| One to one sessions - Testimonial Ron's story... How cool is that? That’s the question Dave asked at the end of his blog post chronicling his redpoint of Ring of Steall. To put it into context, the proverbial that, was in fact his achievement, born out of 10 years of effort. 10 YEARS!!! During the last 10 years of climbing I sometimes worked hard, but mostly not. I would boulder, I would sport climb, I would do a fair amount of trad routes, but my goals were always lofty and thus, unattainable. 1 year ago, today I moved to the UK. Little would I know, then, but the next 12 months would be some of the worst yet. I would unwillingly get divorced, loose my dream job and quit climbing for nearly a year. One night it took me an hour of drunken struggling to get from my couch and get to my bed. I was drinking alone, a lot and was totally inactive. A friend from the states figured out I was slowly killing myself and flew in with a bike- to get me back into shape. That was the beginning of my up swing. I started riding a ton, then swimming, then running. I competed in my first triathlon and reached my goal of placing in the top 20, by eking in at 20th place. I was stoked; I made a goal and did it. Then one afternoon, bored and alone, I went to a climbing gym and got my ass kicked by climbs I would have cruised in the past. I left dejected about my physical condition, but excited because of the love I have for the sport. I decided to reclaim my all time climbing goal, free climbing Astroman in Yosemite. I knew I needed to take baby steps though first. Having been truly inspired by his efforts in the film E11. I looked Dave up and discovered he was also available for coaching. Ah, the first baby step, I thought. It took me less then 10 minutes to make the decision to request a session with him. It took a couple of months for us both to find the time to get together. I decided to make a trip of it and flew up to Scotland from my place in the midlands. I could go on anecdotally about what a great guy Dave is and the details of the training, but it would just be wasting your time, because it was all about me. If any of you were to spend a training session with Macleod, it would be all about you. He would watch you closely and force you to focus on your weakness that, like me- after years of climbing, had never noticed. It was a wake up call, to say the least. What I can say about the experience, but I don't think you would get unless, you were to spend the time with Dave, is that it’s all about the effort and motivation. How bad do you want it? It, being that- that which is cool. That, which took Dave 10 years. My recent that was to merely boulder 6a in the gym. Less then a month since my session with Dave, I have 3 under my belt. My new that, is London Wall in Millstone, E5 6a. It’s all I think about right now. My point is, my climbing BD (before Dave) was aimless, my climbing AD (you can guess) has been super focused. I honestly do not think I would have figured out how to put all the pieces together, many of which I already knew, unless I had gone to the effort of doing a coaching session with Macleod. Do yourself a favor and email him or call him or send him a smoke signal- it will take your ability and effort to a new level. So, London Wall; it’s just another step toward Astroman. I was out there last week and despite spilling boiling coffee on my right foot and ruining my weekend, the shocker to me was how attainable it seems. I’ll give it a proper go in the next week or two. How cool is that? Ron Cecil
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