Tactics - 'Free' improvement

Tactics are too often forgotten in our quest to get good at our climbing. A climber once asked me if he should train to lock off on one arm for several minutes to prepare for placing gear on a steep grade IX in the Cairngorms. That would be one way, sure (taking several years of effort no doubt). But another would be to learn to place the gear in 30 seconds rather than 5 minutes. Tactics.

Its good to be focused on getting strong an fit, but not good to focus on it at the expense of methods to sidestep the need to get strong and fit. I'll be adding many sources of advice on tactics over the coming weeks to the links section. To Kick off, check out Andy Kirkpatrick's site

www.psychovertical.com

Andy is a walking encyclopedia of clever tactics and trick to get the most out of your gear and systems while climbing. Many of these come from alpinism, but can be applied to any type of climbing.