Slab climbing can be some of the scariest climbing out there in terms of solely looking at the wall structure. One look at a slab climb and the brain goes “CHEESEGRATER!” It’s this alert system of self preservation that makes slab climbing so scary.

Looking across a group of youth athletes doing drills, I could see everybody practicing the skills with varying levels of focus, intent and ability but there was one of the crew that was failing on a move then repeating and failing and repeating and failing again and again.

I think that in terms of progress in anything there are 2 major areas of focus: getting better (deliberate practice), and trying harder. Often we get stuck in either camp, but both of these areas can become a trap.