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FEATURE
AMANDA: On a bad day, you deal
with a normal life commentary
droning through your head, backed
up with a chorus of reasons why
you won’t climb well. Those days
feel hard. But they are also the days
that are excellent for learning and
practicing that mental health first
aid. You get to practice catching
negative thoughts as they pop up
and finding a positive or a win to
focus on. On a good day, you are
thinking less and feeling more and
you get to have that awesome flow
feeling. If it’s a hard climb, you still
have to try really, really hard but it
takes less effort to try that hard. For
anyone who hasn’t climbed, it’s like
that feeling of driving a car. When
you are learning, you are thinking
about your foot on the brake or
clutch, changing gears and all the
other bits in a clunky way, once
you have driven for a while, it all
becomes automatic and intuitive.TOM: Ideally, you don’t have
anything going through your mind,
and your body just climbs. Having
a 5-year-old daughter means that
sometimes I have kids TV show
songs going through my head. They
are super upbeat and happy, soOf all types of athletes, rock
climbers are some of the most
resilient, physically, and mentally
durable of all. The physical and
mental aspects of this sport are
incredible, and each of these
aspects can be dramatically
affected in a split second.Climbers are great competitors;
however, what they compete
against is different to in every other
sport known to humanity. They
compete not just against each
other, but against gravity, fatigue,
time, and most importantly, they
compete against their own mind.
This is what separates climbers
from the rest of us.How long have you been climbing
and how did you start?
AMANDA: 24 years now! It’s
amazing how fast that time has
gone. I found out about climbing
when a friend of mine started going
to the climbing gym and wouldn’t
stop talking about it. I asked him to
take me the next time he went, he
was reluctant and said I wouldn’t
like it but begrudgingly took me
anyway. He was wrong and I has
completely hooked from day oneand spent as much time as I could
climbing and ‘nerding out’ on
climbing books and magazines. I
still have my first climbing journal
full of my drawings of grip positions
and climbing gear placements.TOM: I started in the climbing gym
when I was 12. Before that I used to
watch my Tarzan video then go and
try to do the same swinging around
climbing stuff in the Mango tree in
our backyard. I’d also be climbing
all over the house hanging off
windowsills and the gutter. I loved
it! I think Mum and Dad joined me
up to the climbing gym because
sooner or later I was going hurt
myself!ANDREA: I started climbing at
an indoor climbing gym 17 years
ago after needing to resign from
gymnastics due to injury. My
gymnastics coach wanted to
help me transfer to a new sport
and facilitated me in trying a few
different sports. It didn’t take me
long to realise climbing is all I
wanted to do.When you’re climbing, what are you
thinking / feeling?AMANDA WATTS, Photo Credit Kamil Sustiak“If you want an
awesome way to
stay fit and strong,
climbing is it.”