Redesigning the climbing body, by Stevie redesigned Haston.

There is probably the most perfect climbing body out there some where, but hey it's not yours, and by next Tuesday it will have changed. Bodies are like the breath, or the wind -probably a bit too mystical for you, so we will drop the gobbledegook, and get back to training, you guys out there understand the word training, or do you?

The dog thinks the rabbit is his girlfriend, I am not sure he needs to know it is a rabbit.

As a young man I had a good body for climbing from working on building sites, and a bit of yoga, plus a little running. So far so good. My mind however which controls the body, was fairly rubbish. I was a bit like a car without a steering wheel, I was even like a Ferrari, but no steering wheel-a crap car or a good car still needs a steering wheel. Not too mystical for you, I hope.

 Soli the London fireman, decending to the Underworld, a place where he discovered the properties of Elvis leg on a route called I love Elvis, a route incidentally that a Magazine editor also learned how to loose control of his body and love Elvis-great route which teaches well.

My success in climbing has never really kept up with my potential, but as my body declines success is beginning to become easier, albeit at lower levels. Why have I taken over 50 years to squeeze a bit more juice out of the old lemon? Because my mind was always up to some strange antics, either making me scared, or distracting me. How to control the mind-now there's a question! 

 Simon in the rain on a recent addition to Xini cliff.

I have controlled the mind, or tamed it by love, by authentic desire, by distraction, by breathing, by my old switch off technique, which worked sadly only some of the time, it was a cross between In Shallah, and a Viking mind yell, did I ever try the Vulcan tricks, who knows. I tried whatever was to hand, there was no drivers manual. What works for you? 

Simon decending to the Underworld for his first taste of life after death.

My long journey with climbing. is like my long journey with life, it's been full of ups and downs, but it's slowly up nowadays despite the body going to hell in a hand basket. Learning to climb is wonderful. For a while now diving, and yoga have helped me climb. How so? Focus the breath and you can control the mind, which sets your body free. A simple message that gurus have been teaching for thousands of years. There once was a boy called the Slate Guru, he did some nice routes on the Slate rock around Llanberis in North Wales-he was I-funny eh. That boy did a bit of yoga and a bit of running and a fair bit of pull ups.

Soli and I learning to breath, breathing is obviously easier to do above water, but is also surprisingly hard to do while climbing.
Do your pull-ups, do you're breathing, maybe swim, or run to calm the mind, find the guru grasshopper. Have more fun and success.