Talent Or Hardwork?

 

Image stolen from rockandice.com

I first started climbing when I was only 12, yet at the time I felt like an old man. All the national champions of my same age climbed for all dozen rotations around the sun. But, as I've come to realize, I'm one of the spoiled ones. Most climbers I know started after they graduated high school, some as adults. 

I'm a decent climber. I'm not ridiculously high on the grade scale, but I don't suck. I'm still pretty young too... many of the young Olympians are actually older than me. When I dove into climbing and all the media surrounding it, I was fascinated by the crushers like Drew Ruana, Brooke Rabatou, and Ashima Shiraishi. They were my age and sending 5.14! They could crimp the tiniest holds and dyno to the most heinous of slopers. They were also very different people. Ashima was small and flexible while Kai Lightner was 6 feet tall! But one thing I noticed the media said was a common factor was that they all had talent.

This is one memorable video that just blew me away when I saw it as a kid... 5.14d at 16?!

I couldn't climb V13 like them, so maybe I didn't have this golden ticket. I wished I was as "talented" as the young crushers. Every big moment I attained seemed like such a small achievement. My first project wasn't even close to 5.13 so how could it really matter as much as the mythical figures doing 5.14?

I immediately lamented my "late start" and my lack of natural ability. If only I began climbing at the age of 2! If only I could simply become a national champion without effort! If only, if only...

It seems so naive as I look back at it now.

But, as I got better, some people began to think: That kid's a natural! I could climb harder things than most of the adults in my area. I wasn't the annoying kid that they were setting a top rope up for anymore, I was the rope gun! Maybe I was talented after all...

But what they didn't see when I wasn't at the crag was the training grind. And that's what I failed to see with Brooke, with Drew, and every other "prodigy". I trained every day (which I've since learned wasn't the best idea), rode my bike to the gym whenever I could, and begged every hard-working adult within a 50-mile radius that knew how to belay to go to the crag with me. And that's what I had failed to see in all the perfect Instagram posts and Youtube videos...

Not one of these crushers just climbed double-digit boulders without having many hours of practice and training. Ashima had been climbing since age 6, putting in thousands of hours of learning since that time. Brooke Rabatou had been training with her mother, a world-class coach. 

Now, when I hear someone call others talented I can't help but feel a bit angry at them and myself for having thought the same thing at one time. I negated that they worked hard to get where they are...

Brooke Rabatou putting in the time! (image from teamusa.org)

I learned that talent doesn't exist. Work does. I needed to quit feeling sorry for myself and enjoy what would be hard for ME to achieve. I'm still relatively new, I haven't had as many years as some to master technique or build strength. My body may not be as quick to adapt as others. My limit may be below the pros, but it's a level I have to achieve with commitment, not "natural ability".