Older and Boulder

This Saturday morning, I was having my usual bouldering session and came across that classic motivational issues on an ‘easy’ problem that *I Just Could Not Send* .I was well warmed up and had just flashed a couple of 6b+’s, which I was pretty pleased about. I then found myself with a 6a+ that the Griptonite app reminded me I had tried and failed on before.

I assumed that maybe on the last attempt I had been at the end of a session and a bit tired. This meant I got to the problem (a relatively steep, short overhang) assuming it would be a walk in the park as I was feeling fresh. Sadly, it was not to be. I fell at the last move, which I was nowhere near making. After a suitable rest I had another go, with the same result!

The interesting thing for me on this is that I could feel my motivation dropping, and I knew it was because of the grade of the boulder. In my head I *should be able to climb it easily*, and because I couldn’t I started basically blaming the boulder, rather than myself. I was also starting to think that the amount of effort involved wasn’t worth it for a 6a+!

I mainly climb with my son, and I’m always telling him to forget grades and focus on what he enjoys and what he finds difficult as this will make him a a better, more rounded climber.

Sadly, despite this insight, I eventually gave up and went off to do something ‘harder’ that I could do.

I’m sure I’m not alone in this type of thinking and behaviour, and I know that what I *should do* is work out what it is about that particular problem that is causing me an issue. What Beta am I missing? What weakness in my technique should I fix to get the send?

I’ll be back at the same wall at the weekend and will set aside some time get this one done.

I’d be interested in hearing of any shared experience of writing off these hard ‘easy’ problems, and what if anything you did to get past it.