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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

355
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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

356
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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

357
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more difficult to get into speed than i thought yeah i want to say that the gym that i started

358
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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

359
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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

362
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enough to be mentored by very high level coaches um throughout like international coaches even

363
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um and so i started speed climbing and i'm like figuring it out myself and i'm coaching myself

364
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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

365
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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

367
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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

368
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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

374
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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

375
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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

378
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released the podcast with grace and they even uh transitioned into letting me help them work up with

379
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them technically and they made some huge leaps and strides and sort of people just start like

380
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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

381
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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

382
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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

383
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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

384
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like tore my shoulder and i was watching videos to make beta break so like full circle here i am

385
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coaching athletes and speed but it all came from because i couldn't walk or breathe or use my arm

386
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and watched lots of old videos of world cups yeah i mean also with your hurtling as well i guess

387
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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

388
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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

389
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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

390
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that um because it was a struggle like i saw other athletes and other like disciplines like

391
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and not even just in sports that they had like resources their parents were helping them they

392
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had like five different coaches they had like sports psychologists i'm like i had me and youtube

393
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and a camera and that's gotta suck for if an athlete has nowhere like nowhere to talk to

394
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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

395
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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

396
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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

397
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how it is for a lot of even like just like professional athletes um weekend warrior

398
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athletes anything like that um yeah i can really make all the difference even myself i got like a

399
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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

400
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it's just nice to like talk to someone and like talk to someone about your climbing and have it

401
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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
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what do you think has been the biggest difference for you now that you have a coach versus when you

403
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weren't honestly i'm doing like a physical training stint right now which i've never done before

404
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because i'm not like an athlete or like a physically active person in general um and so

405
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right now i actually am climbing awful like i hate it i feel like i can't do anything i'm so tired

406
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and weak um so if anything it's been really bad but i'm i'm hopeful that what everyone says about

407
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oh you'll like physically train and then after in a few weeks you'll feel like really amazing and

408
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strong and climb harder than ever before i just have to hope that that's true and real and that

409
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it actually works for me um but if not at least the uh the sports therapy was there yeah oh man

410
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like sam right now is what we call in strength cycle jail which you are also sounds like in

411
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strength cycle jail you just have to actually trust the process and it is so scary and daunting

412
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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