Coach Moriah

This year was my 7th Youth Nationals and every year the trip is extremely valuable (for many reasons) but above all else it provides a clear picture of the Youth Australian circuit.

Over the last decade I have watched the evolution of competition climbing in Australia and every year I am reminded of the same things…

1. Lots of kids are strong but not a lot are technically proficient. In the Australian circuit, we very clearly have a culture of stronger is better. Being stronger will fix everything…unfortunately, it doesn’t.

2. Being able to climb under pressure is everything. It is irrelevant how good you are if you’re not able to perform under pressure.

3. There are three key components to climbing (and most competitive sports); physical, technical and mental. Every year the best climbers have a balance of all three and every year the majority have neglected their mental training.

4. Confidence is your golden ticket to climbing at your best. If you don’t believe you can do it, all it takes is one tough move and self doubt wins the fight.

The easy part of Youth Nationals is knowing what needs to change, seeing where our weaknesses lie as a State and as a team. For Victorian athletes, it was undoubtedly a headgame issue across the board. Our talent pool runs deep but we didn’t have a strong enough mindset to match our technical and physical proficiency come game day.

But, we are a team and a strong one at that. I don’t intend to sit back and hope this gets better, nor do I intend to continue the same strategies. We’ll be shaking up our training, attacking our weaknesses in a new way, strengthening our love for climbing and our mind.

Because "The mind is the athlete; the body is simply the means it uses to run faster or jump higher."

Our team still pulled some amazing performances this past week, with many tops, final qualifications and podiums. But the results aren’t the point!!

The point is, imagine what we could do, how we could climb, under pressure at National level if our headgame was the strongest of them all..

Imagine how it would feel, for any youth athlete, to climb at their best when it mattered the most.

It’d be pure magic. ✨️

This weekend, I had a freak accident on rock and walked away fine.

In this incident, I did nothing wrong, I made no mistakes and the gear did not fail.

I was climbing with a knee pad on my right leg, it was tight, not dangling loose. I did a deadpoint off my left leg reaching with my left hand to a sloper, I flagged with my right leg. As I flagged with my right leg my knee pad got caught on the quickdraw. I felt it tug me backwards as I did the dynamic move and called out to my belayer “The knee pad is stuck!”. I then flicked my right leg in an effort to get it free, however I was on the crux of the climb and fell in the process. During my fall my knee pad strap clipped through the quickdraw. The upper strap on my kneepad caught my fall and I inverted hanging from the kneepad, it subsequently ripped and I fell head first.

My belayer caught me with a soft catch as I swung into the rock head first. It was an overhung route but I still hit the rock head first, following which I hit my neck on the rock. I then spun myself upright.

I have analysed my leg position, the direction of the quickdraw and the movement itself many times since. I didn’t make a mistake, the gear wasn’t incorrectly placed or used.

This isn’t to say I haven’t taken the time to analyse what could be done differently and how this could be avoided in the future. I am lucky to have really experienced climbers (with excellent safety knowledge) around me that I can discuss this scenario with to learn from the experience. That is something I will do privately and is not the point of this post.

The point of this post is to reiterate two things..

1. We cannot remove all risks in climbing. There are things outside our control.
2. We can mitigate the risks and this means wearing helmets.

This is the first time in my 13 years of climbing outdoors that I have inverted. It could have been a million times worse. Instead I walked away with minor cuts, bruises and soreness. I went home to my husband and two dogs. It is irrelevant if I would have been fine without a helmet. What is relevant is that my head hit the rock and my helmet took the impact for me.

Wear a helmet. Stay safe out there. 💓

I am a firm believer that most things are achievable if you're willing to work for it. ✨️

But there is a lot of hard work involved in the process. And without the right tools a big dream will stay exactly that.. a dream. 💭

Often it can feel like you're in a foreign country. You know you're at location A and you want to get to location B.. but without a map you dont even know where to start. 📍

It's easily my favourite part of coaching..being someone's roadmap. Guiding them to achieve things that once felt impossible.

Someone even asked me the other day, "Why do most people get a coach?"

And I replied with, "They have something they really want to do and I'm the first step to getting there.."

📸
Pic 1 - Me staring up at my dream ✨️
Pic 2 - The dream itself 💓

My profeasional coaching advice is that if you don't stare up at the rocks lovingly before you climb.. you're doing it wrong.

🧗‍♀️ TAIPAN, Grampians

I have made space for new bookings! Eek!! 🥳

I am now taking on new Private Coaching, Technical Assessments, and Training Programs. 💪

In an attempt to keep things simple, I have committed to locations on certain times/days.

I do take bookings at locations/times/days outside of this schedule upon request (pending availability).

This schedule will change again on December 20th as the school holidays start.

If you're psyched to work together and get strong, get technical, and crush some climbs, email me at [email protected] to get started!

Check out my website for more info 🤙

I have limited spaces because time is simply limited, haha, and to ensure high quality. Thanks for understanding, folks! 🫶

Often climbers seem ill-enthused when I talk about working on their weaknesses. In a way it makes sense, maybe it’s a weakness because you don’t enjoy it and therefore avoid it all together?

Maybe it’s a weakness because you don’t think you’re any good at it so you avoid it and end up in this vicious cycle of a self fulfilling prophecy.

But to me, weaknesses are definitely my favourite thing in the world. They have the greatest room for improvement. 🥳

When I do weighted pull ups I often think about when I couldn’t do one body weight pull up. That comparison gives me perspective and reminds me how far I’ve come. I’m because I love to climb, to challenge myself and in doing so reap the rewards of growth in the process. 🌳

Focusing on my own process also reminds me not to look sideways. 👁

There will always be someone taller, shorter, stronger, weaker, better or worse than you at climbing. 🤷‍♀️

So do it for yourself, work on your weakness for the reward of getting better at it. 💫

Work on your weaknesses so you can go and climb cooler and cooler sh*t…. That’s why I do it. 😅

🧗‍♀️ The Entertainer, 18, 20m Trad
📸 .art January 2020

I often get asked if I prefer boulder or ropes. People often guess ropes, which actually isn't true.

When it comes to climbing outdoors, I am inspired by the rock itself, the moves and intricacies of the route or bouldee.

Often, majestic lines that call to me are routes because of the sheer magnitude of their beauty and how they make us feel so small.

Something about staring up at these routes just pulls at my very core.

"King lines" as they are often referred to (I do hate that this term is gendered, so I try not to use it) inspire us and push us as climbers. Getting on the three star mega classics pushes us to rise to the challenge, to be better JUST so we might climb these powerful lines.

This is why climbing on Taipan has always been the
dream.

Not because I prefer routes or boulders... Because HOW could you stand under Taipan and not think "This, this is the most beautiful place on earth."

I would actually love to hear what routes inspired you the most when you first visited Grampians/Gariwerd. Comment below 🫶