5: Albert Ok, Speed Coach + Injury Collector
You may have seen Albert's old viral Youtube videos where he does deep-dive analyses into great comp climbing beta-break moments. Nowadays, he is spending more time working on his own training to hopefully make the USA national team, as well as working as a speed climbing coach. You may know some of the athletes he works with, such as Grace Crowley and Sam Watson!
Show Notes
Guest links:
https://instagram.com/professorok
https://www.youtube.com/@AlbertOkay
Reference links:
Timestamps
Timestamps of discussion topics
0:00 - Introduction
2:52 - What got you into comp climbing?
6:39 - History of comp climbing + has it improved?
10:24 - The beta break Youtube series
14:37 - Copyright issues
20:13 - World cup afterparties
22:16 - Why speed climbing?
26:08 - The difficulties of accessing a speed wall
30:03 - Becoming a speed coach
39:28 - Coaching at the world cups - imposter syndrome
45:47 - Dealing with speed wall differences at different locations
50:42 - Why are countries like Indonesia so good at speed climbing?
52:33 - Speed climber intricacies
58:46 - Speed climbing in the Olympics
1:01:52 - The Salt Lake City vision
1:03:47 - Personal speed climbing pursuit
1:09:06 - Head to toe of injuries
1:16:32 - Discord Q: What stops people from getting into speed climbing?
1:17:56 - Discord Q: Did the 2020 combined format undermine acceptance of speed climbing?
1:19:54 - Discord Q: Do you know what the outcome of the athletes commission will be for speed?
1:22:59 - Discord Q: What's in the future for speed and formats?
1:25:41 - Discord Q: What was it like to rock climb with Akiyo Niguchi?
1:28:34 - Outro + where to find Albert
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I still love making videos and that is sort of a hard statement to say out loud.
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Alexandra Miroslaw is not even close to like technically perfect, but this last injury
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was the first breaking point I think I've ever experienced.
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Welcome to another episode of the That's Not Real Coming podcast.
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I'm your host Jinni and I'm excited to introduce my guest for today, Albert Ok.
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You may have seen Albert's old viral YouTube videos where he does deep dive analyses into
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great comp climbing beta break moments.
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Nowadays he's spending more time as a speed climbing coach as well as working on his own
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training.
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In this episode we'll talk about his beta break series, what it's like coaching at
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the World Cup, trying to make Team USA, and his slew of injuries.
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Of course he also geeks out plenty when it comes to the technical aspects of speed climbing
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which is a treat to listen to.
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Enjoy this conversation with Albert.
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How are you on this fine holiday?
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I definitely just had an explosion session.
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That's kind of what I call whenever I go full tilt mode, I take 400 milligrams of caffeine
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and I just go until like all my fingers are exploded and I try really hard and then usually
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nothing actually productive happens but I get to feel good about myself.
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Kind of, not really.
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Okay, so was it a good session or no?
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I can't tell.
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There was like very significant glimpses of hope where it's like okay if I am calm, cool,
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and collected it will definitely be successful on my next speed run but today was not that
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day.
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Okay, so not the best session.
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Yeah, yeah we'll give it a six out of ten.
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Okay, well that's a shame.
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But I had fun, I had fun.
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I always do have fun, just different variations of fun question mark.
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Yeah, are you feeling like up to 100%?
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Definitely not, like after sessions I can definitely feel my elbow like throbbing for
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a bit and then I kind of have to ice pack it or just stop climbing for a second but
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by the time I sleep and wake up it usually is okay.
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Take some of my favorite Advil.
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Right, yeah.
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I thought you, well I guess I was referring to I guess how you feel really tired lately.
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I mean we'll get into that later as well but yeah, are you still feeling tired?
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I may or may not have just woken up right before this for like a 20 minute crash nap
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and now I feel a lot better.
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Okay, awesome.
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Okay, great.
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Well, I'm really excited to get into this interview.
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I found you on YouTube a while ago which we'll also talk about in a bit but yeah, I'm sure
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you've been following climbing competitions for a while so when did you start getting
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into watching climbing competitions and what drew you to them?
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It's interesting.
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So injuries was kind of the greatest and bad, like worst thing that ever happened to me.
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One of the biggest things that I always tell people whenever they ask me for advice on
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injuries is I was like you can always train regardless of your situation and like that
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goes beyond climbing and so I had ruptured my shoulder extremely bad.
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I tore everything inside it and I had nothing else to do and I couldn't climb.
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I couldn't do a pull up.
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I mean I could walk, sure whatever but even that was a little bit difficult.
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So what was the next best thing I could do?
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I went through every single World Cup possible.
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I went from like, I looked for footage from like 1980s, like VHS footage from like the
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Snowbird World Climbing Championship and like I just studied everything and then after a
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certain point I think around when I got to 2012 I would start pausing the video before
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they climb, read the climb, assume how they're going to climb it as per the athlete once
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I like sort of got the repertoire and then I would play it and like that's how I spent
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my time.
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And this was what?
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2017, 2018?
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So like not too long ago but long enough ago.
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That's crazy.
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That's really far back.
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Like what were those old competitions like?
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I have not gone back into the archives that far.
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I think if you are an extreme enthusiast for competition climbing it's worth looking at
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how the style changed and sort of like making inferences of why styles changed.
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Some of the thing that's so simple is like when you look at 1980s climbing, nobody could
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really toe hook.
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Nobody could heel hook.
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Why?
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Because they're using shoes that are laces, right?
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And like they don't have like a heel cup.
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Now you have the S cup rand or the P3 heel system.
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I'm like I don't even know.
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Like it gets like outrageous these days but like yeah they wouldn't heel hook that much
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or toe hook that much.
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You don't see that.
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So it's like oh maybe the style changed because like technology also changed or like ability
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started changing and that's when you start seeing like the progression and think about
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why it changed between all this dynamic style which is kind of entertaining to think about
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and like hypothesize and especially the athletes.
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So like in the background Kim Jain, she's been around for everything.
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You can see how she adapted to all the changes and still was able to stay on top and it's
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I think that's more impressive than any of the other things I've seen.
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Yeah when did she start climbing?
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Wow she's been competing for like what?
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Probably like what?
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15 to 18 years?
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Like she was like doing youth comps I guess when she was what 12, 13 probably.
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Obviously there's no footage of that but like you can see her in 2012 versus 2022.
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It's like whoa.
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Her style hasn't seriously changed but like it's adapted.
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And it's like yeah she still is like elegant, lock off, graceful, whatever but she can like
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throw herself now when she needs to especially in this recent world champ you can see her
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adaptation.
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I mean I'm really surprised she came back.
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I had no idea that was going to happen so that was pretty crazy to see.
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Yeah she's kind of just like gotta be everyone's hero right?
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Like there's no brainer.
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Yeah yeah for everyone it's pretty crazy.
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Is there like a I mean would you say that competition climbing has gotten better over
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the years hopefully?
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I think it's been like following the trends that it should.
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I think yeah you get some experimental moments where like Meijeringen, I love Meijeringen,
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that is by far always my favorite comp.
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I'm kind of sad that it wasn't was it it was gone this year right?
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Uh I'm not certain.
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It feels so long ago now but yeah.
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I know.
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Wait what?
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In what way is it experimental?
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I mean they always showcase something unique where like they had the hand jam, they had
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the paddle in finals, they always do something like crazy or like the 180 turnouts and they
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always love like testing something new and a new concept.
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I mean I guess 2023 the trend is alright you're on a slab you like 180 and then you reach
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out which I love like that you get to see experimental changes like that.
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In the beginning I think there was just so much latching on to what outdoor climbing
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is so yeah like for like probably from 1980 until what 2000 you saw like just static climbing.
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It was very like static don't cut your feet if you have to it's just to reset your feet
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and that's it.
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But now like I feel like the setting and the styles of changing for competition climbing
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has sort of allowed athletes to explore different skill sets that they would otherwise have
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never need to and it's like cooler.
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I love it.
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I love the change.
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I love change.
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I think there's room for change always so as long as it's in a positive way.
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Okay awesome.
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Do you think it was kind of like harder to watch the older competitions because they
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don't have as like flashy holds or like big macros and stuff like that?
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Almost the opposite surprisingly right because like you kind of know exactly what holds they're
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going to go to it's like okay is it a sloper or is it a crimp and there's like that's it
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or maybe it's a pinch and so you don't have like much variation in the holds and like
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oh what's the purchase angle of this so oh you now you get to see how the climber uses
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a hold where nowadays like a huge macro hold a single climber can manipulate it in a way
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that is completely different than everyone else notably let's say Timon Narasaki on
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that men's boulder one in the recent world championship combined final he like was like
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meat wrapping and he like pressed into the finish whereas Jakub you saw him like stand
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into it completely differently and so there's a lot more variance in how people even just
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use a single hold these days with these bigger holds and back then it was like oh now you
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get to see what muscles are using what how they're holding things it's like very like
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if you you have like a static object and then you have a dynamic field of athletes wow i
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just went full computer science nerd there but yeah and so you get to see the the variation
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between every athlete rather so much than just like the whole types and how they're
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manipulating but then you got to like look at the flip side where because they can manipulate
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holds you see who's like so really smart and really creative and at finding positions today
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so it's kind of cool especially you back then you got to see like which female climbers
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were just like just jacked could one arm pull up on a crimp versus not well i mean a lot
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of them can do it now i think yeah i think all of them can do it now it's like kind of
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ridiculous yeah but then okay so given like these new holds and like new ways of doing
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it that kind of leads into your whole beta brace series if you want to talk about how
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you got into that and so basically i'm sitting here i barely can use my arm i'm like watching
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every single comp and almost every single comp there's always just like one athlete
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that does something just super unique and the rules were a little more lausé fair back
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then because they didn't know so like you could grab bolts you could like put your finger
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in certain like screw holds and black tape was like poorly designed sometimes and so
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you always find the cheeky climbers like you know what i can do that i can cheat the climb
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and they find a beautiful solution where it's like yeah actually if you if a layman saw
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the climb of course that's the most obvious solutions like why not just use the hold over
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there and like okay but everyone thought it was off but then it wasn't and so then they
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get to use it and get away with it and so i made this video and uh i sat on the video
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for almost a year and a half and a lot of people kind of think that like that was like
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my first video but if you the real real real real og albert oak fans they know that i've
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been making videos for like 10 years it started with like me stealing my parents camera and
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making like fake star wars fight videos and like learning how to edit in windows moviemaker
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yeah but yeah and i just like kind of wanted to tell the story and initially i just like
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sat on the video and i didn't upload it but then quarantine happened i was like you know
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what i got nothing to lose and i hit upload did you i guess did that kind of blow up immediately
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yeah so i i titled it a little controversial and i kind of knew what i was doing i'll be
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completely honest i was like uh and like i posted on reddit and i i titled it is this
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considered cheating and of course you know like reddit users want to like argue and just
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say that they know better than everyone else so of course i i kind of i definitely kind
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of knew what i was doing and like i knew it was going to get views i just didn't think
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it was going to get views immediately and so like i posted it a few hours later and
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i saw a thousand views i was like oh that's pretty good like i i know big youtubers get
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thousand views in like seconds so like that was pretty good for me i was pretty psyched
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and then i like went to sleep woke up the next morning i was like at 10k but the counter
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was broken and then i looked in the metrics it was like at like 20 30k i was like wait
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what have i done yeah yeah i mean well what was climbing youtube like at that time i feel
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like it was not as i don't know as what's the word i wouldn't say saturated at this
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point but you know there was a lot less going on back then yeah like what the the channels
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that you had were uh eric carlson the vlog bouldering love that guy um you had udo neumann
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making just like those like montages of like movement analysis which were kind of harder
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to find i don't think many people even know that and then you had kind of magnus kind
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of because he wasn't even like getting that big yet and then who else was there oh geek
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climber and then kind of rock entry yeah and then and then i was like you know there's
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just like this niche that hasn't been filled which is like commentary videos or like little
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video essays and um and and like i'm not doing anything that unique there's video essays
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in every other sport like basketball or golf somebody's like making content about that
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it's like but just like somebody should tell the stories and climbing yeah especially for
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competitions i mean even now there's still not that much out there about competitions
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um but yeah so going back to your beta break videos um so i guess your videos back then
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were more about these like little rules and they've changed quite a few of them since
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then um they do the tapes a lot more um i mean you can't put your finger in bolt holes
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um even now like with brooks stepping in the bolt holes they're like starting to create
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walls that don't have holes at all so is that um is that maybe part of why the beta break
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series stopped or what happened to those videos and so like i would like to think that i had
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some ripple effect in the rule books in i have to see that'd be pretty cool to say i
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don't i'm not actually sure that'd be kind of funny because like i definitely put a spotlight
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on i have to see was like hey there are clearly rules but can you let the athletes get away
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with it because like it lets me have really good content and it's really fun but i eventually
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did start running into like some copyright issues with the broadcasting company of ifsc
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not ifsc so much themselves um i actually have like a very good relationship with ifsc
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they're they're awesome they treat me well they got me in the commentary booth that was
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like a dream come true and hopefully if i'm doing my work well then maybe i'll even compete
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at ifsc world cup so that'd be cool but so like i think the broadcasting company you
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know like they don't like that they don't like when you use their footage which is which
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is fair like you know like i wasn't exactly asking i was like asking for uh forgiveness
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not permission and so after a while they're just like yeah you can't exactly do that and
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i was like but but but come on like i getting people psyched on comp climbing and they're
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like yeah but we're italian so we like are gonna say no i'm like all right that's fair
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that's fair that's right yeah yeah do you like what's the broadcasting company's name
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i forget i think like different comms were under a different broadcasting company yeah
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i guess that's what i'm kind of confused about because i thought it was like different for
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each uh like world cup location yeah i think it just gets convoluted because it's like
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a european broadcasting company and like yeah okay america has fair use laws and like commentary
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over it's like fine but like they definitely like got mad and i'm sure if i really wanted
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to i could have just kept getting away with it and just be like well you can't take my
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video down because i'm commentating over it but at the same time i was like you know i'm
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gonna keep some good relations here i'm gonna try my best and like it's not that big of
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a deal i'm sure i can find different videos to make and that's what i told myself and
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obviously like i have not done that because it's been like almost three years since i've
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uploaded properly yeah you knew that the uh they were gonna ask you to commentate one
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day and you wanted to keep that relationship yeah i don't want to make them mad before
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i get to speak on their broadcast themselves yeah of course yeah how did you manage to
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i guess like speak on the broadcast like do they just ask people who are standing around
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it was definitely like i knew a person that knew a person than you person kind of chain
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of command and uh i was able to like get in contact with mac room and then so like normally
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i think like a ex a non-finalist usually talks on the broadcast or or something like that
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and um you know every now and then make a few exceptions um and so i was fortunate to
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be one of those few exceptions and hopefully i did a good job i tried to but i was also
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too excited to watch the comp itself fair yeah no it was really exciting that here i
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was i was so i was surprised and excited to see that you were on it was definitely a dream
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come true because initially i was like okay i'm not going to get injured i'm going to
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make the team then not make a final and then be able to commentate that obviously didn't
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happen but then in a roundabout way it like came true so i was like oh you know everything
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happens for a reason yeah yeah you made it there and that's what matters do you ever
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um plan on returning to video making i still love making videos and that is sort of a hard
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statement to say out loud and for a lot of people i'm sure to believe because they're
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like oh well then why aren't you making videos i'm like but i'm sure as you are now a content
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creator can relate that like it's hard it is very hard yeah yeah it is a full-time job
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and at the rate i was doing it it was not sustainable if i want to train and work and
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make videos and have a social life and coach people how can one person do that and like
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i'm already cutting back sleep as it is i'm already like you know eating while standing
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up like that is not healthy right so i'm sure there's going to be a time and place for that
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i i have like a google document with over 200 video ideas that i could love to pick
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up and i don't know it's it's something that is always like in my soul in my heart i love
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creating but i just don't know when and i'm sure there'll be a right time um last night
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or two days ago i did make a really fun meme on instagram so you know so every now and
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then i just got to put something out in the world for the world to enjoy maybe shorter
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form content but yeah i would like to explore different topics i wanted to make some documentaries
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i was even in the midst of making a documentary um about the snowbird world championship which
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is in utah uh and that was like the first climbing world championship that was like
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ever officially a thing and all the legends are already in town like boon speeds here
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like i can like talk to like half of the people that were at the comp and i want to ask them
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what parties did they do like what was the after party like and like these kind of questions
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and see like a little fun side of the story but in due time i'm sure yeah have you been
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to after parties at the world cups you've been to uh i've been to the salt lake city
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after party at crazy enough it's boon speeds uh factory for grasshopper boards so like
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full circle i'm sure he was hosting an after party after when he was at the world cups
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and then he's getting able to pass on the torch but and i like went out to some of the
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bars and clubs and after chamonix to like hang out with some of the athletes but like
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it was it's difficult because like as a as a coach i'm like i'm trying to hang out and
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have fun but like i'm like okay what can my athlete do like the whole time i think the
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day after speed qualies in chamonix i was down at the bars and like everyone else is
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getting drunk and uh so one of my athletes had made finals and i'm there studying on
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my phone the whole time like like a half-drinking beer in my hand um like scrubbing scrubbing
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and like analyzing and like one of the french athletes comes like what's what's so important
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that you're doing right now instead of having fun i'm like you don't understand my mind
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is not here right now i am thinking about what what's next like the like i would like
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to party and like relax but like i can't do that that's like not who i am yeah well i'm
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surprised that other athletes would be there because wouldn't they also have to be preparing
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for the next day um i think it was the majority of the athletes who had a mid-finals so yeah
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i guess like only 16 people were for 32 on both sides of the bracket so like yeah those
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people were comfortably sleeping but i'm like you know i'm there plugging in everything
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it's like all right i gotta i gotta figure it out i gotta like figure what's the next
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step yeah well that's exactly what you want from a coach so yeah i think if i
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make a world cup i'm gonna tell all my athletes like yo look i'm sorry i'm gonna go party
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bye you're on your own for this one time okay yeah they might be hoping on your downfall
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then yeah yeah yeah yeah i don't like guys just let me let me have this one one time
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yeah okay all right so um i guess moving into like the coaching and speed climbing stuff
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um what first drew you to speed climbing when i was in high school i was a pretty prominent
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110 meter hurdler um i definitely i think like there's like some records there that
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you can find my name on the internet somewhere but like i was definitely above average fast
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i think if the trajectory was still consistent i probably would have ran track in college
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and maybe beyond um and i loved it like i i am like a short distance athlete and hurdles
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was interesting because i didn't have a coach and the coach didn't really care about me
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because in the hundred meter itself i was not fast but in the 110 meter hurdle i was
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faster than the others because my form was so good i would just analyze over and over
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and over again like footage of other higher end professional hurdlers and try to break down what
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they're doing and what exercises they're doing and i would spend like hours after school just by
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myself doing a single hurdle over and over and over again until my form was perfect and so i was
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able to keep my like slower and 100 meter speed but like never lose speed because my hurdling was
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so accurate and so of course but i stopped hurdling and you know like my whole life unraveled
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went to university and whatever but i start climbing and then what's like the next best thing
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to hurdles speed climbing because this is just vertical hurdles you're just yeah and i initially
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never had an access to a speed wall i was coaching in grapevine texas and they had like a 10 meter
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but it was just like it was like kind of like scuffed like it was not not like it was borderline
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dangerous at least by the time i was using it and so i was in colorado for a couple years working
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and i got back to houston and they have a speed wall there like of course this is it like and on
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my birthday in january 10th i was like well this is time to do it i have to now or else i'm going
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to regret not doing it and thus began the journey and you can see a direct correlation of when my
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video stopped and when i started speed climbing oh really yeah they like go hand in hand because
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like you just can't do all five things yeah yeah so okay interesting so i mean you didn't start
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out as a speed climber because you didn't have access to a wall did you like know that you still
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wanted to do speed climbing even though you had just started climbing absolutely um so i started
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top rope i was a top rope hero then transitioned into lead slash boulder and i even went to a few
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bouldering open nationals um 2018 2021 yeah and like tried pretty hard got absolutely dunked those
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boulders are so hard like if if anyone's like oh i bet i could do that in a second no trust me you
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cannot they're they're beyond like even just the qualifiers of a u.s national round is just insane
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like the easiest boulder there is a comp style v9 and so i kind of knew that like okay look i didn't
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start climbing when i was six i'm never gonna have the tendon strength i'm never gonna have like the
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skill sets like i can gain strength sure but it's always gonna be harder for me to ever be at that
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top level bouldering but like speed you you just need to know a pattern very very very very well
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have strong legs and strong arms i'm like okay i've got strong my arm uh legs i can just do some way
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to pull ups and get stronger arms eventually and so that's kind of why i knew it it's just when i
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didn't have access to a speed wall was um the only reason why i couldn't get on the speed wall
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um yeah access to a speed walls is a lot harder than a lot of people would think it's so hard
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yeah i would still really want to try it and i just have never gotten the opportunity to find one
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yeah i think there's like one in reno and took the salt lake yeah reno why i don't know i think
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there's one at the mesa rim there i didn't even know there was a mesa rim there that's insane
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yeah okay or you can just come to salt lake and then come to my thursday class at 6 30 p.m oh you
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teach a class yes okay i mean i might i just yeah i might i'll have to hit you up for that
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um i it is so hard to find a speed wall is it ever like even if a place has a speed wall
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is it ever like busy and you have to like wait for people to get on i would say busy no insurance
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liability very difficult to manage um i think it's no longer but dallas was probably the only
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speed wall in america that wasn't like locked up oh seriously yeah oh so they're all locked up
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yeah they're usually all locked up you either need to call in advance or have like a coach call in
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for you but yo my athlete's gonna come and they're gonna train on it like let them do it they're
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training for a national cup but it's hard to access it yeah so then how do you even train for it if i
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mean do you need to have like a legitimate reason like i'm trying to be in a world cup to like get
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on the wall for a lot of gyms kind of yeah and like i've heard of some gyms even charging like
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50 dollars an hour just to use it but and it does make sense because it is a huge insurance
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liability it's an auto belay huge accidents happen with auto belays and it's going to be the tallest
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auto belay in the gym usually so yeah i've like heard some horror stories even like one of the
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athletes i help uh coach uh online he um didn't clip in and fell and shattered everything whoa
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still is better than 99.999 percent of speed climbers out there he's like he was at the world
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champs and i think he got like 20 something or 30 something plays so like he's doing incredibly
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well now but like just the implications of an auto belay and like supervision it's scary forgetting
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to clip in on a speed route i can't even imagine and like that doesn't even cover like the accidental
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like maybe the gate is like semi-closed and like just unwind somehow magically which which has
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happened um what are you gonna do like that's it liability yeah i mean a lot of gyms still have
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auto belays i know at my old gyms they actually got rid of them because it was too much of a
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liability but um i'm surprised that they just like keep the speed once so locked down if other
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auto belays are still open yeah i'm usually the setup i've seen at gyms is like the auto belay
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is over like more padded flooring or something or like they're on shorter walls not not necessarily
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all of them but like yeah it was like at a height you could survive the groundfall but 15 meters is
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a very long way to fall into concrete because um usually they level out the flooring for speed
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walls so it meets the regulation height so you're gonna hit some hard ground not just like padding
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but yeah i i empathize with the people who want to try speed and at the same time i empathize with
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the gyms because i'm like oh man that is a nightmare to deal with yeah wow yeah it's a lot
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more difficult to get into speed than i thought yeah i want to say that the gym that i started
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speed climbing at like there was a no clip accident like twice that happened so they put a lock and key
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on that very very very adamantly yeah uh yeah i can definitely see both sides there um and so how did
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you get into speed coaching specifically i was a coach in in texas in dallas for uh quite a bit of
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time for bouldering and i guess lead climbing just you just end up coaching both uh i was fortunate
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enough to be mentored by very high level coaches um throughout like international coaches even
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um and so i started speed climbing and i'm like figuring it out myself and i'm coaching myself
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this whole time and i kind of realized after a while like okay i'm not ever going to be as good
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as sam watson will ever be but i'm like starting to see that a lot of speed climbers in the world
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are like making mistakes a lot more than i expected i'm like okay but how do i help those people
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without like beta spraying them as per se and yeah and like i don't have a name to myself like
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no i'm not a professional speed coach in fact there's like only a handful of them in the world
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so it's like how do i like make that a thing and so i just started helping people at the gym
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and then that became into a thing where i made an instagram post over a year ago now
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i was like hey if you need help i may not be the best i may not be the worst but i'm more than
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nothing if you need help speed coaching i will help you as much as i can and then it like caught
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on like wildfire i probably had like 40 dms that day and i was like oh what have i done it was just
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it was just a joke i was just joking i was just joking but then i was like oh but actually this
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is kind of cool like i finally feel like i can make a difference in a small microcosm in a micro
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niche in a way that like matters to me and that eventually translated into like athletes coming
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to salt lake just to like work with me and and me help them and i believe you even entered uh
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released the podcast with grace and they even uh transitioned into letting me help them work up with
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them technically and they made some huge leaps and strides and sort of people just start like
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talking and they're like oh who helped you it's like drop like how did you drop 0.8 seconds in
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like a month oh albert i'm like oh thanks for giving me credit i didn't ask for credit but if
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y'all are gonna credit me sure so it's been cool uh in that way obviously i'm super analytical or
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at least i tried to be and i tried to find the details and that came from all started when i
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like tore my shoulder and i was watching videos to make beta break so like full circle here i am
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coaching athletes and speed but it all came from because i couldn't walk or breathe or use my arm
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and watched lots of old videos of world cups yeah i mean also with your hurtling as well i guess
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yeah like it's always been like that i don't know i've never had coaches in my life like
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everything i've done it's like okay nobody's gonna help you you kind of have to figure out yourself
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and there's it's kind of a painful thing to admit but i don't want to see other athletes go through
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that um because it was a struggle like i saw other athletes and other like disciplines like
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and not even just in sports that they had like resources their parents were helping them they
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had like five different coaches they had like sports psychologists i'm like i had me and youtube
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and a camera and that's gotta suck for if an athlete has nowhere like nowhere to talk to
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like they don't even have anybody like just oh my session was bad today they can't even say that
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yeah yeah and so i kind of just like wanted to fill that gap for people so they never have to
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go through what i went through because that was not so easy yeah i mean i'm sure that's kind of
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how it is for a lot of even like just like professional athletes um weekend warrior
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athletes anything like that um yeah i can really make all the difference even myself i got like a
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coach and i felt like even if i don't get anything out of it i don't know what's gonna come of it but
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it's just nice to like talk to someone and like talk to someone about your climbing and have it
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be like focused on your climbing and you can like vent it's like a it's like a sports therapist
402
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:37,240
what do you think has been the biggest difference for you now that you have a coach versus when you
403
00:34:37,240 --> 00:34:43,880
weren't honestly i'm doing like a physical training stint right now which i've never done before
404
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:51,320
because i'm not like an athlete or like a physically active person in general um and so
405
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:59,880
right now i actually am climbing awful like i hate it i feel like i can't do anything i'm so tired
406
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:09,480
and weak um so if anything it's been really bad but i'm i'm hopeful that what everyone says about
407
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:14,920
oh you'll like physically train and then after in a few weeks you'll feel like really amazing and
408
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:21,640
strong and climb harder than ever before i just have to hope that that's true and real and that
409
00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:30,600
it actually works for me um but if not at least the uh the sports therapy was there yeah oh man
410
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:37,080
like sam right now is what we call in strength cycle jail which you are also sounds like in
411
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:42,280
strength cycle jail you just have to actually trust the process and it is so scary and daunting
412
00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:49,160
it's like oh but like what if it what if it doesn't and like it always does but it just sucks so it's
413
00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:54,760
so it's so demoralizing it's like dude i can't even climb v1 right now what is happening it's like
414
00:35:54,760 --> 00:36:00,440
no no you'll be fine you'll be fine i promise it's good to know um yeah i think i just have to like
415
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:06,760
go through this once and then if it works hoping it does then in the future i can be like okay like
416
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:14,920
this is normal yeah so we'll see what comes to that sam had his first glimpses of escaping
417
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:20,600
strength cycle jail today so we know it's working it's just it's so hard to see the light at the
418
00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:25,960
end of the tunnel i mean is this like his first time like going through this strength training
419
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:31,080
he's been through different strength cycles but this is probably the hardest he's been through
420
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:36,280
and so like the past couple weeks that we've been working it's like just making sure he's not
421
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:40,680
demoralized and hates everything after a session because he's like there's no way i'm this slow
422
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:46,360
i'm like no no it's fine you'll be fine just give it time what's the difference with this and before
423
00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:54,360
um it's just uh focusing a lot on making the movements very strict and very like deliberate
424
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:59,640
so i'm sure his like nervous system and central nervous system is being taxed and his muscles are
425
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:06,200
being taxed so his coordination feels off on the wall and yeah yeah that's probably like the biggest
426
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:14,680
feeling right yeah it's everything oh my god okay well i feel better now just talking about it so
427
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:21,640
that's good yeah it's like wait my hand's not closing it's like i it will close later okay okay
428
00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:26,600
i feel better i feel better yeah that's good you'll be on a strength cycle jail soon i promise
429
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:34,040
i'm feeling a lot better now thanks yeah all right um yeah what so you're coaching sam um what other
430
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:41,160
climbers are you coaching grace one of them and it kind of goes crazy because like i'm like kind
431
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:48,200
of coaching a lot of people um like there's a south african athlete tigwin she just messaged
432
00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:54,280
me a bunch of videos there's uh piper kelly she's on the u.s team that i'm like kind of also working
433
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:59,560
with and there's like noa brachi i'm also kind of working with zach hammer i was kind of working
434
00:37:59,560 --> 00:38:05,480
with so there's a lot of people i'm like kind of working with i don't feel comfortable taking the
435
00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:08,920
official title it's like you know i'm their official coach because i don't know it's just
436
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:13,480
like that's just am i like dodging responsibility or something i don't maybe that's a that's just
437
00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:19,000
like a lot therapist question i need to ask like oh what is happening i don't know but like i i
438
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:24,040
think there's probably if i really listed it out there's like over 40 athletes and some are
439
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:31,240
international um i just had an athlete finish at the iranian national championship some like an
440
00:38:31,240 --> 00:38:38,120
iranian cup and uh he didn't exactly go as far as he expected to or wanted to but he was like very
441
00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:43,240
grateful it's like i learned a lot i was like that that makes me more happy um there's like a
442
00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:50,200
pakistani climber that will be climbing at the asia championship quite soon and he's hopefully i'm
443
00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:54,440
like crossing my fingers for him and yeah there's like a lot of climbers out there that just
444
00:38:55,080 --> 00:39:00,520
will never have access to a speed coach or strength coach or just a coach in general so i'm like well
445
00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:07,160
if there's anything i can do then that's going to be the gap i feel man i should probably list out
446
00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:11,160
all the people and like what levels of coaching i am coaching them because i've been asked this
447
00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:17,640
quite a few times i just say probably around like 40 athletes yeah i mean and then you also have you
448
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:25,800
know kind of like a resume of your coaching resume which is probably something i should do at some
449
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:31,160
point good reminder thank you you wanna if you want to keep doing keep going with the coaching
450
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:37,160
um yeah you have a few world cup athletes in there what's it like coaching at the world cup
451
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:43,400
specifically please excuse this brief intermission but i would just like to take some time and remind
452
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:49,720
you that if you are enjoying this podcast please follow and rate it on your preferred listening
453
00:39:49,720 --> 00:39:55,880
platform if you're watching on youtube be sure to subscribe and hit the like button anything helps
454
00:39:55,880 --> 00:40:02,040
to push this podcast out to more people and get even more amazing guests on back to the show
455
00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:10,280
er what's it like coaching at the world cup specifically it was interesting uh this
456
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:19,560
when i was at vilars in chamonix and it was a very like i got back and everyone said oh you had so
457
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:23,800
much fun in europe that must have been so much fun i'm like it was very fun it was absolutely
458
00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:29,720
very fun this europe of course something new and it's it's cool experience but at the same time it
459
00:40:29,720 --> 00:40:35,880
was very much work in the like fulfilling way it like i don't know i just felt very devoted because
460
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:43,240
like um this was kind of just after i got in the hospital so my energy levels were just tanking
461
00:40:43,240 --> 00:40:49,880
all the time but i was trying to like just manage most of the time i was like manage expectations
462
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:56,120
manage their scheduling every day and um just like you know something something simple it's
463
00:40:56,120 --> 00:41:01,320
just carrying their bags for them or is that is like it's enough to like help more than what i
464
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:07,960
was doing and um there there always comes the point when the athlete needs the talk
465
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:17,480
and i'm like yo i'm not that much older than you right now but like i will try my best to put my
466
00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:24,520
mentor hat on and try to like you know like tell you that yo this it will not define you no matter
467
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:28,360
what the result is and like when you actually truly believe in yourself you can try your best
468
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:34,680
kind of speech and it is daunting because i'm like i don't know if i'm qualified for that like
469
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:39,880
absolute imposter syndrome what am i doing here like how did i get here i'm like seeing all the
470
00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:44,600
other world cup coaches they're like you know in their collared shirt and they have like like four
471
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:49,400
ipads running at the same time they have a notebook i'm like hi i make memes on the internet like
472
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:55,560
that's about it and i i don't know it like it was it was interesting so like it was real i was
473
00:41:55,560 --> 00:42:04,200
helping primarily grace um chadwick horton who sort of came on there and then isis rothfork who
474
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:13,400
she recently won the youth junior world national championship and um grace ran their uh comp pr
475
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:18,680
and it was a hard wall to do that on because the wall is very slippery for the tomo skip
476
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:23,960
chadwick also almost broke sub seven for the first time in his life but ran his like all time pr that
477
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:32,280
time and so i was like just trying to juggle and do it as much as i could but at the same time i'm
478
00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:38,120
like i'm trying to figure out what to do as well like i think all the other coaches there they have
479
00:42:38,120 --> 00:42:42,360
done this been there done that like several times they're comfortable they're relaxed i'm there
480
00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:49,080
biting my nails i'm freaking out i'm screaming louder than everyone else and at the same time
481
00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:53,240
i'm like oh i could be an athlete or i want to have fun i want to go party i want to go hang out
482
00:42:53,240 --> 00:42:57,800
with some people but like and just like oh no this is i should take this seriously like i have to take
483
00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:03,000
this seriously that's like my duty um so it was a really eye-opening experience and i think it gives
484
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:08,200
me more experience in in the future for other world cups i'll be able to manage a lot better there
485
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:16,200
yeah this is your first one right um arguably second ish because i was like doing a lot of
486
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:22,040
support staff at salt lake world cup which was also a very weird interesting thing because i
487
00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:27,800
was coaching multiple international athletes as well but i was not listed as an official coach
488
00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:33,720
either and so i made some executive decision calls that i don't think the usa climbing were
489
00:43:33,720 --> 00:43:38,600
exactly the biggest fan of but in my mind i was like this is probably like the best thing to do
490
00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:46,440
and they kind of like got a little mad at me uh we gotta hear about what these are i don't think
491
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:50,120
it's like a big deal and i don't think and there's like obviously there's no bad blood between all
492
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:55,800
of them but like there was like this we had the option to warm up at the milk creek gym and then
493
00:43:55,800 --> 00:44:02,920
go to the venue and and i was like well if it's for speed wouldn't you want to get your laps in
494
00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:08,760
ahead of time so the average speed climber we trained to be our best on our fourth lap
495
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:14,120
and like we get progressively better so like by the sixth lap and maybe up to the eighth lap you
496
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:19,640
were like really good and these athletes i was working with i'm like yo i'll be completely
497
00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:24,840
honest y'all are probably not going to make finals but you can make a dent in with the standings and
498
00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:29,880
try your best so it's like let's get you two laps in at mill creek so you're not on your
499
00:44:30,600 --> 00:44:34,440
third or fourth lap for your qualifiers because normally you get two practice laps and then you
500
00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:40,280
have your quality one quality two and so i was like okay why don't we just game the system just
501
00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:44,840
go to mill creek warm up there and then you're on your fifth and sixth lap by the time you're at
502
00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:49,960
qualities which was like in my mind that was a no-brainer if you have access to the gym you
503
00:44:49,960 --> 00:44:55,800
should use it like absolutely but apparently they wanted them to be at the training center
504
00:44:55,800 --> 00:45:01,560
warming up like on a spray wall and i'm like dog wait just you can warm up on the speed wall
505
00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:08,040
instead of the spray wall and so like to me that was like a no-brainer and we got there and then
506
00:45:08,040 --> 00:45:12,200
apparently they like kind of like somebody told me it's like yeah they weren't a big the biggest fan
507
00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:20,200
of that i was like i'm sorry i i just made the executive decision and eventually later they
508
00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:24,600
actually kind of like sort of agreed with me they're like oh that was a good idea i was like yeah
509
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:31,320
that's okay as long as you don't hate me so it wasn't like against like rules of the world cup
510
00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:35,720
it was just they didn't think it would be the best warm-up for them yeah because they wanted
511
00:45:35,720 --> 00:45:41,480
like all the teammates together and i was like whoa uh they could be together at the gym okay
512
00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:48,360
yeah i had no idea about like it being what the fourth run is the best and then after it's even
513
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:55,720
better so then a bit about i guess warming up for speed at different world cups you said that the
514
00:45:55,720 --> 00:46:05,240
wall at some of them were a bit more slick this has been like a very difficult situation that
515
00:46:05,240 --> 00:46:10,520
a lot of my athletes have been facing where they train on a wall that has good texture which is you
516
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:17,560
know fine like that's pretty average but even a wall that is brand new at a world cup the painting
517
00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:23,000
that they'll put over it or like the the actual coating is slick so they have to be within a
518
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:29,560
standard regulation of grit level which is fine but the literal coating can make something very
519
00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:34,600
slippery or not and so at world champs you saw athletes not make finals because they slipped
520
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:44,520
on the tomorrow skip that was crazy so yeah like does that happen a lot absolutely um at salt lake
521
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:49,160
world cup that was like kind of like a funny world cup because you just saw people just like
522
00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:55,640
eat it on the start move uh like and the really strong athletes and really fast athletes yeah they
523
00:46:55,640 --> 00:47:00,920
can get over it but like the athletes who are just below that level they need that bit of friction
524
00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:05,880
and relying on the smear for the tomorrow skip is really important to them and they didn't have that
525
00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:13,560
so yeah that was kind of my thinking and then so i've like tested every environment for slick
526
00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:19,160
surfaces and one of the reasons why salt lake world cup was so slippery for the qualifiers was
527
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:27,240
it was baking in the sun and so in theory hot rubber on like a hot surface gets a lot of friction
528
00:47:27,240 --> 00:47:32,840
but because the shoes on rubbers like deteriorate and get slippery when they get too hot it's like
529
00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:36,920
better to cool them off because you're putting it on a hot surface and like i've tested everything
530
00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:41,240
before and so then i was like guys we need to cool off our shoes and then like some athletes were
531
00:47:41,240 --> 00:47:46,760
like flaming me they're like that's stupid hot rubber like they heat up formula one tires on hot
532
00:47:46,760 --> 00:47:52,120
i was like yeah but we're not formula one cars we're not like a one ton car we're like very light
533
00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:57,160
and so like the rubber is completely different i was like and then later on apparently i overheard
534
00:47:57,160 --> 00:48:01,960
that like somebody brought up is like hey i have a great idea we should cool down our shoes and i was
535
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:10,120
like wait that was my idea that y'all were flaming me for but like i like had thought of so many like
536
00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:15,400
solutions and now one of the recent things to prepare the athletes is like we went to home
537
00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:21,160
depot and me and grace actually and he found a bunch of surfaces that are slippery so we're
538
00:48:21,160 --> 00:48:25,640
just going to put it there on the wall do the tomo skip if you can do it on plexiglass you can
539
00:48:25,640 --> 00:48:31,160
do it anywhere you want oh you would do it on glass yeah like plex uh yeah plastic plexiglass
540
00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:38,760
oh yeah yeah yeah i just i can't imagine i i mean i guess it was just wishful thinking that all of
541
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:45,960
the walls would feel exactly the same because it should be the same route every time um yeah i can't
542
00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:53,720
imagine how hard it would be to just be feeling something different on a route that you've practiced
543
00:48:54,600 --> 00:49:00,680
so many times that should be the same thing because it kind of it's kind of it kind of reminds me of
544
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:06,440
that thing with stairs where people say like oh if there's like a third a quarter inch difference
545
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:12,120
in a stair you can like feel it and you'll like trip so yeah that must be really hard if it's
546
00:49:12,120 --> 00:49:17,080
different at different world cups yeah i don't know have you by chance ever played like instruments
547
00:49:17,800 --> 00:49:24,200
yeah yeah yeah like if you have your violin versus someone else's violin it's just tell i'm a violin
548
00:49:24,200 --> 00:49:29,800
player oh no i was a pure guess i was just that was an absolute pure guess but no it's like a guess
549
00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:35,000
right like because like it just feels slightly off and it's like oh it's the same size violin if
550
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:39,080
it was like okay like a half-size violin versus full-size yeah okay there's a difference there
551
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:44,440
but like it's it's a violin it should be the same and it is so different it is a world different
552
00:49:44,440 --> 00:49:52,760
it is almost the same concept in speed climbing yeah even like because when they pour the holds
553
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:58,040
of course there's going to be a level of tolerance of incongruencies so even some
554
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:03,480
holds on the same route poured from the same manufacturer during the same day are different
555
00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:11,480
and we can tell that and so i guess when there's like more grip it helps quite a lot i think at one
556
00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:18,440
of the speed world cups this year there were like a lot of records getting broken um was that in
557
00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:26,680
korea or yeah korea that wall is like a god-tier wall like the texture is amazing the holds were
558
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:33,400
good and so of course vedrik just like destroyed it went 490 and then every comp after that kind
559
00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:38,920
of like went down a little bit but then people got better so they went back up so yeah you got
560
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:47,880
to see some trends yeah yeah that's interesting um and i guess speaking of vedrik um why are some
561
00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:55,000
countries like indonesia so good at speed climbing but maybe not other disciplines
562
00:50:55,000 --> 00:51:04,440
i recently made like a very niche in group meme so there's a photo of the beijing uh team for speed
563
00:51:04,440 --> 00:51:09,240
climbing and they have like eight lane wall they have like four trainers on hand they have a lead
564
00:51:09,240 --> 00:51:13,640
wall they have weightlifting they live in a hotel together they do everything everything's paid for
565
00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:18,840
and i like showed this photo to people it's like hey what do you what team do you think this is for
566
00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:23,160
and they're like uh that seems that's like the chinese national team right i was like yeah yeah
567
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:27,960
i was like yeah yeah yeah but just take one more guess and they're like this is their development
568
00:51:27,960 --> 00:51:34,520
team the development team has an eight lane speed wall that is like enclosed no distractions
569
00:51:34,520 --> 00:51:39,000
the development team in the united states america you get a discounted day pass at momentum mill
570
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:47,080
creek so that is the level of resources put into the sport by the federation and the nation and so
571
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:52,040
in indonesia and china they live together eat together breathe together they train together
572
00:51:52,040 --> 00:51:57,240
they're always together so like you always have somebody pushing you that day over here for the
573
00:51:57,240 --> 00:52:02,360
last like two weeks sam has been racing me and i'm a full second and a half slower than him i'm
574
00:52:02,360 --> 00:52:09,320
never going to push him as much as like somebody who could and the the biggest thing and i think
575
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:15,400
this goes across anything in any discipline is like having that strong community you see the italian
576
00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:21,480
like who's the best boulders france slovenia for like lead climbing they like always climb together
577
00:52:21,480 --> 00:52:25,480
they always live together in japan i'm sure you've heard the stories of like we just session together
578
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:31,560
at b pump we don't train we just like try really hard exactly like if you have the community where
579
00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:37,880
everyone is on board and just trying really hard naturally the whole country gets better so yeah
580
00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:45,480
you must do a lot of analysis of other speed climbers as well um can you think of any like
581
00:52:45,480 --> 00:52:51,800
intricacies of certain athletes that you find interesting oh man like speed climbing is the
582
00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:57,880
easiest way to see if somebody's deficient in a muscle group or not and it is like to maybe
583
00:52:57,880 --> 00:53:01,320
like the untrained eye it's like oh yeah it just looks like they're going fast but like i can
584
00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:08,600
immediately tell which athlete is like upper arm heavy uh leg heavy are their arms long i can tell
585
00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:14,920
that i can tell what height they probably are based on the way that they move um and so this
586
00:53:14,920 --> 00:53:21,320
kind of goes back to like the whole 1980s and like 1990s world cup bouldering because the holds were
587
00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:27,720
very like basic and that's how you could determine how the person was moving because speed climbing
588
00:53:27,720 --> 00:53:34,600
is like that like there's probably more stylistic differences at a minute level than at first
589
00:53:36,600 --> 00:53:41,560
someone like sam you can very like easily categorize him as a very accurate climber
590
00:53:41,560 --> 00:53:46,680
he may not be like the strongest climber upper body wise but when you see reza it's like oh clearly
591
00:53:46,680 --> 00:53:51,160
this guy does like pull-ups every day with like 200 pounds on his back and he's just like ripping
592
00:53:51,160 --> 00:53:57,480
holds off the wall and it looks very clunky but it is still very fast and vedrik it's like okay
593
00:53:57,480 --> 00:54:03,080
this guy is like clearly every single muscle in his body was designed to speed climb and that was
594
00:54:03,080 --> 00:54:08,200
it's just like yeah his legs and arms are perfect there's no deficiency he has just like really good
595
00:54:08,200 --> 00:54:13,560
really good skill um there are some climbers that like on speed that are running very fast times but
596
00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:18,120
it looks like a wild ride it looks like they have no control of what's happening but they still get
597
00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:24,200
to the top very fast there's climbers like ludovico who often people are like oh he doesn't look that
598
00:54:24,200 --> 00:54:28,680
fast and then you look at the time he like ran a 5.0 it's like oh no that was very fast he's tall
599
00:54:28,680 --> 00:54:35,480
and he's very graceful and elegant so it looks very smooth um i think with especially on the female
600
00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:42,040
side you see bigger differences in styles because uh the the center of gravity of them uh it varies
601
00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:49,560
a lot big more than on the men and so it is so like beautiful to i wish like i could motion capture
602
00:54:49,560 --> 00:54:55,000
every single speed athlete and just have that like just playing over and over again to see like
603
00:54:55,000 --> 00:55:02,280
how they move and the biomechanics of it but yeah i don't know i i think you would if you could try
604
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:08,200
speed probably understand a lot more about yourself as well as a climber than at first glance seems
605
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:11,160
yeah is uh is taller better
606
00:55:15,240 --> 00:55:20,840
arguably no um there's probably like a you are too tall for this ride kind of height
607
00:55:21,880 --> 00:55:27,640
um i'd say like if you're six two six three that's like you're reaching limit
608
00:55:27,640 --> 00:55:32,840
uh but maybe i'm wrong maybe i'm wrong there could be better betas out there for taller people um
609
00:55:32,840 --> 00:55:37,800
so luda you have at the highest end ludovico who's always making finals and the low end where you
610
00:55:37,800 --> 00:55:44,200
have like vidri i believe it's like five four five five he's like tiny in standards like he's like
611
00:55:44,840 --> 00:55:51,720
what yeah like half a foot if not more shorter than ludovico and he's speeding it i'd say like
612
00:55:51,720 --> 00:55:58,040
from just the biomechanics standpoint you see the fastest sprinters in the world for the first 60
613
00:55:58,040 --> 00:56:03,000
meters are all very short and then the tall guys take over after that usain bolt he was criticized
614
00:56:03,000 --> 00:56:09,320
oh you start slow but he's always going to beat you later on and so since it's such a short race
615
00:56:09,320 --> 00:56:16,520
you don't have time to build up speed um so being taller is probably worse but then you just have
616
00:56:16,520 --> 00:56:21,480
people making it work so who knows we don't have enough data and there's not enough tall climbers
617
00:56:21,480 --> 00:56:28,760
out there to even just like make that assumption but i'm gonna say like five ten and unders like
618
00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:37,640
that nice ratio yeah going back to um like intricacies of certain athletes uh i'm a very
619
00:56:37,640 --> 00:56:46,600
casual speed viewer um so yeah i don't have uh i guess all the information on um what makes a
620
00:56:46,600 --> 00:56:55,160
better speed climber um and of course uh alexander mireslaw is always um up there except at the world
621
00:56:55,160 --> 00:57:03,320
champs which was kind of a shame crazy yeah um but i feel like the only thing i've noticed is that
622
00:57:03,320 --> 00:57:13,080
at the top of her run she just kind of like blasts off i don't know what it is what is that her beta
623
00:57:13,080 --> 00:57:19,800
is very in tune with somebody who's a shorter height um there are more foot movements than somebody
624
00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:25,640
taller betas would do and because of that it's like hard to do because you need to be a more
625
00:57:25,640 --> 00:57:33,320
accurate per percentage of footholds and then b you have to move your feet really fast but if
626
00:57:33,320 --> 00:57:40,680
you can accomplish that she just like overpowers it and this is gonna be a crazy statement but like
627
00:57:40,680 --> 00:57:47,320
alexander mireslaw is not even close to like technically perfect she has like she could still
628
00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:54,040
probably go like a full 0.4 0.5 faster than she's already going she is so strong she kind of gets
629
00:57:54,040 --> 00:57:59,160
away with things that like a weaker climber wouldn't be able to get away with technically
630
00:57:59,720 --> 00:58:07,000
um but yeah i'd be i would love one day if she was like if i if i was honored bestowed honored
631
00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:12,680
enough to like help her technical wise because like she's not even close to limit like and that's
632
00:58:12,680 --> 00:58:17,880
like the insane part like she could go even faster so i i'm honestly like terrified for the rest of
633
00:58:17,880 --> 00:58:22,840
the athletes i was like yo she's gonna run 5.8 and you're not gonna know what's coming and it's just
634
00:58:22,840 --> 00:58:27,960
a matter of time until either she figures it out or adapts to that exciting i hope uh i hope she'll
635
00:58:27,960 --> 00:58:36,600
see this one day and uh you know call you up but yeah i mean she's an insane climber regardless
636
00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:44,360
she's faster than me by a mile so i got work to do yeah um and huge upset for her at the world
637
00:58:44,360 --> 00:58:51,560
champs um i mean i'm sure she'll make it in eventually um but yeah thinking about the
638
00:58:51,560 --> 00:58:58,840
olympics now that it's its own separate category um do you know what that format is gonna be like
639
00:58:58,840 --> 00:59:04,680
like same as the world cups or something different i like don't know off the top of my head which is
640
00:59:04,680 --> 00:59:09,000
kind of bad just because like i always forget because it's very convoluted it's since there's
641
00:59:09,000 --> 00:59:16,920
14 athletes it's like they do some seating round and then they do a bracket format to determine
642
00:59:16,920 --> 00:59:22,280
like eight climbers and then there's like a lucky loser that goes in and then do it they do a bracket
643
00:59:22,280 --> 00:59:28,360
of eight it is so weird and i have to like double check because like i might even be saying half of
644
00:59:28,360 --> 00:59:37,240
this wrong but i think the format is going to be very volatile because like anybody could make
645
00:59:37,240 --> 00:59:43,400
finals and anybody could go to the end still um initially i heard rumors that they were proposing
646
00:59:43,400 --> 00:59:50,680
like uh um like a loser's bracket and then like uh third fourth place first second was the best two
647
00:59:50,680 --> 00:59:56,840
out of three which i would have loved personally uh because there was like a mathematical breakdown
648
00:59:56,840 --> 01:00:03,000
that if somebody lost and crawled their way to the finish they could have ran like some 20 odd runs
649
01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:07,480
in one day and just be like an absolute zero to hero uh which would have been a cool storyline
650
01:00:07,480 --> 01:00:15,880
but i don't know i'm very curious to see how the format works and i'm going to try to uh set up
651
01:00:15,880 --> 01:00:23,880
some in-house tournaments that follow that format and we'll see how that works but um i like that
652
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:29,400
they have a medal of their own but i'm obviously going to want more and i wish we could have a full
653
01:00:29,400 --> 01:00:35,800
bracket of 16 and we could have like 48 athletes uh going to the comps yeah why did they choose 14
654
01:00:36,360 --> 01:00:42,600
instead of 16 i believe i don't forget the exact reason but it was like a a quota per country
655
01:00:43,000 --> 01:00:48,200
uh that they could fill and like they definitely gave more spots to lead in boulder which is fair
656
01:00:48,200 --> 01:00:54,840
like that's like the original but um just the the random speed enthusiasts like me are begging for
657
01:00:54,840 --> 01:01:02,760
more i mean still not even that many spots i guess i don't know how many athletes go to other sports
658
01:01:02,760 --> 01:01:10,680
but i felt like 20 and 14 is kind of not that many yeah like i know there's sports out there with like
659
01:01:10,680 --> 01:01:17,880
80 athletes registered i'm like dang when's that gonna be us yeah maybe one day i mean i hope they're
660
01:01:17,880 --> 01:01:24,040
i hope they're fighting for it with with enough uh memes and content like this you know maybe
661
01:01:24,040 --> 01:01:30,520
speed will get on the radar yeah enough interest in competition climbing that would be great i don't
662
01:01:30,520 --> 01:01:34,760
know what meme i'll make after the olympic speed climbing but like i have to make sure it goes
663
01:01:34,760 --> 01:01:40,920
viral enough that they like consider it next year yeah yeah yeah and then maybe they'll let you
664
01:01:40,920 --> 01:01:46,360
commentate there oh that'd be a dream oh man olympic commentary would just i'll probably cry
665
01:01:46,360 --> 01:01:52,920
well i guess the channels have their own commentary don't they uh i don't know i don't know that
666
01:01:52,920 --> 01:02:00,600
process is too much for me yeah um but yeah back to coaching um so you do speed coaching did you
667
01:02:00,600 --> 01:02:07,000
and you said that when you were in school you also coached like bouldering and leadings so i coached
668
01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:14,600
like uh the feeder team as well as like some of the uh athletes for team texas um and so that's
669
01:02:14,600 --> 01:02:20,840
kind of where like oh man i may maybe i do have like a knack for like helping coaching or like
670
01:02:20,840 --> 01:02:25,080
maybe it's not so much i felt like i had a knack or edge over anyone else which is like i enjoyed
671
01:02:25,080 --> 01:02:30,680
it a lot more um it was very fun it was really cool to see progress in athletes that had the
672
01:02:30,680 --> 01:02:35,960
gifts and abilities that i've never had um and so one of the bigger things that i've been doing
673
01:02:35,960 --> 01:02:42,840
recently is trying to band together all the athletes to salt lake which has been slowly
674
01:02:42,840 --> 01:02:47,240
working more athletes are moving here especially collegiate athletes who are moving here for the
675
01:02:47,240 --> 01:02:52,280
u of u but like yeah as i was saying like earlier china and indonesia they live eat and breathe and
676
01:02:52,280 --> 01:02:58,040
sleep together they train together all the time we don't have that so like what like that's my job
677
01:02:58,040 --> 01:03:06,600
now and so i went all the way from like bandying some little kids that are running around to climb
678
01:03:06,600 --> 01:03:12,680
their first b1 to sort of finding this weird niche place in salt lake city that i didn't expect
679
01:03:12,680 --> 01:03:19,640
myself to do um one of the things i said as i left colorado was like i need to go change the world i
680
01:03:19,640 --> 01:03:25,560
just don't know how i don't even know if this is how it's going to happen but i feel like this is
681
01:03:25,560 --> 01:03:31,640
like the purpose of life for me for at least time being like that may change even tomorrow or next
682
01:03:31,640 --> 01:03:36,920
year or whenever but at least for now it's like this is sort of it like this is kind of what i
683
01:03:36,920 --> 01:03:44,440
have to do and like i love it and it's a duty and it is a duty bestowed to myself by myself
684
01:03:45,080 --> 01:03:48,440
so i'll just keep doing it until somebody tells me to stop or i decide to stop
685
01:03:49,240 --> 01:03:56,680
well i mean that's a very noble pursuit um you mentioned that you want to i guess
686
01:03:56,680 --> 01:04:03,640
give other athletes this opportunity that you never had um but you are still trying to make
687
01:04:03,640 --> 01:04:10,600
national team yourself aren't you and it's been a very difficult juggling effort because
688
01:04:11,480 --> 01:04:16,920
during the session i can't help myself i'm like okay i can clearly see the athletes struggling
689
01:04:16,920 --> 01:04:20,600
i should go say something i should go sit but i like no focus yourself and like it's always
690
01:04:20,600 --> 01:04:27,560
like an internal struggle and now uh since my handle is professor oak which also i i don't know
691
01:04:27,560 --> 01:04:36,360
wait did you get do you get my handle on instagram um i've never thought about it that hard to be
692
01:04:36,360 --> 01:04:45,400
honest well okay so there's something to get yeah um no it's like pretty easy i can't say i do
693
01:04:45,960 --> 01:04:51,000
it's just like from pokemon that's it that's all oh okay so i never watch pokemon so that would be
694
01:04:52,280 --> 01:04:57,320
why i don't understand ironically me neither i've never seen a single episode but i just
695
01:04:57,320 --> 01:05:02,360
thought like okay professor oak from pokemon that's like okay my last name is oak okay i'll take this
696
01:05:02,360 --> 01:05:09,720
handle oh is that like a is that a character yeah he's like one of the major characters in the thing
697
01:05:09,720 --> 01:05:14,440
and like i don't know i just like picked it randomly so people thought like professor oak meant
698
01:05:14,440 --> 01:05:18,200
like i'm like trying to be a professor i'm like no no no it's like a pokemon reference it's like
699
01:05:19,240 --> 01:05:23,720
yeah i kind of thought the other thing as well yeah it's like it's definitely way dumber than
700
01:05:23,720 --> 01:05:27,800
people like want to give me credit for like i don't know if i should change it but like i can't anymore
701
01:05:30,200 --> 01:05:38,360
but so uh i i don't know it's like i want to train for myself but like at the same time
702
01:05:38,360 --> 01:05:45,960
i need to block off office hours for myself to like get my own work done and so now um probably
703
01:05:45,960 --> 01:05:51,960
like starting tomorrow uh i'll let the athletes climb from like 10 a.m until 2 p.m and then i'll
704
01:05:51,960 --> 01:05:58,360
rest and then i'm gonna start training at night by myself because like uh i need myself to focus on
705
01:05:58,360 --> 01:06:04,200
myself and and that is a difficult endeavor and it's been like two years now since i've been trying
706
01:06:04,200 --> 01:06:09,720
to get on the team and it is so unbelievably hard people have no clue how hard it is to get on team
707
01:06:11,240 --> 01:06:16,040
yeah well so like what are you doing to make it happen like do you have your own coach or
708
01:06:16,040 --> 01:06:23,160
are you still more coaching yourself just kind of myself um i've if there was honestly like i kind
709
01:06:23,160 --> 01:06:28,360
of know what i need to do every time i just the what i really need is somebody just like hey you're
710
01:06:28,360 --> 01:06:33,640
not doing this stop being lazy just do it stop bad like i need somebody to like tell like read what
711
01:06:33,640 --> 01:06:40,600
i'm telling other people um that'll be probably the biggest help um and so this year's cut off for
712
01:06:40,600 --> 01:06:49,480
even having a comp start is 6.02 and if you want to be on team you need to run 5.63 or 62
713
01:06:50,360 --> 01:06:56,520
so it's very very very difficult now so like i'm not even making the time cut off right now so i
714
01:06:56,520 --> 01:07:02,840
got so much work to do so off the wall training uh on the wall training um i prioritize on the
715
01:07:02,840 --> 01:07:09,320
wall training because i lack volume right now um but yeah you got to lift heavy you got to jump
716
01:07:09,320 --> 01:07:14,920
hard you got to try everything and just over and over and over and just be obsessive over the details
717
01:07:15,400 --> 01:07:21,080
um yeah i don't know how you structure your bouldering training but it's not that serious
718
01:07:23,240 --> 01:07:32,120
unfortunately yeah yeah um but yeah so with i guess how fast like speed records are evolving i
719
01:07:32,120 --> 01:07:37,240
don't know if that's just because of the wall texture that one time um i mean there's also just
720
01:07:37,240 --> 01:07:44,680
a lot of like young people coming up who like have this specific goal already in mind um do you feel
721
01:07:44,680 --> 01:07:54,440
like you can keep up um you know bosa malwem is the hero of everybody because dude's 38 with two
722
01:07:54,440 --> 01:08:00,920
kids and he's making every final so i'm like ah man i have over 10 years to like say that i can't
723
01:08:00,920 --> 01:08:08,040
keep up like i have no excuse right so technically i know more than the kids but they're gonna excel
724
01:08:08,040 --> 01:08:14,680
at make making the adjustments faster than me but it is just so hard like every week there's some
725
01:08:14,680 --> 01:08:19,880
new sub six climber in the world and i'm like dude y'all need to stop it's getting a little out of
726
01:08:19,880 --> 01:08:25,160
hand and somebody's breaking a pr somebody's getting close to sub five and it gets hard to
727
01:08:25,160 --> 01:08:32,840
keep up but i feel like that's kind of what makes it more fun because um yeah if everybody was bad
728
01:08:32,840 --> 01:08:36,520
and you got to be the best would that be something you want in your life i don't i don't know
729
01:08:36,520 --> 01:08:42,840
like i want a challenge yeah and so i get to be from the bottom crawling my way up to there i
730
01:08:42,840 --> 01:08:48,440
don't think i would ever be at the level where i would win a world cup ever um that's being brutally
731
01:08:48,440 --> 01:08:53,800
honest with the amount of time i have and like the mental fortitude and strength and health um but
732
01:08:53,800 --> 01:08:59,080
to be at the level where it's like very competitive i think it's possible um i just need some time
733
01:08:59,080 --> 01:09:07,800
yeah fair yeah you have some time um and yeah you brought up basa mawem um he also had a really bad
734
01:09:07,800 --> 01:09:15,160
injury that he came back from um so it's good to see him competing again that's nice and i guess
735
01:09:15,160 --> 01:09:23,960
speaking of injuries you've also had your fair share of injuries i'm uh the poster child of getting
736
01:09:23,960 --> 01:09:33,480
in the hospital and just dying yeah how yeah so what kind of injuries have you dealt with um just
737
01:09:33,480 --> 01:09:43,000
like from childhood to now let's let's start from toe to head so i've uh my left pinky toe is
738
01:09:43,000 --> 01:09:49,240
permanently dislocated and i can like pop it in and out anytime i want i fully ruptured all the
739
01:09:49,240 --> 01:09:56,200
ligaments in my left foot because i did a flip onto a sprinkler head and it just like collapsed
740
01:09:56,200 --> 01:10:05,640
into me uh i've partially damaged uh ruptured my left meniscus and fully root cap meniscus on my
741
01:10:05,640 --> 01:10:16,600
right ACL MCL LCL full tear surgery um twice twice twice um and then i've had shoulder surgery where
742
01:10:16,600 --> 01:10:21,800
i tore three out of four rotator cuff muscles like slap tear bank heart lesion like full
743
01:10:21,800 --> 01:10:29,000
labral tear like full nine yards and then very recently i had a septic elbow bursitis that like
744
01:10:29,000 --> 01:10:34,680
put me in the hospital so fast and i am the most stubborn guy i'm like oh i don't need the hospital
745
01:10:34,680 --> 01:10:44,040
i'm better than that but yeah um are all these climbing related or none of these the crazy thing
746
01:10:44,040 --> 01:10:49,400
is like almost none of them are climbing related it's just like by proxy life things or it's like
747
01:10:49,400 --> 01:10:54,280
there is no way i got that unlucky especially with the septic bursitis i was like i didn't do
748
01:10:54,280 --> 01:11:01,800
anything abnormal that day um and then how did that happen again i i don't know like i definitely
749
01:11:01,800 --> 01:11:08,520
bumped my elbow but i do that every session i'm sure every climber does and then about two hours
750
01:11:08,520 --> 01:11:13,640
later i was like oh my elbow's kind of fat huh swollen huh that's not that's not normal and then
751
01:11:13,640 --> 01:11:18,600
six hours later i was like shivering my like organs were collapsing i was like guys i think
752
01:11:18,600 --> 01:11:23,880
this is not good i was stubborn and i held out going to the hospital for about like three days
753
01:11:23,880 --> 01:11:31,560
and i uh holy crap three days it's it was not cold it was like hot in salt lake it's like 90 degrees
754
01:11:31,560 --> 01:11:37,800
i had two pairs of like sweaters on jeans two blankets and i was shivering like she's shaking
755
01:11:37,800 --> 01:11:42,520
like and i'm pretty sure my organs like my organs were collapsing at that point like
756
01:11:42,520 --> 01:11:45,720
they were failing they were proper failing i get to the hospital they're like huh
757
01:11:46,840 --> 01:11:54,600
you're not doing too hot are you i'm like no i'm fine um i'll be good and at this time i was
758
01:11:54,600 --> 01:12:00,040
hosting like sort of a mini speed boot camp for a lot of the athletes before uh vilaris and shemini
759
01:12:00,040 --> 01:12:05,560
and so like they're video calling me when they're at the gym and i'm like yeah that looks that looks
760
01:12:05,560 --> 01:12:11,640
good okay cool bye i just like went back to passing out oh my goodness uh that's not great
761
01:12:12,200 --> 01:12:19,080
yeah i can use my elbow a little bit more than i used to um not 100 yet but i have a poster
762
01:12:19,080 --> 01:12:25,400
behind me a whiteboard that says post hospital personal best so i reset the counter to like
763
01:12:25,400 --> 01:12:31,480
every attempt after going to the hospital i've counted as like a new personal best so that's been
764
01:12:31,480 --> 01:12:36,280
motivational yeah i mean that's a good way to think of it i think it's always hard coming back
765
01:12:36,280 --> 01:12:41,960
after an injury um do you feel like mentally that's been difficult for you or have you have
766
01:12:41,960 --> 01:12:50,360
you been able to push through that i think i am probably the best person for all of this stuff to
767
01:12:50,360 --> 01:12:59,720
happen to because i am more resilient than i know so many people are um my friend tore his acl and
768
01:12:59,720 --> 01:13:05,080
he was like wait six months later you were like running and you didn't stop at all how did you do
769
01:13:05,080 --> 01:13:10,840
it like i gained like 80 pounds and i like hate my life i'm like i i don't know i i think i'm
770
01:13:10,840 --> 01:13:16,040
blessed that i'm like very psyched at all times i'm like okay i'm injured now it's a setback i'll
771
01:13:16,040 --> 01:13:23,080
figure it out um but this last injury was the first breaking point i think i've ever experienced
772
01:13:23,640 --> 01:13:30,520
because i was scared um normally after 72 hours i've gotten over anything like i like i know i'll
773
01:13:30,520 --> 01:13:35,560
be fine at least i've got to the point this is the first time i was like oh this is bad i like
774
01:13:35,560 --> 01:13:40,520
messaged some people like guys i think i'm like legitimately scared this time this is not good
775
01:13:40,520 --> 01:13:46,120
and then the last day that i was taking antibiotics and they sort of said like if it doesn't get better
776
01:13:46,120 --> 01:13:52,360
you need to get back to the hospital the last possible day i was like hallucinating crazy
777
01:13:52,360 --> 01:13:59,240
vivid hallucinations it was terrifying i thought there were black widows all over me it was like
778
01:13:59,240 --> 01:14:04,680
nightmare state and then like i went i finally passed out sweating and like woke up and i felt
779
01:14:04,680 --> 01:14:11,320
a lot better i was like oh i got over the hump but i was very scared oh so you didn't go back to the
780
01:14:11,320 --> 01:14:15,400
hospital i saw i didn't go back to the hospital and then like the antibiotics finally worked their
781
01:14:15,400 --> 01:14:22,200
course but yeah and then recently like because the antibiotics like just these this like military
782
01:14:22,200 --> 01:14:31,240
grade like will kill anything antibiotics like i'm so fatigued uh i was saying before i took a nap
783
01:14:31,240 --> 01:14:37,480
before this interview because i just crash and mentally for me that's more hard because
784
01:14:37,480 --> 01:14:42,760
i'm known as like all right this guy's definitely on crack he's the crack head like at the gym just
785
01:14:43,560 --> 01:14:49,480
going 24 7 but i don't have that energy anymore and it's kind of hard to accept that
786
01:14:50,520 --> 01:14:56,840
because that not only takes away from myself but my ability to help others and i think that gets me
787
01:14:56,840 --> 01:15:03,160
more frustrated yeah totally fair do how long do you think it'll take for you to get that energy back
788
01:15:05,160 --> 01:15:13,560
some days i have six out of ten days most days it's like four at best maybe six months maybe a year
789
01:15:14,520 --> 01:15:19,480
that's pretty much what everything online says and what other doctor professionals have told me and
790
01:15:19,480 --> 01:15:25,480
they're like yeah it takes a long time with that antibiotic specifically because yeah that's
791
01:15:25,480 --> 01:15:31,000
because yeah this antibiotic is like nothing like this one of the most serious antibiotics
792
01:15:31,000 --> 01:15:36,680
could ever be prescribed so it's like yeah you're in it for the long haul good luck just take caffeine
793
01:15:37,240 --> 01:15:43,160
and so that's what i've been doing oh my gosh yeah i mean for sepsis that's like that's not good
794
01:15:44,520 --> 01:15:54,120
yeah i mean hopefully you'll get better soon get that energy back um i think yeah that's uh
795
01:15:54,120 --> 01:16:01,240
uh that's crazy but i guess maybe once you actually get that energy back maybe it's like that uh that
796
01:16:01,240 --> 01:16:08,520
training deficit energy thing that you're talking about so in six months you'll you'll get those
797
01:16:08,520 --> 01:16:15,160
gains yeah so like you and sam may be in strength cycle jail but like i've been dying of fatigue
798
01:16:15,160 --> 01:16:21,640
jail and then once i'm unleashed it's over everyone better be scared yeah yeah yeah like the team and
799
01:16:21,640 --> 01:16:29,000
everything yeah okay well um i don't want to keep you too long i do have a few more discord questions
800
01:16:29,960 --> 01:16:38,360
hopefully you have the energy um yeah first one uh what do you feel stops more people from getting
801
01:16:38,360 --> 01:16:44,920
into speed climbing um lack of introduction events training walls is that the main thing
802
01:16:44,920 --> 01:16:51,080
or do you think it's also like interest um i i feel like a lot more people are interested in like
803
01:16:51,080 --> 01:16:55,640
man when i'm at the gym i see so many people like watching and like i can kind of tell that they
804
01:16:55,640 --> 01:16:59,560
want to try it but like they're intimidated uh intimidation is probably the biggest one but the
805
01:17:00,120 --> 01:17:05,800
access is just hard and that's kind of just going to be an america thing like in europe they're not
806
01:17:05,800 --> 01:17:09,960
clipped up at all like you can just walk up and use it because like they trust people will clip in
807
01:17:09,960 --> 01:17:16,280
and be smart so it is a very much america thing so i'm assuming most of the viewers are american
808
01:17:16,280 --> 01:17:22,440
um but like yeah that is that is a very america problem that like personally i can't do much to
809
01:17:22,440 --> 01:17:27,720
fix um i have my class on thursday so like is open for anyone because the instructor is present but
810
01:17:27,720 --> 01:17:33,960
like legally it is so hard i think the best thing is if you're interested and you can't get access
811
01:17:33,960 --> 01:17:39,080
is to either a message me and i'll try to talk to like the gym manager because i probably have
812
01:17:39,080 --> 01:17:44,280
know somebody that knows them that can like give a pass or something or just like be really nice and
813
01:17:44,280 --> 01:17:49,080
talk to the gym managers like hey i'm very interested but i'm not a professional we'll see
814
01:17:49,080 --> 01:17:56,920
where it goes yeah all right um yeah hopefully i don't know i mean so few gyms have it too just
815
01:17:56,920 --> 01:18:05,240
like wall height and everything yeah yeah um okay uh did the 2020 olympic competition format with
816
01:18:05,240 --> 01:18:11,080
the combined medals undermine the development or acceptance of speed climbing in your opinion
817
01:18:11,080 --> 01:18:20,520
oh i think it accelerated the development of speed as well as um did for the average viewer
818
01:18:21,160 --> 01:18:26,040
create better acceptance for speed and i say uh the accelerated development because
819
01:18:26,040 --> 01:18:31,960
tamoa narasaki literally he's a boulder and so like he's not thinking about the speed wall like
820
01:18:31,960 --> 01:18:36,600
speed climbers speed climbers back then were very like stagnant in their ways is the only way to do
821
01:18:36,600 --> 01:18:41,880
it you have to do it this way or it's bad and he came up to most skip everyone does that nowadays
822
01:18:41,880 --> 01:18:47,320
except for maybe five athletes who are very tall and can do a different start and then you saw
823
01:18:47,320 --> 01:18:52,280
different top betas because of development so like starting to see speed climbing more as climbing
824
01:18:53,080 --> 01:18:59,720
as a speed climber was a huge benefit like tomorrow narasaki will always be the biggest
825
01:18:59,720 --> 01:19:04,680
greatest influence to speed climbing that ever existed and then yeah so like the average viewer
826
01:19:04,680 --> 01:19:08,360
loves speed climbing now they were like oh it's really cool we get to see jacob schubert speed
827
01:19:08,360 --> 01:19:12,520
climb it's funny to watch adamantra speed climb he's so bad haha so it's like you get some like
828
01:19:12,520 --> 01:19:18,600
funny jokes out of it as well so obviously the traditionalists like were disgruntled but i
829
01:19:18,600 --> 01:19:23,400
thought it was great and it was nice to see athletes challenged in a new way yeah definitely
830
01:19:23,400 --> 01:19:32,840
i mean i wouldn't say a lot of people uh i guess except speed climbing um still but yeah it was
831
01:19:32,840 --> 01:19:38,600
it was yeah it was a lot of fun watching other athletes do it um and they were a lot faster than
832
01:19:38,600 --> 01:19:43,960
i was expecting them to be actually yeah like i think all the guys were in the sixes minimum
833
01:19:43,960 --> 01:19:49,320
if not faster so i was like yeah yeah no one was bad like they were all pretty good at it
834
01:19:49,320 --> 01:19:58,520
yeah that was exciting to see um but i guess no more of that unfortunately yeah it was kind of fun
835
01:19:58,520 --> 01:20:06,600
um do you know what the outcome of the athletes commission election will be if a polish or
836
01:20:06,600 --> 01:20:10,680
indonesian will be representing speed and what that would mean for speed in the future
837
01:20:11,640 --> 01:20:22,360
oh i don't think a polish representative would be surprisingly um because but but there's a good
838
01:20:22,360 --> 01:20:27,240
potential that indonesian uh actually i don't know i wouldn't even think about that either
839
01:20:27,240 --> 01:20:33,080
if anything it might be an italian or a french climber i guess what are the implications i don't
840
01:20:33,080 --> 01:20:38,840
actually know what the implications would mean if someone different was representing speed or i
841
01:20:38,840 --> 01:20:44,680
don't even know who's representing speed right now yeah like it should probably be indonesian
842
01:20:44,680 --> 01:20:49,720
or or a polish climber on paper i just don't think that's what's going to happen mainly most
843
01:20:49,720 --> 01:20:54,520
of the indonesian climbers they don't speak very strong english and then the polish climbers they're
844
01:20:54,520 --> 01:21:01,400
like uh there's like one and a half guys that are like climbing hard in poland marsyn zienski and
845
01:21:01,400 --> 01:21:05,720
this other youth climber and then yeah the polish female team is like insanely stacked but then it's
846
01:21:05,720 --> 01:21:11,560
like a little off-balance so like there's probably a bigger chance than an italian or french climber
847
01:21:11,560 --> 01:21:17,880
because of like the language barrier as well so yeah that's that's a very tough question like
848
01:21:18,680 --> 01:21:22,600
my money would be on a polish or indonesian climber but like i don't i'm not sure if that
849
01:21:22,600 --> 01:21:27,160
would actually end up happening is it like they would be making different decisions for speed
850
01:21:27,160 --> 01:21:34,520
climbing's future or like what would be like what would change if it was like a polish climber an
851
01:21:34,520 --> 01:21:41,000
indonesian climber like a french climber honestly in terms of like the actual speed itself like i
852
01:21:41,000 --> 01:21:44,920
don't think many i think most of the speed climbers are very happy with the format and
853
01:21:44,920 --> 01:21:50,360
the way it works now just making sure that like certain warm-up procedures are followed as well
854
01:21:50,360 --> 01:21:54,920
as like certain timing procedures are followed is more important but like the actual legitimate
855
01:21:54,920 --> 01:21:59,400
form like we could probably run any format and people would be happy like around robin or like
856
01:22:00,200 --> 01:22:06,920
a double eland bracket like the more races we're gonna enjoy more but we're not like dissatisfied
857
01:22:06,920 --> 01:22:13,640
with the format that much right now it's volatile it's fun you get to make upsets but yeah i don't
858
01:22:13,640 --> 01:22:19,240
think there would be that any crazy changes and like everyone probably once a week somebody asked
859
01:22:19,240 --> 01:22:23,640
me oh what oh do you do are you forward against the change of the speed route i think lots of
860
01:22:23,640 --> 01:22:29,880
people would enjoy that i'm like okay none of you all have actually speed climbed yet we we have yet
861
01:22:29,880 --> 01:22:36,040
to reach the potential of the speed route like you wouldn't change the 100 meter route yeah
862
01:22:37,080 --> 01:22:43,320
there'll be a place for that eventually but not now yeah i think when i talked to grace a couple
863
01:22:43,320 --> 01:22:49,640
weeks ago they were saying that it's like something they have talked about but yeah not sure if they've
864
01:22:49,640 --> 01:22:54,920
made any progress with it they played with like every four year kind of format and i'm like that'd
865
01:22:54,920 --> 01:23:01,080
be interesting but i think we haven't untapped this current speed route at all so it's like
866
01:23:01,640 --> 01:23:07,080
yeah we just keep it for a bit a little bit longer um that sort of leads into the next one about
867
01:23:07,080 --> 01:23:13,560
future development of speed climbing um i think relay races once mentioned you mentioned some
868
01:23:13,560 --> 01:23:20,600
other formats like brown albin or other formats um yeah what are your thoughts on those it's
869
01:23:20,600 --> 01:23:26,760
it's really cool because in like russia china and indonesia they do relay races and they keep speed
870
01:23:26,760 --> 01:23:31,960
classic which is a randomized route route that they get to race on and so they still like have
871
01:23:31,960 --> 01:23:38,120
old versions and like fun events like that um it would be cool to see at a comp where it's like
872
01:23:38,120 --> 01:23:42,040
all right the speed climbers get their own comp and they have like variations it's like okay the
873
01:23:42,040 --> 01:23:48,200
10 meter who's the fastest 10 meter um who's like relay race would be really fun um it would be more
874
01:23:48,200 --> 01:23:54,600
of like uh in um in gymnastics you have like each individual event and then the all-around or like
875
01:23:54,600 --> 01:23:58,760
uh decathlon you have each individual event you have the all-around winner that could be something
876
01:23:58,760 --> 01:24:03,560
something kind of interesting to play with like who's the best true speed climber at everything
877
01:24:03,560 --> 01:24:10,280
maybe they have an a route and b route um who knows like i would love to see it i don't know
878
01:24:10,280 --> 01:24:15,160
where my place in any of those decisions would be but if i have any influence i will try to make my
879
01:24:15,160 --> 01:24:22,360
voice loud and clear um with being in favor of those changes how does relay work with like
880
01:24:22,360 --> 01:24:30,520
clipping in and stuff it is crazy it is so scary because um they normally so you have like one
881
01:24:30,520 --> 01:24:42,440
person uh run the route and then they have to do it on normal like hand belay oh it's just the
882
01:24:42,440 --> 01:24:50,680
first person and the first person gets like lowered insanely fast because the second they
883
01:24:50,680 --> 01:24:56,200
finish the second person goes and then the next person is on auto belay and then they go up again
884
01:24:57,160 --> 01:25:03,800
oh that's terrible it's so scary they gotta get lowered within five seconds basically
885
01:25:03,800 --> 01:25:08,680
is there like video of this anywhere like i gotta see that i'll have to send you to you it's it
886
01:25:08,680 --> 01:25:12,760
looks terrifying they just get like thrown down and like they get stopped at the last second
887
01:25:12,760 --> 01:25:18,680
and then the yeah it's usually three versus three so the second person finishes their route and when
888
01:25:18,680 --> 01:25:24,120
they hit the buzzer the third person could finally go yeah i can't wait to see that um i mean even
889
01:25:24,120 --> 01:25:30,520
just like like top rope belaying someone up a speed route you must just be like pulling the rope like
890
01:25:30,520 --> 01:25:36,040
crazy yeah there's been like crazy deck stories when it used to be top roping like all the time
891
01:25:36,040 --> 01:25:41,240
so like this is like one of the wildest things you'll see especially like yeah everyone's going
892
01:25:41,240 --> 01:25:46,920
five seconds it's not it's not just anything normal yeah oh my gosh that's insane yeah i can't
893
01:25:46,920 --> 01:25:53,240
wait to see that um all right last one and it's a bit of a different one what was it like to rock
894
01:25:53,240 --> 01:26:00,520
climb with a kiyo naguchi i didn't know you did that but oh someone knew this is one of the most
895
01:26:00,520 --> 01:26:06,920
nearest and dearest moments of my entire life so i we went to joe's valley as like sort of a big
896
01:26:06,920 --> 01:26:13,480
group and then later on we i took her to a little cottonwood canyon she is is better than everyone
897
01:26:13,480 --> 01:26:19,960
first off just like absolutely clans perfectly destroyed this v12 like third go or something
898
01:26:19,960 --> 01:26:27,880
that was it's pretty hard to flash like every v8 we touched and she's always just sitting down and
899
01:26:27,880 --> 01:26:31,960
watching the climbs and like just learning and just like looking at the rock and just staring
900
01:26:31,960 --> 01:26:37,000
and staring and staring she's always like you can tell she's like the gears are turning but the most
901
01:26:37,000 --> 01:26:42,840
important moment that came out of all that was on the drive down to little from little cottonwood
902
01:26:42,840 --> 01:26:48,840
canyon back to the city it is gorgeous and there's a certain turn that like opens up and you see like
903
01:26:48,840 --> 01:26:54,440
the whole city and it is the most gorgeous valley and i have a sunroof and then i was like hey
904
01:26:54,440 --> 01:27:01,640
akio let's play a song and then she uh we ended up picking uh uh dancing queen by abba i opened the
905
01:27:01,640 --> 01:27:07,080
sunroof and like i think she kind of just like understood the assignment she like got out of the
906
01:27:07,080 --> 01:27:13,160
sunroof and just like did this in the wind and like i'm slowing down and she sees the beautiful valley
907
01:27:13,160 --> 01:27:18,200
and she i think she even put it at the very end of one of her vlogs uh that very scene and i knew
908
01:27:18,200 --> 01:27:22,680
what that scene meant like i don't think other people knew the context but i was like that was
909
01:27:22,680 --> 01:27:28,440
kind of beautiful because in japan you aren't allowed to climb outdoors if you're on the team
910
01:27:28,440 --> 01:27:33,480
during the season because legal liability or insurance liability because you can get hurt
911
01:27:33,480 --> 01:27:38,840
and so she's gone to all these world cups this is the first one she's gone as a spectator and could
912
01:27:38,840 --> 01:27:45,480
go outdoors and i don't know i like to think in my mind that like that was like the culmination but
913
01:27:45,480 --> 01:27:50,440
like you know she's the dancing queen and she got the dance one last time uh and spread her wings
914
01:27:50,440 --> 01:27:54,840
and it was really wholesome and beautiful and i was like ah i will remember this for the rest of my
915
01:27:54,840 --> 01:28:00,840
life oh that's really sweet how did you um i guess how did you like get in contact with her anyway
916
01:28:00,840 --> 01:28:08,440
i uh it was like definitely a friend of a friend kind of thing uh and they like contacted me to
917
01:28:08,440 --> 01:28:12,760
contact her and then she contacted me through them and then it like worked out because like
918
01:28:13,480 --> 01:28:19,720
i know a little japanese and like i know the area well and communicate and i was somebody that like
919
01:28:19,720 --> 01:28:25,480
she could trust and it all worked out well and apparently tomo said he liked my photos and i'm
920
01:28:25,480 --> 01:28:30,360
no photographer so i was like yo good job thanks i pressed the button i had no clue what i was
921
01:28:30,360 --> 01:28:36,760
doing i don't know any of these settings and so it was a dream come true okay well that's really
922
01:28:36,760 --> 01:28:43,640
nice um yeah good note to end on um yeah well i think that was all the questions then thank you
923
01:28:43,640 --> 01:28:48,360
so much for joining me um anything you want to shout out or let people know where they can find
924
01:28:48,360 --> 01:28:55,560
you uh there's this podcast called that's not real climbing podcast that um no i mean i have an
925
01:28:55,560 --> 01:29:01,240
instagram and a youtube channel but follow me don't follow me i don't really care i'm not so much
926
01:29:01,800 --> 01:29:06,440
i just like making memes and making content whenever i can so if you need speed coaching
927
01:29:06,440 --> 01:29:10,600
though then message me absolutely follow me for that do you have the bandwidth for that right now
928
01:29:11,320 --> 01:29:16,440
probably not but you know i'm gonna still save regardless well yeah reach out and see what
929
01:29:16,440 --> 01:29:22,760
happens um i'll leave your links below um yeah thank you again it was so amazing to talk to you
930
01:29:22,760 --> 01:29:28,600
thank you thank you so much for making it to the end of the podcast if you're watching on youtube
931
01:29:28,600 --> 01:29:34,040
i would love to hear your discussion and thoughts in the comments below and don't forget to like
932
01:29:34,040 --> 01:29:39,480
and subscribe if you enjoyed if you're listening through a podcasting platform i'd appreciate if
933
01:29:39,480 --> 01:29:44,920
you rate it five stars and you can continue the discussion through my competition climbing discord
934
01:29:44,920 --> 01:29:52,760
um linked in all the descriptions through all the platforms thanks again for listening
