Climbers are really good at creating a performance environment. Really, really good. No, I’m not saying that you’re good at performing – some of you suck at it and could use a lot of help –but you’re always TRYING to perform.

But if you want to get better, that might be a big mistake.

Today, we’re going to find out why.

See, we go into the gym and we treat it just like a day at the crag. Or a session in the boulders. Most of the time, the entire focus is:

How do I send?

That? That’s performance. That’s focusing on the outcome. Sure, sometimes sending happens during a good practice, but look around you; everything says performance. The beta-sharing and feedback that’s happening, the boulders or routes that you’re choosing and the way that you’re approaching them, even the structure of your session and how you’re planning the next one. It’s all in the name of performance. 

I’m not saying performance is bad. It’s not. It’s necessary. I’m saying that you and your athletes will perform BETTER if time is dedicated to NOT performing, but instead, practicing.

Here’s the difference:

Performance, like we’ve established, is the pursuit of success. Sending. Topping out. Clipping chains. It doesn’t matter if you learn any lessons or if they can’t be applied to any other situation. You are there to do the thing.

Practice is the pursuit of mastery. It’s the search for solutions that you can adapt to many situations. In order to narrow things down to those solutions, you have to have constraints in place. Constraints you would NEVER apply during performance. 

When it’s practice time, you’re a scientist. Reducing variables and amplifying errors so that they can be learned from. You systematically adjust the complexity of the environment a little at a time in order to better adapt to it. And you tinker with that again and again, riding the line between chaos and learning, and taking care not to be comfortable for very long. 

When you’re performing, you’re Lebron James. Serena Williams. Tom Brady. Eliod Kipchoge. All bets are off. You do whatever you need to do to make it happen RIGHT NOW. You WANT to get comfortable in the chaos. You are looking to get past the adaptation and to own that space.

Practice is adaptation. Performance is owning.

In our Coaching for Mastery course, we go DEEP into how coaches and climbers can create an effective practice. That’s literally what the entire course is about. The research, the theories, my experience, and how you can practically apply it to make sure that you and your athletes are always a little off balance, constantly seeking discomfort and adaptability. When the time is right, that is. Click the image above to learn more.