.summitguides.com/