Power
Maybe We’re Approaching Power Wrong
Tags: Bouldering, Campus Board, Power, Steve Bechtel, Strength
By Steve Bechtel It might be semantics, but it might also be a trap. When we throw around the terms we use in training for climbing, the word “power” gets used a lot. The problem is that although power is a performance metric, we struggle to build training that directly addresses it. Thus, when we…
The Speed Barrier
Tags: Power Training, speed
by Steve Bechtel “Here lies the contradiction of developing speed. On the one hand, to increase speed, the movement must be repeated many times, but on the other hand, the more repetitions, the stronger the speed barrier grows. Increasing the amount of work does not help; on the contrary, it consolidates the speed barrier.” –…
Melding Strength and Power
Tags: Finger Strength, Hangboard, Power, Steve Bechtel, Strength, Weight Training
by Steve Bechtel Too frequently, we try to over-categorize our training. Long-time athletes and coaches learned about training for climbing by reading about and practicing training that came from other sports. We all understood that strength and power and endurance were different entities, some of us going so far as to train all of these…
Foundational Bouldering (or Why Being a Novice is a Good Thing)
Tags: Bouldering, Bouldering Training, Novice Training
One of the great blunders of training is over-complication. It goes like this: You get interested in getting better so you go to the gym a bit and you get a little stronger and you get psyched and so you read about training and you get inspired to try some more stuff and you keep…
Training Power in the Weight Room
Tags: Power, Power Training, Strength, Weight Training
“Power,” said Hassan Saab, “If you’re talking about it, you ain’t got it.” In hard climbing, power is everything. When we reach our limits, whether they be 5.11 or 5.15, we start having to use speed and momentum to get between the holds. Most climbers recognize this and train for it specifically – buy using…