Work with Gravity與重力合作

Climbing is a beautiful sport: it looks like a painting; it reads like a poem.

If you do it right, you perform a fluent and well-balanced body movement, and you demonstrate efficiency and elegance.

Climbing attracts me because it’s not about muscle strength – it’s about combining it with your mind in order to achieve maximal performance. Also, climbing is not a lonely sport. By saying that, I am not only referring to your belaying partner, but your best friend, gravity.

When I was reviewing the lecture notes from my 4-session climbing classes, the principal “Work with gravity, not against it” jumped into my eyes and soon caught all my attention. Isn’t gravity our nemesis since we are constantly bringing our body weight into the sky?

Let me try to use two common mistakes of a beginner to elaborate the point. As a beginner, I use my arms too much. I know this because my arms give up way too early when I climb. Another mistake my instructor usually yelled at me for is standing on my toes too much. Instead I should drop my heels when I climb.

I have addressed the arm problem in the article “Rational Brain; Rebellious Body.” Basically, if you straighten your arms and let gravity do its work, it will put more weight on the legs, which are stronger body parts than the arms. And when the handhold is a round rock and hard to grab: with the palm flat on the rock, gravity will give you better traction.

Standing on the toes put too much stress on the calves. My instructor asks us to put our toes into the wall, which makes our body position natural for weight shifting. Also she reminds us to use the ball area to make contact with the rock, and by doing that, you can put your toe area on the wall, which gives you better traction.

You might say that the above examples only told you not to work against gravity: We put emphasis on how to position our body and increase the contact surface area in order to have more traction. But in fact we are working with gravity too: by dropping the heels instead of standing on the toes, we changed the direction of the force and the force comes from gravity. Combining the right direction of force and bigger contact area, we have better traction to keep our body stable and balanced.

Now you can see the equation for working with gravity: correct body position + gravity = maximal traction. The climbing technique that explains this formula the best is: Smear.

When we climb, the best situation is that both our hands and feet can hold on to something. This, of course, is not always the case. The purpose of Smear is to put one foot on the wall in order to bring the other foot onto a higher foothold. It’s better to smear high so that your upper body and your smear leg are almost perpendicular. This right angle will drive your weight into the wall in the way which generates the most traction.

Working with gravity is the beauty of climbing and this also reminds me about working with current while white water kayaking. When we maneuver our kayaks to perform eddy turns or peel outs, if we drive our boat to cross the eddy line with a correct angle and we lean our bodies so that the river water always hits the bottom of our boats, we don’t have to paddle hard because the current will take us to where we want go.

Working with gravity and working with current – is it a coincidence? I am afraid not and it seems that working with nature is always the key. I wonder why human beings like to say “conquer” nature. If we can be friends, why should we be enemies?

攀岩是一項優雅的運動，如詩、如畫。

正確地攀岩，是流暢且均衡的身體律動，展現效率、呈現美感。

攀岩最吸引我的一項特質，在於其強調的不是肌肉的強壯，而是靈活腦袋與身體健美的完美結合。同時，攀岩永遠不是一項孤獨的運動，而這指的不光只是繩伴，還有你的攀岩最佳伙伴 — 重力。

剛上完四節的攀岩課，前幾天，拿起講義重新複習，一行字立即跳進眼簾：「與重力合作，而非搏鬥。」嗯，攀岩時總是持續地將身體的重量，往上拔升，難道還不是和重力搏鬥的運動嗎？究竟，這是怎麼回事呢？我陷入了長考。

讓我用初學者常犯的兩個錯誤，來解釋這個原則。身為一個初學者，一個常犯的錯誤，是過份依賴手臂，手臂的酸痛常常是打攀岩退堂鼓的主要原因。另一個錯誤則是習慣墊著腳尖站立，上課的時候，總三不五時地被教練教訓：「把腳跟放下！」

我在「理性的頭腦，反叛的身體」一文中，已經討論過，過份使用手臂的問題。基本上，如果放鬆心情，將手臂打直，不過份介入重力的運作，較多的重量會轉移到，總是比手臂還要強壯數倍的雙腳。另外，若岩石面過於光滑，難於著手，只需輕輕地將手掌平放在岩石上，重力的作用會協助你得到較大的抓著力。

墊著腳尖站立，帶給小腿肌肉過份的負擔。教練要求我們以最自然的邁步方向，將腳放在岩石上，如此，才可以方便攀岩過程中，運用相當多的重量轉移的步驟。同時，教練提醒我們：盡量以前腳掌為與踏步岩石的接觸點，這樣一來，腳指區可以和岩壁接觸，而更大的接觸面積，有更好的抓著力。

讀到這裡，也許你會質問，以上的說明只是在告訴我們，如何使用正確的姿勢以及增加接觸面積，以避免和重力不必要的搏鬥。但，事實上，我們的確與重力攜手合作：將腳跟放下，而不是墊著腳尖站立，改變了力與岩壁接觸的方向，這個方向也是加大抓著力的功臣。而這力從哪裡來？正是從重力來。

好，我們現下得出一個公式：正確的姿勢＋重力＝最大抓著力。而有一個攀岩技巧，正是這個公式的最佳註腳：Smear。

攀岩的最佳狀況，當然是雙手雙足都有可以抓附的地方。只是世事總是不盡如意。Smear的目的是以一足向岩壁借力，以抬高另一足，到可以抓附的地方。使用這個技巧的時候，向岩壁借力的那一足要盡量抬高，和上半身成九十度，如此，力的方向是以正向往岩壁推進，才有最大的抓著力，身子才會穩。

和重力合作恐怕是攀岩運動最巧妙的地方。這提醒了我，在上激流泛舟課程的時候，教練每每提醒我們，要與水流合作。當操控獨木舟，做出eddy turn或是peel out的動作的時候，如果以正確的角度行駛獨木舟越過eddy line，同時傾斜船身，讓流水總是拍打船底，那麼，不用怎麼用力划船，水流就會帶領獨木舟到我們想去的地方。

和重力合作，和水流合作，這是個巧合嗎？當然不是。戶外運動的關鍵就在於和自然的力量合作，偏偏許多人口中卻常常嚷嚷著「征服」自然。如果我們能和自然做朋友，為什麼要做敵人呢？