Jean-Paul Finné's visit had a big impact on my climbing. He stayed with us at The Castle for a month after doing the third ascent of Just Do It, 14c. He got me to put very small dowels on my wall - 3/8" thick x 1/2" diameter smooth wooden footholds on a 45 degree wall - great for core training. There's also a lesson tucked away in the interview that took me a long time to learn. Jean-Paul describes doing "terribly" on White Wedding (14a) after doing JDI, which is two letter grades harder - in his description it's clear that it was a mental issue. The lesson is this: hard projects take a lot of emotional energy. Usually, after completing a hard project, it's best to take some time off. This is often difficult to do, since your psyche level will be high, but overall, it's a rule I try to follow.
I'm not too happy with my training article from this issue; mainly because the idea that fingerboards aren't great for hypertrophy training is madness. The quote I used from Jerry Moffatt still rings true today, "Endurance routes get easier. Hard moves are always hard moves."
Next week I'll begin to post some stuff on training.
