The Power Company Climbing Podcast

Eric Hörst | Growing Older, Stronger, Better

In today’s episode, Kris sits down to catch up with fellow climbing coach, Eric Hörst. They chat about how some big life shifts – Eric’s retirement, the success of his nutrition brand, PhysiVantage, and becoming an empty nester – have impacted his climbing and training.
 
Learn more with training resources from Eric.
Learn more about PhysiVantage Nutrition.
Follow Eric on Instagram.
 
The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective.
You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

BREAKING BETA | Can We Measure Energy System Contribution to Climbing?

In this episode, from our other podcast, Breaking Beta, Kris and Paul discuss a paper that investigates how different energy systems contribute to climbing performance:
Climbing-Specific Exercise Tests: Energy System Contributions and Relationships With Sport Performance
Authored by Marcin Maciejczyk, Michail Lubomirov Michailov, Magdalena Więcek, Jadwiga Szymura, Robert Rokowski, Zbigniew Szygula, and Ralph Beneke; published in Frontiers in Physiology in January, 2022.
They’ll explain the different energy systems and how they were measured in the study using three finger flexor muscle tests. They’ll consider how well these measurements can act as reliable performance indicators for climbing.
Special thanks to AJ Sobrilsky at Excel Physical Therapy in Bozeman and also the Climb Strong team for suggesting this paper!
New episodes of Breaking Beta drop on Wednesdays. Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share!
And please, tell all of your friends who have their energy system training totally dialed in but say “Take!” as soon as they are getting pumped, that you have the perfect podcast for them.
Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.
Season 2 of Breaking Beta is proudly supported by Gnarly Sports Nutrition. For a limited time, Breaking Beta listeners can take 15% off their purchase using the code BETA15 at checkout! Or simply click the link above to shop and have the discount automatically applied.
Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 
Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram
Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

TAPED TIPS | Difficulties Should Be Desirable

I’m actually not a big fan of the term “drills”, but I don’t have a better word for it. I don’t like it for several reasons:
One, because we aren’t “drilling” anything in. Despite the popular belief, that’s not actually how learning works. Performance, maybe, but not learning. And in my book, these “drills” are for learning. 
Two, there are just too many coaches who assume that harder equals better. They just keep stacking difficulties onto their drills as if those difficulties are all going to make you better at climbing. Now we see climbers bouncing one-legged on a Bosu Ball balanced on a slackline while blindfolded and miming rose moves because…
WHY? 
Yeah, I don’t know either. And today, we’re going to talk about why that might not be the best solution.
 
In our Coaching for Mastery course, we go DEEP into how coaches and climbers can create an effective practice. That’s literally what the entire course is about. The research, the theories, my experience, and how you can practically apply it.
 
The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective.
You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

BOARD MEETINGS | Top Ways Climbers Are Holding Themselves Back

In this episode, Kris and Nate are joined by coach Lauren Abernathy and nutritionist Caitlin Holmes of The Average Climber Podcast. The four discuss some of the biggest ways they see climbers getting in their own way.
They chat about the impact that shifting your perspective can have, how easy it can be to get caught up in comparing yourself to others, and why reading all the Mountain Project comments on that route you’re psyched to check out might not be the best idea.
Plus, they’ll answer a question that’s been plaguing climbers for ages: what’s the best brand of gummy bears?
 
Find Lauren online at Good Spray Climbing.
Find Caitlin online at Dirt Bag Nutrition.
 
The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective.
You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month!
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

TAPED TIPS | When Beta Isn’t Better

You’re a coach, or a climbing partner, or simply a concerned friend. You’re watching your client, student, partner, or bestie struggle.  And you want to help. 
But how?
That’s actually a great question. Because the answer is situational. It entirely depends on the goal.
Today, we’re going to learn why.
 
In our Coaching for Mastery course, we go DEEP into how coaches and climbers can create an effective practice. That’s literally what the entire course is about. The research, the theories, my experience, and how you can practically apply it.
 
The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective.
You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

TAPED TIPS | I Said What I S.A.I.D.

You’ve heard of the SAID principle, right? S-A-I-D: Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands. You’ve heard of it.  And you thought that it meant simply that to get better at climbing, you have to climb on boulders that look just like the climbs you do outside, right? 
If that was you, you were in the majority. But you were wrong. 
Is climbing pulling straight down on edges? Not always.Is it compressing on slopers? Not always.Is it jumping from grip to grip? Sometimes.Is it moving slow and precise. Pretty often, actually. Is it full-crimping? Half-crimping? Open hand? 3 Finger Drag? Middle 2? Back 3? Mono? Crosley? Pinch? Back-stepping, drop-kneeing, twisted, square, toe-hooking, heel-hooking, edging, smearing, blah blah blah…
Well, It’s all of these things. And thousands more things. It’s too much. So today, we’re going to learn a little more about what specificity actually means.
 
In our Coaching for Mastery course, we go DEEP into how coaches and climbers can create an effective practice. That’s literally what the entire course is about. The research, the theories, my experience, and how you can practically apply it.
 
The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective.
You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

TAPED TIPS | Are You Always Performing?

Climbers are really good at creating a performance environment. Really, really good. No, I’m not saying that you’re good at performing – some of you suck at it and could use a lot of help –but you’re always TRYING to perform.
But if you want to get better, that might be a big mistake.
Today, we’re going to find out why.
 
In our Coaching for Mastery course, we go DEEP into how coaches and climbers can create an effective practice. That’s literally what the entire course is about. The research, the theories, my experience, and how you can practically apply it.
 
The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective.
You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

Coaching Mentorship Scholarships Now Available!

We are happy to announce that due to the generous donations from two anonymous donors, we are able to offer two scholarships for our 10 Week Coaching for Mastery Mentorship Group, as well as three spots for the course itself. 
Having worked with a lot of climbing coaches over the past decade, it’s been exciting to see the industry becoming more diverse. We want to do what we can to help that trend. 
Applications are open to everyone, with priority given to those who otherwise may not have the resources to participate. Applications will close on Monday, October 17th and winners will be notified later that week. 
Please share this post or link with your network, and particularly with the folks you know who deserve the opportunity - or you can pop into the applications and nominate someone yourself!
Thanks. 
Learn more about the Coaching for Mastery Course.
Apply for one of the Scholarships.

Dale Wilson | Climbing Performance Metrics

How to use data and measurements to inform training decisions had been a topic of debate amongst Kris and the other Power Company coaches for years. That is until today’s guest, Data Analyst, Dale Wilson, stepped in to settle the score once and for all.
Dale and Kris chat about how and why Power Company Climbing collects certain measurements from their clients. They discuss the usefulness of these measurements in predicting climbing performance and how this data can be helpful to coaches when designing programming. They also talk about how important it is not to get too wrapped up in the numbers, and how easily many climbers fall into the trap of training to improve numbers rather than to reach their goals.
DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:
How Power Company Climbing uses data and measurements in their program design.
How Kris and Dale personally use data in their own climbing and training.
Which measurements seem to “matter” - and which don’t.
The downside of putting too much stock in numbers.
 
Learn more about Metrics for Climbers from Dale.
See the charts and tables we've compiled based on our ever-growing data set.
Let Dale crunch the numbers for you with our Mini-Assessment + Analysis.
 
Check out the newest course from the Power Company Climbing Academy, Coaching for Mastery, available now!
 
The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective.
You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month.
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

BOARD MEETINGS | Systematic Tactics vs. Battle Mode

Do you have a default climbing mode? If so, do you value the other side? 
In this episode, Kris and Nate discuss the two approaches to sending - tactics vs. going to battle - and how we can better learn both sides. 
Check out the Coaching for Mastery course!
 
The Power Company Podcast is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective.
You can help us keep episodes ad-free by becoming a Patron for as little as $3 a month!
Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.