Going for a look

First light in Surgeon’s Gully

Yesterday early doors myself and Donald took a wander across the river Nevis to see how frozen Surgeon’s Gully on Ben Nevis was. Sadly, despite just about everything else in Scotland being frozen solid, in the depths of this impressive ravine there was still water moving earthward. It actually seemed to have an amazing micro-climate in there - warm and sheltered. Not good for ice gullies.

So after climbing some pitches and coming down, we deferred to messing about. First, we did some nice ice bouldering with no crampons. And then danced across some thin ice on the river Nevis (don’t worry, it was only deep enough for wet feet underneath). Wee youtube below:

North West wanderings

Blade Runner Pitch 1, Sgurr a Chaorachain

Peter and myself missed out on our traditional Christmas eve climb due to the combination of work overload and my illness. But today we ventured out which was a good way for me to see if I was feeling healthy enough to look at a mountain again. To be honest I still felt pretty rough, but keen air, crisp snow and a stunning view from the Bealach na Ba raised the psyche levels for a bit of ice bashing on Sgurr a Chaorachain.

I’m lucky enough that the amazing winter cliffs of Applecross are about 90 minutes drive from my new house and I’m keen to throw myself at them more. I know a lot of people glamourise long walk-ins in Scottish winter climbing, but I have to say I’m there to climb hard, not make a lot of potholes in the snow, so I’m loving the stroll across to the quiet cliffs from the top of the Bealach na Ba.

With no snow on the rock on the cliff we went to, options were limited to ice but we climbed the excellent Blade Runner IV,5. Excitable Boy also looked formed and no doubt both of these will stay that way for the foreseeable. Getting moving on the ice and mixed again feels good but strange after several months of hard bouldering. I’m trying to get my gear setup tweaked just right for trying my project later in the season. Several new additions to my winter kit are proving themselves invaluable.

New years resolutions

Richard McGhee swims up a gully in the Mamores

Nearly every year these days, things come to a head...cold. It’s the third year running I’ve done almost exactly the same thing. I work way too long hours, try to train on top of that, and then on my first winter climbing day of the season, make myself ill.

And so oops I did it again. Idiot. After a nice first day out in the snow with Rich I got ill and have spent the past week blowing my nose 10,000 times per day and shivering. The work has been worth it, even despite running myself down in the short term. Sometimes it is better to break yourself for a while, so long as you take the recovery afterwards just as seriously.

After this routine of hard work, results and consequences around Christmas time, my new years resolutions always take the schizophrenic form of resolving to do more things, but work myself less hard. Will I ever solve the balance?

Patience and impatience in equal measure seems to be good for long term health and making good things happen like hard climbs done, books published and good times enjoyed. The trouble is that impatience is my default setting.

Trojans Downed by Millbrook in Second Glaxo Game

LIVE WEB CAST.

It was another tough showing for the Garner Trojans on Tuesday as they fell to long time rival Millbrook 61-49 in the 38th annual GlaxoSmithKline Holiday Invitational at Broughton High School's Holliday Gymnasium.

Millbrook began the game on a 6-0 run which prompted Garner Head Coach to call at 30 second time out to settle down his team and whatever Gray said during the timeout worked as Garner outscored the Wildcats 17-6 to close the first quarter with at 17-12 lead.

The second quarter was nip and tuck until about midway through the quarter when Garner sent Stephon Drane to the bench to catch a breather. While Drane was on the bench, the Wildcats used their quickness to exploit some of Garner's flaws and took a double-digit lead. However, Garner came back and made it a game as they trailed by nine 34-25 at halftime.

Millbrook dominated the opening of the third quarter as they built the lead back up to double-digits, but just as they have all season long the scrappy Trojans came storming back and eventually cut the Millbrook lead down to five points about halfway through the game's third stanza. However, Garner's turnover bug bite them again late in the period as Millbrook's lead grew to 13 points at 51-37 after three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, Millbrook was just too much for the Trojans as they continued their up tempo style of play and forced the Trojans into foul trouble which limited what Garner could do on offense and as a result the Wildcats came away with a 51-37 win to advance to the fifth place game of the Shavlik Randolph Foundation Invitational where they will await the winner of the Riverside/Cardinal Gibbons game.

Garner falls to 3-6 on the season while the Wildcats improve to 8-3. With the loss, Garner's lead in the all-time series is cut to one game as Garner the series 29-28. The Trojans will be back in action on Tuesday, Jan. 5 when they return to GNRC as they travel to take on the long time rival in the Smithfield-Selma Spartans.

Box Score:

Millbrook 12 22 17 10 — 61
Garner 17 8 10 14 — 49

SCORING:
MHS: Brown 6, Mizerk 9, Moore 4, Davis 4, Vaughan 9, Orr 2, Tate 14, Hill 13 GHS: D. Anderson 4, M. Koscielny 5, S. Drane 9 D.Johnson 17, G. Wilson 14

Judy McCreery, GRI, SRES and Fonville Morisey

Trojans Fall to Kinston in Round One of Glaxo

WEB CAST.

It wasn't the night that Garner Head Coach Eddie Gray had hoped for from his Trojan team. Garner won the tip-off but that would be about the only thing that Garner won on Monday night as they fell to Kinston 73-46.

Kinston took a 21-8 lead after the first quarter as Garner couldn't find any type of rhythm on the offensive end and the second quarter wasn't much different as the Trojans missed several wide open layups, but held their own on the glass only being out rebounded by two at 13-11, but Kinston's Reggie Bullock poured in 18 first half points including three, three pointers, and at halftime Garner was down 37-23.

The second half was more of the same as Reggie Bullock sat on the bench most of the third quarter, but still managed a game high 30 points to lead Kinston. On the Garner end, Stephon Drane played his best game of the year the Western Kentucky signee had 14 points and 7 rebounds to pace Garner.

But, Garner's offensive struggles were shown in the post game stats as Garner shot just 33% from the field and just 38 % from the line.

With the loss, Garner is now 3-5 on the year, and will return to action on Tuesday at 12:40 when they will face Millbrook, who lost to Walton, GA and NC State signee, Ryan Harrow by one 61-60.

The Trojan Sports Network will take the air at 12:20 tomorrow with a LIVE WEB CAST!

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JV Boys Fall in First Round of Holiday Tournament

The 13 day layoff also effected Kent Bloms and his JV Trojans in the first round of the Athens Drive Holiday Tournament as Garner fell to Broughton 63-58. The Trojans will be back in action tomorrow at 2:30

Trojan Sports Network & High School OT.com Come Together to Preview Glaxo Tournament

On Monday, December 28 Eddie Gray and his Garner Trojans will travel to Broughton High School and Holliday Gymnasium to play in the 38th annual GlaxoSmithKline Holiday Invitational.

The Tournament will feature two eight team boys tournaments and one four team girls tournament. While the actual tournament will begin on Saturday, December 26, Garner will not play until the 28th, at 7:20 when they take on UNC signee Reggie Bullock and his Kinston Vikings squad.

The Trojan Sports Network will be on hand to provide LIVE play by play coverage of all Garner games in the Glaxo, only on GarnerTrojans.com.

On Monday afternoon, Garner play-by-play announcer, Chris Edwards, joined High School OT.com's Nick Stevens for a web chat to preview the upcoming tournament, you can view the web chat by clicking HERE.

English: refreshing the lexical gaps that other languages cannot reach

“If a language is not capable of creating new words to describe new advances, it will die.” These are the words of Alfred Gilder, terminology chief at the French finance ministry, speaking at a recent Swiss conference about the spread of English around Europe and the state of the continent's native languages. "Modernise or die!" was his message. There is a growing concern in many countries about the seemingly unstoppable rise of English as a global language and the effect that this is having on the health and integrity of other languages. So, when words like laptop and roaming, and a phrase like last but not least make it into another language - be it Swiss, German, French or Turkish - the native language takes another step towards losing part of its identity and global English takes another step into another nation's territory.

But why are speakers of other languages using these English words? Why don't they come up with their own new expressions in their own mother tongues? Well that's what Alfred Gilder would like to see, but it's hard to imagine it happening when English has become so ubiquitous and so, well...global. With English being spread through technology, commerce and culture around the world, it's hard to resist its influence. But perhaps there's something about the language itself that makes it attractive - something internal, rather than external - such as its adaptability and tendency to innovate. In short, the fact that English is constantly adding new words and phrases to its vocabulary could be the reason why it's spreading so quickly: it's refreshing the lexical gaps that other languages cannot reach, to nick Heineken's old advertising slogan. In effect, language change - so often derided by prescriptivists as leading to the degradation of our language - has helped push English to the forefront of world languages.

And returning to the article in The Journal of Turkish Weekly, where this conference was covered (linked from Macmillan Dictionary's language in the news roundup), there is recognition that this isn't a new thing, but it's something that is happening at a much swifter pace than ever before:

Of course borrowing words and expressions from other languages is a natural function of language development and English itself has absorbed countless influences in its history – from Latin, French and Hindi, to name but a few. What is different about the current dominance of English is that it is the first truly global language and it is spewing out words at a pace that other languages have no chance to compete with. This rapid evolution favours those who can ride the English wave but creates a language divide, akin to the digital divide, for those who are poor in English.

Where will this lead? At worst, it could lead to the deaths of certain languages around the world, some of which are nearly on their last legs, if this report is anything to go by.

JV Boys Have Undefeated Week

Coach Kent Bloms and his JV Boys have been a roll this week as they have won both games this past week.

The first game of the week was on Tuesday night when the Trojans hosted the Clayton Comets and Garner came away with a 63-52 win over the Comets. Garner was led by the following scorers: Dominique Reed: 16 pts, 4 rebounds, Juwan Moye: 15 pts, 6 rebounds, Jarie Hicks: 10 pts.

Garner's second game of the week came last night when they traveled to Knightdale to take on the Knights, the Trojans came out with the win, however it was a hard fought win for the Trojans.

Garner fell behind early as Knightdale raced out to a double digit lead, the Trojans finally found their stride mid way through the second quarter when Myles Crawford stepped into the game and saw his first action of the year.

Coach Bloms said "His defensive intensity ignited the entire team and was the spark that got us going. He was the key to our comeback." Garner was able to come away with at 63-58 win to move their record to 4-1 on the year and a perfect 3-0 in the conference. Leading the way for Garner was Juwan Moye with 17 points and 2 blocks.

Also contributing to the Trojan comeback was:

Dominique Reed: 14 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl
Larry Richardson: 10 pts, 7 reb, 2 stl
Jarie Hicks: 7 pts, 6 ast, 3 stl

The JV boys are back in action over Christmas break when they will play in the Athens Drive High School Holiday Basketball Tournament. Garner's first game of the Tournament will be on MONDAY, DECEMBER 28 at 4:00 PM when they take on Broughton.

If you would like to view the entire tournament bracket, you can click HERE.

Scottish fresh snow

Meall na Teanga looking nice with its fresh coat of snow yesterday from my house. Hills looking great right now and a cold forecast for Scotland.

Reviews: Progression, Welsh Connections, Winter Climbing Plus

I’ve been meaning to post up reviews of quite a few important new items I’ve been enjoying/using over the autumn. So below are some short reviews of the Progression and Welsh Connections DVDs and Winter Climbing Plus. We’ve just added Winter Climbing Plus and Neil Gresham and Libby Peter’s Get out on rock DVD to the shop. We figured it makes sense that we sell all the best resources for improving at climbing out there. Get out on Rock has all the skills and techniques knowledge you need to go from beginner level and gain entry to leading on trad and climbing safely and confidently on trad cliffs.

Progression

Starting off with the biggest climbing film release of the year, I was very impressed with Progression. In fact I think it’s high in my top five climbing ‘content’ films I’ve seen. When I say content, thats all I can think of to describe the Big Up climbing film style. There is no story, and no thread worth mentioning that draws the different climbs and climbers together, except they are all giving it everything. Lots of people call the Big Up films ‘climbing porn’. It seems unfair to call this one pure climbing porn. There are a handful of momentary interesting snippets where we see a little deeper than tanned muscle pulling down. Watching Patxi Usobiaga slip and lose out despite the gruelling training he shows us affirmed in me why competition climbing has never interested me. Yet his dedication and athleticism is brilliant to watch. We even get shown a tiny bit of Chris Sharma showing a human side of frustration and pressure. Although it would have been more convincing if we’d have seen more. The sport climbing action, especially of Adam Ondra and Sharma in Spain is brilliantly filmed and inspiring to watch. This will always be the highpoint of the Big Up series. Seeing more of Adam Ondra and a little less of Sharma would have been even better. Go on Big Up, be bold next time round and show us a little more fresh content in with the mix! The DVD extra of Ondra was superb despite it’s simplicity. A real education in fast agressive climbing. The worst aspect of the film is it’s predictability, the same folk on the same crags. There is more going on in climbing than this. However, it’s a commercial product so I guess it’s hard to break too far from a safe mould. Bishop highballing just doesn’t seem that interesting, but that’s maybe personal. Despite losing out on depth it could have easily explored, and a touch of predictability, it’s still a must see and there are very few climbing films that rival it except previous Big Up works. Highly recommended. It’s in the shop here.

Welsh Connections

Dave Brown and Lywen Griffiths have obviously worked hard to bring us a snapshot of the spectrum of Welsh climbing and it’s cutting edge right now. Like about a third or so of this type of climbing DVD, that brings us a selection of climbs from one country or area over a year or so, it would probably have been much better if they’d made it over two or three years instead of one. However, thankfully Welsh Connections is worth getting for it’s highpoints. It has a couple of really special moments in it. The bouldering sections were most disappointing with not much memorable action, not helped by some irksome music. I most wanted to see Pete Robins on Liquid Ambar (sandbag 8c). This was interesting but the filming angles weren’t fantastic. The trad, as you might expect was far and away the highlight. McHaffie was great to watch, gripping with runners falling out and loose rock at Gogarth. Shame there wasn’t more of him and to see more of the person as well. The best moment of the film goes to the Emmett who absolutely lives up to his own ‘go for it’ ideal. Tim’s adrenaline junkie, ever laughing gun blazing persona is certainly larger than life. But as Muhammad Ali said “It’s not bragging if you can back it up” and he certainly had our DVD watching team out of their seats and oooing and ahhhing at the gripper lead he goes for in Hunstman’s Leap. Worth the watch just for that. Outside of the local climbing population, it might have been more consistently good if this film had been given time to grow into something with more hard hitting chapters. A good effort and a good watch nonetheless.

We just got our second batch of stock of it for the shop here.

Winter Climbing Plus

I was in Ian Parnell’s car on the way to Torridon at the end of last winter when he was telling me about how much work he’s put into his and Neil Gresham’s new book on winter climbing skills, tactics and technique. I’ve just got my copies in for the shop here and I’m very impressed with the book. As is normal for the Rockfax publications it’s a very colourful book with absolutely loads of pictures that make it a very inspiring book to flick through as the winter season gets going. It will really fire you up as well as inform you. Speaking of the information, it’s ‘dead-on’: succinct, down to earth, highly practical but fairly comprehensive at the same time in dealing most aspects of the entire winter climbing challenge. I’d say there must be very very few winter warriors walking the earth who don’t have something to learn from the combined experience of these two authors.

Black Diamond new Fusions review

I doubt if there is any piece of climbing equipment more readily drooled over than whatever newest model of ice tool is released by Black Diamond. It’s no accident that for decades their ice tools have not only been hands down the most effective on the market but also aesthetic ‘things of beauty’. Everyone in the chain of ice tool design, from the athletes team providing feedback like myself upwards simply love talking about, appreciating and improving ice tools.

The first generation Fusion was the definitive leashless tool for several years. The ice climbing community has been waiting with baited breath for the new model which has been extensively revised and looks quite different to the old orange model.

Arriving home from training in Spain, one of the first pairs of the new ‘greens’ was sitting on the floor of my training room. I’ve only had a chance to try them out dry tooling on a board so far, but hopeful in a matter of days I’ll have them out on the real stuff and will update this review.

The new model has a series of additions that neatly solve the limitations of the old version:

A detachable spike on the end of the shaft

A rubberised top handle

A more angled upper shaft for more room to hook over bulky ledges and ice bubbles

lighter than the old model and better weighted for swinging in ice

There also some more subtle changes that will make the tool more durable such as a one piece beefy head with small fixed hammer, a metal tipped upper handle nose and a nicer arrangement to extend the lower handle with spacers for bigger hands. For the trad climbers one potential downside might be that the heavily angled upper shaft might make it a little more difficult to place pegs. But overall I’d still prefer it this way due to the greater space to hook over bulging features. It’s great to see the tool a little lighter too. Weaklings like me got a little weary after clearing snow and rime for hours on end overhead with the old tools.

So how do they feel to use? Brilliant. Comfortable for the hands - some other tools like the Petzl Nomics are a bit brutal on long steep bouts of climbing. The handles seem a good size for holding with little energy, the axe feels great to wield and accurate in fast and neat placements. I’ve yet to notice any bending on super high leverage sideways torques which is reassuring. The only negative thing I can think of to say is it would be nice to have a small patch of ‘grippy’ rubber extending over the inside of the hook at the base of the lower handle. That might add a bit of cost to manufacture?? But it would make them perfect. I’ve never seen or used a better ice axe.

In summary, the new Fusion is yet another thing of beauty that sits rightfully at the top of their range, and therefore the rest of the ice tool market. They will be the pride and joy of any ice climber’s kit.

Basketball Cancelled TONIGHT!

(Update 8:05 PM) Wake County will dismiss school one hour early this afternoon due to a winter storm that may be on the way later this afternoon, since school is closing early, ALL AFTER SCHOOL activities have been cancelled for the day.

The make up date for the Basketball game has been scheduled for Wednesday, February 3 at Garner. The Varsity Girls will tip off at 6:00 and the boys will follow at 7:30.

Have a Happy Holiday Season from Everyone at the Garner Athletic Department!

Trojan Wrestlers Lose Tough Match

Knightdale 39
Garner 38

103 - Luis Nunez (Knightdale) win by Forfeit
112 - Damian Harrell (Garner) Fall :21 over Aaron Mitchell (Knightdale)
119 - Drew Lopez (Knightdale) Fall 1:19 over Isiah Cain (Garner)
125 - Ricky Weyant (Garner) Major Decision 9-0 over Lacy Haig (Knightdale)
130 - Parker Baucom (Knightdale) Fall :23 over Markell Harewood (Garner)
135 - Anthony Chiles (Garner) Fall :54 over Douglas Perry (Knightdale)
140 - Anthony Finochio (Garner) Fall 1:48 over Julian Gilyard (Knightdale)
145 - Steven Lombana (Garner) Fall 2:39 over Joel Potter (Knightdale)
152 - Christian Townsend (Garner) Fall :28 over Donday Washington (Knightdale)
160 - Zack Russell (Knightdale) Fall 3:11 over Drawman Fouty (Garner)
171 - Nick McClelland (Knightdale) Fall :30 over William Hall (Garner)
189 - Tim Coston (Knightdale) Fall :24 over Darius Davis (Garner)
215 - Saul Vega (Knightdale) Decision 3-0 over Vincent Mollo (Garner)
285 - Tyler Maher (Garner) Major Decision 13-2 over Sean Mason (Knightdale)

Garner is back in action next Tuesday, December 22 and Wednesday, December 23rd at Cary Mark Adams, this is an individual tournament.

10 years of new words

Top lexicographer (and frequent visitor to SFX) Kerry Maxwell, has put together a list of the most interesting words of the decade on the excellent Macmillan Dictionary blog. So in the spirit of Christmas and all that, the first three people to identify the word formation/language change processes (blending, compounding, borrowing, affixation etc.) behind these new words will get a bag of Haribo/alternative organic foodstuff when term begins.

Here they are:

Staycation
WAG
blog
slow food
sudoku

Add your attempt as a comment with your name and class, and the best 3 answers will win. If you enter and you're not an SFX student, you win eternal pride and a few bluetooth high fives.

Come Cheer with the Varsity Cheerleaders!

Are you in grades K-6? Then we want you to cheer with us! Join the Varsity Cheerleaders on January 9th from 8:30am to 12pm in the practice gym at GMHS for the 1st annual cheerleading clinic!

The Registration fee is $25 if you pre-register online and $30 at the door the day of the clinic.

Fee includes t-shirt & picture with the GHMS Varsity Cheer squad and the sessions will include jumps, motions and tumbling. All participants will also learn a routine to be performed during half time at the next boy’s home basketball game, the game to perform at is JANUARY 12TH, 2010 when Garner will host East Wake at 7:30

For further information or to pre-register online send an email to cheerfor4@yahoo.com

SWIFT CREEK COFFEE HOUSE
Ms. Vida Rollins
1350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 25
(Forest Hills Shopping Center)
773-2001

Balanced Effort Leads Garner Past Clayton

LIVE WEB CAST.

The Varsity Boys Basketball team continued their hot streak inside the GNRC conference as they picked up a huge road victory over longtime rival, the Clayton Comets on Tuesday night with at 76-67 win at Clayton's Jerry Smith Court.

Both teams played a very up tempo style of offense for the entire game, but it all began in the opening period, however, the first quarter was dictated by sloppy play and a lot of miscues as neither team could get into a rhythm, but Garner held a three point lead at 17-14 after the first quarter.

Clayton would find their stride a little quicker than Garner in the second quarter, but the Trojan hung tough and at one point in the second quarter, Garner had no seniors on the court, but still managed to hold their on and took at one point lead at 33-32 into the locker room at halftime.

The third stanza was dominated by Garner as it seemed the Trojans could do no wrong with the Trojans holding at seven point lead after three at 57-50. The Trojan lead grew to as many as 13 points midway through the fourth quarter, but as most rivalry games do, this one went down to the final minutes as Clayton cut the Garner lead to six before the Trojans found their stride and hit the free throws down the stretch as Garner downed Clayton 76-67.

One of the biggest keys to the Garner victory was the free throw shooting, Garner was 18 of 29 for 62% for the game, while Clayton was just 3 of 11 from the charity strip for 27%.

With the win, Garner is now 3-4 overall and a perfect 2-0 in the Conference as they get set for a early season conference test on Friday night as Garner will host Knightdale at 7:30 at Trojan Coliseum.

Scoring:
GARNER: D. Johnson 22, G. Wilson 15, E. McClain 13, S. Drane 11, D. Dorsey 9, J. McClain 4, D. Anderson 3, M. Sloan 1.

Clayton: A. Parris 17, T. Jones 10, D. Johnson 9, T. Williams 8, S. Clayton 6, Q. Lee 6, K. Fraiser 4, J. Getty 4, A. Banks 3.

Varsity Girls Fall to Comets

The Varsity Girls Basketball team came into play with Clayton on Tuesday night looking to keep the good streak running after a win over West Johnston on Friday, the Trojans were looking to upset the Clayton Comets.

However, things wouldn't go according to plan for the Lady Trojans as Clayton continued their hot play and downed Garner 58-35. Garner is now 1-1 in the Conference and will host Knightdale Friday night at 6:00

Fidelity Bank

Crescent State Bank
Ms. Julie Clark

Seniors, Help out the Yearbook by Finding Your Picture!

The GMHS Yearbook class needs the help of the Senior Class. If you have had your picture taken for the yearbook, your picture has been uploaded HERE.

Click on the above link and make sure that your picutre is on the site AND that your name is spelled correctly.

If you have any questions, email Ms. Krepelka at kkrepelka@wcpss.net.

Trojan Wrestlers Win Two of Three at Broughton Tournament

The Garner Wrestling team was back in action on Friday night at the Matthews/Griffin Tournament at Broughton High School and the Trojans had a very good night as they won two of three matches at the tournament, below are the results from each match:

Southeast Raleigh 27
Garner 48

103 - Josh Hawkins (Garner) Fall 3:01 over Jerrian Morgan (Southeast Raleigh)
112 - Damian Harrelll (Garner) Decison 9-4 over James Baker (Southeast Raleigh)
119 - Artie Johnson (Southeast Raleigh) Fall 3:12 over Ricky Weyant (Garner)
125 - Michael Baker (Southeast Raleigh) Fall 3:47 over Markell Harewood (Garner)
130 - Jesse Gould (Garner) Decision 11-4 over Brock Adams (Southeast Raleigh)
135 - Anthony Chiles (Garner) Fall 5:48 over Kyle McCarthy (Southeast Raleigh)
140 - Steven Lombana (Garner) Fall 3:31 over LeVincent Clark (Southeast Raleigh)
145 - Anthony Finochio (Garner) Fall 1:48 over Sean Thomas (Southeast Raleigh)
152 - Christian Townsend (Garner) Fall 2:45 over Aaron Gunther (Southeast Raleigh)
160 - Drawman Fouty (Garner) win by Forfeit
171 - Elijah Adams (Southeast Raleigh) Fall :58 over William Hall (Garner)
189 - Darius Harren (Southeast Raleigh) Fall :46 over Darius Davis (Garner)
215 - Chris Tallman (Southeast Raleigh) Decision 5-1 over Vincent Mollo (Garner)
285 - Tyler Maher (Garner) Fall 1:02 over Ryan Harris (Southeast Raleigh)

JV Matches:

Michael Lamb (Garner) - W by Decision 7 - 1
Marchus Carter (Garner) - W by Fall
Elijah Gayton (Garner) - W by Fall

Broughton 41
Garner 40

103 - Josh Hawkins (Garner) win by Forfiet
112- Sam Hines (Broughton) Fall 3:34 over Damian Harrell (Garner)
119 - Tu Rohlean (Broughton) Fall 1:56 over Isiah Cain (Garner)
125 - Daniel Hollands (Broughton) Fall :27 over Markell Harewood (Garner)
130 - Quinn Burns (Broughton) Fall 6:15 OT over Jesse Gould (Garner)
135 - Anthony Chiles (Garner) Fall :37 over Arthur Kyner (Broughton)
140 - Cameron Burns (Broughton) Fall 3:12 over Marchus Carter (Garner)
145 - Sean Eaker (Broughton) Fall 3:32 over Anthony Finochio (Garner)
152 - Christian Townsend (Garner) Fall 3:36 over Thomas Moran (Broughton)
160 - Lane Middleton (Broughton) Fall 1:30 over Drawman Fouty (Garner)
171 - Wiliam Hall (Garner) Fall 1:41 over Shane Hodge (Broughton)
189 - Darius Davis (Garner) Fall 2:11 over Wolfgang Zacherl (Broughton)
215 - Vincent Mollo (Garner) Decision 19-11 over Zach Dougher (Broughton)
285 - Tyler Maher (Garner) win by Forfeit

JV Matches

David Huie (Garner) - W by Fall

East Chapel Hill 21
Garner 57

103 - Josh Hawkins (Garner) win by Forfeit
112 - Sam Nahins (East Chapel Hill) Fall :56 over Damian Harrell (Garner)
119 - Ricky Weyant (Garner) Fall 2:50 over Josh Norrell (East Chapel Hill)
125 - Markell Harewood (Garner) Fall 1:33 over Tyler Shull (East Chapel Hill)
130 - Jesse Gould (Garner) Fall 3:15 over Paul Payman (East Chapel Hill)
135 - Anthony Chiles (Garner) Decision 6-5 over Joseph Adileh (East Chapel Hill)
140 - Steven Lombana (Garner) win by Forfeit
145 - Anthony Finochio (Garner) win by Forfeit
152 - David Hernandez (East Chapel Hill) Decision 4-3 over Christian Townsend (Garner)
160 - Drawman Fouty (Garner) Fall 2:55 over Ellis Jeffary (East Chapel Hill)
171 - William Hall (Garner) Fall 1:30 over Corbin Moseley (East Chapel Hill)
189 - Chris Dargan (East Chapel Hill) Fall 4:20 over Darius Davis (Garner)
215 - Carson McGuffin (East Chapel Hill) Fall 1:07 over Vincent Mollo (Garner)
285 - Tyler Maher (Garner) Fall 2:39 over Dominque White (East Chapel Hill)

JV Matches

Alex Rogers (Garner) - W Fall 1:55
Jonathan Smith (Garner) - W Fall
Javon Fowler (Garner) - L by Decision
Elijah Gaskin (Garner) - W by Decision

Garner is back in action on Wednesday at home as they will host Knightdale and then December 22 and 23rd we will be at Cary High School for the Cary - Mark Adams Tournament.

9 out of 10 climbers has arrived

Stock of my book has arrived with us and we are dispatching it now. Hope you enjoy the read and it helps get you to the next level in your climbing!

Some of you commented on my last post asking how long copies take to arrive in the US. We dispatch by Royal Mail (via airmail if it’s outside the UK). Their estimations for delivery times are here. They quote within 3 working days for Europe and within 5 for the US. It’s always an estimation of course. We are dispatching same day right up to Christmas.

Weapons of mass distraction?

The USA is a few years behind Britain with texting and the moral panics around it, but there has been a recent upsurge in reports of texting damaging literacy skills, textisms working their evil way into students' written work and suchlike. So, this article from Science Daily is a nice counter to those stories and a very helpful one to have a look at for the Language Discourses part of the A2 exam. Phones, therefore, aren't really weapons of mass distraction, more like tools of mass engagement. Or something like that...

Here's a quick snippet of what Carol L. Tilley, professor of library and information science at Illinois says about using texts and tweets in lessons:

"There's always that danger when embracing something in a school setting that you kill it for the students," Tilley said. "But helping kids understand the social and contextual role that texting plays in their lives I think is one possible justification. If there are ways educators can incorporate it in providing homework support or building dialogue out of school hours, then I think it could be a useful communications tool."

Trojans Open Conference Play with Win

WEB CAST.

The Garner Trojans began their quest to win back to back conference Championships for the first time since 1996, 1997 and 1998 when the Trojans won three stright conference titles. However, Garner (2-4) had their hands full as the welcomed in the West Johnston Wildcats to Garner for the Conference opener.

West Johnston was the last GNRC team to bead Garner as they downed the Trojans in the semi-finals of last years conference tournament, however, tonight would very different than the previous meeting as Garner jumped out to a fast start in the first quarter just dominating the Wildcats with their quickness and transition game as they took at 24-8 lead after the first quarter.

Garner would contiune their hot play as they opened the lead to 20 points at halftime with at 47-27 lead led in the first half by Stephon Drane who had 10 first half points to lead all scores at the break. The second half was more of the same as Garner continued to pour on the pressure and put away West Johnston with at 88-63 win to improve to 2-4 overall and 1-0 inside the Conference.

The biggest key to the game was free throw shooting as Garner went 14 of 25 from the line while West Johnston was just 6 of 22 from the Charity stripe. The Trojans will now travel to Clayton on Tuesday night for a 7:30 tip off.

Varsity Girls Pick up Win

In their previous two games, the Lady Trojans lacked the on the court expereince that they needed to come away with a win, however, on Friday night, the Lady Trojans were finally the more experiecned team on the court as they dominated West Johnston 54-42.

While Garner won by 12 points, the final score was not indiciative of just how dominate Garner was in the contest. West Johnston cut the lead to 10 points midway through the fourth quarter, but the Lady Trojans played smart down the stretch and sank some key free throws to win the contest by 12.

The Lady Trojans will also travel to Clayton on Tuesday at 6:00

JV Boys Pick Up Win in First Conference Game

Juwan Moye scores 17 points to pace the Trojans as they down the Wildcats 76-56 in the conference opener for both teams. Garner used a balanced scoring effort as they defeat West Johnston. The Trojans are back in action Tuesday night as they host Clayton at 7:30.

Scoring:
GARNER
Juwan Moye: 17 pts
Jarie Hicks: 14 pts, 3-5 3pts, 6 asst, 7 stls, 4 reb
Luke Thompson: 12 pts, 4-6 3pts
Cameron Redd: 12 pts 9 reb 2 stls
Dominique Reed: 11 pts 5 blks

Trojan Wrestlers Fall to Clayton

103 - Josh Hawkins (Garner) Fall 1:50 over Dustin Brennan (Clayton)
112 - Damian Harrell (Garner) Fall 1:23 over Jacob Leslie (Clayton)
119 - Luke Ludke (Clayton) Fall 2:16 over Isiah Cain (Garner)
125 - Jarel Orr (Clayton) Fall 1:17 over Markell Harewood (Garner)
130 - Jesse Gould (Garner) Fall :32 over Tyler Johnson (Clayton)
135 - Anthony Chiles (Garner) Fall :34 over Daniel Rosale (Clayton)
140 - Anthony Venero (Clayton) Fall 5:32 over Steven Lombana (Garner)
145 - Shane Johnson (Clayton) Fall 1:38 over Anthony Finochio (Garner)
152 - Oran Rose (Clayton) Decision 7-6 over Christian Townsend (Garner)
160 - Russel Thrasher (Clayton) Fall 1:14 over Drawman Fouty (Garner)
171 - Dalton Waddell (Clayton) Fall :52 over William Hall (Garner)
189 - Christian Novak (Clayton) Fall 1:55 over Darius Davis (Garner)
215 - Vincent Mollo (Garner) Fall :41 over Ash Lipscomb (Clayton)
285 - Tyler Maher (Garner) Fall :17 over Jacob Rieck (Clayton) Garner

JV Matches:
Weyant - W by Fall 2:39
Gayton - L by Decision 14-10
Huie - Won by Decision 4-0
J. Fowler - L by Fall
Smith - W by injury default
Harris - L by Fall 1:44
Fortay - W by Fall 1:50
Rogers - W by Fall 2:15
Carter - W by Decision 6-2

The Trojans will be back in action on Saturday at Broughton with three matches beginning at 5:00 p.m.

Family Auto Service
Kevin Walton ('79)
101-B St. Mary's Street, Garner
919-772-2711

9 out of 10 is in the post to us

Our of stock of my book 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes has been shipped and on the way to us, with any luck the DHL man might be at our door with a pallet soon. Thanks to all of you who pre-ordered already!

(click on the pic for a bigger image of the cover jacket)

After I posted the contents list a couple of days ago, various comments on the post were curious and eager for me to give more details on what a couple of intriguingly titled sections were about. Briefly:

To anonymous commenter - The book is definitely about climbing, but improving at climbing goes fastest and farthest when the climbing fits well with many other parts of life. A lot of improving at sport is about setting up the right circumstances, attitudes and approaches to clear the path in front of you. So I wouldn’t say the book is about life, but it does make several observations about the elements of life that lead to good performance in sport. Some them are extremely subtle or small, but have huge effects. So many books on training, sport science, coaching, sports medicine and other aspects related to sport miss what seemed to me the biggest single thing I learned from 6 years study of sport science - that the athlete is a person, and to improve in sport there is no area of the person’s life that does not influence the performance.

To second anon. - ‘The first thing to understand’ section is about change in any aspect of your routine, be it massive (like your career or base) or miniscule. It describes how climbers and people in general deal with change or the possibility of it, and how this accelerates or stunts their progress.

‘The truth about famous climbers’ section is clears up a massive misunderstanding about top climbers that is extremely easy to make without seeing more than we normally get to.

‘Fingerboard rules’ is a comprehensive run down of good practice, routines and common errors in using fingerboards, who they help and in what circumstances, and how some simple errors kill off the potential benefits.

‘How to get light without pain’ refers to the correct way to lose weight to reach an ideal body composition without the constant hunger, frustration, dejection and ultimately failure that accompanies most attempts to adjust weight downwards.

Haston is a very old (in athletic terms) climber performing at world class level and Oddo is an extremely young climber performing at a similar level. This doesn’t happen nearly so much in other sports. I’ve explained why it’s this way in climbing, and how you can take advantage of this.

Siurana pics

A local attempting the famous Kalea Borroka 8b+, sector El Pati, Siurana. This large overhang has been my battleground for the past week or so. On Sunday I did a simply gobsmacking new 8b+ called Dogma that breaks left out of Kalea and heads way off into the sky above with cruxes and bat hangs a-plenty. Tomorrow it's battle day with an equally brilliant 8c just to the left.

Sport climber’s breakfast for me, mountain guide’s breakfast for Donald. What about Ewan? My guess is he finished his ages ago.

Harold the bug. Keeping us company on rest days in the wendy house. More pics on Gaz's blog (of Siurana climbing, not Harold, that is).

Crawling along

Endless sport climbing - hard not to improve!

Sport climbing trips out here in Spain or France have been a staple of my yearly climbing diet for nearly ten years. I come for lots of reasons, to relax the mind (these days), to replenish the body in a less harsh climate, to enjoy the climbs here also. But mainly I come here to train.

Trying to achieve a very high level of rock climbing fitness in Scotland is very like being pinned down in a game of chess - lots of potential options, but all of them blocked. We have a world class climbing facility at Ratho, but those who could really use it the most can’t afford to train there enough. We have a handful of wee sport crags, but not enough to make a platform for the best climbers to step to the next level (this idea is called a pyramid progression).

For a while, cheap flights made it easy enough for those at a medium level to put a patch of fitness in their game a couple of times a year. Maybe this day is already passed. Some more bolts in local crags might work out better environmentally than the carbon footprint of a twice yearly migration of the sport climbing population. On this trip, I’m coming round to thinking that this migration might be losing it’s appeal, both in terms of cost, and effectiveness.

It worked to get me from 8c to 8c+ and even helped me scrape into 9a. My current goal is to get 9a+, both for it’s own sake but also to assimilate this level and apply it in my mountain trad and winter climbing. Training strength in Scotland is no problem. With some good training I’ve got strong enough to do 9a+, but endurance is a stumbling block.

I’m not saying it’s impossible. I intend to personally prove otherwise. Rastko said those who crawl cannot be brought down. So I’ll keep on crawling my way to 9a+ and the resultant E11s and winter projects. Some changes might help break into a walk though. Some ideas:

Scotland’s rock climbers would really benefit from another sport crag or two that really works for training - steep sustained and often in condition. There are crags. It could be time to go and open them. Even just one sector like El Pati in Siurana could be enough to kickstart some exciting things in both sport and trad. I know that I couldn’t have done Echo Wall without the bolts on Steall Crag in Glen Nevis where I put down the foundation of fitness on Cubby’s old ‘controversial’ project.

A lot of the other things are potentially terrain where our sport’s governing body - the MCofS - could help with. If there was a special membership package that included free entry to any climbing wall in Scotland, I’d certainly be buying that as a christmas gift for a teenage son or daughter who’d recently discovered climbing. Parents would be gifting access to the world of climbing safety and environmental advice and training etc plus unlimited access to their new pastime/obsession.

As a 16 year old I managed to get my three sessions a week in the Kelvin Hall because every third visit I’d pluck up the courage not to buy a ticket and keep an eagle eye for the attendant all through the session. It’s rarely so easy for the young and keen to increase their training volume with this method these days.

Out here in Spain, we keep finding ourselves saying ‘it’s hard not to get good at climbing here’. In Scotland it’s a lot harder, so we better make it as easy as possible.

Slanguage reviewed

Not that I'm obsessed, but here's another link to something about the Radio 4 programme that SFX students took part in. This time it's a positive review of the programme from today's Guardian.

Enloe Comes From Behind to Down Trojans

WEB CAST.

Coming into the game on Tuesday night, Garner head coach, Eddie Gray wanted to limit the turnovers as his club had committed over 30 turnovers in their past two games, the Trojans did that as they had just 21 turnovers on Tuesday evening, but 21 was still too many as Enloe mounted a second half comeback led by Jared Blakney as the Eagles downed Garner 57-52.

Garner (1-4), fell behind 5-0 right off the get go as Enloe score five quick points prompting Coach Gray to call for a timeout. Following the timeout, Garner went on a 9-0 run to take a 9-5 lead and leading Enloe Coach Tommy Moore to signal for a stoppage in play. The rest of the first stanza was back and fourth and after the first eight minutes of play Garner had a 19-14 lead.

The second quarter was owned by Garner as the Trojans would grow their lead to ten points when Gavin Wilson hit back to back three's from the left wing, but again Enloe would make a comeback and cut the lead to six points at 33-27 at halftime.

After having just two first half points, Stephon Drane, scored eight points to pace the Trojans in the third quarter as Garner had a 46-41 lead after three. In the fourth quarter, Enloe found their stride as Garner made some sloppy passes and Enloe took advantage on the boards to climb back into the game and take a four point lead.

However, Garner hung tough with the Eagles who went to the regional semi-final a year ago and cut the lead to three with 32.9 seconds left. The Trojans had a shot at the tie, but the three went begging and Enloe (7-0) held on for a 57-52 win.

The Trojans will open conference play at home on Friday night when they welcome the West Johnston Wildcats (3-2) to Garner for a 7:30 tip-off.

Scoring:
Enloe
M. Tabb 17, Jar. Blankney 14, D. Rich 14, C. Ashley 5, M. Walker 4, D. Pryor 2, Jan. Blankney 2, E. Chapman 1.
GARNER
D. Johnson 14, S. Drane 10, D. Anderson 10, J. McClain 8, G. Wilson 6, D. Dorsey 4.

Varsity Girls Fall to Enloe

After out playing Enloe in the second half last Thursday night, the Lady Eagles came into Garner on a mission as they controlled the game from the opening tip and took a huge lead into the second half before pulling away to defeat Garner 66-29.

JV Girls Fall to Enloe

The JV girls got set for their second game of the year and traveled to Enloe, however, the Lady Trojans fell to Enloe in a very nip and tuck competitive game 49-44.

Slagging slang

The Mind Your Slanguage programme on Radio 4 today, which SFX students and staff contributed to, has kicked off an interesting debate about slang on the BBC news site today. We've got the usual prescriptive arguments: things were better in my day...these young people are just using broken English...it's all the fault of those black people with their ghetto talk...slang is "contaminating" Standard English...it's lazy and ugly talk... you know the kind of thing. But there are also some more sensible and well-formulated positions, which might also be termed prescriptive too.

Perhaps there is some truth in the argument that language is changing so rapidly now - faster than ever before - that it's too much to cope with for many people. Perhaps too, there's some truth in the claim that young people don't recognise that they're using slang some of the time, and that it's inappropriate in formal settings. But isn't that also the case for older people too and their own slang and idiomatic expressions?

Have a look and see what you make of it all. But remember, this is a great opportunity to be part of a language debate and even intervene in it yourselves. Many of you have already, by being part of the programme, so big up yourselves and that, bang bang etc.

Noughty words

With 2009 drawing to a close, nearly every newspaper and magazine in existence is currently filling its pages with end of decade lists: films, albums, influential political figures, artists, you know the sort of list. But BBC news magazine also offers us some good language discussion as it looks for the most important words of the noughties.

The language expert and author, Susie Dent (who has written some really good books on language change, the annual Language Report) offers a few suggestions - chav, green, tweet and poking among others - but the BBC also wants your suggestions. Have a look here for more. And my personal favourite has to be (drum roll)... celebutard: a blend of (I think) celebrity + débutante + retard, a nice and catty term of abuse for a recently semi-famous nonentity.

Elsewhere, if you're interested in new words and where they come from - and you should be 'cos you're an English Language student, innit - then you can do much much worse than Buzzword on the excellent Macmillan Dictionary pages here.

Former Trojan Makes Big Splash

Tucker Dupree ('07), is in Rio, Brazil for a world swimming competition. Dupree will be bringing back home a gold metal, world record in the 100 fly, a silver metal in the 50 free and
a bronze in the 400 free.

He is still competing and will be coming home one week from today. He has two more races this week 100 back on Friday and 100 free on Saturday. Dupree competed in last years Paralympics in Beijing, China.

Congratulations Tucker on your great success and best of luck on your Swimming career!

9 out of 10 climbers is here (soon)

Our stock of my book 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes is printed and currently being shipped to us. So in a week or so (our highland address always seems to bring out the worst in delivery companies) we’ll be sending copies out. We’ve just put it up for pre-order in the shop now. I know some of you are after a copy in time for Christmas and so it should be in plenty of time. We are dispatching around 11.30am every day until Christmas, worldwide.

I’m very happy to see it out and I’m pleased with it as a representation of much of what I’ve learned in 16 years of study in climbing improvement. It’s always been a big satisfaction in my climbing life to take what I’ve learned from sport science and half my life observing, experimenting, and measuring every last thing that makes climbers climb better. I’m expecting that the ideas in it will polarise a few readers. It does attack some of the fashions in the sport of climbing, and the wider world of sport and improvement that are working in the wrong direction for improvement. Engrained habits die hard and folk don’t let go of them easily. So I’m quite direct. Expect some further discussion of the details of the book over on my climbing coach blog as the reactions come in.

Some more info on what’s contained in it is on it’s page in the shop and you can get an order in here now if you are keen to read it. For now though, here is the list of contents so you can get a feel for the information thats in it.

9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes: navigation through the maze of advice for the self-coached climber

Contents:

9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes

Barking up the wrong tree

Part 1 - Creatures of habit

Stuck on the basics

The first thing to understand

The first thing to change

Fail, and prepare to succeed

If only I knew now what I knew then

Too embarrassed to climb?

Is this grade a success or mediocre?

The first generation was the freest

Starting from scratch

The truth about famous climbers

Know your enemy - your tastes

Don’t get stuck

Creatures of habit

Part 2 - The big four: movement technique, finger strength, endurance, body mass

The biggest lesson from sport science

You cannot break the laws

How to learn technique

Record, replay, review

No one does drills, right?

The structure of climbing technique

The need for momentum

Types of momentum

The issue of height

Don’t just push with your feet!

Counterintuitive aspects of climbing technique

Precision really matters

Trying to make the hold bigger

Don’t overrate strength

Bouldering is number one

But I don’t like bouldering!

How to boulder to show off, or get strong

Board heads

A good bouldering session

Fingerboard rules

To crimp or not to crimp

Making sense of Haston and Oddo

Making sense of Ondra and Sharma shapes

How light do I need to be?

How to get light without pain?

Steps for losing and maintaining a lower weight for climbing

Who needs to pump iron to climb hard?

To the wiry

To the beefcake

To the tall

To the lucky little ones

When you really can blame your tools

Campus boards hurt almost everyone

Climbing is not a cardiovascular sport

Where is climbing endurance?

Endurance activities

Understanding fatigue symptoms

Endurance rules

Part 3 - Fear of falling: the real problem, probably…

The only way

Falling technique

Practice indoors

Practice on sport climbs

Building falls into your daily climbing diet

Practice on trad

When you just can’t fall off

Part 4 - The other big four: attitude, lifestyle, circumstances, tactics

I’m young, spoon-feed me!

Why mid-teens drop off the radar

“I can’t do that” he said, mistakenly

Too old to improve?

To find time, make your time work harder for you

Do you really want to be an athlete?

Tactics often trump training

What the warmup does

Tuning in and out

Managing the ‘psyche’ level

Do you really want it to be easy?

Be thick skinned at all times

Does flexibility really matter?

Part 5 - What’s next coach? Planning your improvement

Think curves, not lines

So jump off that plateau, if you can bear it

Regimes - how much can you handle?

Over-resting or under-recovering?

A kid’s regime

A student’s regime

A family/career hustler

The wannabe pro

The confused and disillusioned

Same old routine, same old results

Cracking bad habits is tough

Rules of the training day

Rules of the training season

Annual rest and recuperation time

Summing up

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