Garlic Salt and Good Advice

There is a common theme between a grilled cheese sandwich and good training advice. The sooner you learn to spot this, the sooner you can be making better sandwiches… and climb harder, too, I guess.

If someone makes you a grilled cheese sandwich and it tastes uniquely delicious, you’ll probably ask what makes it so special. Let’s say their response is, “Oh, I put garlic salt in it.” Now, there are a lot of assumptions built into what was just said.

When someone tells you that the addition of garlic salt is the reason why this specific grilled cheese sandwich is so different, they are also implying that everything else that makes a good grilled cheese sandwich is already in place.  

That sandwich was toasted in a pan with butter until the intentionally selected bread was evenly toasted and the cheese was melted the whole way through. Care was likely put towards cheese type and quantity to ensure the right flavors and mouth feel. We can probably assume the sandwich was cut into triangles or small squares, because even though we may be adults, we aren’t monsters.

In the end, we have a well-made grilled cheese sandwich (I promise, I’m almost done talking about sandwiches) with each ingredient and step of the process given special attention, all with the addition of some garlic salt. Even with the garlic salt, the advice giver assumes that you know how much to add to get to the right flavor. 

If you listen to an interview with an athlete who is asked, “What is the one thing that has made the biggest impact on your climbing recently?”, remember that they are giving a garlic salt answer. There isn’t enough time to break down every factor that this one piece of advice is built off of. Also, most high-level athletes have nailed down the basics so well that they either assume everyone else has, too, or they are such an unconscious part of their process that the athlete barely recognizes their existence. 

For these high performers to explain that it’s important to try hard, keep showing up, and handle any of the other basics, would be like telling someone they need to make sure to cook their grilled cheese sandwich until the cheese melts – it’s assumed.

I love garlic salt on my grilled cheese sandwiches and I love hearing insights from high-level performers in our sport. Both can make a good recipe great. We have to make sure we nail down the fundamental recipe first though, otherwise we’re likely to put too much of our time focusing on a single ingredient.