Women shouldn't climb ..... Sheesh sexist much?
How do you deal? Learn to use your large muscles not the small
Muscles.....
You can't pull yourself up the wall with you arms. You need to replace strength
with technique. Balance, footwork, the things that all girls (truly, any climber that wants to
Really climb well)must learn....
This quote is from a basic tips for beginning climbers
"Most beginners, certainly men, are terrible at using their feet well, and some never learn how. The key to improvement is usually seeing someone who is very, very good climbing: if you watch them getting up something where you can't even see what they're standing on, you quickly realise that footwork can make a very big difference.
Fact: the difference between ordinary climbers and top climbers is footwork, not big arms."
This quote is from an an article about teaching women to climb:
"I like what you are saying, about climbing being different for everyone. For sure, climbing is different for EVERYONE, and not just based on gender. But I agree with you, that when starting out, climbing can seem frustrating for women, because upper body strength can cause immediate problems, especially in a climbing gym.
It's true that women naturally carry and create less upper body muscle than men. However, it's also true that strength to weight ratio is really what matters in climbing. Here's what I've noticed and pointed out to people, when teaching rock climbing. I've noticed that when people start climbing, if they happen to have a lot of upper body strength to begin with, they often don't need to learn precise footwork and body movement at first. So a plateau can happen relatively quickly, which can force them to back up a little. Conversely, when people start climbing and have less upper body strength, they have no choice but to work it more with footwork and balance. They won't see those instant results, but they will be developing the more important climbing skills from the start.
If you share this idea with the women in your class, you will be showing them a way to focus on the positive side of their experience with climbing, and they will really get motivated. They will no longer be annoyed when they watch someone muscle up a climb they can't do in those first few climbing sessions. Instead, they will notice how much footwork and body movement they are using to learn how to climb that route, and they will realize that when they do start to build upper body strength, they will be able to progress even more.
The big advantage for women is that when we start climbing, we don't tend to have as much natural muscle mass as men. So if we train, at all, the strength increase we build has dramatic results, which is always gratifying
I'm not sure how advanced your classes are. But I have had a few opportunities, when bouldering around with friends, to take beginner climbers off to the side and show them a few very basic things. Again, this is extremely basic, but I have consistently found that beginner climbers benefit a lot by a small demonstration of which part of the shoe to stand on, when using footholds. As experienced climbers, it becomes very natural to stand on the power point of your climbing shoe, the tip of your big toe, or the 2 inch zone of your climbing shoe between the big toe and the ball of your foot. However, for people who are wearing climbing shoes for the first few times, it's not so obvious. Showing people those parts of the shoes, even placing an empty shoe on footholds to illustrate those power spots, and then actually placing their foot on footholds correctly to demonstrate, always leads to immediate and huge improvements.
For the women who are more advanced, the best thing I was ever taught is the importance of stopping and resting, and training for recovery. This is something you can train for, and I learned it from a French friend of mine, Lise, who was an unbelievable endurance sport climber, the best I ever was privileged to climb with (now she is a yogi martial artist in India). She taught me to train on sport routes or climbing walls by climbing 5 to 15 moves, and then stopping on a jug and taking the time to shake out the arms, one after the other, for as long as it takes to de-pump. She always trained and climbed this way, and she could climb really impressive endurance routes, because she never had to be pumped when climbing into a crux, since she had always made sure to recover along the way, and she was always able to recover after the crux. Climbing this way is also very relaxing and reduces anxiety."
Just like so many other things that are discussed on this board, trans women
must learn the lessons that most women learn as they grow up. A young girl who is given
opportunities to take dance classes, gymnastic classes learns to use her body in ways
that take advantage of her strengths. Now you must learn to use your changing
body to the greatest advantage.
So who wants to go climbing?
Elaina
