Precerpt from Grandma's Ninja Training Diary: It Started in the Apple Trees
I’ve been thinking lately about why bouldering feels so natural to me. Why climbing a rock wall at seventy‑plus feels like slipping into a familiar rhythm instead of learning something new. And I finally realized: it started in the apple trees. When I was a kid, our orchard was my training ground. I climbed those trees to evade Ma, to get a better view, to reach the ripest apples, or simply because the branches were there and my legs knew what to do. I didn’t know it then, but tree‑climbing teaches the same things rock‑climbing does: diagonal strength cross‑body reach balance on unstable surfaces quick weight shifts grip confidence spatial intelligence the ability to move without fear I learned all of that as a kid. And here’s the funny part: your nervous system doesn’t forget. You can forget names, dates, recipes, and where you put your glasses, but you don’t forget how to climb. Not if you learned it young. Not if you lived it. So, when I step onto a bouldering wall now, my bod...