HEY, after a grand beginning to our climbing sessions we are celebrating a great success of having a fully booked course and lots of interest besides.
SO, before we all get lost in the festive spirit, we thought we would put up the next dates for the Dinton Climbing courses. Dates for next year are as follows: January 7th, Taster Session. January 14th. NO CLIMBING, and we are CLOSED for a week. (I am doing the compulsory three-yearly first aid course update.) January 21st, 28th, February 4th, 11th. Climbing Sessions. 45 minute sessions. As per this term. Social gathering and crafts commence from January 21st. DUE to popular demand we have made the first week (January 7th) a taster session so that people can have a go at climbing at Dinton with Andy before signing up to a 4 week course, more details below. WE have also created space for a teenagers climbing course so that any home ed teenagers who are interested can come along too. Details, again, below. ALSO, we are opening up and running a second session for younger ones, this will be a 30 minute TASTER session. Details, once again, below! Details of sessions: WEEK 1: TASTER SESSIONS: BY Popular demand! These will be around 20 minutes long and will take 4 climbers, with 5 minutes at the beginning and end getting harnessed up we will have 10 minutes of real climbing time. This will most likely give you a chance to have a bash at one or two walls and see how you like swinging around on the end of a rope! The cost will be: £5 per climber. TEENAGER COURSE: I have spent much of my climbing coaching career working with teenagers in climbing schemes such as NICAS. Also I coach teenage volunteers who I work with in personal skills and coaching strategies. The course will be a series of 45 minute sessions, learning rope work, knot tying, belaying, climbing technique and tactics. We will probably finish off with a trip to Reading Climbing Centre where all the new skills can be tested and you can really scare yourself if you want to! WE would NOT be anticipating hiring the back hall for this session, so the session would be outdoors in the compound. Bringing coats and gloves and wet weather gear is recommended. We are open and very welcoming to any participants who want to stay for the social gathering after their climbing course, to chat and 'hang out' as teenagers will! THIS session would run from 1300 to 1345, and cost £7, including hire of all equipment. THE first week, again, will be a taster session so that you can come along and 'have a go.' However, if you are interested, book up as I anticipate lots of interest in this. LATER in the year I hope to get out climbing on some real rock with a trip to Bristol and the fabulous cliffs near the city. So come along and get your skills and strength up in the cold and wet months so we can go and play in the summer! TASTER SESSION CLIMBING: RUNNING a taster session each week means the 'wide games' activity will be dropped from the programme as I would be engaged in the climbing wall for the full length of the session. HOWEVER, it will provide a place where aspiring climbers can come along and have a go and give climbing a try. There is no limit on how many taster sessions you can do over the four weeks (January 21st to February 11th). WE will still have the hall available for gathering and games, the reading corner, arts and crafts and general running around. These will all kick off on January 21st. I would like to take a moment to wish you a very happy Christmas and a fabulous New Year, may Santa bring everything you need for and I look forward to seeing you next year!
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HEY, we are super excited by the awesome interest in our climbing course and social gathering at Dinton Activity Centre which kicks off on Thursday 19th November. That's next Thursday, in case you're reaching for the calender!
THERE has been loads of interest and I am really looking forward to getting it going! A few questions that have occurred are addressed below with a reminder of the main features of the sessions. THE sessions will be Thursday afternoon, from 1400 to 1530. Climbing will be from 1415 to 1500, run by me! Andy Clubley-Moore, I have been an active outdoor sports instructor for the past ten years running climbing, canoeing, kayaking, water sports and all manner of other outdoor fun! I had the joy of meeting my fantastic partner while working in Shropshire under the big skies, and she's now my brilliant wife. Vicki (also Clubley-Moore!) will be organising a craft activity in the hall at Dinton Activity Centre during the climbing session. There will also be space for free play. FOLLOWING the climbing, between 1500 and 1530 we will be running wide games – such as Capture The Flag or Stuck In The Mud. This will go on in the grassland behind the Activity Centre (it was previously a golf course) in fine weather, or in the hall in inclement conditions. ANYONE who wants to come along and not take part in any of the offerings above, the climbing, craft or wide games are still entirely welcome to come along for the social gathering of the sessions. If all you want to do is chase around with swords and lightsabers that is perfectly acceptable, children included! THERE is a kitchen available for hot and cold drinks and toilet facilities onsite. There are often geese and ducks on the beach front of the lake outside the Centre and bird hides within a short walk of the Activity Centre. PARENTS need to be aware of the inherent dangers of the Activity Centre as there is easy access to deep water. Children will need to be supervised accordingly. Q&A: WHERE are we climbing? VERTICAL/upwards climbing is on a 6 metre artificial climbing wall with ropes. This is where we are running the 5 week course, in a steady progressive manner. NEXT to this is a twelve metre artificial traverse wall, which is only 2 (and a bit) metres high. This is the sideways climbing! The traverse climbing is open to all who attend the Social Gathering, with compulsory guidance by parents. CAN I have a trial session? LOTS of you are asking for a taster / trial session to find out if you really want to climb, or to try out climbing in this environment. This term we are planning to have a course running for the five weeks up to Christmas due to financial constraints of our agreement with the Activity Centre to hire the wall and the hall. Come the New Year we will be running some trial sessions for all of you who are interested, yet unsure about joining up. It took a while for my son to jump up and get stuck into climbing so the best thing here is gentle exposure to the sport, seeing people doing it. So coming along to the social gathering and having a try of traverse wall climbing will assist children in opening up to the world of climbing. WHAT age children can do what? CHILDREN of all ages are welcome to join in, there will be something for everyone! Entry is £5 per family, plus if you pay on the day there is a £1 charge for each additional child from their first birthday. Children from their fourth birthday can climb on the vertical wall, as part of the climbing course. Children younger than 4 years old can climb on the traverse wall, strictly under parental supervision. Anyone can join in the craft activities and social gathering and wide games. COSTINGS: SOCIAL gathering only: £5 per family per week plus £1 per additional child, from their first birthday. Social gathering paid in advance: £25 for 5 weeks. 1 Climber is £55 for five weeks and includes the Social Gathering. 2 Climbers are £80 for five weeks and includes the Social Gathering. All climbers are required to sign up for the full five weeks this term. Any climber allows entry for all siblings to Social Gathering at no extra cost.DO I have to sign up and pay upfront for all the sessions: FOR the climbing course booking up for all 5 weeks is essential as it is a progressive course. We can take payment in two parts if this is easier for you. THE Social Gathering is running as either a signed up course for £25, OR a drop in session for £5 per family, plus £1 per additional child after the first child, per week. If you have more than one child then you will save money by signing up, if you are only bringing along one child then it works out at the same cost. HOW do I sign up: EMAIL through to: [email protected] your interest and we will let you know you are on the list. Payment will be due, through PayPal, using the Send Money to Friends and Family feature to my email address: [email protected] WHERE is it? DINTON Activity Centre, Sandford Lane, Hurst, Berkshire, RG10 0SU. At the northern end of Dinton Pastures Country Park. Pass the 'main entrance' where the cafe and play park entrance is and continue for about half a mile, turning left immediately after the Jolly Farmer pub. It is also possible to walk from the cafe car park, head past the play park to the duck feeding area, follow the path RIGHT along the side of the lake. The walk is about 15 minutes and has the lake to your left and a stream and grassland / golf course to the right. (This does mean prying your children from the play park! WHAT else is planned? NAVIGATION Session: This will be an exciting and engaging introduction into maps and navigation taught largely through games. ORIENTEERING Session: WE will have a week of exploring the orienteering course of Dinton Pastures Country Park, refining our navigation and problem solving abilities. CANOEING Session: DINTON Pastures lake opens at Easter, so come the finer weather we will be getting on the water and having a crack at canoeing. The lake freezes sometimes in winter! Come the summer I will be running river trips on the Thames and on canals, along with some more adventurous expedition style river trips. EXCITING NEWS!
WE are kicking off a series of outdoor sports activities and games on NOVEMBER 19th with a rock climbing, wide games, initiative games and social meeting / gathering / natter / cup of tea! BASED at Dinton Activity Centre, full address below, the session will be 2pm till 3:30pm every Thursday. If you don't want to climb then come along for the wide games and social gathering only! Prices dependant on how many kiddies you bring climbing with a flat rate for family entry to social activities. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Costs (Based on 5 week term till Christmas): Family entry and social gathering: £25. 1 Climber (and social gathering): £55. 2 Climbers (and social gathering): £80. For more information CLICK HERE for the web based contact form OR: email me at [email protected] I look forward to hearing from you! More on this and other plans shortly! HEY,
MY awesome-inspiring-brilliant wife is swimming-riding-running (competing and completing) a triathlon tomorrow. VICKI is doing this because she is super-fantastic, along the way she is also raising money for SANDS: Stillbirth And Neonatal DeathS. A charity that helps families, parents, children and all involved when babies tragically die before or soon after birth. This is a trauma that has recently touched our lives and I hope you can show your support through donating at: https://www.justgiving.com/Vicki-Clubley-Moore2/ OR by coming down to cheer Vic on with us from 8am tomorrow morning at Dinton Pastures Country Park, RG10 0TH. OR both! Thank you for your support. Thank you for your inspiration. ACM
"...places to play in and pray in..." "...where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength..." "...to body and soul alike." John Muir. 'The Yosemite.' Full quote, to save you scrolling up and down! "Milk every moment for all the pleasure you can get from it. When you say, "It is my dominant intent to look for things that feel good today. No matter where I'm going, no matter what I'm doing, no matter who I'm doing it with, it is my dominant intent to look for what I'm wanting to see, to look for things that feel good," and the more you develop the habit of that kind of vibration—the more the Universe understands that that's who you are! And so, the more you have access only to those kinds of things!" ---Abraham Where am I? And how did I get here? I am a product of my choices. I am a mixed up mess of all the yes's and the no's and the slow pondered decisions. I am my successes and I am my failures. I am my trials and I am my fears and I am my doubts. I am my smiles and I am my triumphs and I am bounding along toward the next success. The next failure. "I like to think that I owe regrets, 'cause every What emotions rise when you look back over your failures, your regrets? What emotions come up when you look over your successes and your triumphs? Pen and paper out: Write down ten successes you had in your life till last year. What do you feel looking over your successes? Are they huge and impossible things; mine include graduating from university - four years of effort and learning. Having two healthy home births of my two boys - 9 months each of wrestling health authorities and deep learning. I swam 5Km in 1 hour 29mins when I was 16 - intense culmination of a lot of swimming training, 13 years of it! I qualified as a climbing, canoeing AND kayaking coach - bringing together technical knowledge and interpersonal skills and a huge amount of time outside in the sunshine (and rain, snow, hail...) What do I feel when I study those 'moments'? I get that swelling of pride, the 'hey, I did that!' moment. How is it for you? Pens at the ready... What did you do last year? Come up with 5 things. What have you succeeded at in the last four months? Five more. How about since the beginning of this month? Five more. What about last week? Five More successes. How about yesterday? Another five. And today? What successes have you had today? Five more. Notice something, how much more mundane are the recent successes? Today - it is (right now this very minute) Sunday at 8:12am - I have had little time or space for life changing success, right? What about getting the laundry done, the fish fed, the rabbit hutch opened, the few pages of my book read, the stairs run up and down a few times, breakfast eaten, the bed stripped. Query: Is life an amalgam of the university graduations and births and learning-to-drives and A-grades? Or is life a mix of getting the laundry on, the pets cared for, the small things that group up to make up life. Answer: Life is all of these things. Dedicating to the small, repetitious, mundane successes allows us to experience and enjoy them, and praise the mundane activities. Let the emotions of success flow over your mundane life and spread success throughout your life. Many Thanks Have a beauty-full day, ACM My big successes in short:
I graduated in 2005 with a BA in American Studies - history and literature and art and film and culture and life the universe and everything to do with the USA. I four year course of study and self-discovery and international adventure. Our birth stories: William was born in 2010 in the living room in a birth pool with two fantastic midwives present. Zachary was born in 2012 in (a different) living room, next to the birth pool just after I called the midwives to report the coming birth! No medical practitioners present. Two beauty-full births, just the way we wanted them. I did the BT Swimathon a few times, nailing my best time at one and a half hours when 16 years old. Thanks to weekly swimming club and some blind tenacity I smashed my 1:45 target and was cruising the 25metre pool averaging 29seconds per length. Harness the feeling of hitting the safe spot, how does the hold feel, what is the movement feel like in the eddy, how can you grow that sensation? HOW do you feel when you hit the safe spots? The sudden good handhold on a tough climb, the dropping of the headwind as you enter the trees on a long run, the broad eddy after a series of challenging rapids? WHAT is that sensation? Relief. Relaxation, spreading through your body freely and easily. Remember the last time you were stuck there in the thick of a tight spot and then, boom, up came a rest point. You exhale. Not just breath out! Your muscles ease off and you can take a moment to look over what is coming up without the instant need to perform. AND then you look over the next few moves, or down the next winding section of river and spot the next rest point. Take a breath. Inhale, really feel it, and throw yourself into it. "Per aspera. Ad astra. Through difficulties, to the stars." How can you hold onto that sensation of relief? Find the feeling of it, and let it breath calm into your fingertips and spread down to your toes. Even if the moves are only moderately difficult. Spread that feeling through your body. Let relief take over. UNLIKE the sensations of fear, or jealousy, seen as very negative emotions that I have written about up-setting here, relief is something positive. It is something that we want to view and find the mental triggers for, and then learn how to use them as a tool to make ourselves keep on performing. Better. Again and again. WHEN I focus on Relief as a sensation I feel tense climbing holds under my toes, edges that are sliding my toes off, and fingertips that are searching for a positive edge to pinch onto. I hit a big hold, unexpectedly or knowingly, and I feel a wave of relaxation course through my whole arm. It spreads across my aching shoulder and into my leg right down to my toes - which are still on the too small edges. FOCUSING on canoeing, I am edging aggressively and powering upwind. As a coach much of my time when I am pushed is when someone gets it wrong and I have swimmers to deal with. I am powering up wind and counting heads bobbing up and down. Everyone is out and no one it climbing onto the boat. My paddling pace does not slow, the water just becomes 'thinner'. The strokes of my blade are easier, I snap out the paddle and the recovery to the next stroke is swift, not feeling like it is taking forever. I power on, by the time my boat stops next to the upturned boat the swimmers know where to be, what to do when they get there and I have the boat partially out of the water. (Kayaks are on my front deck and empty by the time I stop, on a good day!) RELIEF to me is not a sensation, it is an experience. And it is a state of mind that I want to explode into as many holds on the cliffs, and edging moves between eddies, and bounding uphill sections of my runs as I can. RELIEF is turning for home. Relief is rolling onto the top of the cliff and hitting the plane of Flat. Relief is still water on a blustery day or flooding river. Relief is seeing the beach we will have lunch on. Relief is a lowering of gradient, a sudden drop in a hammering headwind. Relief is an easing of the rain as I push pedals hard and crunch through gears. Relief is a seat and a cup of tea when the weather, the boats, the group and the Gods were all against me. ONE of my tops, by Higher State, has in the neck Per aspera, ad astra. "Through difficulties. To the stars." That is Relief. The moment the difficulty stops, and you realise you are there, in the stars. The stars do not have to be a three minute mile, an olympic gold, a First or A-Star grading. The stars are wherever you place success. And hitting those points of Relief are pure success. Embrace the sensation, let it flow over you. WHAT makes you feel Relief? Take that sensation. How can you feel it now? Practice. Succeed now. Succeed more. FEAR is a very big word. There is a world to be written about Fear. Here, I address Fear as a navigation tool. How can Fear help you to get to your dreams, targets, destinations? FIRSTLY you have to feel the fear. You have to see what it is that is making you afraid. I get scared when I am climbing up to, or more often above, my gear, stretching the limits of where I feel it is necessary to be, reaching for the next hand hold, then the next, and the clip comes from the one after that! Or, I find the holds are slippery, or turned to slip me off balance and throw me out and spit me off. I get scared running when I hit deep puddles and end up wading and it is dark and cold and I am a long way from home. (This winter has given me lots of chances to get wet and cold and scared.) WHAT is it that I am fearing when I am out climbing? Taking a fall, failing, hitting the wall and being injured, humiliation as I feel I ought to be able to do this route. Yes. Lots of the fear is bound up in my sense of who I feel I 'should' be. I should be able to climb this route, I should be stronger, I should be better. The belief that I should be able to carry on, but do not quite know where the reserves will be coming from. “...being brave is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear.” FEAR has nothing to do with stopping. It is choice that makes you stop. Fear has nothing to do with failing. It is choice that makes you fail. Choose to accept the Fear. Choose to take it as a power-full indicator of where you are; emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally. Power-full negative emotions will provide strong signs of what is going on at hidden levels and give you an insight that will not be found if you ignore the Fear, or brush it off. WHAT is it that is making you feel that Fear? Is it risk of mental or physical pain? Do you risk being humiliated? Do you have potential for increased pain and suffering as you go along the route to your end point? AS a runner I often found myself this winter aiming squarely at the centre of the deepest wettest sections of paths so I can get the soaking out the way and then turn my focus from dry route finding to powering on through the rest of the run and enjoying the moments of feeling strong going up a hill, or free pacing back down the other side, or pausing to listen to an owl in the woods nearby, or... Worrying and Fearing about getting wet feet has been pointless. I have found myself wading up to me thighs on footpaths, frequently knee deep, I have crossed fords wading over bridges that are normally three feet clear of the water level. SPENDING my time in Fear about this, or that, would make me turn around and go home. It has not been a comfortable winter. It has been cold and wet and involved a lot of drying out my shoes after the runs. And scrubbing mud from between my toes too! The benefits of facing down the Fear is that I have found empty trails, swollen rivers to watch, by ways and footpaths to splash along and come out the other side to squelch away from. "turn around the Fear..." It has been a bad winter when the running events get cancelled due to flooding, of the course and car park in the case of the Wokingham Half. Meanwhile, I stick to the high ground from time to time. Endure the dry luxury of road running once in a while. And the rest of the time, I suck in the Fear and get my feet wet. HOW to turn around the Fear, find it as a navigation tool and aim to turn it into deeper insight. Using Fear to see what you want takes practice, it is an emotion that we spend our life dodging, avoiding and escaping. LOOK over your favourite sport, look at times you have backed off when Fear came knocking, look at how you could have chosen to turn it around. How you could have reset it to be beneficial, to grow from it rather than shrink to it. JEALOUSY is being afraid that They are better than You. That They have more to give, or take, or show than You. No-one has your path. No-one has your experiences. No-one has your life. WELL, not quite. Some-one does. Some-one has the unique lessons and learnings and teachings and insights that You have gained. They allow representation of the world in a wholly new and unique fashion, a fashion never represented before in the whole of history. THAT some-one is You. Only You have your infinite path stretched out behind how, and the infinite possibilities of your future strewn ahead of you. No-one has your path. ONLY your history and your decisions can shape your future. Watching others get paid more, perform 'faster, higher, stronger' or react differently - more calmly, more confidently - with jealousy and wish for their reactions and their abilities is a self-destructive response. AND it is a fear-full response. Jealousy is a belief that some-one else has some-thing that you do not have, and cannot attain. To present on your sporting arena a watch a climber effortlessly glide up a route or seeing some-one paddle flawlessly through a series of rapids or smash out a game of tennis or score from fifty yards out or... what-ever, feeling jealous is born from a belief that 'That is not for me.' and a belief of 'I am not good enough to do that.' GREAT achievement always was followed by great effort; and great, repeated failure. Each failure was met with a dusting off, a standing up and a carrying on. " feeling jealous is born from a belief that 'That is not for me.' " ONLY You can be the some-one to change: how You react, how You perform, how You achieve, what You achieve. Your Jealousy is a fear of never being good enough. Only you can feel your emotions and choose to act upon them, or suppress them. YOU can dream it: you can do it. The void between the Dream and the Do are choosing positive action. Taking the next step. Not the first step. The first step is identification. You have cleared that hurdle. Your jealousy is your identification. You know what you want. You have felt it burning in your head and in your heart. Now you need to find the actions necessary to make progress. WHAT are you jealous of? Who makes you feel jealous? What do They have? How does that relate to your life? How can You bring that into your life? What will it take? Are you willing to put in that effort? Are you willing to fail at those hurdles, to fall down and bleed, and pick your Self up again? Are You willing to burn in that way? Burning down and burning up: lighting the way forward for your Self with your falls and also for any daring bravely enough to follow you. What makes you burn in that way, glowing your inspirational light to the world? WHAT makes you burn? Found it? Good. NOW... act. |
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AuthorAndy Clubley-Moore: joyful outdoor sports activist, writer, father, husband. Lover of life, activity, success and barefoot living. |