Day flash! 7A+ / Matrix Belay
My new program keeps on giving.
I have only sent one 7A+ before and it was a year ago, but super duper soft. Ply Pinches.
This one felt proper.
Next sesh Last Question is also gonna go down. So pyched.
EDIT:
Someone asked what the program is, so I paste this here if anybody’s interested:
I started climbing in October 2023 and moonboarding May 2024 (first 40° send)
Since then I felt progress up until let’s say six months ago. Then I got injured, but also realized my sessions were never predictable.
Meaning, I always showed up wanting to crush, but rarely actually had the juice to give. Then once a month I’d have this amazing session, which I never knew to say why it was THAT specific day, and it would be followed by another 4 weeks of mediocre performance. In the “good sessions” I would end up sending 6C+ benchmarks, and once in a full moon a 7A (just 3 ever sent until I changed my routine).
And then I stumbled across Charlie Schreiber and his guide lines.
I follow two principles:
- I always finish session feeling relatively fresh
- I stick to the intention
- of the session
So my week looks like this:
- Day 1 / Super light kilter session - anything I can flash with ease, working on movement and flow. Effort 3/10
- Day 2 / Rest day
- Day 3 / Submaximal Moonboard sesh - anything I can send up to 2 tries. Maybe 3 if I did a dumb mistake. Effort 5/10
- Day 4 / Rest Day
- Day 5 / Rest Day
- Day 6 / Limit moonboard session
- Day 7 / Rest Day
I’ve been by now through 5 limit session days (so a month and a half or so) and the outcome is undeniable!
Every limit sesh I have showed up to - the juice was there and I climbed harder than I ever could.
I have sent 5x 7A’s since, 3 of them in one session - two of those I flashed and the third one only missed the flash attempt cause went first move with the wrong hand. So technically not a flash, but.. you know
The secret sauce of this whole thing is the management of accumulated fatigue. I used to always go until I can’t grab anything anymore. Some of it came from the frustration of wanting to show up strong, then not, so then just chasing dopamine (climbing as much as I could to compensate the unpredictable poor performance) until I had no skin.
This takes (I’m 38yo) time to recover from, even if my muscles felt good on a given day cause I rested two days in a row, my CNS was constantly fried. I completely didn’t know it.
Now, for example - I take wins and go home. That session I sent 3x 7A’s basically flashed?
Think about it - I barely climbed really.
But after the third send I said to myself you know what? I’m done. This is a huge session, I’m taking it and I’m going to do a work out now. Not chasing another 7A. Next Monday.
I hope that makessense.
It’s just so much easier, for me, to handle myself that way. I don’t feel the pressure to climb hard every session cause I know there is a designated day for it, and I know I WILL CLIMB HARD on that day. So it’s all good.
So then today I have sent a 7A+, and climbed another one two moves shy of flashing it. Worked on the top part a bit, gave it a few goes, and called it.
But this is huge for me. Before this change - 7A+ benchmarks felt IMPOSSIBLE. And now it’s like, yeah. It’s all there. I can project them and I will send them.