When you sit behind a desk or in front of clients every day, dangling from a rocky ledge may at best seem like a metaphor for your work experience.
But Keith Kubiesa, owner of Summit Strength & Fitness, Madison’s newest climbing facility, says there are actually a lot of mental skills necessary to successfully climb a wall or reach a summit that translate perfectly to the business world.
“Madison has a growing population of young, active, thrill-seeking professionals who have the ambition and discretionary income to make climbing a normal part of our community,” notes Kubiesa.
As a climbing coach and personal trainer, Kubiesa knows what it takes to reach new heights on a climbing wall. With a degree in business management from Edgewood College he also understands how the lessons learned on the wall can make a difference in our professional lives.
Kubiesa offers the following skills necessary to scale a wall and climb the corporate ladder:
Being present/mindfulness — Climbing routes can be long and daunting but if you are high off the ground and thinking about anything other that making one move at a time, then you are going to fall off and fail. The same thing can correlate to business. For instance, if you have a deadline and you start to focus on just that deadline and not all the parts that it takes to meet that deadline, then you are not going to produce the highest quality work possible. Focus on the process, not the product.
The ability to take calculated risk — In order to reach higher levels and to do new things in climbing, we must really break down the risk and how we can mitigate that risk. Is the glory worth the potential risk? When I decided to make Summit Strength & Fitness come to life, I had to use that skill set to decide if creating this gym would be worth potentially losing a large sum of money and how that loss would affect me. Obviously, that risk was worth creating something I believe in.
Modesty/letting go of your ego — This sport is so new in terms of who is getting involved and knowing proper ways to train and to practice. It is because of this that kids are now just as good or better than novice adult climbers in their prime. In order to become great you must focus on just yourself and let your guard down to accept feedback from someone that understands the mechanics of the sport. It is no longer that the most physically fit middle-aged men are at the top tier of our sport. In business the only way to improve your process is to be able to take constructive criticism. You may be well educated in your field of study but remember there is always someone out there better than you, which means there is always something you can learn if you let your guard down to accept that knowledge.
Fear management — Fear is good — it’s what keeps us alive. There is always some sort of fear involved with climbing. It may be fear of heights, fear of failure, or fear of the unknown. Whatever your fear, you’re wasting your time if you try to distinguish one from another. Rather, learn to recognize the symptoms of the fear, how it holds you back, and how to deal with it. If you want to climb harder those fears will keep coming back with the next level of effort, so by learning to manage them early on you can deal with them when the situation gets tough. Fear is a sign of having some self-interest or care invested. If you fear talking to your boss about a raise, that is good because you truly believe you deserve that raise. If you learn to use that fear as motivation then your passion for what you want will show to your superiors.
Problem solving — Only a fraction of climbing is physical. Most of it is your mental ability to figure out how to make your way up the wall, whether it’s how to piece together a sequence of moves on a boulder problem, or the logistics of how much and what kind of gear you’re going to need to reach the summit of a mountain. You could be the most physically gifted rock climber in the world, but if you overlook the process of getting to the top of a route then that physical strength means nothing.
Self-confidence — This one is easy. If you look at a climb and immediately tell yourself, “I can’t do that,” well, then, you’re correct. In order to succeed on a climb you must not fail yourself before the climb begins. The mind is a powerful tool, and the best way we can utilize that tool is by telling ourselves that we are capable of achieving greatness.
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Keith Kubiesa, owner, Summit Strength & Fitness, Madison. |
With Summit Strength & Fitness, Kubiesa is bringing a unique gym experience to a Madison market that’s quickly becoming a Midwest climbing hub.
He notes that just 45 minutes north of Madison lies the largest density and most beautiful climbing in the Midwest at Devil’s Lake State Park. “If it were not for the discovery of climbing on real rocks, then climbing in the gym would not exist. People have been climbing there for half a century, but now with the low barrier to entry into the sport thanks to climbing gyms to teach the skills, climbing at Devil’s Lake is starting to attract people from all over the country.”
Kubiesa notes the American Alpine Club has hosted a weekend-long event at Devil’s Lake for the past two years, and Madison has already gained notoriety in the competition world of rock climbing by hosting the Bouldering Nationals competition in 2015 and 2016 at the Monona Terrace.
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As a climbing coach for a number of years, Kubiesa saw his climbing team fighting for space with recreational climbers at other commercial climbing gyms in the Greater Madison area. That, coupled with the lack of climbing-specific facilities in town, led Kubiesa to found Summit Strength & Fitness so local climbers have a place to practice their skills in an uninterrupted environment.
Kubiesa says Summit Strength & Fitness is a modest facility — 3,600 square feet, with an additional 1,000 square feet of floor space and 1,600 square feet of climbable surface — in comparison to all the mega climbing gyms being built around the country right now. “However, what we lack in size we make up for with our ability to address each individual’s needs. Yes, the focus of the gym will be around rock climbers but it’s not limited to climbers. The gym includes tools that will be beneficial to anyone looking to enhance his or her athletic abilities.”
In addition to amenities one might find at other area gyms, Summit Strength & Fitness offers some unique features that will appeal to climbers of all ages and skill levels.
Kubiesa says Summit’s climbing walls are for bouldering, meaning there are no ropes, and the walls are shorter but offer more diverse angles. It also features a “top out” area. Topping out means when a climber gets to the top of the wall, instead of dropping off like at every other facility around Madison, he or she can actually climb up and over the climbing wall and stand on top. “This is important because it is an aspect often found in outdoor climbing. A great demographic of my clients and climbers use the gym to get better at climbing to perform outside. Without the ability to practice topping out, those folks usually struggle when faced with that skill outside.”
To properly protect the 14-foot tall bouldering walls, Summit features custom-built, 14-inch thick foam flooring wrapped with seamless vinyl, which is designed to absorb the impact of a fall from the top of the wall.
Summit also has an additional 1,000 square feet of floor space that will be a private area for the members of the climbing team.
“The greatest amenity Summit Strength & Fitness will offer is the ability to practice the skill of rock climbing without the distractions of a public gym,” Kubiesa says. “This creates value for the customer because they are going to be more productive with less of a time commitment. For instance, at a commercial climbing gym, climbing team practice is in the same space and at the same time as when the general public is climbing. When is the last time you saw a little league baseball practice going on with people other than the team members using the field? This private space will allow for clients to give their complete attention toward practicing skills.”
The gym, located at 3118 Kingsley Way, Madison, is set to open early to mid-December. More information can be found online at trainclimbsummit.com.
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