Ian On The Red Dot

Today was the first time I went rock climbing for about 5 years. A friend invited me to join her and her friends to climb at Climb Asia. I’m pretty sure my body is going to be aching tomorrow, especially the groin and upper body.

Anyway, after the climbing session, while we were resting, I couldn’t help but remember all the things rock climbing had taught me which I had forgotten or at least relegated to my subconscious. When I was in secondary school, during the sec 2 and sec 3 periods of my life, things weren’t going that well. There were creeping doubts about my abilities to do well in school as well as the gradual loss of hope that things in school could get better.

I had a teacher who tried to help me and a bunch of other guys. I’m not sure if those guys were in the same state as me but it was quite a random group of us so I’m guessing the one similarity is that he thought we needed some sort of help. This was a teacher who took it upon himself to try to make a difference in our lives or at least in mine since I can’t speak for the others.

I never realized he was trying to teach us some life lessons through rock climbing until much later. I always thought he was trying to teach us a sport or just help me build my confidence. Maybe he himself wasn’t consciously aware that he was imparting those lessons to me. But he was.

The first thing I learned from rock climbing was never to give up despite how difficult a task might be. I remember how I would be dangling off the wall, with my groin aching from the harness pressing upwards due to the combined forces of gravity and the tension of the rope and ask to be let down. My teacher who was doing the belaying would refuse. He would insist that I keep trying until I make it to the top. And if I didn’t, he would only let me down until he was satisfied I had expended all my energy trying.

More often than not, we would fail to reach the top. But that didn’t meant we had given up. The route would eventually be conquered because we would keep trying and trying, if not on the same day, on another day. We would conquer one route before moving onto another - a certain sense of single-mindedness was drilled into us. We learned that if we failed to conquer a route one way, we needed to learn and adapt and try to do things differently - we did things in a different sequence, adjusted our body and shifted our weight.

To be a good rock climber requires tenacity. Rock climbing helps build a tenacious spirit.

The other thing I learned was that sometimes people with more experience and a different perspective are better judges of our abilities than ourselves. When climbing, sometimes the next hold just seems so far away. To the guy belaying, it alway seems possible. Somehow, the inexperienced climber always seems to gauge distances wrongly or forgets the surrounding, not aware that the next hold is just one outstretched arm away. We are not aware that we can reach a hold.

In a way, I learned that most of us tend to sell ourselves short.

However, even though we listen to the more experienced, learn from them the techniques and know the goal is possible, we can only depend on ourselves to reach for it. Rock climbing taught me the price of hesitation and non-commitment. When trying to reach for a hold, you got to believe you can reach it. If not, somehow, the body just reacts in a manner that most assuredly won’t let you reach the hold. And you cannot hesitate - wait too long, and your body will tire. If you go for the hold, but don’t go all out when stretching to grab it, afraid of letting go of your existing holds for fear of missing or falling, you almost always guarantee yourself a miss or a fall.

It was rock climbing that probably first taught me the importance of a good partner in every endeavor - a partner that can see from a different perspective and help you find a path up a difficult route. A good partner also shows you how to climb the route, but more than that, a good partner challenges you by showing something is possible, removes all excuses and pushes you to keep trying until you have given your best.

A good partner also knows your limits.

A good partner breaks your fall.

As the years have passed, these lessons have been relegated to the subconscious. I haven’t applied them consistently to my life. Today, I was reminded of them and of a teacher who tried to make a difference beyond the classroom and grades.

So, to the friend who invited me, and allowed me to share in this activity, thank you.