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Is a climbing coaching session a good idea? (Read 43894 times)

petejh

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Completely off topic, I second Mr. Muench.
Alex is surely nice, but I find it hard to be attracted by a girl whose shoulders and lats could shelter a small house from a tornado.
Maybe it's just me...  :shrug:

The two of you would create a testosterone deficit in the rest of us.

Oldmanmatt

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I always wonder when I read posts like this, I can't remember writing a damn book! Is the Alzheimer's kicking in?
You could just write one sentence duplicated on each of 400 pages of 'Lee Anderson's manual of training for rock climbing': 'buy the other Anderson's training book'. The quote below would then still be correct.

Quote
The Andersons latest book is cheaper and if followed to the letter even with little understanding of why, will still yeild steady and continious improvements in the physical aspects of climbing.

I believe Dense's version would in fact read more along the lines of ....

"Man the Fuck up and stop pissing about".

Which would also, if followed to the letter, have the same results...

tomtom

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It could be a 400 page stick man page animation of someone doing a one armer :)

mctrials23

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I am going to get a coaching session soon but I will be asking to focus on technique. Thats not to say that I wouldn't expect him to tell me if I have any glaring weaknesses physically but honestly there is so much training material out there if you want to get stronger that I don't see much merit in focussing on that in a coaching session unless you are super strong already and out of ideas.

Physical weaknesses are quite obvious usually but bad technique can also obscure your strength as well. If you are in the wrong position to utilise the strength you have you may find a move "too strong" when you just need to adjust something else to bring the strength to bear.

a dense loner

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Pardon? Bad technique is just as glaringly obvious as not much strength! Here's an idea, why don't weak people say technique is better so work on that and strong people say strength is better so work on that.
That's £30, double if anyone lives in London.
Buy me 20 coffees and over the course of an hr I'll tell you how to improve.

mctrials23

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Bad technique is not as obvious as a lack of strength. Changing something very small in your body position can make a huge difference to how easy a move is. That tweak in body position is not always that obvious and a lack of strength is blamed.

a dense loner

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No it is glaringly obvious. You're talking about body position on a certain move not bad technique. If, for instance, you try to flag a move and you can't do it then you do it easily by frogging it you have just used bad technique the first time. If you flag a move and can't do it but keep trying and eventually do it that's body positioning.

abarro81

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Semantics Dense. In any case, most people would include being able to hit the most appropriate body positions quickly as coming very much under 'good technique'..
Sometimes bad technique is obvious (e.g. front-on burling up something that can be drop-kneed easily), other times it's not (e.g. subtle aspects of body-positioning, timing, coordination). Even if it is obvious (e.g. your heel keeps popping on a move), the underlying cause might not always be obvious (body position? Not focusing on pulling hard with the leg? Puling hard with the leg at the wrong time or in the wrong way? etc)
Anyway, that's just a long way of saying that you're wrong.

Johnny Brown

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Dense moves like Le Menestrel, it's joy to watch. He's my go-to man for technique advice, that's for damn sure.

a dense loner

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In much the same way that you're my go to guy for anything involving any kind of strength.

I thought the current fad was that you don't need to be , or have been, gifted at something to coach it? I have eyes and know when someone is doing a move wrong, isn't using the right technique to do a move or simply isn't strong enough to do a move.

Alex I know bad technique is sometimes not obvious I apologise if I'm coming from the obvious angle of saying someone who wants coaching does not need to know the minutiae of this rather than the general overview.

And how someone who wants coaching tells the coach what he wants to improve upon is also beyond me? Surely the coach will know what they need to improve upon? I know I put a question mark there, it's not really a question.

petejh

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You've turned american on us?

a dense loner

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That is really mean  :(

Dude

Oldmanmatt

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That is really mean  :(

Dude

Lost your car Dense?

jwi

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I always thought that the reason I was bad at heel hooks was because I have inflexible hips and I lack the knack for it.

A friend, who is a very good coach as it happens, gave me a training programme for the Swiss ball. The programme was 12 weeks of really hard work.  After which I could use heel hooks just fine.

I don't think anyone realised that the reason I was bad at heel hooks was because of weak gluts. At least no one told me.

a dense loner

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I always thought I had inflexible hips until a couple or so yrs ago I saw a chiropractor mate who said they're flexible it's your lower back that's tight as ****! Gave me some ex's to do and sorted it out, it's still my go to area for when any kind of ailments coming on tho! Can feel it starting to tighten again

Nibile

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How this topic got to 6 pages is beyond me.

jwi

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Topic drift. No big secret.

Muenchener

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I don't think anyone realised that the reason I was bad at heel hooks was because of weak gluts. At least no one told me.

I always get feelings of tension in my mid back, between and below my shoulder blades, when I try any kind of shoulder mobility exercises. Thought it was because my rhomboids are too tight, until I had it explained to me yesterday that it's because they're barely accustomed to doing anything at, and so immediately cramp up when I try to use them. Oh.

ghisino

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Physical weaknesses are quite obvious usually but bad technique can also obscure your strength as well. If you are in the wrong position to utilise the strength you have you may find a move "too strong" when you just need to adjust something else to bring the strength to bear.

I wouldn't be so black and white about this, strength and its good application (technique) are interdependent to some extent and one could also argue about the neuromuscular side of it (your brain learning to properly fire the right muscles in the right pattern)

Etc etc

jfdm

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How about this for keeping track of your training?
http://www.climbcoach.org/climbcoach/your-training


Cheaper than a coaching session?

cowboyhat

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How about this for keeping track of your training?
http://www.climbcoach.org/climbcoach/your-training


Cheaper than a coaching session?

The diary element doesn't work properly. Or at least on the one I have, its version 1.0.4 there have never been bug fixes/updates that cover the faults on mine.

I thought the app was useful for suggesting exercises, and as a timer, but not for following a plan.

jfdm

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I think that my training sessions will be more like this in 2015?




 :bounce:


Merry Christmas everybody!

jfdm

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Well I thought I'd better up date, it's been nearly 2 years since my post about my coaching session. It basically put me off.
A few weeks ago I had my second coaching session ever.
Summoning up the courage and the cash, to give it another whirl. With a different coach ;D
It was pretty tough going but an eye opener.
I thought I was a pretty reasonable climber but the coach soon spotted some significant flaws in my technique within a minute or two.
He captured this on a camera phone and I was able to see how front on I was as a climber.
The rest of the session was then spent trying to improve this aspect of my climbing.
The coach was supportive, giving me lots of feedback, drills etc.
So a much better experience than the last one.
Why the post, as a climber you can read all the books, YouTube clips, try hard etc. Thinking you are doing great. But develop some sloppy technique.

As a takeaway just videoing yourself can be an eye opener and really help improve your climbing.
Have fun everyone, happy climbing.

mrjonathanr

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As a takeaway just videoing yourself can be an eye opener and really help improve your climbing.


Yeah I thought I was climbing like Antoine LeMenestrel till I saw my videos of a recent trip. Turns out it was more like John Sargeant. Who'd have guessed?

mctrials23

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Who was your recent session with jfdm?

 

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