Technique vs Power
I wanted to find out how much focus there is on climbing technique, compared to power. The focus on power in climbing is enormous, but most climbers talk about technique every now and then. I figured the use of search terms on Google would be a relatively good way to measure the focus on the two aspects.
The choice of words to research will of course influence this picture enormously, but here is one perspective that is representative. It is interesting to see that a general term as "climbing technique" performs so badly compared to a very specific climbing strength term like "campus training". You could throw in a lot of different other power centric terms, like "hangboard", "crimp strength" etc, the picture is the same. They all point in the same direction: Power is far more on everyone's mind than technique, and it is getting worse by the minute. A decade ago the gap was very small, now the focus is turned all the way over on power. Combining the focus of all power terms and comparing it to the same for technique, it may be as bad as technique getting only 10% of the focus that power gets.
My ultimate goal is to raise climbing technique back to equilibrium, both in terms of attention and the resulting impact on the level of performance in climbing.
Branding and marketing
The brand I chose for this effort is not entirely random. There is a huge need to market climbing technique, make climbers more aware, create attention, engage and provide some results in the community with regards to technique. I have yet to meet a climber that don't care about climbing technique, but there are very few that make this a focus area and really explore this for gains.
I chose to brand this marketing, wrap it up and sell the concept as plainly as possible. I still think it will be a hard sell.
May The Normal Force Be With You!
