Climbing CAS

I joined the Rock-Climbing CAS group because after the climbing session we had during ExE, I was really interested to join. At first I think I tired myself out very easily, I would stay stuck on the wall, on a tile, for a while before I moved on to another tile. As I attended more sessions and climbed more walls, I learn that I was not angling my body in the right way when I was climbing. After talking to a few of my more experienced climbing friends and teachers, I learnt that I was letting gravity work against me as I climbed up, by sticking my body out towards the ground instead of keeping my body close to the wall. Also, I personally learnt that once I got the momentum of climbing it became a lot easier to climb the wall instead of crawling up a bit and then pausing for a minute before going up again.

I also noticed that the more experienced climbers mapped out their routes first before they went up, I can also learn from that aspect of rock-climbing and learn to take things slowly and plan them out before just jumping into them. I learnt that I also tended to climb better when I roughly planned my route before hand instead of climbing instinctively.

After attending a few sessions of the rock-climbing CAS, I think I can climb up the walls a lot easier now. Especially after we've done a very intense strength training and body conditioning session. That session in particular really tested my endurance and strength. I find that I have quite weak forearms but my core is still reasonably strong so I need to train more to keep those muscles fit for climbing.

Honestly I was a little surprised when Grace sent the email and said I was in the CAS group. Because to me I don't think I'm a very good climber and I think there are a lot of areas that I need to improve on. But Grace said that the people who tried out were assessed according to attitude, commitment and potential. I hope that I can work on those aspects of my life, commitment and attitude slowly through this CAS group. Because of the strict training regime, I think I would be pushing myself to be more disciplined in this group. I'm very heartened to be a part of this CAS to not only learn a new skill of climbing, but also to work on my areas of discipline and strength that I feel are lacking in my life.