John Churcher Paraclimber
Sunday, 28 May 2017
Tuesday, 16 May 2017
GB Paraclimbing Team Training Day at Oakwood Climbing Centre
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Training with Belinda Fuller |
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Training with Robin O'Leary |
Sunday 7th May
Second Team Training Day of 2017, took us to Oakwood Climbing Centre, in Wokingham.
After the introductions of new Team members we discussed the plan for the day.
We started with warm ups.
Then we did some competition style routes so that our climbing skills and techniques could be assessed.
After lunch we did circuit training.
We climbed until 6pm, having done 6 hours of climbing and physical activities.
My arms were aching and my hands were very sore.
The whole team thoroughly enjoyed the day. We had all had a great workout and we were all given information on what we need to work on.
Tuesday, 11 April 2017
April 2017
Last weekend was my first time outside this year. It felt good to be back out again with Solihull Mountaineering Club. The weather and company were great. It always takes me a few climbs to get back into it after a winter of climbing inside. On this trip I was able to help my friend Anthony do his first lead climb outside. I top roped two HVS's and lead climbed a V Diff.
The video above is a pink bouldering problem with me being sight guided by Anthony. Good to be back doing proper training after a finger injury that took much longer than expected to get better.
At the time of writing there are 4 international competitions planned for this year, 1 in Austria. 1 in France & 2 in the U.K. I hope to be going to all 4. But before these there will be training days and hopefully more trips outside.
The video above is a pink bouldering problem with me being sight guided by Anthony. Good to be back doing proper training after a finger injury that took much longer than expected to get better.
At the time of writing there are 4 international competitions planned for this year, 1 in Austria. 1 in France & 2 in the U.K. I hope to be going to all 4. But before these there will be training days and hopefully more trips outside.
Friday, 18 November 2016
My Story.
Have a read of this, its my story so far in an interview i did with Cathy O'Dowd.
http://www.slowolution.com/en/2016/11/16/climbing-for-people-with-disabilities/
http://www.slowolution.com/en/2016/11/16/climbing-for-people-with-disabilities/
Sunday, 25 September 2016
Paraclimbing World Championship 2016
Preparation for this World Championship had gone well, at the last one I had picked up an injury 12 weeks before the championships, which you can imagine was not good news. This time I was feeling much stronger. this time round the format was slightly different with the two qualifiers being held on two separate days and the Final being on the third day (depending on which category you were in, there was one Final on Saturday and another on Sunday). This time I had decided before I got to the competition that I was going to enjoy it, and not let nerves get the better of me and all in all this plan worked.
Before I got to the competition I knew that I would not have my usual sight guide and therefore would have to rely on the new team manager, who I had not climbed with before, and he had not sight guided me before in a competition. I guess this makes me more apprehensive than actually being in front of a large crowd. Things were going okay. I got kitted up and started warm-up. I then proceeded to put on the radio mic that I use for communication with whoever is calling for me. This is when I first started to notice that I was having a lot of interference with it I thought nothing of it as this has happened before, and thought it would be okay. When we are out in the arena because the caller would be in a direct line of sight there would be nothing in the way to interfere with the signal? How wrong could I have been. Prior to this we had been over the moves quite a few times so that I could try and remember particular points that would be important later on. Then disaster struck from my point of view, no sooner had I gone no more than 2 m off the ground and the radio mic cut out. I have a little bit of sight so if I am looking directly at the hold and it is no more than say a meter away I may be able to locate it. I decided that the best course of action was not thinking about messing with the radio but to just climb! I should also point out that the holds were not the best colour for providing colour contrast, as they were yellow on a pale background, not ideal for visually impaired climbers. Who knows what they were thinking when they set the route. At certain points Robin (sight guide) was telling me to go one way and I went the opposite. I guess it must've looked quite comical from the ground with Robin shouting as loud as he could and me shouting down to him 'I can't hear you'. Considering all of that, the route went quite well. I did not get to the top, but at the end of the day there were five of us within three points of each other.
Day two was the second qualifier. I had the same issues with the radio, so this time we tried using mobile phones which worked better. The only thing that didn't go better was my climbing. I'm not really sure what happened, but I didn't get up as far on this route. But I had made it through to the Final, which was to take place on the following day.
Finals day came and I was feeling pretty good about it. We also used the mobile phone technique for communication. I was much more pleased with how I climbed on this route, and just had to see how well the other competitors did. In the end there was no podium place for me, as I came fourth.
I always get such a buzz out of representing my country. With the competition out of the way I could now enjoy the rest of the World Championships.
Sunday, 8 May 2016
back outside.
After a long break of 18 months I finally made it back outside. It was so great to be back on real rock.
I had gone on a club meet down to Cornwall where we climbed at Sennen. This is a great place for me to climb as the access is very easy. We walked along the coast path then over a small patch of boulders and then you are at the top of the cliff. We set up the belays and then abseiled in. The weather was good. It was a bit blowy on top of the crag, but once we had abseiled down to sealevel we were out of the wind and the sun was shining brightly. We subsequently proceeded with the first climb which was Civvy route, a HS. Then we moved on to Demo route, which was also a HS.
I hope that the good weather continues and I can get more climbs done outside this year.
I had gone on a club meet down to Cornwall where we climbed at Sennen. This is a great place for me to climb as the access is very easy. We walked along the coast path then over a small patch of boulders and then you are at the top of the cliff. We set up the belays and then abseiled in. The weather was good. It was a bit blowy on top of the crag, but once we had abseiled down to sealevel we were out of the wind and the sun was shining brightly. We subsequently proceeded with the first climb which was Civvy route, a HS. Then we moved on to Demo route, which was also a HS.
I hope that the good weather continues and I can get more climbs done outside this year.
Friday, 25 March 2016
The Winning Team
An update to the last post. The Eigerparaclimb were the proud winners of a National Adventure Award, in Scotland, on the 16th March. We would like to say thanks to all those people who supported us.
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An update to the last post. The Eigerparaclimb were the proud winners of a National Adventure Award, in Scotland, on the 16th March. We wou...
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