Today's episode comes from The Struggle Climbing Show and features our very own coach Nate Drolet in consultation with the show's host Ryan Devlin, who has been working hard towards a goal to climb 13a.  They'll talk movement analysis, technique improvement, and more.  This is the first of two episodes with Nate on the topic, so be sure to head over to The Struggle to hear the second part!   Check out more episodes of The Struggle Climbing Show. Follow The Struggle Climbing Show on Instagram. Get more content on The Struggle's Patreon. _________________________ ? EXPLORE FURTHER ..read more

Udo Neumann is a climber, performance coach, and motor-learning explorer. He’s the author of several books, including the cult classic Performance Rock Climbing.  He was the German National Team coach from 2009 to 2017, working with several European and World Champion athletes during that time, including Jan Hojer and Jule Wurm. Today he advises federations and works with athletes and coaches all over the world. In this episode, we discuss his ideas around motor learning and coaching movement, whether a coach needs to be as good as the athlete, how he assesses climbers, what makes Janja G ..read more

Where's the first place your mind goes when you don’t stick a move? If you’re like most climbers, it’s probably your finger strength, or tension, or even your effort, and you’re already considering what hangboard protocol to use or some front lever workout. But it’s possible you’re looking in the wrong direction entirely...   Read the rest on the blog! Watch the video on YouTube! _________________________ ? EXPLORE FURTHER You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources: Taped Tips | The Secret to Hard Moves that Most Climbers Are Missing Our Movement Practice Resour ..read more

Will Anglin is one of the founders of Tension Climbing, a company that not only makes training tools, but also is committed to innovation in a way that leads climbers toward mastery over success. In this episode we discuss movement skills, some ways climbers are going wrong in their pursuit and how they can continue improving, and the tools that might get them there. Check out Tension Climbing and use code STONE at checkout for 10% off of select training tools! _________________________ ? EXPLORE FURTHER You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources: If you’re a coach o ..read more

Lauren Abernathy works hard to be a better climber. In fact, it’s part of her job as owner of Good Spray Climbing to help other people become better climbers, and she walks the walk. For several years she’s worked with our coach Blake Cash, and has recently been supplementing that with private movement sessions with Nate Drolet.  In this episode, we discuss why she chose to also do in-person sessions alongside her remote coaching with Blake, what’s going well, how she fits the training and sessions into her busy life, and how the movement skills are showing up in her climbing. Find Lauren ..read more

For most of us, climbing looks like this: Pull on, try the move, fall off. Stare at your hands and try to understand why you fell.  Pull on, try the move, fall off. Stare at your hands and come up with a new reason why you fell.  Pull on again, try the move again, fall off.  Again You get it. You've been there. But there’s a better way. In this episode, we’re going to talk about the obvious thing that most climbers are missing when it comes to difficult moves and learn several strategies that will help you do those harder moves, harder boulders, and harder routes faster.  R ..read more

Taylor Reed is a climber and coach who has worked with high-level athletes – both competitive and outdoor climbers – for many years. He’s the vice president of the International Rock Climbing Research Association and also runs The Beta Angel Project, which takes climbing-specific research and synthesizes it with ideas and experience in order to find evidence-informed methods that can help us all become better coaches and climbers. In this episode, we discuss how Taylor assesses movement, how he teaches it, and what role research plays in his overall coaching.   Find Taylor online at: The ..read more

A common refrain in climbing is that the more you climb, the better you get. But all of us know some old crusty who has been climbing for 45 years and is stuck at mid 5.10. And they have all of the excuses as to why. But they’re wrong. In this episode, Kris and Nate explore why we believe we’ll just get better if we keep at it, as well as offer strategies to continue improving no matter how long (or short) you’ve been at it. _________________________ ? EXPLORE FURTHER You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources: Our Movement Practice Resource Page Board Meetings | The ..read more

Go ahead, grab that foothold. I mean, it’s only a foothold until someone uses it as a handhold. Then it’s just a hold. So use it. And if you don’t want to because you’d rather challenge yourself to do it without using that really obvious hold right there, that’s fine, too. There’s no heroism in skipping an obvious hold. There’s no shame in using a hold other people aren’t. What’s possible, though, is that if you always choose one way or the other, then you’ve painted yourself into a corner. A corner that just doesn’t offer as many opportunities to learn. So there’s a question that both of you ..read more

Today we REWIND back to one of our favorite Board Meetings of all time. We chose this episode because we are spending the next couple months digging deep into movement and learning, and exploring if there might be a better way to consider movement than the technique-based way we’ve always done it.  In this episode, Kris and Nate discuss ideas presented by author Josh Waitzkin about our mental models for learning, specifically after hearing him as a guest on Tim Ferriss's podcast, and how we might apply these ideas to climbing. This episode originally aired on April 5, 2020. ______________ ..read more