The Cheat Is Revealed....

Went to the Peak at the weekend. Hardly did any climbing though. Saturday had a brief play on Flatworld after seeing the Dob-beast crush it in Vimeovision. He made it look piss, suffice it to say I didn't. Oh well something to go back to. Sunday went to the Works and did the competition wall problems (apart from the ones I didn't do) all very nice.
Anyway today I'd arranged to crush the Cliff back to the dark ages with G-unit. However the weather had alternative arrangements in place, mist, rain, fog, arse. The suggestion was made that a session on the wall of burl could be undertaken. G stepped up to the plate and it was game on. I've been keen on getting some willing gineau pigs on the wall to get a measure of what I'm doing. It is difficult to operate/train in a vacuum so G would provide a valuable point of reference.
In actuallity he provided much more than that. He pretty much immediately spotted that my default technique was to stick in a deep drop knee or egyptian everything. I have woeful hip flexibility and I'm not a strong climber so this is a technique I exploit a LOT when I'm climbing. However in terms of training and really working the POWER it is more of a hinderance. Here was I thinking I could hang all these poor holds (feet on) when in reality I was over reliant on my feet, and my technique was taking a large part of the load. So now I'm committed to training on the wall with a straight on technique, no drop-kness or egyptians. I'm hoping that another outcome of this will be that I will rapidly become frustrated with my flexibility (or lack thereof) and thus encourage me to undertake a concerted period of stretching.
Training is about training, it isn't about doing the hardest problem you can by using all your wiles and tricks, it is about being basic and pulling hard to brutally beat a problem into submission. The graceful use of tactics and techniques to overcome a boulder problem or route is to be applauded, but to transfer this to a board problem actually defeats the point of the board. It is cheating in that environment, and I have been a training cheat, my apparent gains have been due to refined technique as much as improved power.
So thank-you G for removing the scales from my eyes, I promise to train in a more honest fashion from now on. Just think, what would Malc do.....