The Power Company Climbing Podcast

EVERY BODY CLIMBS | Ben Mayforth on Discipline, Paraclimbing World Championships, and Letting Go

Ben Mayforth is a decorated climber well known for dialing in his training regimen. He's a Paraclimbing World Cup multi-medalist. Since 2019, he hasn't missed a silver medal at the Paraclimbing World Championships. Ben has a reputation of being extremely disciplined, but he’s recently loosened some of his self-imposed rules, and we discuss the impacts from that “letting go” in this episode.
Every Body Climbs (EBC) is a collaborative podcast, presented across Plug Tone Audio platforms, bringing you interviews with para and adaptive climbers. These profiles can be heard on The Power Company Podcast and Sends and Suffers. Content about festivals, engagement projects and other modes of community building air on Sends and Suffers, while training and nutrition focused interviews can be heard on The Power Company Podcast. Host, Emily Chen-Newton is a freelance adaptive sports reporter working in both print and broadcast. Living with a chronic medical condition herself, her journalism centers athletes, not their disabilities. When she’s not reporting, she’s rock climbing with her husband and their two cats.
 
Follow Emily and EBC on:
Instagram
SoundCloud
Theme music sample attribution: Creeper_Ciller78
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🔍 EXPLORE FURTHER
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
More episodes of Every Body Climbs
More episodes of Sends and Suffers
Maureen Beck | Adapting
Justin Salas | Nonsighting
REWIND | Craig DeMartino on Making Hard Decisions and Using Limitations
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🔌 SUPPORT + CONNECT
Help us keep the show sponsor-free when you join our Patreon Community for as little as $3.
Get two or more bonus episodes every month on Patreon, Spotify, or Apple.
Subscribe to THE CURRENT and get a monthly exploration of how we can all become better climbers.
Find Power Company on Instagram and YouTube.
Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it.
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The Power Company Podcast is a proud founding member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.
 

Nate Drolet | A Consultation with The Struggle Climbing Show

Today's episode comes from The Struggle Climbing Show and features our very own coach Nate Drolet in consultation with the show's host Ryan Devlin, who has been working hard towards a goal to climb 13a.  They'll talk movement analysis, technique improvement, and more.  This is the first of two episodes with Nate on the topic, so be sure to head over to The Struggle to hear the second part!
 
Check out more episodes of The Struggle Climbing Show.
Follow The Struggle Climbing Show on Instagram.
Get more content on The Struggle's Patreon.
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🔍 EXPLORE FURTHER
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
Our Movement Practice Resource Page
Book a Remote Consultation with Nate
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🔌 SUPPORT + CONNECT
Help us keep the show sponsor-free when you join our Patreon Community for as little as $3.
Get two or more bonus episodes every month on Patreon, Spotify, or Apple.
Subscribe to THE CURRENT and get a monthly exploration of how we can all become better climbers.
Find Nate on Instagram and YouTube.
Find Power Company on Instagram and YouTube.
Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it.
_________________________
The Power Company Podcast is a proud founding member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

EXPERT | Udo Neumann on Movement, Learning, and How to Coach Climbing

Udo Neumann is a climber, performance coach, and motor-learning explorer. He’s the author of several books, including the cult classic Performance Rock Climbing.  He was the German National Team coach from 2009 to 2017, working with several European and World Champion athletes during that time, including Jan Hojer and Jule Wurm. Today he advises federations and works with athletes and coaches all over the world.
In this episode, we discuss his ideas around motor learning and coaching movement, whether a coach needs to be as good as the athlete, how he assesses climbers, what makes Janja Garnbret and Tomoa Narasaki special, and what makes the Japanese team so good.
Find Udo online at udini.com and on YouTube.
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🔍 EXPLORE FURTHER
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
Performance Rock Climbing by Udo Neumann and Dale Goddard
Episode 482: The Coaching Eye - How Reliably Can Expert Coaches Observe Movement? | The Perception & Action Podcast
Cognitive Bias Codex Infographic from Visual Capitalist
Coaching for Mastery Course
_________________________
🔌 SUPPORT + CONNECT
Help us keep the show sponsor-free when you join our Patreon Community for as little as $3.
Get two or more bonus episodes every month on Patreon, Spotify, or Apple.
Subscribe to THE CURRENT and get a monthly exploration of how we can all become better climbers.
Find Power Company on Instagram and YouTube.
Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it.
_________________________
The Power Company Podcast is a proud founding member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.
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📚 CHAPTERS
(0:00) Intro and Guest Introduction
(3:09) Have We Overemphasized the Physical?
(7:26) Udo’s Transition to the Ecological Approach to Coaching
(8:42) ANNOTATION: Bernstein, Degrees of Freedom, Repetition Without Repetition
(14:54) Deliberate Play
(29:32) The Athlete Doesn’t Need All of the Information
(32:33) Does a Coach Need to Be Better Than the Climber?
(34:57) Technique vs. Skill
(40:02) Open and Closed Skills
(40:52) ANNOTATION: Open and Closed Skill Continuums
(45:51) Adaptability and Biases in Climbing
(51:07) ANNOTATION: Marshmallow Test and Delayed Gratification
(56:40) What Makes Janja Garnbret So Good?
(59:20) Rhythm and Patience
(1:02:01) How Does Udo Assess Movement Skills?
(1:09:09) How Often Should We Give Explicit Instruction?
(1:16:29) Using Video in Coaching
(1:28:34) Are Comp Boulders Useful for Outdoor Climbers?
(1:32:40) What’s the Secret of the Japanese Team and Tomoa Narasaki?
(1:42:07) Wrap Up

TAPED TIPS | The Setup Mistake Climbers Make on Hard Moves

Where's the first place your mind goes when you don’t stick a move?
If you’re like most climbers, it’s probably your finger strength, or tension, or even your effort, and you’re already considering what hangboard protocol to use or some front lever workout.
But it’s possible you’re looking in the wrong direction entirely...
 
Read the rest on the blog!
Watch the video on YouTube!
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🔍 EXPLORE FURTHER
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
Taped Tips | The Secret to Hard Moves that Most Climbers Are Missing
Our Movement Practice Resource Page
Coaching for Mastery Course
_________________________
🔌 SUPPORT + CONNECT
Help us keep the show sponsor-free when you join our Patreon Community for as little as $3.
Get two or more bonus episodes every month on Patreon, Spotify, or Apple.
Subscribe to THE CURRENT and get a monthly exploration of how we can all become better climbers.
Find Power Company on Instagram and YouTube.
Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it.
_________________________
The Power Company Podcast is a proud founding member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

(BONUS) EXPERT | Will Anglin on Climbing All The Things, the Intersection of Strength and Movement, and the Ultimate Tool

Will Anglin is one of the founders of Tension Climbing, a company that not only makes training tools, but also is committed to innovation in a way that leads climbers toward mastery over success. In this episode we discuss movement skills, some ways climbers are going wrong in their pursuit and how they can continue improving, and the tools that might get them there.
Check out Tension Climbing and use code STONE at checkout for 10% off of select training tools!
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🔍 EXPLORE FURTHER
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
If you’re a coach or a climber who wants to learn how to give better feedback, check out our Coaching for Mastery course, part of the Power Company Climbing Academy.
Go down the rabbit hole on our Movement Practice Resource Page.
Are Your Skills Current?  Also available on Spotify or Apple
Grades Aren’t the Only Way to Measure Progress  Also available on Spotify or Apple
More from Will and our friends at Tension:
Kerry Scott | Ambition, Confidence, and Climbing All the Things
Will Anglin and Rowland Chen | P.O.E.
Will Anglin and Rowland Chen | P.O.E. 2
Will Anglin and Michael Rosato | Boards vs. Spray Walls
Roy Quanstrom | Translating Movement
_________________________
🔌 SUPPORT + CONNECT
Help us keep the show sponsor-free when you join our Patreon Community for as little as $3.
Get two or more bonus episodes every month on Patreon, Spotify, or Apple.
Subscribe to THE CURRENT and get a monthly exploration of how we can all become better climbers.
Find Power Company on Instagram and YouTube.
Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it.
_________________________
The Power Company Podcast is a proud founding member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.
_________________________
📚 CHAPTERS
(0:00) Intro and Topic Description
(2:48) Climb All The Things
(6:23) Figuring Out How to Change Me
(8:06) Boards Make It Easier to Skip the Discomfort
(9:12) ANNOTATION: Constraints, Compensation, and Choices
(12:16) Climbing as Training
(13:16) Climb What?
(14:00) Not Stealing the Struggle
(15:45) Unlearning Skills
(16:50) ANNOTATION: Coach Over-Instruction and Skills Currency
(18:19) Improvement Is Hard to Measure
(22:50) Grades Only Say What We’ve Climbed, Not How Good We Are
(23:30) Will’s 3 Grade System
(24:05) ANNOTATION: Vegetable Climbs List and Diamond vs. Pyramid
(26:10) Skills Aren’t Separate from Strength and Power
(27:33) Skill Is the Intersection of What, How, and Doing
(28:11) How the Tension Board 1 Is a Movement and Strength Tool
(30:44) Just Climb, But With Intention
(31:33) ANNOTATION: Where Strength and Movement Overlap and the Ultimate Learning Tool
(34:31) Wrap Up
(35:35) Credits and Outro

BUILDER | Lauren Abernathy is Building Better Climbing Movement Skills with In-Person Sessions

Lauren Abernathy works hard to be a better climber. In fact, it’s part of her job as owner of Good Spray Climbing to help other people become better climbers, and she walks the walk. For several years she’s worked with our coach Blake Cash, and has recently been supplementing that with private movement sessions with Nate Drolet. 
In this episode, we discuss why she chose to also do in-person sessions alongside her remote coaching with Blake, what’s going well, how she fits the training and sessions into her busy life, and how the movement skills are showing up in her climbing.
Find Lauren online at Good Spray Climbing and on Instagram 
Check out her Fast Track climbing movement course
Listen to The Average Climber Podcast
Book a remote consultation with Nate Drolet.
Find Nate on Instagram and YouTube.
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🔍 EXPLORE FURTHER
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
EXPERT | Taylor Reed on Climbing Research and Evidence-Informed Movement Coaching
EXPERT | Rob Gray | How We Learn to Move and Skill Acquisition for Climbers (Part 2)
Lauren Abernathy | From Weekend Warrior to Full-Time Coach
BOARD MEETINGS | Top Ways Climbers are Holding Themselves Back with The Average Climber Podcast
Coaching for Mastery Course
_________________________
🔌 SUPPORT + CONNECT
Help us keep the show sponsor-free when you join our Patreon Community for as little as $3.
Get two or more bonus episodes every month on Patreon, Spotify, or Apple.
Subscribe to THE CURRENT and get a monthly exploration of how we can all become better climbers.
Find Power Company on Instagram and YouTube.
Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it.
_________________________
The Power Company Podcast is a proud founding member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.
_________________________
📚 CHAPTERS
(0:00) Intro and BUILDER Description
(0:36) Guest Introduction and Details
(2:45) Why Lauren Added In-Person Sessions
(8:17) Was There a Specific Goal?
(9:39) An Example of What Nate Noticed In Lauren’s Movement
(18:43) Lauren Rants About Muggle Gyms
(25:58) Fitting Sessions and Training Into Work and Life
(33:09) Adjusting Skill Session Intensity to Fit Life Stressors
(38:34) Kris Explains His Own Recent Skill Wins
(41:39) How Lauren’s Skill Practice Is Showing Up In Her Climbing
(50:14) The Complexities of Tension 
(1:00:19) Nate’s Monologues
(1:01:43) Wrap Up
(1:04:00) Theme

TAPED TIPS | The Secret to Hard Moves that Most Climbers are Missing

For most of us, climbing looks like this:
Pull on, try the move, fall off. Stare at your hands and try to understand why you fell. Pull on, try the move, fall off. Stare at your hands and come up with a new reason why you fell. Pull on again, try the move again, fall off.  Again
You get it. You've been there. But there’s a better way.
In this episode, we’re going to talk about the obvious thing that most climbers are missing when it comes to difficult moves and learn several strategies that will help you do those harder moves, harder boulders, and harder routes faster. 
Read the rest on the blog!
Watch the video on YouTube!
_________________________
🔍 EXPLORE FURTHER
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
Our Movement Practice Resource Page
Coaching for Mastery Course
_________________________
🔌 SUPPORT + CONNECT
Help us keep the show sponsor-free when you join our Patreon Community for as little as $3.
Get two or more bonus episodes every month on Patreon, Spotify, or Apple.
Subscribe to THE CURRENT and get a monthly exploration of how we can all become better climbers.
Find Power Company on Instagram and YouTube.
Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it.
_________________________
The Power Company Podcast is a proud founding member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

EXPERT | Taylor Reed on Climbing Research and Evidence-Informed Movement Coaching

Taylor Reed is a climber and coach who has worked with high-level athletes – both competitive and outdoor climbers – for many years. He’s the vice president of the International Rock Climbing Research Association and also runs The Beta Angel Project, which takes climbing-specific research and synthesizes it with ideas and experience in order to find evidence-informed methods that can help us all become better coaches and climbers.
In this episode, we discuss how Taylor assesses movement, how he teaches it, and what role research plays in his overall coaching.
 
Find Taylor online at:
The Beta Angel Project
International Rock Climbing Research Association (IRCRA)
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🔍 EXPLORE FURTHER
Research mentioned in the episode:
Austrian Research Paper and Write Up
Co-Contraction Paper and Write Up
Multi-Edge Decision-Making / Behavioral Change Paper
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
Why “Technique” May Not Be The Answer to Better Climbing
EXPERT | Rob Gray | The Gap Between Researchers and Coaches (Part 1)
EXPERT | Rob Gray | How We Learn to Move and Skill Acquisition for Climbers (Part 2)
BOARD MEETINGS | The Art of Learning Climbing
BREAKING BETA | Better Call Paul | How Should Climbing Research Be Standardized?
BREAKING BETA | Better Call Paul | IRCRA Test Battery
Taylor Reed and Bella Jariel | The Coach/Climber Dynamic
_________________________
🔌SUPPORT + CONNECT
Help us keep the show sponsor-free when you join our Patreon Community for as little as $3.
Get two or more bonus episodes every month on Patreon, Spotify, or Apple.
Subscribe to THE CURRENT and get a monthly exploration of how we can all become better climbers.
Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it.
_________________________
The Power Company Podcast is a proud founding member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.
_________________________
📚CHAPTERS
(0:00) Intro
(2:40) How Much Does Research Inform Taylor’s Coaching?
(3:48) ANNOTATION: Evidence-Based vs. Evidence-Informed
(10:15) What Aspects of Research Are Most Applicable?
(12:53) Looking Outside of Climbing Research
(13:50) ANNOTATION: Reinvestment Theory
(15:37) Speed Climbing
(19:53) Information Processing vs. Ecological Dynamics for Climbing
(30:32) Thematic Movement Learning
(47:40) Movement Assessment
(1:02:48) Teaching Movement
(1:05:22) ANNOTATION: Differential Learning
(1:08:19) ANNOTATION: Attractor Valleys
(1:16:03) How Much Does the Athlete Need to Know?
(1:20:58) ANNOTATION: Leading By Example
(1:22:48) Do Comp Style Climbs Translate to Outdoors?
(1:27:38) What Is Still Missing From the Research?
(1:32:55) Wrap Up
(1:35:06) Theme
 

BOARD MEETINGS | How Much Climbing Skill Is Guaranteed With Experience?

A common refrain in climbing is that the more you climb, the better you get. But all of us know some old crusty who has been climbing for 45 years and is stuck at mid 5.10. And they have all of the excuses as to why. But they’re wrong.
In this episode, Kris and Nate explore why we believe we’ll just get better if we keep at it, as well as offer strategies to continue improving no matter how long (or short) you’ve been at it.
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🔍 EXPLORE FURTHER
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
Our Movement Practice Resource Page
Board Meetings | The Art of Learning Climbing
Board Meetings | Quality vs. Quantity
Board Meetings | Worst Advice We Got As Beginners
_________________________
🔌 SUPPORT + CONNECT
Help us keep the show sponsor-free when you join our Patreon Community for as little as $3.
Get two or more bonus episodes every month on Patreon, Spotify, or Apple.
Subscribe to THE CURRENT and get a monthly exploration of how we can all become better climbers.
Find Nate on Instagram and YouTube.
Find Power Company on Instagram and YouTube.
Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it.
_________________________
The Power Company Podcast is a proud founding member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.
_________________________
📚 CHAPTERS
(0:00) Theme
(0:37) Intro and Topic Description
(3:13) Examples of Experience that Doesn’t Guarantee Skill
(6:53) Why Most of Us Believe Experience Equals Skill
(10:55) What are the Pros Doing?
(16:20) It Isn’t All About Grades
(18:20) Undervaluing Other Styles and Angles
(19:43) We Don’t Want to Spend the Time
(21:20) We Go Into Autopilot
(23:23) How Can We Keep Improving Skills?
(24:17) Search for Novelty or Change Environments
(28:30) Approach Improvement from All Angles
(31:06) Recognize Discomfort and Lean In, Even Off the Wall
(35:08) The Zone (Not Grades) Where We Develop Skills
(37:16) Why We Suggest Drills
(38:15) Autopilot Mistakes
(42:40) How New Skills Open Opportunities on Hard Projects
(44:10) Examples of Pros Spending Time Below Their Limits
(49:20) Why Consistency Is NOT King
(53:28) Bringing Intention to Skill Drills
(55:47) Tried and True or Just Tradition?
(01:01:01) So Is Skill Guaranteed With Experience?
(01:03:45) How to Go Deeper Into Movement

TAPED TIPS | Go Ahead, Grab That Foothold and Be Adaptable

Go ahead, grab that foothold. I mean, it’s only a foothold until someone uses it as a handhold. Then it’s just a hold. So use it.
And if you don’t want to because you’d rather challenge yourself to do it without using that really obvious hold right there, that’s fine, too. There’s no heroism in skipping an obvious hold. There’s no shame in using a hold other people aren’t. What’s possible, though, is that if you always choose one way or the other, then you’ve painted yourself into a corner. A corner that just doesn’t offer as many opportunities to learn.
So there’s a question that both of you should be asking yourselves. And that question is:
Can I do it both ways?Can I become more adaptable?
That’s two questions, but you know what I mean...
 
Read the rest at the blog!
_________________________
🔍 EXPLORE FURTHER
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
Our Movement Practice Resource Page
_________________________
🔌 SUPPORT + CONNECT
Help us keep the show sponsor-free when you join our Patreon Community for as little as $3.
Get two or more bonus episodes every month on Patreon, Spotify, or Apple.
Subscribe to THE CURRENT and get a monthly exploration of how we can all become better climbers.
Find Power Company on Instagram and YouTube.
Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it.
_________________________
The Power Company Podcast is a proud founding member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.