I love outdoors sports and for many years surfing was my main thing away from hockey. But a couple of years ago I started rock climbing.
• I joined a club in Reading where there is a 25-metre wall inside a hangar. It has loads of different climbs. The good thing about climbing on an artificial wall is you can make it as hard or easy as you want.
• I was lured in because I wanted to do something that gives my upper body a good workout. It’s amazing how tiring climbing can be if you don’t have good technique. Sometimes, if I have had a heavy week, I just do a short timed session, but other days I can be on the wall for two or three hours.
• Climbing is a very psychological sport. You need to hold your nerve, concentrate and think about where you are moving. It takes a good few weeks to get the courage to take on the wall, but once you learn to trust your partner you are away.
• It is not a sport you can just go with. You have to think your way up it and know that, say, you will have only two seconds on one hold before you fall. We have been working really hard in hockey on thinking more when we do drills, and climbing helps me there.
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• Safety is extremely important. When we’re clambering on boulders a couple of metres off the ground, there are mats to fall on, but when you attempt the higher climbs you are supported on a rope by a friend.
• I can now run up a standard wall pretty quickly, but what I love most are the challenges. It may look like a wall that you can fly up, but you can make it more difficult by giving yourself only a certain amount of handholds or taking a set time.
• I haven’t done any outdoor climbing yet because I need to stay fit for the Olympics, but it is my plan to go and tackle real cliffs after the summer. I’m planning to take a holiday to Thailand where I once saw a beautiful rockface and, of course, there are loads of places in England.
• Alex Danson, a forward, has won three European Championship bronze medals with England and will represent Great Britain at the Olympics. She was speaking to Patrick Kidd.