Online Climbing Coach

The Sharma scream

2009-06-18T22:16:00.000+01:00

It’s funny how quickly and readily fashions spread through climbing. Lycra, slang terms like ‘Send it dude!’ and... Screaming. In the eighties, when the French really were the kings of ‘French Style’ climbing, as sport climbing was then known, their ideal was to climb like a ballet dancer, with effortless panache in the movements, a totally straight face and not a sound coming from your lips.

Influences - It can go either way actually

2009-06-11T01:24:00.001+01:00

In my recent coachwise articles published in Scottish Mountaineer (and online here) I’ve talked a lot about the power of influences on your training, in terms of training choices, discipline, goal setting and level of effort. My message here in a nutshell was that if you are surrounded by the psyched, the skilled and the hard working, you are more likely to be those things too. Just listening

Onsight confidence - a holy grail?

2009-03-24T11:31:00.001Z

Justin asks:“I regularly find the difference between success and failure on a route can be distilled down to state of mind on the day - the confident relaxed approach to just go for it that sees you through the crux before you know what's happening as opposed to the doubt, hesitation etc that can lead to panic, missing obvious sequences, placing too much gear then falling off. Working a route

New series of climbing improvement articles

2009-03-02T00:49:00.002Z

I have been working on a series of introductory articles for the Mountaineering Council of Scotland’s magazine and site. They deal with general concepts of improvement in climbing so hopefully they will be thought provoking for beginners and those who’ve been climbing for many years. I’ve just finished the second one, with more on the way soon. The articles are here.Brendan raised an interesting

How many days on?

2008-12-16T11:39:00.000Z

I get many emails from climbers asking how many days on they can have and whether they can do some supplementary training on the ‘rest days’ like fingerboarding.Of course, my reply is ‘it depends!’ Most people can see clearly that an elite level athlete can tolerate many more sessions per unit time than a beginner or someone carrying a complication such as an injury. So there is no standard unit

Review: Climbing-Training for Peak Performance by Clyde Soles

2008-11-27T01:30:00.001Z

I was interested to pick up a copy of this American climbing training manual. Out of the training for climbing manuals I’ve reviewed on this site so far (most of them), none have managed to serve as a single complete reference, and the variations in quality were pretty dramatic.I was a little confused as to what I’d be reading after seeing the cover image of some snow plodding, and flicking

How to be a sponsored climber

2008-10-14T00:04:00.000+01:00

Another email I get a lot from climbers is one asking “how can I go about getting some sponsorship?” or asking what grade do you have to climb to get sponsored. This is another subject I think it’s important to write about on this blog, because for lots of young climbers it’s a really bad distraction and will influence them to make choices that will ultimately limit their climbing, not empower

Modern trends in city dwelling trad climbers

2008-10-13T22:57:00.000+01:00

Following on from my last post where I said people often email and tell me what grades they climb in different disciplines and ask how they can improve. Of course it’s a very complicated picture, but sometimes it’s not so hard to pick out some obvious clues.One very common clue to identifying weaknesses is the balance of strengths, or grades across the disciplines. Lets take a wee look at these

How do I get better?! (in one email)

2008-10-13T22:35:00.003+01:00

Averaging out at once every day, I get a very similar email, which goes roughly like this (with minor variations):“Hi Dave, I’m a really keen climber. I’ve been climbing for (x) years and can do (x) on sport/ trad and I’m bouldering about (x). I go to the wall/crag (x) times a week and out climbing at weekends. I really want to keep improving but I seem to have hit a bit of a plateau and don’t

New research published on finger endurance

2008-10-12T15:03:00.002+01:00

My undergraduate research project investigating determinants of finger endurance in trained climbers was recently published in the Journal of Sport Sciences. You can see the details here or access the full paper if you have access to the scientific journals through an academic or other institution. A huge thanks to Stan Grant for encouraging me to keep going with the log preparation of the

Split tips

2008-10-11T22:41:00.002+01:00

Many of you have been asking about split tips (cuts in the fingertip pad, usually from using small sharp crimps and most often in the index finger, for those of you not familiar with the term).I am no dermatologist, so I speak purely from experience here. There are many techniques various climbers use to manage split tips, some of which I haven’t mentioned here because I feel they are not much

What to do when overtrained?

2008-06-18T14:44:00.001+01:00

training hard and strange things are happening to your motivation and mood. What can you do to get the ship back on course?Before I look at this question, lets start by looking at the more common possibility – you aren’t really overtrained at all! I suspect that most climbers with symptoms of overtraining are not doing more volume than their bodies can handle. Instead they are often suffering

Muscle loss - don't be distracted by it

2008-05-02T11:15:00.001+01:00

In the comments to my previous post on reasons for lack of improvement, Ian asked:“I understand how to lose weight, but is there any specific way to ensure that as you lose weight you reduce fat% and not just body mass?”With a weight loss program there isn’t any way to guarantee you lose only body fat, but you would almost never want this anyway in climbing. Most climbers could do with losing a

Common reasons for zero improvement despite seemingly getting everything right

2008-04-30T20:55:00.000+01:00

So, you eat well, sleep well, climb three+ times a week and mix up the training venue/activity/angle/rock type etc, but you STILL don’t improve. What’s going on?!Here are the top two reasons why this happens in climbing:1. You aren’t trying hard enough. Yep, that’s right, you just don’t give it 100%. Most people simply don’t realise how hard they can try. Don’t believe me? It’s been proven time

How much training can you handle?

2008-04-30T20:46:00.000+01:00

Something that people ask constantly is how much training should I do? How often can I climb? Of course the main worry in the back of folk’s minds is injury. It’s a constant trade off between training hard enough to make an overload and giving your body too much to recover from between sessions and descending to the point of chronic tissue damage.The answer is of course ‘it depends’. It depends

Breathing in climbing

2008-03-13T00:54:00.002Z

Something that people occasionally ask about in climbing is breathing during difficult climbing – how important is it and how can it help your climbing?Obviously we need to breath almost constantly and during exercise of any kind its even more important to fulfil it’s most basic function of delivering enough oxygen and removing carbon dioxide so metabolism can keep happening at the desired rate.

Start reading the rock (and never stop)

2008-01-24T12:28:00.000Z

Coaching is really great fun. I don’t have experience coaching other sports but I’m guessing climbing must be pretty interesting as sports go. In climbing there are so many skills and abilities that create the performance. Meeting climbers who are at a high level you see that many of these skills are a prerequisite and don’t even need mentioning. With these climbers the challenge is to get them

Alcohol and training

2008-01-24T12:05:00.001Z

Brendan asks…“I've just read your reply to an OCC question about how drinking coffee affects endurance training. Something I've wondered about is how another drink - booze! - affects performance.I assume drinking is not beneficial to climbing full-stop, but is it particularly bad to drink soon after a session/on the same day? I often climb on a Friday then go out for a few beers that evening, I'd

Five year Audit

2008-01-23T16:41:00.000Z

Following on from my last post about setting up the conditions to get to work on your climbing, and enjoyment of it, here is a practical one minute step to deciding whether your training is correct. It's so brain dead obvious you might scoff. Be warned.Write down a very brief description (or just think back) of where and how much you climbed, what type of activities this included and who with.

Planning your training - rule 0

2008-01-23T15:34:00.000Z

Freedom > success (not the other way round)Planning your training starts with organising your time to allow time and space to improve at the skill of climbing. Don’t work now to get freedom later. It won’t happen. Find work that gives you the freedom now, and that at least gives you the chance to start now and not later (later is too late).Understand that this is not a mythical easy option. It’s

Lactic Acid woes

2008-01-16T20:31:00.000Z

Nik asks…is there any way of decreasing the production of lactic acid?I’ve heard that drinking a lot of water while doing a long climbing session flushes the lactic acid out,shaking your arms,breathing deeply while on a route,not drinking caffeine as this dilates the blood vessels,Any thoughts or advice?The answer to this, frustratingly, is that it’s not really the question that needs asking!

Top 5 ways to avoid pully injuries

2007-12-18T23:41:00.000Z

I've seen that my posts on A2 pulley injuries on my sites are really popular and get loads of feedback and extra questions. During next year I'll be writing more on this subject and really welcome your case studies either by commenting on the posts directly or emailing me.Phil emailed today to ask about good way to prevent finger injuries. I've written some advice in an extended article on my

Davemacleod.com new stuff

2007-12-15T22:46:00.000Z

Some of you will know that I recently wrote an e-book called ‘How to Climb Hard Trad’. I spent a long time on it trying to explain clearly the mental, physical and practical tactics you can employ to climb harder trad routes, whatever your level. Its got detailed sections on how to be bold, how to climb safely, even when really close to your limit on trad climbs and how to tip the scales much

3 Periodisation Pitfalls

2007-12-15T22:39:00.001Z

Following on from my last post you can see that the raw basics of how to plan a spell of training are pretty simple. Here are some common ways that people go wrong with planning their training:1. Taking avoidable detraining periods – No training at all is bad news. You lose all the gains you worked so hard to get. When life gets in the way for a spell, maintain your current level with just a

Periodisation in 4 sentences

2007-12-15T22:37:00.000Z

‘Periodisation’, or the rather fancy term for planning your training over days, weeks or even years is something lots of folk ask me about. Either you have a trip in 6 weeks, 6 months or you just want to mix up your training so you don’t plateau and stop improving. Most people with an interest in training know that it’s important to make temporal changes in the training activity you do to avoid