You’re still going to school, is that correct?
Yes, I go to school every day until 2pm, then I go training for 2 hours and a half. Tell us about your training, do you train alone?
I usually train on my own, except at times when I do bouldering. If I go to the gym at 3pm nobody’s there… When I train endurance I do laps… I climb, mostly, but I also do some pull ups on a kind of rotating rail for slopers, my weak point… In one of your recent interviews you mentioned the Olympics.
Yes. I think that climbing – being a natural movement like running or swimming – belongs to the Olympics, and I do not understand why it’s not there. Some say that sport climbing will lose its soul, but I don’t agree. Still, events may be improved, even if I think that what we are missing is basically attention from the media. Boulder is somehow difficult to understand, and lead could probably be more intense or bouldery; but I think that recently it got better, for example the route in China was good, long but fast.
Patxi Usobiaga, seines Zeichens Lead-Worldcup-Gewinner 2009 beim Wettkampf in China und schon lange unter den Top-10 im Schwierigkeitsklettern am Plastik (und auch am Fels bis 9a+ unterwegs!) hat ein sehr ausführliches Interview gegeben, in dem er vor allem zu seinem Training ausgefragt wird:
The big picture of my training is the typical one. They are progressive and directed to an specific goal or date. Three main cycles: first, build a basis (gym, etc.); second, quantity (lot of climbing gym, campus, board, etc.); third, quality (hard routes, bouldering, etc.). As simple as it looks, the complexity is within those cycles: what are the best exercises, the most easily transferred to climbing, the most appropriate for me, possible innovations? I really like training and enjoy every single training session, because I can feel, day after day, that I am improving, that I am a better climber.
I train 5 days a week, taking a couple of afternoons off. On weekends, I climb outdoors (which is kind of rest if you compare it with a typical training session). After so many years training, my body supercompensates faster than before and now I need to take fewer rest days.
I try to avoid the use of pharma as much as possible. I don’t take anything that will help me train, I don’t believe in those. Nowadays, I only take vitamin C to avoid catching colds easily. Nothing to recover or to develop, I don’t believe in that. Years ago I used electro stimulation, but not anymore, I don’t have time for that, even though it can help.
I am 1.74m tall with and ape index of 1,76. I weigh around 60-62 kg, depending on the season. I can pull up 28 times on two hands and barely once with one hand when I am in my best shape. It seems I beat Adam on this, they should start every comp with a one-arm pull up then (not two, just one ;). Still, strength is one of my weak points…
If you want to improve your climbing level through training, you have to enjoy training. Since you have to spend a lot of time enclosed in the gym, enjoying the process of getting in shape is essential. You cannot be thinking all the time of the project you want to accomplish and find the motivation to train there because then, at some point, it is very likely that you lose it and give up. If you don’t enjoy training, you better find another system like climbing outdoors.
Hier der am Dienstag erschienene Eintrag in seinem Videoblog – kann jemand Spanisch?
Does the fact that you are trying and sending other routes than FRFM after your return from your USA trip mean that you have given up with it?
No, I haven’t given up on FRFM. But with the weather getting warmer I’m just doing different things. I’m still motivated to send the route. After this last season working on it and falling off the top so many times, I think it’s good to change focus to something else and then come back with fresh motivation. At this point I would really love other climbers to get on it. It’s such a good route and it needs to be climbed; if not by me then by someone else.
Do you ever go to the gym to train, or is it enough to climb outside?
J: Well for me personally I enjoy climbing inside and outside. But before this trip I decided that maybe it was time to try and step it up and put myself on somewhat of a „training“ regiment. So Brion and I probably spent 4 to 5 days a week training at The Tennessee Bouldering Authority for around 3 months leading up to our departure.
B: Weather in the Southeast is unpredictable and often poor for extended periods of time. As a result, I often find myself in the gym more than I would like. But training in the gym has been instrumental in advancing my climbing. In fact, without our local gym, Tennessee Bouldering Authority, this would be a much less interesting interview.
Jon Partridge, Mitglied des „British Bouldering Team“, in Hueco Tanks:
Der Japaner Toru Nakajima hat in England einige Trad-Routen abgehakt, inkl. Video seiner Solo-Begehung von „Storms Over Africa (E6 6b)“
Die Teva Mountain Games, in deren Rahmen auch der nächste IFSC Boulder-Worldcup stattfindet, haben heute in Vail angefangen (Freitag gehts los mit Bouldern) und gehen noch bis Sonntag, 06.06.10! Eine Übersicht gibts hier.
Enzo Oddo in „GoGo (8c)“ in Le Palais:
Und für alle, die immer auf dem neuesten Stand sein wollen: 48h
Was war der entscheidende Faktor zum Durchstieg?
Am wichtigsten war es für mich, mir trotz der vielen Klettertage keinen Stress zu machen, den Spaß am projektieren zu bewahren und immer motiviert weiterzuversuchen. Wenn ich mal keine Lust auf die Route hatte bin ich in andere Gebiete gefahren, um neue Sachen zu versuchen auf die ich mehr Lust hatte.
How’d you train for it?
I’ve been doing really wide lat pull-downs, because the crux move is really extended for me, and I wanted to be able to pull down a lot more than my body weight. I haven’t climbed on any crimps, really. I haven’t done any training finger-strength wise.
Das Video der Begehung gibt es auf DPM! Inklusive seiner Meinung zur aktuellen Debatte über Schwierigkeitsgrade („Grades are not the evolution of bouldering“)!
Zum Vergleich: Daniel Woods bei der Erstbegehung:
Die aktuellen News in der Übersicht, diesmal etwas mehr – vor allem viele Klettervideos!:
Dave Graham lässt mal wieder von sich hören! Diesmal aus Stockholm, wo er die vierte Begehung von „Houdini assis left (8B)“ geschafft hat!
Der achte und letzte Videoclip aus der Türkei ist online! Die komplette Serie gibts auf Vimeo!
Nicht nur Dai Koyamada (mit „The story of two worlds„) rockt in der Schweiz, auch Martin Keller mit „Einohrfisch (8B/+)“ und Sebastian Spauwen mit „Radja (8B+)“ sind hart unterwegs!
What’s your training regimen?
My training consists of climbing outside if the weather is nice, or climbing in the gym for a couple hours a day a few days a week. Sometimes I’ll do Climb-Fit workouts if I’m feeling extremely motivated. And drinking Oreo milkshakes.
Während bei den Wettkämpfen in Amerika kostenlose Livestreams mittlerweile Standard sind hinkt Europa nicht nur hinterher – die IFSC will jetzt sogar Geld dafür!
Alle Infos und viele Fotos zu Dave Birketts Wiederholung von „The Walk of Life (E9 6c)“ gibts bei UKC
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunnerbesteigt ihren 13ten und damit vorletzten Achttausender – den Everest, ohne künstlichen Sauerstoff
Jordan Romero hat als jüngster Mensch der Welt (13 Jahre) eben dies auch geschafft – im Gegensatz zu Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner allerdings mit künstlichem Sauerstoff
Vom IFSC Boulder-Worldcup in Wien wird es eine Live-Übertragung geben:
„Live Coverage for Vienna: 28th May 10:00 start qualification men 17:00 or 19:30 start qualification women (depending on weather) 29th May 12:30 start semi finals 19:30 start finals 22:00 award ceremony“
Alex Puccio bouldert „Tequila Sunrise (V12)“ in diesem Video
What goals have you left to achieve in climbing? What are you doing to be able to progress even further?
Of course, I always want to be stronger than I am now, but with age my big challange from now on will be how to maintain the performance at the highest level. And although I’m focused on bouldering and sport climbing now, I want to try trad climbing as well. In any case, I wish to be true to my own motivation. For training I just climb in the gym. But I climb kick-ass hard problems and volume! And I also do campusing occasionally.
DPM: You have written about trying to understand grades & whether or not we should reaffirm the grade. Where do you stand on grades? Is grade inflation too prevalent and is revisiting old problems and down-rating helpful to our understanding? Dai: I’m not so keen to talk about grading, to be honest. Grades are strictly dependent on personal senses. For instance, while I may be able to climb some 8b+’s easily that other people may struggle, there are 8a’s I cannot do at all. There are many people who are trapped into ‚grading‘ so much that they are making climbing rather constrained and uneasy. That’s very unfortunate. Rock climbing is freer, and I think those who must be strict about grading should be some professionals only. Grade is only a small part of certain problem/route, whether or not a problem is up-graded or down-graded does not change the beauty of line or enjoyment of making the moves of any problem. What’s important is not the numbers but it’s whether or not one can do the moves of the problem one wants to climb – nothing else.
Wer immer auf dem aktuellsten Stand sein möchte – 48h!
