1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,840 being out climbed by a lot of my peers, that can be really hard. And I definitely can like start to 2 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:11,680 dig myself into a hole a little bit. I got that email while I was in Whole Foods. And I just 3 00:00:11,680 --> 00:00:16,720 was like running around the grocery store and just like kind of jumping up and down to myself like 4 00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:21,920 World Cup, World Cup, World Cup, the types of moves that that really get me psyched aren't things 5 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:28,080 that you find outside so much. Welcome to another episode of the That's Not Real Coming podcast. 6 00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:34,800 I'm your host Jinni and I'm excited to introduce my guest Cloe Coscoy. Cloe is a French American 7 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:39,600 boulder who has competed for Team USA in the international youth and elite circuit. 8 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:44,800 In this episode, we'll learn about how she accidentally ended up competing in lead World 9 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:51,440 Cups, the difficulties of trying to make it onto a highly competitive US team, and we give some love 10 00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:58,320 to good old gym climbing and plastic pulling. Hope you enjoy this episode with Cloe. 11 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:09,840 Cool. Yeah, how are things going? Yeah, yeah, pretty good. I'm 12 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:14,720 doing any like training today? Yeah, I trained at the training center this morning. 13 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:22,240 I'm kind of starting my taper for team trials right now. So two days of rest over the weekend 14 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:28,400 and like a light session today. I'll rest tomorrow. Yeah, what does tapering look like for you? It 15 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:34,880 starts like a few weeks beforehand. Yeah, so it's kind of been different like throughout my climbing 16 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:41,680 career. And I think I've got it a lot more figured out now than I used to. But I'll usually like 17 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:48,400 like train pretty hard for at least three or four months leading into an event. And then 18 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:56,720 that's kind of usually phased out a little bit. But the last week and a half or so I'll decrease 19 00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:05,600 my volume a ton. So like recently, I had been climbing like five ish days a week. And a lot 20 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:13,040 of those are double sessions. And right now I'm doing just one day on one day off and really short 21 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:19,920 like two hour sessions for the next week and a half. So big decrease in volume. Is it like 22 00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:26,960 your tapering strength training? Just even time spent on the wall. I think in general, like the 23 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:33,040 climbing itself is almost like strength training and that like the more I do it, I get pretty tired 24 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:38,400 for sure. Especially when it's like a lot of steep climbing a lot of powerful climbing. So 25 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:45,040 it's just so that like when I go to compete, I feel really rested and, and strong, I can't be like, 26 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:51,280 Oh, I'm tired from this workout or whatever it was. Yeah. What do you have to, I guess, 27 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:59,440 do at national team trials to make the team? It's hard to know. It's the way it works is we have 28 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:05,920 40% of our points are based off our result at nationals and 60% of our points are based off 29 00:03:05,920 --> 00:03:15,040 our result at team trials. And so I did not great at nationals. I was 10th. Ideally, I would have 30 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:21,280 liked to be in the top five, but the way it works, like if certain people who did well at nationals 31 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:27,440 don't do as well as at team trials, and I do well at team trials, then I might move up the ranking 32 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:32,800 quite a bit or, you know, it can also go kind of the other way around if people who did worse than 33 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:38,160 me do really well at team trials, then they'll get more points. So it's really, really hard to 34 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:44,880 know. I think ideally to make the World Cup circuit, I would like to be first or second, 35 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:52,480 which will be pretty hard, but do my best for that. At the very least, I would really like to 36 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:59,920 qualify for the World Cup in Salt Lake. So in that case, I think if I make finals at team trials, 37 00:03:59,920 --> 00:04:04,080 I have a good chance to be set for that. But it's really hard to know beforehand, 38 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:08,640 we won't really know until the points get calculated and the list comes out. 39 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:13,520 Oh, kind of stressful. Yeah. Yeah, I guess I don't actually know, 40 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:20,560 like the inner workings of the point system and like how you get selected for, I guess it's the 41 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:29,120 World Cup circuit versus just the Salt Lake World Cup. Why is there a difference between the two? 42 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:35,440 Is it just like based on affordability? No, it's since the Salt Lake World Cup, 43 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:44,640 we're the host country, we have a larger quota. So we're allowed more athletes there. So I think it, 44 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:51,280 I can't, I'm not sure exactly how many I believe last year we were allowed 10 athletes, whereas 45 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:56,400 in normal World Cup last year we were allowed five. And this year those numbers will change 46 00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:02,000 a little bit. It's just kind of based on how the team performed the year before and that kind of 47 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:07,520 determines your quota, but it'll be in that range. So we get a lot more people for Salt Lake than we 48 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:15,360 do for any other international World Cups. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, good luck at team trials. 49 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:20,880 Thank you. Thank you. Coming up in a couple of weeks. Yeah. So I'm leaving next Tuesday. So a 50 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:28,160 week from today and competing on Thursday. Okay. Exciting. Well, I think by the time this podcast 51 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:35,920 comes out, it will be done and over with. So hopefully it'll be good news. But yeah, good luck. 52 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:45,040 I'll watch and be rooting for you. Thank you. So for people who don't know, how did you get into 53 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:54,560 climbing and competing in general? Yeah. So when I was probably maybe 10 or 11, this gym called 54 00:05:54,560 --> 00:06:01,280 Bridges Rock Gym opened up near my house in El Cerrito. And I went, I had been to a climbing 55 00:06:01,280 --> 00:06:08,240 gym before a couple times when I was much younger for birthday parties and things. And I went to 56 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:14,640 one at Bridges and then my family kind of was excited about it and decided that we should all 57 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:20,320 sign up for membership. So it was like kind of this thing that we could all do together. 58 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:29,440 So they picked up, they got us a family membership and we all started going there. And I really 59 00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:36,720 quickly took a liking to it and joined the competitive team. So I was on the youth competitive 60 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:44,240 team there for quite a while until I aged out of youth comp climbing. How long after starting 61 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:50,320 climbing did you start competing? I started competing. It's actually kind of a funny story. 62 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:59,360 I should have been in youth B, so like 14 years old for my first USA climbing competition. But 63 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:06,480 a week before regionals, I broke my big toe and I wasn't able to wear a climbing shoe for like six 64 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:13,760 months and had to get a screw in my foot. So I didn't start comp climbing really until I was in 65 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:21,840 youth A, so about 15. Okay, that's pretty late actually. I had done a few local competitions 66 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:28,560 prior to that. But I'd say like the USA climbing competitions are when I started to get a little 67 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:35,280 more serious about comp climbing that was like 15, 16. And yeah, how did you break your big toe? 68 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:39,200 Because that was also like an injury Yanya recently had, right? And I'm just like, 69 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:46,480 yeah, how does that happen? It's so unique. I was actually campus boarding. And there was a foam 70 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:53,520 roller underneath me. And for whatever reason, I didn't think to move it and I fell on it and like 71 00:07:54,240 --> 00:08:00,720 rolled back and just kicked the wall. And my toe had to be in a boot for a while. 72 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:06,000 Geez. Okay. Another concern to keep in mind while campus boarding, I guess. 73 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:12,080 Yeah. I did a lot of hangboarding, a lot of campersing, some one foot climbing. 74 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:18,000 Yeah, I mean, people always say that injuries sometimes allow you to get stronger in other 75 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:24,720 ways. So I guess that worked out for you. For sure. I mean, I was I was pretty young. 76 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:32,000 I don't think it made a huge difference. But well, you never know. But also you started climbing 77 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:37,520 kind of late compared to other people on the circuit. I feel like a lot of people say they 78 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:42,640 started when they were like six or something, which is a little bit crazy. But yeah, I think 79 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:48,960 for like a professional climber, you started a little bit later than everyone else. Do you feel 80 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:54,960 like you missed out starting a bit later? Or do you think younger kids are kind of just messing 81 00:08:54,960 --> 00:09:00,720 around anyway, because they don't really take anything serious? I think one thing that has 82 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:07,680 benefited me a lot is just having done a lot of sports growing up before I started climbing. 83 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:15,520 Like, I used to run kind of cross country and track in middle school, I was on the swim team 84 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:21,920 for like three years, I took tennis lessons growing up. And I was always like playing 85 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:29,280 basketball and soccer. And I went to skate camp when I was younger. So I kind of got to do a lot 86 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:34,320 of different sports. And although I didn't really stick to any for more than a few years, I think it 87 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:42,000 really helped develop my climbing style. It made me a lot more like dynamic and athletic and in my 88 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:47,760 climbing movements and like a little bit more powerful in general. And I think it probably 89 00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:53,360 helped me with my coordination as well. And so when I first started climbing, or when I first 90 00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:59,280 started getting into comp climbing, I definitely had some regrets. And I was like, always thinking, 91 00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:04,080 Oh, I wish I'd started younger, because everyone around me started younger. And I feel like I'm 92 00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:10,400 just trying to catch up to them all the time. And they have so many years on me. But I think at this 93 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:17,680 point, looking back, I think that the way I grew up and my relationship to sport, like definitely 94 00:10:17,680 --> 00:10:23,440 formed and affected how I approach climbing. And so I wouldn't really change that, I don't think. 95 00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:30,400 Yeah, that makes sense. I think we'll get into the other sports you've done later on because I was, 96 00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:38,640 yeah, had some other questions about that. But I also during my research saw that you're a French 97 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,360 citizen. So do you go there much to train? 98 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:49,120 Yeah, I go there quite a bit to train. My parents are both French, they came to the States in 99 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:58,320 98, I think. So they've been in the US since a little before I was born. But we always spoke 100 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:03,760 French at home. And I spent a lot of summers going there to visit family. So I kind of, 101 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:08,720 I just like being in France, I like hearing people speak French and everything. So when I started 102 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:13,360 climbing, I definitely like kind of sought out gyms there when we would go for the summers. And 103 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:20,160 I guess as I got way more into comp climbing, I started to realize how good of a place it was for 104 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:26,720 training. And the French team is obviously super strong, and they have a very specific, like, 105 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:32,560 very specific strengths in climbing. So it's been pretty awesome to be able to train there and 106 00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:38,800 get to know everyone and have that little extra tie to them. I feel like it's a lot easier to get 107 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:42,160 to know them when I can speak French as well. So that's been really nice. 108 00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:51,200 So when I think of French climbing, I think a lot of slab and people who are really great on slab 109 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:59,200 competition boulders as well. When you go there and climb and train for a little bit, do you feel 110 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:05,280 the difference there in terms of like their slab setting? Definitely, I'd say just in general, 111 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:11,920 their level of slab climbing is really good. And in a lot of gyms, a lot of the slabs that you'll have 112 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:18,080 there are harder and more technical or they'll at least have more of them than you would find in a 113 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:24,400 lot of US gyms. And honestly, in a lot of like countries that I've trained in, I think the French 114 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:29,840 have definitely the most slabs and the most hard slabs, which is really, really good for training. 115 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:35,120 So that's always really, really good to practice there. And I always come back from trips there 116 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:41,280 feeling like I've kind of improved at that a little bit. So that's always nice. Yeah, do you 117 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:47,360 have a preference towards slab at all? I know we like, I met you because you were doing a slab clinic 118 00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:55,760 and I'm terrible at slab. So is that one of your strong suits you think? Yeah, I'd say now slab is 119 00:12:55,760 --> 00:13:00,960 definitely one of the styles that I'm more comfortable on. I think I'm quite good at trusting 120 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:06,800 my feet and willing to be pretty uncomfortable and kind of just trust the positions and see, 121 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:14,480 like, see how they work. And I think that makes that makes for like, good slab climbing. But 122 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:21,840 when I grew up, like growing up, I was really, really bad at slab, like, quite bad. I mean, 123 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:27,840 the gym that I grew up in really didn't have any slab walls at the time. And none of the gyms in 124 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:34,160 the Bay Area, at least when I was younger, really had any actual slabs. And so the only time I would 125 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:41,600 practice them was when we would do youth training camps at Mesa Rim in San Diego. And I think going 126 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:49,120 there and having really, really dedicated time on slabs and like breaking down everything from, 127 00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:54,880 like, I couldn't even stand on a volume when I first went there to, like, then doing coordination 128 00:13:54,880 --> 00:14:00,480 and really breaking down, like, everything that that we could figure out about slab climbing made 129 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:06,720 me a lot better. But I think definitely in the past, like three, four years, spending a lot of 130 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:12,560 time in the training center and a lot of time just falling and slipping and banging my shins, 131 00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:19,360 I got I got a lot better at slab climbing. But it took quite a bit of just like dedicated time to 132 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:25,680 that style. And now I'd say I like it a lot. And I'm quite confident in my slab climbing. But it 133 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:31,200 took quite a long time to get there for sure. Yeah, I'm glad to hear the Mesa Rim in San Diego 134 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:34,880 helped out because that's where I am right now. So hopefully I'll be able to help you out. 135 00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:41,120 That's where I am right now. So hopefully I'll make some some strides there as well. Did you ever 136 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:46,240 go to like the I was thinking what it's called. It's not called the training center, but like the 137 00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:53,600 Academy, the Academy. Yeah, did you do this? Yeah, that's where all of our youth training camps were 138 00:14:53,600 --> 00:15:00,320 at the Academy. And it was maybe one week a year or two weeks a year. And for about like three, 139 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:06,960 four years there, I did that with a lot of friends from the youth circuit. And we did so much slab 140 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:14,960 climbing. Okay, I'm excited to make some progress there then. But yeah, and a lot of commercial 141 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:21,840 gyms, there's not much slab. Maybe like, I mean, there's always like a vertical wall. But in terms 142 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:28,000 of slab, there's not much there. Do you have a favorite US gym other than I guess, like the 143 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:35,120 training center? Yeah, I think at least for slab climbing, I really like the bouldering projects 144 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:43,680 gyms. I climb primarily at the bouldering project in Salt Lake City, when I'm just like doing gym 145 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:51,440 slab climbs, and they're usually pretty, pretty good. And like the level is is decent. What I 146 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:57,120 find a lot of the time is that a lot of gyms, even if they do have a slab wall, their their boulders 147 00:15:57,120 --> 00:16:03,520 are just not super hard. And I think it's like a lot of people don't practice the kind of comp slab 148 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:10,800 style. So it's pretty hard to to find the limit of what's doable. And I imagine it's pretty hard 149 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:17,840 to set as well. Yeah, the climbs at bouldering project just like really scare me. It's like not 150 00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:25,520 my style at all. But we'd love to check it out again sometime. But yeah, going into your 151 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:33,120 competition history, I was taking a look at your IFSC history. And it looks like you did a lot more 152 00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:44,560 lead competitions initially. Do you prefer to boulder now? So that was in 2021, the year after 153 00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:53,920 we kind of all got shut down for COVID, we had our first team trials. And I had spent probably 154 00:16:53,920 --> 00:17:00,240 about three quarters of my time and energy training boulders and the rest training lead. 155 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:08,320 And I did really well in the qualification there. And then in the semi finals, I like fully got in 156 00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:15,680 my head and had a really bad round. So I think I think I ended that that comp between 10th and 157 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:24,080 20th for boulders. And then in lead, I like it was after boulders and I kind of had no expectations. 158 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:31,040 I knew I was better at bouldering and just kind of had an okay qualifier made semis and then the 159 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:39,440 semis route was really slabby kind of vert route, like very technical. And I climbed really well in 160 00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:46,720 that on that route made finals, which to me had been was like pretty surprising. I was not expecting 161 00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:54,320 to do well in lead at team trials. And that qualified me for some of the lead World Cups 162 00:17:54,320 --> 00:18:02,480 of for that year. So those were my first World Cups ever. My first one being the Lars. So I kind of 163 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:10,160 like was scrambling after the team trials. I was like scrambling to lead climb more and train more 164 00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:16,000 lead because I really wasn't expecting that it was kind of everyone was doing boulders and lead and 165 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:20,720 figured okay, I'll like train lead too. And then all of a sudden I was going to do international 166 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:26,400 lead comps. So I was training lead a lot and the first lead World Cup went really well. 167 00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:32,160 I think I had no expectations kind of similarly I was like, oh, you know, I'm like lead is pretty 168 00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:38,560 new to me. I have no idea what my level is and ended up making the semi for that. And then every 169 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:45,360 lead World Cup after that I've really struggled to kind of find my stride. I think a lot of it I was 170 00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:52,320 getting in my head from the first World Cup that I did where, you know, I didn't really have any 171 00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:57,760 expectations and just made the semi and then I could hardly get like more than a few draws up the 172 00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:04,480 wall at the next ones. So it was kind of a weird thing for me and I definitely kept training lead 173 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:10,960 because I was qualified for lead comps but I've always been more interested in bouldering and I 174 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:17,440 prefer boulder comps. So when the next team trials came around and the team trials after that came 175 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:24,000 around I did like kind of perform well in boulders which I was really excited about. I think getting 176 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:30,480 to do boulder World Cups was always like my dream and what I wanted to do and lead I think is really 177 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:36,240 cool and I really really admire strong lead climbers. But for me it's been like so so 178 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:44,240 challenging to see any type of translation between my training and how I compete in lead and it's 179 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:49,520 just not something that has like been super exciting to me. It's more stressful than anything 180 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:55,280 like lead comps I get really nervous, really stressed and I usually kind of make mistakes 181 00:19:55,280 --> 00:20:01,520 and bouldering I feel like I'm able to express myself a lot more. So being able to to do boulder 182 00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:08,000 World Cups has been like really really great and super exciting and going forward I maybe in the 183 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:13,360 future I'll look to be selected for some lead World Cups again but I'm definitely focused on 184 00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:20,720 on boulders now. Okay so like for the upcoming team trials are you only doing boulder? I don't 185 00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:25,840 know if that's like an option. Yeah so last year because of the Olympics we had to do bouldering 186 00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:33,520 and lead and so I did boulder lead and so this past season I was qualified for the combines team 187 00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:38,240 so I could do essentially any of the bouldering and any of the lead World Cups that I wanted. 188 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:48,880 So I did all the boulder World Cups and some of the lead World Cups and then at World Champs 189 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:54,880 I only did bouldering. This year we have it's separate again so we're able to do just bouldering 190 00:20:54,880 --> 00:21:00,960 or lead so I only did bouldering at Nationals and I'll only do bouldering at team trials. 191 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:08,240 Wow it's so interesting that you only qualified for lead the first year and then just ended up 192 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:13,680 going to international competitions for it. I feel like that's like signing up for a job that you're 193 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:20,160 not qualified for and then you're like suddenly scrambling to figure things out. That's a little 194 00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:28,640 bit terrifying. Yeah it was I wasn't actually even officially on the lead team. I must have been maybe 195 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:34,400 seventh or eighth on our list and they were taking maybe five to the World Cups but because it was 196 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:41,440 the year of the Tokyo Olympics a lot of people who were selected for the Olympics didn't do all of 197 00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:47,040 the lead comps leading up to the Olympics so it passed down to me so it wasn't even after team 198 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:54,080 trials it was like a month or maybe even three weeks before the first lead World Cup in Villars 199 00:21:54,080 --> 00:22:01,120 that I got kind of an email that was like hey you're like it's passed the invites have been 200 00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:06,400 passed down so you're qualified for Villars if you want to do it and I was oh goodness like I 201 00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:11,760 haven't trained lead at all because I had I mean kind of been doing boulder lead but didn't really 202 00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:15,920 know what I was training for and then all of a sudden I had three weeks to train lead and then 203 00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:21,680 hop on a flight to Switzerland and that comp went really well it was awesome but after that I was 204 00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:30,240 just I think way a little bit in over my head and definitely struggled to to perform. Wow um yeah 205 00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:36,640 that's stressful I mean even booking a flight three weeks out for an international trip is stressful 206 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:43,680 by itself. Yeah yeah definitely but at that point I was more just I mean I had been wanting to do a 207 00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:48,400 World Cup for so long and we had just watched the Salt Lake Bouldering World Cup which I hadn't 208 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:55,280 qualified for because this was after the 21 team trials and I just like the only thing I wanted 209 00:22:55,280 --> 00:23:00,480 was to compete in World Cups so just like even I remember I got that email while I was in Whole 210 00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:05,520 Foods and I just was like running around the grocery store and just like kind of jumping up 211 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:11,440 and down to myself like oh yeah World Cup World Cup World Cup this is crazy and yeah now it's it's 212 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:16,960 crazy to think how many I've been able to do but yeah that's awesome so it's kind of like the 213 00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:23,200 excitement and just like the newness of it all gave you that energy to get into semis for that 214 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:31,520 first time. Yeah in the the first in Villars we had a um one of our first routes was just 215 00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:37,840 like not super hard and then there was a big jump in the middle of the wall and a lot of people fell 216 00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:43,120 at the jump and I actually went first on that route so I really I had no idea how hard it was 217 00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:49,440 how people would do um just went out there did the jump and then like fell a little bit afterwards 218 00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:55,920 didn't do so well on the next route but just like uh doing the jump was enough to to make the semi so 219 00:23:56,480 --> 00:24:02,560 yeah it was definitely super surprising but I also had no expectations I was like oh maybe I'm like 220 00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:08,640 pretty good at lead or or like but yeah I had no idea about the international level and then 221 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:14,480 I think I really kind of took a beating at the next competitions that were a little bit more maybe 222 00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:21,360 traditional like endurance space so weren't as many like weird tricky like jumps because I'm 223 00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:27,920 I've usually been pretty good at jumping but like they were just more normal hard world cup routes 224 00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:33,840 and I had just never climbed on routes that were that hard off the ground before and got got pretty 225 00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:41,920 slammed but it was fun it was really fun though oh I bet I mean that sounds like a dream um but yeah 226 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:48,080 speaking of that transition just going from like youth competitions and moving straight to the 227 00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:54,720 international circuit um this was also one of the discord questions um so what was that transition 228 00:24:54,720 --> 00:25:02,640 like and did you consider doing like collegiate competitions yeah I think it was really weird for 229 00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:11,120 me because it kind of was timed perfectly with covid um so my first time ever qualifying for the 230 00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:18,640 youth world championships was arco in 2019 when I was that was my second to last year of youth 231 00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:27,120 so I was 17 years old um so I did that that was my first youth world I did that and that whole 232 00:25:27,120 --> 00:25:34,640 experience was super eye-opening for me to see that climbing was like a legit sport on the 233 00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:40,320 international level I had gone to Innsbruck right beforehand to train and I had never been 234 00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:48,160 like surrounded by so many youth competitors who were so strong and just seeing like people from 235 00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:53,280 so many different countries who are all training all day long and everybody was working really hard 236 00:25:53,280 --> 00:26:00,720 and taking it seriously it was like whoa like climbing is a real thing and it's it's like it's 237 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:07,200 like all these other sports that I kind of grew up doing and was like wow there's like uh this like 238 00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:12,480 sport exists at a super high level and I kind of I realized that for the first time at that youth 239 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:18,160 worlds and was like I want to do more international comps I want to train as much as I can that was 240 00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:27,280 really really motivating and then going into 2020 um like just before that at the end of 2019 I kind 241 00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:32,880 of started to podium at the national cups um so things started to look pretty good for open 242 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:39,360 nationals so I was pretty excited going into open nationals surprised myself by making finals like 243 00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:43,600 that was always the goal but I knew it would be quite hard and climbed really well throughout 244 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:49,680 that whole comp finished the comp in second so I was qualified to do the whole bouldering season 245 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:57,200 the whole bouldering world cup season in 2020 um and then uh like a month later after that everything 246 00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:03,760 was shut down and that was a weird thing for me because I was like I had definitely been looking 247 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:11,280 forward to doing boulder world cups and also just I think didn't realize like how hard it was to 248 00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:18,240 accomplish what I accomplished that year like I kind of took it for granted definitely a little bit 249 00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:26,160 to think like okay like I podiumed at most of the national cups and then I went to nationals and 250 00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:32,160 podiumed and like it was pretty solid the whole way and then we had covid and I trained a lot 251 00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:38,480 through covid and then coming out of covid it was 2021 which we were just talking about where I 252 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:45,440 didn't do well at all in the team selection and so that was a weird transition of like I kind of made 253 00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:51,520 the team straight away and then I had a year and a half where I really didn't do super well 254 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:58,880 at the important bouldering comps because I was always doing quite well at um like different gym 255 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:06,400 comps like uh things like woman up or portland boulder boulder rally and even the national cups 256 00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:12,400 but when I was coming down to the selection events I just like things kind of went just a bit south 257 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:19,040 and it hadn't worked out so I had kind of two years of like training a lot and knowing that I 258 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:23,680 was kind of capable of making the team because I was doing pretty well in all these other events 259 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:31,360 and having to be like pretty patient in terms of selection but you know overall it did kind of come 260 00:28:31,360 --> 00:28:36,480 pretty quickly and I think because even in youth a lot of my success came later it was a pretty 261 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:46,080 natural transition between youth and open because I only really started to compete quite well in 262 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:52,960 youth and like in the kind of open gym comps when I was like 17 18 so it kind of went pretty naturally 263 00:28:52,960 --> 00:29:02,000 went pretty naturally from there but um yeah so I guess like I don't really know how the collegiate 264 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:11,760 circuit works like like how do you decide to do that instead I guess oh yeah um so collegiate I 265 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:18,560 think just if you're enrolled in college classes you can compete on the collegiate circuit and it 266 00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:24,640 works pretty similarly to youth in that you have like kind of divisional or regional level events 267 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:35,840 that qualify you for nationals and I actually did do collegiate one year in 2022 I competed in 268 00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:43,040 collegiate and made the the world champs team so they have a collegiate world championship which I 269 00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:51,440 did in in Innsbruck um that summer but I think it's a really good like a really really good 270 00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:58,960 in-between from youth to open for a lot of people I think that like the transition into open can be 271 00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:04,640 quite harsh like you'll see the level of of just like the boulders changes quite a bit and I think 272 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:10,560 as to be expected but the collegiate is like kind of in between and I think a little bit more casual 273 00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:16,320 in that yes like people train for it and they show up and they're ready to compete but not everybody 274 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:22,560 there is like super intense and has been training really hard and is trying to make you know the 275 00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:30,160 world cup team or whatever as opposed to sometimes the like like team trials or the nationals can 276 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:34,720 feel like pretty intense when you're kind of at that level where you know you could make the team 277 00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:40,480 but you're not sure you'll be able to and I think in those ways those comps feel really intense 278 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:45,440 whereas in collegiate I think there's a lot less of that pressure um people are having a little 279 00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:53,920 more fun with it I think. And so going into uh your IFSC competition experience um so it sounds like 280 00:30:54,800 --> 00:31:02,720 expectations plays a big role into how well you perform um how does is there anything else you 281 00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:09,360 feel like impacts your performance at those competitions like crowd noise or what you're 282 00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:18,880 thinking on the wall? Yeah I think my biggest one even like in training or in competitions is just 283 00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:26,720 I mean it sounds pretty obvious but just my energy and I think you can kind of see it in my climbing 284 00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:33,520 when I'm a lot more like bouncy and jumpy and kind of taking more risks which I think is tied to 285 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:40,160 expectations as well but um having a much more like kind of powerful and dynamic style when I'm 286 00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:45,440 at all tired or my energy feels a little lower it's really hard for me to kind of tap into that 287 00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:51,360 style but I think that when I do feel really energized and excited to be competing I can't 288 00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:57,680 you can kind of tell in the way that I'm even warming up or like kind of jumping around just 289 00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:05,040 in the gym that translates for me really well into like a kind of a more flowy and almost 290 00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:11,920 kind of careless in a way like attitude on the mats but more in a in a way that it's like helping 291 00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:21,600 me be relaxed and and loose and like intense and kind of aggressive at the same time um I don't 292 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:26,720 know it's like it's definitely a mindset that I like when I'm in it I know I'm in it and I'm excited 293 00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:32,880 and the rest of the time I kind of like kind of ride the line of of struggling to like feel super 294 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:40,480 energized and um like flowy on the wall versus like sometimes just being tired. Yeah do you feel like 295 00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:46,800 climbing in front of people affects that at all better for better for worse? Yeah I think it's 296 00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:53,040 it's pretty funny like in training and in the gym I definitely like to not have so many people around 297 00:32:53,920 --> 00:33:00,560 but when it comes to competing I really really like the crowd I have always been like someone 298 00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:07,360 who kind of likes that type of pressure and uh like having a crowd and having a lot of noise 299 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:14,640 really helps me try harder like it can be hard to tap into that um by myself for sure it's like when 300 00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:19,520 I'm climbing by myself I listen to music and I think that helps a lot but when I'm competing the 301 00:33:19,520 --> 00:33:26,160 crowd definitely definitely helps me um and I think it like almost takes my nerves away like 302 00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:31,040 it's a lot more nerve-racking when you're quiet when it's just quiet and everybody's watching you 303 00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:36,560 versus when people are kind of cheering and screaming so I definitely like it. I guess it 304 00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:41,920 could be kind of unnerving if the crowd is quiet because then it's like oh I must be doing something 305 00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:48,480 wrong or bad or embarrassing. Yeah it's a weird one it's like sometimes when the crowd's not 306 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:53,840 reacting you kind of start to think oh well maybe everybody has done the same on this boulder or 307 00:33:53,840 --> 00:34:00,320 maybe I'm not doing anything particularly good like performance wise but when the crowd's going 308 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:06,880 crazy you're like at the very least they're like excited to be seeing me climb like regardless of 309 00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:11,520 you know how I'm doing compared to everyone else and I think that definitely fuels the excitement. 310 00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:16,960 I think a lot of competitors would agree like a loud crowd is is really fun to climb in front of 311 00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:22,800 for sure. Yeah I can I can imagine um do you remember the last time you would have felt 312 00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:29,600 insecure climbing in front of people either in front of a crowd or in front of other competitors 313 00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:38,400 maybe? Yeah I think in training that happens like a decent amount actually being in Salt Lake we have 314 00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:44,640 just so many strong climbers and even in the training center like every day there will be so 315 00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:50,880 so many people who are strong and like a lot of the time they're stronger than me and sometimes 316 00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:56,320 when I'm feeling good it's awesome and it's really nice because you feel like you're a part of it and 317 00:34:56,320 --> 00:35:01,360 you're strong and you're getting better but on days where I maybe don't have so much energy or 318 00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:06,560 I'm like being out climbed by a lot of my peers that can be really hard and I definitely 319 00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:13,600 can like start to dig myself into a hole a little bit of just like oh I'm not good enough or like 320 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:19,920 I think I am good enough and yet I just can't like seem to perform or show up the way I want to. 321 00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:25,440 So in general I think that definitely happens to me the most in training and just climbing around 322 00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:31,360 people who are strong I think it's like a blessing in that it definitely pushes you to be better and 323 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:36,400 to learn from people but it can be hard because there is kind of for everyone I think just that 324 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:42,720 element of comparison is always there everyone's working hard and everyone's trying to be you know 325 00:35:42,720 --> 00:35:50,480 as good as they can if not the best and so it's it can be hard to to be out climbed consistently or 326 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:55,280 or to just feel like you're underperforming I think that really quickly starts to spiral and 327 00:35:55,280 --> 00:36:01,760 it can be hard to kind of keep a good mindset about it. Yeah I can definitely imagine I was so 328 00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:07,360 I had just like recently moved to San Diego and Salt Lake was actually one of the places I was 329 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:13,200 considering and then I decided not to move there because I felt like the competition would be a 330 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:22,320 little too strong and scary and so I definitely get why you would feel that way there. Yeah I mean 331 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:28,400 I think one of the things that's really cool about Salt Lake and the climbing community is 332 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:35,280 there are people at every level who are psyched and even kind of across levels like if you're 333 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:40,080 psyched and you're excited to get better at climbing there will be people behind you whether 334 00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:44,960 they're stronger than you or not who are going to be psyched to support you and who are going to see 335 00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:51,280 that and kind of bring you into to their climbing circle so in that way I think it's really cool and 336 00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:57,440 it's really great but it is kind of I think tricky when you have like that kind of competition 337 00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:02,240 specific mindset where you're like these are the people that I'll compete against you know so 338 00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:10,800 that can be tricky for sure. Yeah definitely intimidating but going into your 2022 and 2023 339 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:18,240 season I think you had mentioned that you did pretty well in 2022 and then last year's season 340 00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:24,720 you were a bit disappointed with your performance so what kind of happened there? Please excuse 341 00:37:24,720 --> 00:37:29,440 this brief intermission but I would just like to remind you that if you are enjoying this podcast 342 00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:33,840 please follow and rate it on your preferred listening platform. If you're watching on YouTube 343 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:39,280 I would love to hear your discussion and thoughts in the comments below. Anything helps to push this 344 00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:47,200 podcast out to more people and get even more amazing guests on. Back to the show! Yeah 2022 345 00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:57,120 was my first bouldering world cups ever. The first one being Meiringen in Switzerland and I went into 346 00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:04,080 it definitely feeling good but I had been feeling good for a long time on boulders and just kind of 347 00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:12,320 was excited to see how it would go but really had no idea and went out for the qualification 348 00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:18,560 and I remember during the first like right before I got on the first boulder or actually even like a 349 00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:23,920 few moves into the first boulder having the thought of like I can try really hard to do this boulder 350 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:30,240 or I can kind of relax into the round and see how it goes and I think in that moment I kind of decided 351 00:38:30,240 --> 00:38:36,480 no like I think I can kind of do this one like let me try really hard to do it and it actually 352 00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:41,920 ended up not being so bad. I flashed the first boulder and I think in that moment kind of it 353 00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:49,840 sort of decided my attitude and my approach for that whole season like I would just go on to the 354 00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:57,840 mats with little expectation and just I was really excited to be there for one and also feeling 355 00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:05,120 pretty good and like confident on the coordination moves on the slabs and it really paid off. I mean 356 00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:11,120 surprised myself by just barely making the semis at that competition and then in the semis I really 357 00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:18,240 was really like relaxed. I had no expectations at all. I was just excited to be there. I couldn't 358 00:39:18,240 --> 00:39:26,800 believe that I had even made this semi and I climbed really really like like myself like how I 359 00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:32,400 had been climbing in training which I think is really hard to feel like you're kind of matching 360 00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:38,320 up with your expectation of yourself or your level and training so I kind of was able to tap in 361 00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:44,000 to that and was like more than anything just having so much fun on the mats and I think 362 00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:49,360 if you watch that comp like you can kind of tell I'm just having a really good time and 363 00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:54,960 trying really hard and getting into the grid of it on like the third boulder fourth boulder and 364 00:39:54,960 --> 00:40:01,440 ended up being 10th at that competition after which I like kind of came away and and was 365 00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:07,600 like really pleasantly surprised which hadn't happened very much in many competitions for me 366 00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:13,360 before. I think a lot of the times I had had a pretty high expectation off the bat and either 367 00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:20,720 met my expectation or was kind of below what I expected or underperformed and this was like one 368 00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:26,560 of the first times where I felt like I had exceeded what I thought was possible and so I took a lot 369 00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:33,920 of time to kind of write out like in my journal what I felt like were the kind of conditions that 370 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:40,400 made it so I was able to climb that way and and be so relaxed and and like not nervous and just 371 00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:46,960 excited to be there and I think a lot of it was like acknowledging that I was finally getting to 372 00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:52,400 live something that I had trained for for so many years and never even knew if I would be able to do 373 00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:58,000 like I never knew if I would qualify for world cups but I always that was always a dream of mine 374 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:04,560 to do bouldering world cups so kind of being extra like recognizant of that and then also just 375 00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:11,920 kind of like keeping with that energy and really playing into my strengths so like taking a lot of 376 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:20,000 risks on the wall and like accepting falls and it just that whole mindset of like I was like 377 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:26,160 it just that whole mindset like worked really well for me that season and I ended up making all of 378 00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:33,600 the boulder world cup semi-finals and it definitely got harder like as the season went on I think by 379 00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:39,200 the fourth fifth comp I started to kind of think okay like I kind of got a streak here I don't want 380 00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:45,280 to break the streak like got harder and harder but definitely until like was able to hold on until 381 00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:52,000 until the very end of that season so that was an awesome season I couldn't have like I couldn't 382 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:58,880 have hoped for anything better honestly and I think not making a final was really great in that I felt 383 00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:05,040 like I had the consistency and all I needed to do was maybe improve the level but if I could keep 384 00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:11,040 the consistency there then I thought that I'd be able to make a final or two in the next season 385 00:42:11,040 --> 00:42:18,560 and then the next year was much much trickier for me I mean I think just training boulder and lead 386 00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:26,480 together was really hard and I also had a like a concussion in November and December that really 387 00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:33,360 really affected my training and my energy and my mood going into the season and I don't I don't 388 00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:40,880 and I don't I don't think I gave that enough like attention but then the yeah 23 season was quite hard 389 00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:48,240 definitely much worse than the season before and I think it was a combination of like physical issues 390 00:42:48,240 --> 00:42:55,520 and then expectations from this season before so it was a tricky one but hopefully be better this 391 00:42:55,520 --> 00:43:05,840 year yeah I mean a concussion is not like a light injury so that makes a lot of sense did you how 392 00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:12,880 did you get the concussion yeah I was just snowboarding in the park and fell back and hit my 393 00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:20,880 head and thankfully I was wearing a helmet but uh even then I think yeah I was just really kind of 394 00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:28,160 out of it for a few weeks after that but then for months I felt like I couldn't quite place my feet 395 00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:33,920 how I wanted and was having a lot of trouble like feeling coordinated and was like kind of dizzy 396 00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:42,000 sometimes really tired sometimes um and then the big one was kind of I had like this chronic pain 397 00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:47,520 in my neck and like tightness in my neck that has kind of lasted since then and it's definitely 398 00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:55,600 gotten better but I think it kind of affected um not only my ability to train but how much how well 399 00:43:55,600 --> 00:44:02,320 I was recovering um throughout that whole season how long do you feel like that affected you for 400 00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:08,240 or like how long did you feel those side effects or are you still feeling them hopefully not I think 401 00:44:08,240 --> 00:44:17,600 the worst of it was definitely in February and March of last year um and then now I still have like 402 00:44:17,600 --> 00:44:25,040 this neck tightness and like pain sometimes but I've definitely been finding more and more ways to 403 00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:31,920 manage it and talking to people to kind of help me through it um so I think right now it's definitely 404 00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:39,440 not affecting me as much but I think beforehand the combination of that and then I think it 405 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:48,080 probably affected my mood a decent amount as well um so that and then also training lead so much I 406 00:44:48,080 --> 00:44:53,840 think made it a lot harder to keep my power up for the bouldering season and I definitely improved a 407 00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:59,360 little bit in lead but I think regressed in boulders didn't improve enough in lead to see really 408 00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:04,560 significant results there so it was a weird combination of just kind of feeling like I was 409 00:45:04,560 --> 00:45:11,280 a little bit worse at both and could almost kind of tell I think going into some of those comps 410 00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:17,280 like I just didn't feel physically like where I wanted to be and then on top of that getting 411 00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:24,720 results that were disappointing I think just kind of like kept kept that cycle going a little bit 412 00:45:24,720 --> 00:45:30,320 and kind of kept me like mentally kind of down on myself which made it really hard to have that 413 00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:36,480 really light-hearted and playful attitude that I'd had this season before. Yeah definitely snowballs 414 00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:48,160 for sure um when it comes to training through a concussion um how did you do that? I think I did it 415 00:45:48,160 --> 00:46:00,480 really poorly um yeah I just I really didn't give that like injury the the attention that it needed 416 00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:10,720 I think I've always been really good at training a lot and kind of glancing over like riding over 417 00:46:10,720 --> 00:46:19,600 any little tweaks or whatever for better for worse like I train a lot and I think that I've been able 418 00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:26,160 to handle like a large volume of training and then push through a lot of things that are 419 00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:33,120 uncomfortable or not going well and that's one where I really didn't give that injury the 420 00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:38,960 attention that it needed and so I really trained like straight through it I took like one week 421 00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:45,280 one week pretty light but then just got straight back to my normal volume of training and I think 422 00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:52,480 that was a really bad idea I like also didn't seek out the help that I should have for my neck 423 00:46:52,480 --> 00:46:57,680 kind of early on and so I think that's kind of led to this more chronic problem that could have been 424 00:46:57,680 --> 00:47:03,040 solved earlier um so I definitely have a lot of things that I would have done differently about 425 00:47:03,040 --> 00:47:08,080 that um but now that I know a little more about it and I've talked to some more people about it 426 00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:15,280 I'm finding ways to at least deal with kind of the lasting neck issues but right now how do you 427 00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:21,600 work through the neck issues yeah so I think a big one has been taking just a lot of extra time to 428 00:47:22,800 --> 00:47:27,600 kind of nail in all those recovery measures that people always kind of tell you to do but you're 429 00:47:27,600 --> 00:47:33,840 like I don't know like it kind of gets pushed to the side a lot so a lot of like rolling it out and 430 00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:42,480 I get it massaged sometimes and I have like an acupuncture mat and um like different neck massagers 431 00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:49,680 and things like that and I'm not sure if all of those help but I think at least if I'm doing a 432 00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:54,560 lot of those things at least a few of them will help kind of alleviate the the tension there 433 00:47:54,560 --> 00:48:00,560 I've got like some wave tool cups that I use too and I've talked to like a few different 434 00:48:00,560 --> 00:48:07,760 pts and massage therapists and gotten a few different opinions so just like slowly working 435 00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:12,800 through it and I think it's like a tightness that kind of keeps coming back um so just kind of trying 436 00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:19,120 to relieve that as best I can but I'm definitely not like at the end of of that whole ordeal yet 437 00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:24,160 I'm still learning quite a bit about it and like working with people on it so hopefully it won't be 438 00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:31,120 so much of an issue in the coming years but we'll see I mean at least massages are nice I love a good 439 00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:38,560 massage have you ever gotten like onto a head spa no I haven't oh my gosh you should try to find one 440 00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:48,000 it's it's so nice if you like your like hair like scalp being massaged it's it's the best oh yeah I 441 00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:52,160 like those wire things that you just kind of oh you would love it then on your head 442 00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:58,800 on your head yeah you would love it and they'll do like neck and some shoulders as well so I would 443 00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:04,640 highly recommend it's like a big thing right now nice well that sounds fun yeah I actually had one 444 00:49:05,200 --> 00:49:11,840 I got a massage today but it was quite painful I was almost crying in the in the chair so a little 445 00:49:11,840 --> 00:49:18,240 little different not as relaxing but I think will probably help relax some of that that tension so 446 00:49:18,240 --> 00:49:24,720 we'll see it's good to get a mix I'm a big massage fan so nice I know I know all about them 447 00:49:26,160 --> 00:49:32,960 but yeah speaking of getting injuries do you climb outdoors much during the season I guess even 448 00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:40,640 outside of the season I know a lot of people don't because of like risk of injuries and training 449 00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:47,040 I don't climb outside a lot and I think that climbing outside would probably actually be 450 00:49:47,040 --> 00:49:52,560 good for my training like kind of in the way that it's similar to a lot of board climbing 451 00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:58,640 I think just like crimping more and having smaller holds and more technical feet would be great for 452 00:49:58,640 --> 00:50:07,360 my climbing but I just love the gym but it's not really for reasons of like avoiding injury or 453 00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:14,080 my skin or anything like that I think that it could help me but I really really love just the 454 00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:20,320 ease of going to the gym and then also the volume that I'm able to get in I mean I love how it feels 455 00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:25,760 to move when I'm climbing and when I go to the gym I get to do a lot of that compared to when I 456 00:50:25,760 --> 00:50:32,320 climb outside and it doesn't hurt my skin as badly it's honestly it's just more comfortable 457 00:50:32,880 --> 00:50:38,640 and I mean for comp climbing I think it's great and it's perfectly fine so I climb at the gym a 458 00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:44,800 whole lot and it's more because I like it and I think there will be times in my life where I'm 459 00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:48,880 going to get more excited about outdoor climbing and even now there are some places that I've 460 00:50:48,880 --> 00:50:54,400 climbed outside that I really loved and as I've gotten stronger I've definitely gotten more excited 461 00:50:54,400 --> 00:51:00,480 about trying climbs outside but I think the style that I'm most excited about and the climbs that 462 00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:05,520 excite me the most the types of moves that that really get me psyched aren't things that you find 463 00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:12,640 outside so much so really I'm enjoying the gym I love the climbing gym no that's awesome I love 464 00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:17,760 that because I feel the same way and I usually give the same responses I mean everyone always 465 00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:27,280 asks me to go outside and I'm like for what like no yeah I love to spend time outside but yeah yeah 466 00:51:27,280 --> 00:51:32,960 I love being outside like a lot of time I'll go my friends will go outdoor climbing and I'll go with 467 00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:37,920 them and just kind of hang out and and watch and and spend the day outside and sometimes I'll go 468 00:51:37,920 --> 00:51:43,920 and climb moderates and things but I mean I haven't done much projecting or anything not since I was 469 00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:50,720 younger anyway so but I'll get there I'll get there but right now I like I like my my gym routine 470 00:51:51,760 --> 00:51:56,720 yeah I think that's that's my plan too I'll I'll point people to you next time people get 471 00:51:56,720 --> 00:52:04,000 they should for not going outside at all yeah the gym is fun yeah exactly get to climb more 472 00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:08,800 I'm all about the efficiency it's just yeah so much better 473 00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:16,640 okay last question about IFC related stuff um you've done a few things in the commentary box the 474 00:52:16,640 --> 00:52:23,440 past year or so I think um do you like being in the commentary box and what do you like bringing 475 00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:30,800 to to the commentary yeah I definitely like doing it I think it's it's really fun to kind of play 476 00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:36,800 off someone else's commentary like I think it would be quite challenging to like lead the 477 00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:43,600 the discussion but it's definitely nice to kind of add in your little comments and things I think 478 00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:51,600 that like the comp climbers know the most about the compy moves and kind of um even the different 479 00:52:51,600 --> 00:52:57,600 competitors and and their styles and what they like and don't like and um that makes it pretty 480 00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:04,640 fun to kind of throw in your little two cents about about any one you know move or whatever it 481 00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:09,840 is it's a little nerve-wracking for sure and I don't really know how good I am at it but I always 482 00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:16,240 like to kind of take up the the opportunity when people ask me to join in so hopefully I'll get to 483 00:53:16,240 --> 00:53:22,480 do a little more of it I'd rather be in the round though if I get to choose so right yeah for 484 00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:28,720 bouldering at least for boulders yeah there you go yeah maybe you can do some lead ones yeah um 485 00:53:28,720 --> 00:53:32,400 okay well anything you don't like about being in the commentary box um 486 00:53:35,200 --> 00:53:42,320 I think just when your like voice is kind of out there for everyone to hear like people will 487 00:53:42,320 --> 00:53:47,920 definitely make little comments that are unnecessary like I know the first time I 488 00:53:47,920 --> 00:53:54,800 interviewed someone I said the word awesome a lot and people were at me in the comments about it and 489 00:53:54,800 --> 00:54:00,880 I was like oh I'm trying my best but no other than that I kind of like it and I think I'm pretty good 490 00:54:00,880 --> 00:54:06,560 at brushing brushing over things like that so you're like she said awesome like four times like yeah 491 00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:14,640 sorry like it's really not a big deal but yeah I mean I guess when you're listening you have 492 00:54:14,640 --> 00:54:21,440 nothing else to do except for listen very strictly about what people are saying um through like 493 00:54:21,440 --> 00:54:29,200 editing the podcast there are so many I I edit it out I allow myself to edit it out but when you're 494 00:54:29,200 --> 00:54:37,280 live you don't have that option so I would not do very well at commentating so outside of IFC 495 00:54:38,480 --> 00:54:48,000 climbing uh I've watched you crush at a lot of competitions around the US um I think I saw you 496 00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:56,160 at like a boulder field competition um plastic classic was another one um woman up obviously 497 00:54:56,160 --> 00:55:04,320 um I saw you recently did uh one at mosaic boulders in the bay um I don't know if we just like 498 00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:09,840 happened to both go to the same competitions um but how do you choose which competitions you 499 00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:15,600 participate in locally like is it just for prize money or is there just like how else do you choose 500 00:55:15,600 --> 00:55:21,600 I think the timing is a big one like there's a competition this week that I won't go to because 501 00:55:21,600 --> 00:55:29,600 our team trials is uh coming up and I don't want it to interfere with that but otherwise I genuinely 502 00:55:30,720 --> 00:55:38,720 just I really really love that type of competition I think it's just a little more laid back than USA 503 00:55:38,720 --> 00:55:46,000 climbing events or just because of like you know selection criteria or IFC events because you know 504 00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:49,600 you traveled so far to get there and you've been training so much for those events that you really 505 00:55:49,600 --> 00:55:53,840 want to do well these are a lot more laid back and they're good ways to kind of check in with 506 00:55:53,840 --> 00:56:00,880 yourself throughout the season to see like what you want to work on so I'll do like almost all of 507 00:56:00,880 --> 00:56:09,120 the ones that make any sense timing wise um and then in terms of prize money like I'd say in 508 00:56:09,120 --> 00:56:16,240 general if I'll at least pay for my travel and my being there by being like top three or top four 509 00:56:16,240 --> 00:56:23,040 making finals then then it's usually like a good bet and I try to try to make it out for sure so 510 00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:28,480 as long as it kind of pays for itself then then that's good enough for me and I'm pretty psyched 511 00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:35,680 to be there um but I definitely do a lot of those and have a good streak with those types of comps 512 00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:41,760 for the moment so I'll keep at it they're they're like some of my favorite events to compete in so 513 00:56:41,760 --> 00:56:50,480 for someone like me who wants to start competing in open um at these like local competitions um 514 00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:57,200 what do you feel like are some strategies to have a better chance at doing well I would love to make 515 00:56:57,200 --> 00:57:03,280 a finals one day but if it's always the same six people who I always see at finals it's not happening 516 00:57:03,280 --> 00:57:13,120 yeah I think the first like best thing that you can do to your for yourself if you want to get 517 00:57:13,120 --> 00:57:19,200 better at competing is to compete and so like every opportunity that you have to go to competitions 518 00:57:19,200 --> 00:57:25,520 whether they're like kind of little small bouldering league type things or if they're bigger 519 00:57:25,520 --> 00:57:31,600 competitions is to just like show up and do them and be really open-minded about it like 520 00:57:31,600 --> 00:57:37,440 I think it's important to be pretty realistic and you know maybe you aren't there to make finals and 521 00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:44,480 that's okay you can be there to do other things like learn um like get used to the style or get 522 00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:52,080 used to the pressure of having limited attempts or just having like so many strong people around you 523 00:57:52,080 --> 00:57:58,000 and climbing around people who are maybe stronger than you so I think competing a lot is the first 524 00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:03,920 best thing that you can do if you want to compete and then the second thing that I would say is 525 00:58:03,920 --> 00:58:10,720 really important and that a lot of people kind of dismiss is like outside of the physical training 526 00:58:10,720 --> 00:58:16,720 that you're doing just whether you're hangboarding or board climbing or doing weight training is 527 00:58:16,720 --> 00:58:22,880 when you're climbing is to be pretty intentional with what you're doing and be pretty like let 528 00:58:22,880 --> 00:58:29,200 yourself get pretty uncomfortable kind of push past just like your normal casual session with 529 00:58:29,200 --> 00:58:38,080 friends you know I think kind of what sets a lot of comp climbers apart from just um other people 530 00:58:38,080 --> 00:58:41,600 who are climbing in the gym and climbing recreationally is not necessarily the amount 531 00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:46,960 of time spent in the gym but the amount of like intention behind what we're doing and kind of 532 00:58:46,960 --> 00:58:52,160 pressure and expectation that you put on yourself when you're in the gym and you're doing something 533 00:58:52,160 --> 00:58:58,880 in the gym like when I go into the gym I have a certain expectation of myself that I'm going to 534 00:58:58,880 --> 00:59:04,480 take the boulders seriously that I'm going to take my session seriously that I'm not going to just 535 00:59:04,480 --> 00:59:12,400 get on the wall randomly and just not put focus behind every attempt I think that kind of 536 00:59:12,400 --> 00:59:18,880 thoughtfulness goes a really long way and it's something that doesn't take more time from than 537 00:59:18,880 --> 00:59:24,960 what people are already doing but just like when every single time I step on the wall to be like 538 00:59:24,960 --> 00:59:29,920 I'm getting on the wall right now for this purpose like I'm going to do this with this hand hold 539 00:59:29,920 --> 00:59:35,600 I'm going to do this with this foot and not just like repeating the same thing and not trying to 540 00:59:35,600 --> 00:59:41,040 learn from from your boulders I think that's like really the big one kind of that level of 541 00:59:41,840 --> 00:59:47,280 focus and it's hard to bring that every time but the more that you can show up that way to the gym 542 00:59:47,280 --> 00:59:53,840 the more you'll improve faster and I think one way to force that is to kind of run like little 543 00:59:53,840 --> 01:00:00,320 mock comps for yourself for or different challenges where like on the maybe your gym has just set like 544 01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:07,120 10 new boulders and you're going to tell yourself okay I have one try to do them all and if I fall 545 01:00:07,120 --> 01:00:12,080 like I don't get to try them again until next session I think kind of having that pressure a 546 01:00:12,080 --> 01:00:17,680 little bit a little bit more intensity and kind of forcing yourself into that mindset of like this 547 01:00:17,680 --> 01:00:24,960 attempt matters is good for good for competition I'll try that out yeah and I think solo sessions 548 01:00:24,960 --> 01:00:30,880 have been really good for having that intentionality because otherwise you're like getting in a group 549 01:00:30,880 --> 01:00:34,960 with like other people and then you're thinking about talking to other people and it just doesn't 550 01:00:34,960 --> 01:00:43,760 work as well yeah I think climbing by yourself is really good for getting in like being really easily 551 01:00:43,760 --> 01:00:49,600 getting or more easily getting into the mindset that you want to be in other people can definitely 552 01:00:49,600 --> 01:00:54,000 distract from that but there's also so much benefit in climbing from people because you'll notice 553 01:00:54,000 --> 01:00:59,280 they do moves differently or you'll be like I never thought of doing that move like that and it looks 554 01:00:59,280 --> 01:01:04,480 so much easier and obvious now that I see this person do it like that so there's definitely like 555 01:01:04,480 --> 01:01:10,160 a lot of benefit to that as well so I think it's good to have a balance yeah definitely experienced 556 01:01:10,160 --> 01:01:18,080 both for me competing starting to compete and open the scariest thing would be climbing around a lot 557 01:01:18,080 --> 01:01:28,160 of other strong climbers so if you ever see me at one of those don't look at me just don't look yeah 558 01:01:28,160 --> 01:01:35,760 I think a big one to tell yourself when you're if you're nervous about the people around you is that 559 01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:42,160 they really don't care about your climbing nearly as much as you do and that kind of goes for a lot 560 01:01:42,160 --> 01:01:47,760 of things in life and when we're feeling I guess self-conscious about things but at the gym like 561 01:01:47,760 --> 01:01:54,800 if I'm competing and you're like not doing the boulder that I just did I'm not going to think oh 562 01:01:54,800 --> 01:02:01,200 like she's bad at climbing you know I'm really I'm like okay like she's trying this boulder it's when 563 01:02:01,200 --> 01:02:07,200 you kind of start to like out climb people that they'll be like who is that like this is that girl 564 01:02:07,200 --> 01:02:13,120 that just did like number seven and then then people start to be like who is that they're so strong 565 01:02:13,120 --> 01:02:19,840 but when I think in general like if people show up and are trying hard the like the level really 566 01:02:19,840 --> 01:02:25,600 doesn't matter I think it definitely like it definitely matters the most to you I think 567 01:02:25,600 --> 01:02:31,120 anytime you show up and do anything that you've put work into like it matters more to you than 568 01:02:31,120 --> 01:02:35,760 it does to anyone else there so the more you can like get out of your head about other people 569 01:02:35,760 --> 01:02:42,800 watching you the better I think yeah that's true well put so yeah you also run some clinics and I 570 01:02:42,800 --> 01:02:48,800 saw that you're doing coaching through salt lake bouldering project when did you start getting 571 01:02:48,800 --> 01:02:54,640 involved with those things and is that something you're hoping to move towards in the future yeah 572 01:02:54,640 --> 01:03:04,880 I mean growing up I kind of did a lot of my coaching myself I was on a team but I wrote all 573 01:03:04,880 --> 01:03:12,080 my own training plans and did all my own exercises and everything and so I think I've kind of been 574 01:03:12,080 --> 01:03:20,640 pretty well versed in like climbing training for quite a long time and when I was younger I was 575 01:03:21,440 --> 01:03:29,120 the the assistant coach on the bridges team for a little bit and then I did some clinics there 576 01:03:29,600 --> 01:03:37,920 as well and then after covid I did some clinics at woman up and at at the boulder project and 577 01:03:37,920 --> 01:03:44,800 I think now they've transitioned less from being less like about physical exercises and more 578 01:03:44,800 --> 01:03:51,040 like technique based which I really enjoyed and I think my climbing has changed in that way quite a 579 01:03:51,040 --> 01:03:56,640 bit in the past few years so like focusing a lot on movement and trying to teach people like 580 01:03:57,280 --> 01:04:02,240 different ways to kind of be intentional about how they move when they're climbing and hopefully 581 01:04:02,240 --> 01:04:08,080 being able to learn some of that like ways to learn some of that on your own and that's been 582 01:04:08,080 --> 01:04:14,160 really fun for me I definitely enjoy it because a lot of the time it's cool to see people progress 583 01:04:14,160 --> 01:04:18,960 so fast like you'll have people not being able to do a move and then really work through positions 584 01:04:18,960 --> 01:04:23,520 and all of a sudden they're doing a move that they've never done before that was harder than 585 01:04:23,520 --> 01:04:29,280 they thought they could do and so that's really rewarding and cool to see and in general I think 586 01:04:29,280 --> 01:04:34,400 has gone pretty well so I'm definitely really excited about teaching more clinics and 587 01:04:34,400 --> 01:04:42,000 hopefully coaching more. I don't really see myself coaching full-time ever I think I like having 588 01:04:43,280 --> 01:04:48,880 having it be kind of like this special thing that I do from time to time it makes it more 589 01:04:48,880 --> 01:04:54,640 exciting and I think I'm able to dedicate a lot more attention to the people I'm working with than 590 01:04:54,640 --> 01:05:00,480 if I'm doing that regularly and I can even tell like if I've been doing it all day that by the 591 01:05:00,480 --> 01:05:06,880 end I'm definitely less focused and probably not as helpful so I think having it be something that 592 01:05:06,880 --> 01:05:14,000 I just do from time to time and can put a lot of energy into then is really nice so I do really 593 01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:19,440 enjoy it and hope I'll get to do a little more of it for sure. If you're not doing it full-time 594 01:05:19,440 --> 01:05:27,600 after competitions are done and well I don't want to say like age out I guess well retire 595 01:05:27,600 --> 01:05:33,040 that's the word when you retire from competitions coaching is like not something that you would 596 01:05:33,040 --> 01:05:42,000 want to do full-time still? No I don't think so I think a big thing for me has been to have 597 01:05:42,000 --> 01:05:48,640 balance in what I'm doing and I've noticed that seasons or even months of my life where I only 598 01:05:48,640 --> 01:05:53,840 climb I tend to get worse at climbing or at least get a lot more in my head about it 599 01:05:55,120 --> 01:06:03,040 and so for me I think having something having maybe a job outside of climbing or something 600 01:06:03,040 --> 01:06:08,000 that I'm working on like a personal project that has little or nothing to do with climbing is 601 01:06:08,000 --> 01:06:13,600 important just because if you're only climbing and trying to be strong the days where you show up 602 01:06:13,600 --> 01:06:18,720 and it doesn't go your way it can be really hard to deal with and even like when you're having a 603 01:06:18,720 --> 01:06:24,160 month that doesn't go well like this is all I'm working on and it's not going well like that that 604 01:06:24,160 --> 01:06:30,560 can be really challenging to deal with so for me school was that thing for a long time and right 605 01:06:30,560 --> 01:06:36,240 now I've graduated from the U with a bachelor's and I'm still in college and I'm still in 606 01:06:36,240 --> 01:06:43,360 U with a bachelor's and I'm hoping to do either some more school or start working part-time to 607 01:06:43,360 --> 01:06:49,920 get some experience kind of in another field what that is exactly I don't really know yet and that's 608 01:06:49,920 --> 01:06:55,520 definitely something that I'm working on quite a bit just personally is trying to see what other 609 01:06:55,520 --> 01:07:03,360 things I can be fulfilled from outside of climbing so I think it's definitely important for me that 610 01:07:03,360 --> 01:07:08,160 I have that distinction and I think staying in coaching for me will be too close to like 611 01:07:08,880 --> 01:07:15,600 climbing full-time yeah that makes sense yeah I think one of the difficult parts of adulthood 612 01:07:15,600 --> 01:07:24,880 is the journey of figuring out how you're gonna sustain yourself so good luck with that I'm also 613 01:07:24,880 --> 01:07:32,160 trying to figure that out but yeah good luck to you on that thank you yeah working on it 614 01:07:32,160 --> 01:07:40,400 and what was your degree in in economics well that could be applied to everything so yeah that was 615 01:07:40,400 --> 01:07:47,840 kind of the goal but maybe to a fault it's a little too broad for me I have it's been struggling to 616 01:07:47,840 --> 01:07:54,000 find some direction in like a professional field outside of climbing but I'll get there yeah now 617 01:07:54,000 --> 01:08:01,920 you have like too many choices I think is the issue yeah but yeah so similarly outside of climbing 618 01:08:01,920 --> 01:08:06,720 you did a lot of other sports that you mentioned earlier what are the things you've learned from 619 01:08:06,720 --> 01:08:12,880 those other sports that you feel like you uniquely could apply to climbing yeah I think 620 01:08:15,200 --> 01:08:23,280 risk and like grit or try like being able to try hard are things that I kind of learned before I 621 01:08:23,280 --> 01:08:31,600 started climbing and kind of applied pretty well to climbing I think like I used to kind of like I 622 01:08:31,600 --> 01:08:38,160 used to go to skateboard camp and skateboard a little bit and got banged up like many many times 623 01:08:39,520 --> 01:08:46,880 and then from like swim practice and and running it was just it's just like so purely effort-based 624 01:08:46,880 --> 01:08:52,640 like past a certain point you know it's just like how hard can you push yourself and I think going 625 01:08:52,640 --> 01:08:58,880 into climbing like very early on I had that kind of approach of just like the harder I try the 626 01:08:58,880 --> 01:09:05,360 better I'll get and so I would do a lot of workouts that were pretty heinous and just try really 627 01:09:05,360 --> 01:09:12,800 really hard which I think really like made me into the climber I am now but also led to like 628 01:09:12,800 --> 01:09:19,520 periods where I was maybe overtraining and kind of doing like training was being was detrimental 629 01:09:19,520 --> 01:09:25,680 to my performance but overall I think it created kind of a standard that I hold myself to in 630 01:09:25,680 --> 01:09:34,880 training that is pretty beneficial and kind of has made it so that like I always feel the need to 631 01:09:34,880 --> 01:09:41,600 push myself which when I do push myself it's great but then when I don't or I kind of fail to do that 632 01:09:41,600 --> 01:09:47,360 it can be hard because I feel like I've kind of failed myself and my training but I've definitely 633 01:09:47,360 --> 01:09:53,840 learned yeah to push myself and to try just try hard like to suffer in training from a young age 634 01:09:55,440 --> 01:10:00,880 and then yeah I think getting banged up from skateboarding and kind of biking and those 635 01:10:00,880 --> 01:10:09,600 types of sports when I was younger made me really willing to like do dinos and take huge falls and 636 01:10:09,600 --> 01:10:15,680 I was like I now had crash pads under me all of a sudden so I was like oh I could do whatever I want 637 01:10:15,680 --> 01:10:22,160 over here and now ever since my concussion I've been a lot more careful and notice weird falls 638 01:10:22,160 --> 01:10:30,080 but I think just like being able to do kind of jumps and just being really bold in my moves I 639 01:10:30,080 --> 01:10:36,640 think helped a lot like like I never had to kind of transition into having a jumpier style I kind 640 01:10:36,640 --> 01:10:43,680 of was immediately pretty aggressive in my climbing off the bat like I just remember in the gym like 641 01:10:43,680 --> 01:10:50,560 we would be trying like huge jumps with just massive swings and like we had a slack line and 642 01:10:50,560 --> 01:10:56,080 I would try to back flip off the slack line and just like land all sorts of weird ways on the mats 643 01:10:56,080 --> 01:11:02,000 and stuff and so I think that kind of playfulness and also just like willingness to to take some 644 01:11:02,000 --> 01:11:07,920 risks definitely has translated um pretty well into my climbing but maybe to a fault like maybe 645 01:11:07,920 --> 01:11:14,240 I wouldn't have had my concussion and maybe I wouldn't have this like neck injury either so 646 01:11:14,240 --> 01:11:22,800 did you ever do like parkour or anything like that no no no not really that's a popular one but yeah 647 01:11:23,760 --> 01:11:31,360 I just did so much like I was the kid at recess who would be like trying to get everybody to like 648 01:11:31,360 --> 01:11:39,360 race me on the track or play basketball or like play tag or whatever it was I was just always 649 01:11:39,360 --> 01:11:44,880 running around and my family was really active growing up so I think I just had a really good 650 01:11:45,440 --> 01:11:52,480 base of like athleticism and ball sports and running jumping and I think that just like 651 01:11:52,480 --> 01:11:57,840 translated really well into my climbing style yeah that's awesome always had like a competitive 652 01:11:57,840 --> 01:12:07,040 drive I guess for sure yeah I think even like as a first or second grader I was always like 653 01:12:07,040 --> 01:12:11,920 I want to be an athlete like when I grow up I want to be an athlete and I never even knew what sport 654 01:12:11,920 --> 01:12:20,560 until I was maybe 13 14 and started climbing um a lot but even well before then I was really really 655 01:12:20,560 --> 01:12:28,720 drawn to and like driven by competition and sports do you feel like you've fulfilled that part of your 656 01:12:28,720 --> 01:12:35,040 childhood dream or is there still much more you want to do yeah I think I've definitely like 657 01:12:36,960 --> 01:12:45,120 in some ways exceeded what I hoped for and then the more like kind of realistic version of 658 01:12:45,120 --> 01:12:52,000 my like teenage self at least I always kind of wanted to do world cups and and just climb for a 659 01:12:52,000 --> 01:12:58,240 few years and I like never knew if that would be a possibility but in a lot of ways I haven't 660 01:12:58,800 --> 01:13:04,160 kind of accomplished what I've wanted to do at all like when I was younger than that I wanted to 661 01:13:04,160 --> 01:13:10,720 go to the Olympics and win something and I like like I said I didn't even know what sport but I 662 01:13:10,720 --> 01:13:16,240 was like I want to be Olympic champion or world champion or some like huge huge athlete which 663 01:13:16,880 --> 01:13:21,040 in that way I definitely haven't accomplished that and even within climbing like I think 664 01:13:21,600 --> 01:13:26,880 my like hopes and dreams just kind of keep building the more I'm able to kind of start 665 01:13:26,880 --> 01:13:35,840 getting a little taste of it so uh definitely far from satisfied okay well good luck I think we'll 666 01:13:35,840 --> 01:13:40,640 yeah we'll be really excited to see where you go with that thank you okay so those were all of my 667 01:13:40,640 --> 01:13:48,080 questions so we can move into a few of the discord questions that we got um the first one kind of 668 01:13:48,080 --> 01:13:54,160 ties into what you were talking about earlier with like being in the salt lake training center um 669 01:13:54,720 --> 01:14:00,320 so this question is benefits versus downsides of competing for one of the biggest and most competitive 670 01:14:00,320 --> 01:14:09,680 teams on the circuit I think benefits is definitely just the amount of people to kind of look up to 671 01:14:09,680 --> 01:14:16,560 and train with like even just in salt lake there are so many people who are so strong across every 672 01:14:16,560 --> 01:14:23,040 style of climbing um and just having the training center it's like an incredible resource and 673 01:14:23,040 --> 01:14:30,560 working with josh larson our head coach is like it's definitely changed my climbing career for 674 01:14:30,560 --> 01:14:37,680 the better and made me a much much better comp climber than I like ever really imagined when I 675 01:14:37,680 --> 01:14:44,800 was younger um so like the caliber of setting and training in that space is really really good 676 01:14:44,800 --> 01:14:52,560 and like world class for sure but I think with that comes like with having so many people who 677 01:14:52,560 --> 01:14:59,440 are capable of making team or capable of competing in world cups it's really stressful and hard to 678 01:14:59,440 --> 01:15:04,960 have to qualify for the team again every year there's a few athletes who do well enough on 679 01:15:04,960 --> 01:15:11,760 the world cup circuit to be like qualified for the next year but I think that's pretty rare and so 680 01:15:11,760 --> 01:15:17,600 I mean for myself it's been like three years of I don't know if I'll make the team next year but 681 01:15:17,600 --> 01:15:22,480 like I want to train for world cups and kind of build on what I did last year in world cups but 682 01:15:22,480 --> 01:15:28,400 maybe I won't even get to do them and um I think having so many strong people is hard in that way 683 01:15:28,400 --> 01:15:34,880 for sure yeah and so I guess that affects your training because you I guess ideally you would be 684 01:15:34,880 --> 01:15:41,840 peaking for a world cup and now you have to also take into account peaking for team trials and 685 01:15:42,240 --> 01:15:47,520 all the other competitions and I think just mentally it's challenging to kind of 686 01:15:48,800 --> 01:15:55,760 almost figure out how to like where you fit into the climbing world at least for myself I kind of 687 01:15:56,480 --> 01:16:01,040 it can be challenging to think well if I'm not selected for any world cups then like 688 01:16:01,040 --> 01:16:08,960 am I really like a pro comp climber or like if I have a few seasons where I'm on the circuit 689 01:16:08,960 --> 01:16:13,200 and I'm doing well then okay that's great but then if there's a year where I'm not then 690 01:16:13,760 --> 01:16:20,320 do I like have to re-question like everything I've been doing and kind of climb out do I have to 691 01:16:20,320 --> 01:16:24,640 climb outside now even though I'm not really super psyched on climbing outside right now it's it's 692 01:16:24,640 --> 01:16:31,440 kind of tricky like I think for me it's like I want to compete and world cups is are like the highest 693 01:16:32,320 --> 01:16:37,760 level of competition right now for climbing apart from maybe the Olympics and so it's like I want to 694 01:16:37,760 --> 01:16:42,880 do those but if I don't get to do those then it's it can be I think challenging to kind of 695 01:16:43,760 --> 01:16:49,840 stay confident and and continue to kind of believe in the year after that and the year after that 696 01:16:49,840 --> 01:16:54,000 so I think for me that's been the trickiest thing is the selection process 697 01:16:54,000 --> 01:17:00,160 yeah the competition here is not easy so that makes it rough I think probably a similar issue 698 01:17:00,160 --> 01:17:06,080 in Japan with all the strong competition there absolutely yeah I think the Japanese have a very 699 01:17:06,080 --> 01:17:11,760 similar situation and honestly the French as well like at least from what I've seen their like field 700 01:17:11,760 --> 01:17:17,280 of skilled climbers and people who probably could be pretty skilled climbers but they're not 701 01:17:17,280 --> 01:17:21,320 really a lot of people out there that they're not really good and they're not pretty good but 702 01:17:21,320 --> 01:17:26,460 they're still getting better and better so I think the difference between skilled climbers and people 703 01:17:26,460 --> 01:17:31,420 who probably could be pretty successful on the world cup circuit is pretty deep and we only really 704 01:17:31,420 --> 01:17:38,620 get to see like the very top of that yeah that's uh stressful um hopefully a little bit less 705 01:17:38,620 --> 01:17:44,500 stressful question um I think this was referring to a video that you did with La Sportiva um 706 01:17:44,500 --> 01:17:54,360 Um, I mean we had so much fun living in that house and I don't actually live with them 707 01:17:54,360 --> 01:17:58,160 anymore but they're just a block away so they come over all the time. 708 01:17:58,160 --> 01:18:00,780 They'll be over for dinner I think tonight. 709 01:18:00,780 --> 01:18:04,760 But um, yeah, oh we did all sorts of things. 710 01:18:04,760 --> 01:18:11,660 Like the big thing, like most nights around like probably three nights a week at least, 711 01:18:11,660 --> 01:18:16,740 it would get to be like 11pm and we'd be like, we need to go to the grocery store right now 712 01:18:16,740 --> 01:18:22,540 and we would all go to the grocery store and just like, to like Walmart and just run around 713 01:18:22,540 --> 01:18:28,220 the grocery store and just like pick up random things and we'd just like, just basically 714 01:18:28,220 --> 01:18:30,220 go on a field trip to the store. 715 01:18:30,220 --> 01:18:33,380 We would always be doing that. 716 01:18:33,380 --> 01:18:39,740 One time I asked Cece to bring me a zucchini for dinner because I was cooking and she came 717 01:18:39,740 --> 01:18:46,140 home with a cucumber and that was a pretty classic, classic Cece moment right there. 718 01:18:46,140 --> 01:18:53,420 Um, we were, we painted our other roommates, uh, she has a white minivan and we painted 719 01:18:53,420 --> 01:18:55,380 her rims hot pink. 720 01:18:55,380 --> 01:19:00,860 Um, we were just always doing, doing silly stuff. 721 01:19:00,860 --> 01:19:02,720 It was, it was a fun time. 722 01:19:02,720 --> 01:19:06,140 If you're comfortable answering like where are you living now? 723 01:19:06,140 --> 01:19:12,980 Yeah, I live like just a little bit, uh, south of downtown Salt Lake now and I live with 724 01:19:12,980 --> 01:19:18,740 Taya, who I lived with in that other house with Cece and Quinn also. 725 01:19:18,740 --> 01:19:24,180 Um, yeah, so we're all still real close and we're just down the block. 726 01:19:24,180 --> 01:19:26,020 Oh, that's so convenient. 727 01:19:26,020 --> 01:19:28,180 It's hard when people live far away. 728 01:19:28,180 --> 01:19:30,420 Yeah, no, it's been great. 729 01:19:30,420 --> 01:19:33,220 Yeah, I think that's what everyone dreams of. 730 01:19:33,220 --> 01:19:38,580 Um, I think another thing that came from that video, what do you like so much about French 731 01:19:38,580 --> 01:19:39,580 rap? 732 01:19:39,580 --> 01:19:49,100 Um, well, I think in general, I like listening to hip hop when I'm training, not always, 733 01:19:49,100 --> 01:19:53,660 but sometimes just cause it can be pretty aggressive and it'll help me like try a little 734 01:19:53,660 --> 01:19:57,580 harder and get really into it and really focused. 735 01:19:57,580 --> 01:20:01,340 And I, I like listening to French and kind of hearing French. 736 01:20:01,340 --> 01:20:06,420 I think I especially like grew up listening to French all the time at home. 737 01:20:06,420 --> 01:20:10,660 And now that I live in Salt Lake, I don't get immersed into that as much. 738 01:20:10,660 --> 01:20:14,180 So I definitely like to, to listen to it. 739 01:20:14,180 --> 01:20:20,540 So I listened to some rap in French, but I also like, I don't know, I like watching French 740 01:20:20,540 --> 01:20:21,780 movies and things. 741 01:20:21,780 --> 01:20:28,220 And I think there's an element of it that just feels me like feels really tied to like 742 01:20:28,220 --> 01:20:33,940 my family and my like memories when I was younger of like spending summers there and 743 01:20:33,940 --> 01:20:37,940 all like a lot of good times are associated with like hearing French. 744 01:20:37,940 --> 01:20:41,940 So I definitely like to listen to it as much as I can. 745 01:20:41,940 --> 01:20:47,660 Any like recommendations for songs that you like listening to when you're training? 746 01:20:47,660 --> 01:20:52,980 When I'm running, I usually listen to Eminem or something like really intense. 747 01:20:52,980 --> 01:20:53,980 Okay. 748 01:20:53,980 --> 01:20:56,020 Well, that's not French, but okay. 749 01:20:56,020 --> 01:20:58,460 Oh, in French. 750 01:20:58,460 --> 01:21:00,660 I don't know. 751 01:21:00,660 --> 01:21:04,340 I have a really random playlist. 752 01:21:04,340 --> 01:21:08,540 No like favorite go-to that's like on repeat. 753 01:21:08,540 --> 01:21:16,140 Like La Présence is pretty classic for just like a hype, like get after it type of song. 754 01:21:16,140 --> 01:21:19,660 But no, not too many on repeat right now. 755 01:21:19,660 --> 01:21:25,860 I've been listening to a lot of like reggaeton when I train like Spanish music. 756 01:21:25,860 --> 01:21:26,980 That's been pretty fun. 757 01:21:26,980 --> 01:21:29,260 That's been my go-to lately. 758 01:21:29,260 --> 01:21:30,540 Anything there you want to recommend? 759 01:21:30,540 --> 01:21:38,260 It's just pretty basic like Bad Bunny and Daddy Yankee and that kind of stuff. 760 01:21:38,260 --> 01:21:39,260 Nice. 761 01:21:39,260 --> 01:21:40,260 Yeah. 762 01:21:40,260 --> 01:21:41,260 Okay. 763 01:21:41,260 --> 01:21:45,420 I'll try to find the one that you just mentioned and I'll link it in the description for people 764 01:21:45,420 --> 01:21:46,420 to listen to. 765 01:21:46,420 --> 01:21:47,860 I'll take a listen to it as well. 766 01:21:47,860 --> 01:21:50,780 I feel like yeah, French hip hop hits different. 767 01:21:50,780 --> 01:21:53,620 Yeah, it's just, I don't know. 768 01:21:53,620 --> 01:21:54,620 It just sounds good. 769 01:21:54,620 --> 01:21:59,900 I don't know if I have like a way better reason than that, but I like how it sounds. 770 01:21:59,900 --> 01:22:01,780 No, that's totally fair. 771 01:22:01,780 --> 01:22:05,420 Okay, last question from the Discord. 772 01:22:05,420 --> 01:22:11,500 How does training with teammates and friends impact you attitude, motivation, enjoyment 773 01:22:11,500 --> 01:22:12,620 wise? 774 01:22:12,620 --> 01:22:19,840 I think like when I have a really fun session with my friends, that's like, it really takes 775 01:22:19,840 --> 01:22:23,020 me back to the root of why I like climbing. 776 01:22:23,020 --> 01:22:27,820 I think a lot of the times our sessions will be really playful and we'll kind of make up 777 01:22:27,820 --> 01:22:33,660 moves and it really becomes not about like doing a boulder, but about how the move looks 778 01:22:33,660 --> 01:22:39,180 or like a different makeup that we made. 779 01:22:39,180 --> 01:22:44,380 Those kinds of sessions really are like the root of why I like climbing. 780 01:22:44,380 --> 01:22:49,940 It's just so fun and it's just like pure enjoyment. 781 01:22:49,940 --> 01:22:55,620 And then in general, like in normal sessions, I think having people around not only are 782 01:22:55,620 --> 01:23:01,020 like all the people here really supportive and generally like super psyched for you as 783 01:23:01,020 --> 01:23:05,920 long as you're pushing yourself and you know, you're trying hard and you have a good attitude, 784 01:23:05,920 --> 01:23:10,980 but just seeing so many people who are strong and being able to bounce ideas off each other 785 01:23:10,980 --> 01:23:15,340 for moves and get recommendations is super helpful. 786 01:23:15,340 --> 01:23:20,620 Like a lot of us have a pretty similar level and so we'll out climb each other on some 787 01:23:20,620 --> 01:23:25,540 styles and other people will out climb us on other boulders and having that really like 788 01:23:25,540 --> 01:23:29,460 judgment free dialogue of just like, hey, how'd you do this? 789 01:23:29,460 --> 01:23:31,060 Like, can you help me through this move? 790 01:23:31,060 --> 01:23:35,900 And having people work through moves with you that way is not only really helpful, but 791 01:23:35,900 --> 01:23:42,860 it's also really fun and it's social and it just like makes you feel pretty supported. 792 01:23:42,860 --> 01:23:46,780 So I definitely like having people around for that. 793 01:23:46,780 --> 01:23:51,960 But definitely the solo session, like kind of by yourself definitely has its special 794 01:23:51,960 --> 01:23:53,940 place in my heart for me as well. 795 01:23:53,940 --> 01:24:01,880 I think that's the time when I can climb with like the least amount of insecurity or like 796 01:24:01,880 --> 01:24:08,420 worries about how I look or what like how I look on the wall or what other people are 797 01:24:08,420 --> 01:24:10,460 thinking of my climbing. 798 01:24:10,460 --> 01:24:16,980 Like I'll definitely like make more try hard noises and kind of get like let myself get 799 01:24:16,980 --> 01:24:20,420 a little more emotional when I'm climbing by myself. 800 01:24:20,420 --> 01:24:23,020 So I think it's good to have a balance of both. 801 01:24:23,020 --> 01:24:24,020 Awesome. 802 01:24:24,020 --> 01:24:26,220 Yeah, that's definitely relatable. 803 01:24:26,220 --> 01:24:30,660 But okay, I think that's a good place to end it. 804 01:24:30,660 --> 01:24:34,420 That's all the questions I had as well as the discord. 805 01:24:34,420 --> 01:24:35,780 Yeah thanks for joining me. 806 01:24:35,780 --> 01:24:39,260 Anything that you want to shout out or let people know where they can find you? 807 01:24:39,260 --> 01:24:41,580 Yeah, I mean thanks for having me. 808 01:24:41,580 --> 01:24:43,940 It's been a lot of fun. 809 01:24:43,940 --> 01:24:48,780 If you guys want to follow along with like some of the moves I'm doing or just my comp 810 01:24:48,780 --> 01:24:52,580 journey and my climbing, you can definitely follow me on Instagram. 811 01:24:52,580 --> 01:24:59,700 I try to kind of post a lot of some more serious things but then a lot of like day to day shenanigans 812 01:24:59,700 --> 01:25:01,980 on there as well. 813 01:25:01,980 --> 01:25:08,000 And then like super thankful to Prana and La Sportiva and Kinetic and Friction Labs 814 01:25:08,000 --> 01:25:14,340 for helping me out because it wouldn't be possible to like train how I do or go to all 815 01:25:14,340 --> 01:25:15,860 these competitions without them. 816 01:25:15,860 --> 01:25:18,100 So really, really appreciate that. 817 01:25:18,100 --> 01:25:19,100 Awesome. 818 01:25:19,100 --> 01:25:20,180 Okay, yeah. 819 01:25:20,180 --> 01:25:21,180 Thank you again. 820 01:25:21,180 --> 01:25:22,180 Awesome to chat. 821 01:25:22,180 --> 01:25:25,820 Thank you so much for making it to the end of the podcast. 822 01:25:25,820 --> 01:25:28,460 Don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed. 823 01:25:28,460 --> 01:25:31,580 Otherwise you are a super fake climber. 824 01:25:31,580 --> 01:25:36,220 If you're listening on a podcasting platform, I'd appreciate if you rate it five stars and 825 01:25:36,220 --> 01:25:41,180 you can continue the discussion on the free competition climbing discord linked in the 826 01:25:41,180 --> 01:25:42,180 description. 827 01:25:42,180 --> 01:26:11,300 Thanks again for listening.