Motivation and Tactics
Climb Better Than Ever in 14 Days!
Tags: better than ever, climbing, Micah Elconin, Tactics
By Micah Elconin Did I get your attention? Are you searching for the magic bullet that will instantly transform you into a stone crushing Crankenstein that eats hard rock climbs for breakfast? I sure hope not. The truth is, there is no magic bullet. My sincere hope is that if you’re reading this piece,…
Love Your Local Stone
Tags: climbing, Local, Micah Elconin, Tactics
By Micah Elconin Climbing culture tends to revere the road warrior life working from the assumption that the most important climbing to do is somewhere else – that our highest goals and dreams should live in a place far from here. However, many of us are not fully savoring the lowest hanging fruit that is…
Foundations: An Emphasis on Intention and Practice
Tags: AJ Sobrilsky, foundations, Movement, Power, programs, Strength, Tactics
By AJ Sobrilsky Planning the work and working the plan by focusing on the 90% that’s important and not the 10% that’s interesting. Both as a coach and medical professional who sees a lot of climbing athletes of various climbing, training, and experience levels I’m regularly asked, “Is it worth training or should…
Momentum
Tags: climbing, Micah Elconin, Movement, Tactics
By Micah Elconin My buddy Elijah claims his power animal is the sloth. If you’ve seen him climb, this might make more sense. He moves amazingly slow and almost appears to be falling asleep at rests. The man rarely moves with any sense of urgency (on or off the wall), but he’s a damn good…
Climbing is Suffering
Tags: Chrissy Vadovszki, climbing, mental preparation, mindset
By Chrissy Vadovszki The First Noble Truth in Buddhism states that there is suffering. Life is impermanent and fragile. Nothing will last. We will lose it all. We care about and grasp onto much of what will ultimately change. In addition, life and climbing are full of injury, aging, sickness, losing loved ones and death….
Climb Them All
Tags: climbing, John Sullivan photo, Micah Elconin, Movement, Tactics
By Micah Elconin Eugene, Oregon is not famous for its rock climbing. My home for more than a decade is better known for its hippy communes and track athletes. So, it’s not surprising that climbers from out of the area usually have one of two responses when learning where I’m from. “So, you must climb…
Why A Collection? Behind Writing “Mettle.”
Tags: book announcement, mettle, Steve Bechtel
by Steve Bechtel Every once in a while, someone would say something about doing a collection of articles as a book. I would dismiss it, thinking there was no need, that all of the things I wrote on the site and in the newsletters were “out there.” Why would someone buy a book when they…
Three Things I Wish I Would Have Been Told During My First Few Years of Climbing
Tags: Carly Cain, comparison, effort, lessons
by Carly Cain, Performance Climbing Coach, NASM, AMGA RGA 1. Your Climbing Doesn’t Matter Well, it does matter, but not to anyone but you. All of you out there reading this while shaking your head saying, ‘But my partner cares,’ well, you’re wrong. They do not care like you care. No one…
Not Dark Yet
Tags: Aging, Bouldering Training, General Training, integrated strength, Mobility, Steve Bechtel
by Steve Bechtel There is a certain profundity to aging that gnaws at us, and the bites seem to get bigger at the decade marks. Twenty meant moving forward, freedom, and driving my own life. Thirty felt like I should have already sorted out most of the stuff I was working hard to sort out,…
Lessons: 2020
Tags: lessons, Steve Bechtel
by Steve Bechtel As the year wraps up and I have time to look back on all that happened in the previous 12 months, I find looking for lessons useful. None of us would say that 2020 was unmemorable, but I feel that despite the difficulty of the year, there were valuable experiences that can…
Developmental and Maintenance Loads
Tags: developemental loads, maintenance, Planning, Strength
by Steve Bechtel We can train to improve or train to hold our ground. This is an important distinction, and one worth keeping in mind when you are training. Most of us think only in terms of trying to get better – to push more weight, to hold smaller crimps, etc. Most of us think…