[shark]

Ned Feehally is one of the UK's top boulderers and the only Brit to flash 8B+ (Trust Issues in Rocklands). Although he doesn't compete any more he was British Champion three times and made a World Cup final. 

Whilst at university in Sheffield he met and climbed with Dan Varian (Carlisle Slapper on here) and together they took UK ground up highballing to new heights (sorry) as featured on Life on Hold (free to view).

Together they designed the Beastmaker fingerboard which 10 years on is still the world standard and Beastmaker, the company, is still going strong making a range of holds, boards and running BIFF. Both are still putting up cutting edge new problems around the country.

Just before lockdown Ned put up "The Boss" at Yarncliffe named in tribute to John Allen. It was publicised by Ned in typical low key fashion on instagram several weeks after the ascent.
 
“The Boss” is likely to be the hardest problem on gritstone so eyebrows were raised at the proferred 8B+ grade and reignited discussion as to whether our top problems were under-graded in comparison to the rest of the world.

I got in touch with Ned and he agreed to be interviewed. Questions were gathered from UKB members here as well as off line. 

Whilst I think I covered most of the ground directly or indirectly in the interview Ned is also happy to answer any further questions….

[Fiend]

Nice one Shark. 75 mins of pure chat, that should be pretty comprehensive!

[Duma]

Looking fwd to this!

[Doylo]

Class that Shark. Nice one. Glad to see he bums ankle weights on the board 👌🏿.

[remus]

That was ace, cheers for putting the time in shark, and thanks Ned for being a willing subject.

[tomtom]

The wall in your back yard is looking nice still Shark

[shark]

Thanks Remus and Doylo,

Also want to credit my son Tom for sorting out the recording set up and editing which turned out to be not straightforward

[T_B]

So in summary I need to stretch loads and do crimped deadhanging 5 days a week.

Great interview - thanks. It was interesting what he said about being happy to TR Smiling wall clean. I nearly suggested pre interview whether he’d be interested in simply TRing some of the LGPs eg Wizard Ridge? Like Jerry TRed Slingshot and left it at that .

[JohnM]

Great interview Shark. Nice work by yourself and Tom. It is good to hear about top level performers who may not be in the mainstream media all the time. I am almost considering stretching after watching that 

[gme]

Nice one shark.

Nice breath of fresh air to hear he just goes on his board, hangs off crimps and does loads of stretching rather than the over complicated, over analytical training that seems popular now.

[JohnM]

Yeah it sounds more like consistency over years has been one of the main factors.

[Rob F]

Well done to all involved. Everyone send him a project!!!

Errm, I nipped into the kitchen about 3/4 of the way through for an ice cream and might have missed it. What did he say about the Ben's Roof : Malham thing???

[Duma]

Really enjoyed that, thanks shark

[Fatboy]

Nice one, thanks Shark and Ned!! 

[Bradders]

Great stuff, thanks guys. Fingerboard 5x per week!! Disappointed you didn't ask him to join Power Club Shark 

[iain]

That was great.

Really enjoyed this and the Neil Carson one.

Shauna?

[Offwidth]

Great interview but not sure about googling tools used by buff men in gyms.

[remus]

Nice breath of fresh air to hear he just goes on his board, hangs off crimps and does loads of stretching rather than the over complicated, over analytical training that seems popular now.

On the other hand, he also mentioned his finger strength is pretty much capped at ~+2kg and hasnt really improved in ages , and he has to compensate for having (relatively) weak fingers by working on other areas

[teestub]

On the other hand, he also mentioned his finger strength is pretty much capped at ~+2kg and hasnt really improved in ages , and he has to compensate for having (relatively) weak fingers by working on other areas

I took all of that with a great fistful of salt, when he’s talking about having weak fingers that’s compared to Megos, Aidan and Varian. Although I’m sure 12 weeks in a Lattice plan would have him up to Font 9A+

[gme]

Nice breath of fresh air to hear he just goes on his board, hangs off crimps and does loads of stretching rather than the over complicated, over analytical training that seems popular now.

On the other hand, he also mentioned his finger strength is pretty much capped at ~+2kg and hasnt really improved in ages , and he has to compensate for having (relatively) weak fingers by working on other areas

Plus 2K on the bm2k slot would be well down the list I think. 100s of people stronger than that most of whom can only dream of doing 8B+.
Guess you would class him as an outlier.

[rginns]

Really enjoyed that Shark, thanks for going to the trouble. 
What a sound guy, but ankle weights?! Need to give that a go!

[Bradders]

What a sound guy, but ankle weights?! Need to give that a go!

There's a thread here discussing the merits of different methods of adding weight on a board:

https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,30436.0.html

[tomtom]

Wouldn’t using smaller/shitter footholds have the same effect (and more translatable to rock?).

Though I guess if you’re already using really tiny crap holds then adding ankle weights is an option 😄

[teestub]

In my experience tiny footholds become more shoe dependent than anything else and you just end up trashing a small area of your shoe. Think Ned’s board already has pretty terrible slopey feet!

[Doylo]

Wouldn’t using smaller/shitter footholds have the same effect (and more translatable to rock?).

Though I guess if you’re already using really tiny crap holds then adding ankle weights is an option 😄

They’re not mutually exclusive. Good to do a bit of everything.