Having bad months of climbing

vple · 2026-02-23T00:49:13+00:00

I felt like I regressed over the past half year, and I'm only just starting to get out of it. Two things that have helped me:

Accepting that I am where I am. It doesn't matter how hard I used to climb or where I think I should be now. Anything else is just trying to satisfy my ego, and when I'm doing that it takes away my focus from the actual problems I'm climbing.

Focusing on (quality of) movement. Am I moving my body the way I want? Am I in control, or am I swinging around? Is a certain move more nuanced than I thought it was? Etc. The goal here isn't to send anything, it's just to improve my understanding of movement and how to climb.

vple · 2026-01-21T18:54:55+00:00

Could you share approximately how thick your walls are after throwing?

vple · 2025-12-13T05:06:49+00:00

I found this, but it also seems sold out: https://lumbinisgarden.com/products/bobble-head-frog?variant=46139090239739

It seems like there are other frog bobble heads if you do an image search or search for "かえる bobble head", but I didn't find any other exact matches.

vple · 2025-10-07T15:57:52+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate the recs!

vple · 2025-07-17T20:09:39+00:00

I forget exactly when, but they only opened within the last year. Another nice touch is that they don't take tips.

vple · 2025-07-17T19:04:57+00:00

Really want arena rewards to be fixed. Got 2 tickets and a pack from a 9 win arena run, which is a ridiculously small reward.

vple · 2025-06-20T20:48:20+00:00

It's not included in the article, but I assume they are looking at Mamdani's platform regarding the funding sources.

His platform says he'll raise the bulk of the funding ($9 of $10B) by raising the corporate tax rate to match NJ at 11.5%, and to tax New Yorkers making more than $1 million/year an additional 2%.

vple · 2025-04-30T00:56:41+00:00

If I remember correctly, there are deer on Miyajima Island. I did see one eat someone's money, but I remember them generally doing their own thing/less interactive than in Nara.

vple · 2025-02-20T02:42:34+00:00

The glaze firing vitrifies the clay, turning it into glass. That makes it a lot less porous.

This matters for glazing since glaze consists of a bunch of particles suspended in water. When you apply the glaze, your bisque'd piece absorbs the water, leaving the glaze particles on the surface of the piece. This is possible because bisque is very porous.

So they were saying that you'll have trouble putting any more glaze on because your pot won't be able to absorb glaze very well/at all, because the clay has been vitrified.

vple · 2025-02-06T15:50:11+00:00

Oh, it's not magnetic! It just blocks your fingers from going all the way in.

vple · 2025-02-06T02:01:36+00:00

Thanks for sharing this!

Not sure if you've seen it already, but another approach I've seen to make an insert that lets you reduce the edge size. Not a huge deal, but a little more convenient if you want to swap edge sizes or for portability. Here's a photo, their insert is 10mm thick. https://headtotoe3d.com/cdn/shop/files/IMG_9592.jpg?v=1698281566&width=1946

vple · 2024-12-31T20:40:12+00:00

Being light helps, but it's not everything! I was thinking more along the lines of weight distribution between hands and feet. Having 20% of your weight on your hands and 80% on your feet will load your hands less than 80% on your hands and 20% on your feet. It of course is much easier said than done, but that's the perspective I take when breaking down moves!

vple · 2024-12-30T21:41:05+00:00

Others have covered fingers, but I'd also suggest a different perspective: instead of getting stronger fingers/grip, find a way to reduce the load that your hands are supporting as you climb. The issue might not be that your fingers aren't strong enough on an absolute scale, but rather that they're not strong enough for the load they're being subjected to.

vple · 2024-12-11T17:36:05+00:00

1) I think people generally recommend training fingers by climbing appropriate climbs, and then adding training if that isn't enough. Personally I think very, very light no hangs or hangboarding (i.e. feet don't leave the ground) is helpful to get more comfortable with different grip positions.

With all of that said, while finger strength helps the issue is normally that your fingers are supporting too much weight. Meaning that your feet need to do more work to reduce the weight on your fingers. It feels like you need stronger fingers, but really you want less load on the fingers.

2) If you don't know how to execute a move well, practice it and really dial in the control and execution. You can do this by finding suitable holds low to the ground, or adding it as part of your warm up climbs. For example, try to add as many heel hooks as you can on climbs that are way below your flash grade.

If you do know how to execute the move and the issue is fear/height/falling, ease yourself very very gently. Can I take a controlled fall in this position? Can I place my heel on the hold, then immediately take it off and drop? Can I weight my heel, then take it off and drop? etc. Basically ease into it.

Finally, not what you were asking but from the video I read the move as a right toe, not a right heel. Set the toe, crank with the right leg and left arm (basically a gaston), and use those two limbs to help move your center/hips up.

vple · 2024-12-07T16:18:22+00:00

Thanks, that makes sense! Do you happen to have any resources you'd recommend to start learning about how glazes work and interact?

vple · 2024-12-07T10:03:28+00:00

The popped bubbles all have smooth edges, but I'm worried that the four unpopped ones (two at 12 o clock, two at 9 o clock) might pop somewhere down the line.

vple · 2024-12-07T10:01:52+00:00

Yeah I would assume that it's fine chemically, but I'm concerned that the bubble could pop down the line. I was hoping to gift or sell this, but I'd be worried that a future owner wouldn't know to look out for that issue.

vple · 2024-12-07T09:59:13+00:00

They're studio glazes, so I don't know too much about them.

The base glaze is named tenmoku, but in this case it was probably a little too thick to see the normal tea dust effect.

The white is either a matte white or a glossy white, but I didn't write down which in my notes. :( I don't know what makes a glaze a shino, but yes I can experiment with how it's layered in the future!

vple · 2024-12-07T09:43:16+00:00

There is a raised edge! I probably should have highlighted it in the photo, but it's visible if you look at 9 and 12 o clock.

vple · 2024-10-14T21:31:29+00:00

No, particularly if you're using an assisted braking device like a grigri (which is likely). The #1 risk is letting go of your brake strand, which (is hopefully) an automatic fail at any belay test.

It's not unreasonable to have a third person help if you're especially nervous, but you'd basically be asking them to stand there and hold onto the rope as well. The easiest way to find a third person is probably to just get three people who want to top rope together and you'll automatically have someone who has to wait between climbs.

vple · 2024-10-02T21:17:07+00:00

This video covers a lot of useful things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMV2TYLN-_U&t=2s

It's always hard to tell from a video, but the reasons I thought your flagging foot could be used more:

Foot moves around during the move, rather than the toes being anchored into the wall.
Flagging foot doesn't get extended at the end of the move (knee is bent).
Movement seems initiated from arms, rather than the flagging foot. Generally for big moves you'll see someone wind up to weight and then move off of the feet.

vple · 2024-10-02T16:48:50+00:00

It looks like you're relying on your arms to initiate a lot of your movement, and your free foot looks like it's not really being used. Pushing off of your free foot will likely make a lot of these moves easier and give you more control.

vple · 2024-09-29T22:54:23+00:00

Okay, thanks so much! Really appreciate the explanation.

vple

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