Kevin Roet is a climbing instructor from the UK who’s been teaching workshops on climbing psychology for about 7 years now. He recently wrote a book, Climbing Psychology: Mind Training for Optimal Climbing, all about the topic, and I wanted to have him on the show to talk about the things he most commonly helps people with in regards to climbing psychology.

This was a really enjoyable conversation for me, not only because Kevin is a humble Brit who’s well-versed in this topic, but also because it’s one of my own favorite topics. We talked about how he helps people with the fear of falling, the fear of failure, and recognizing their negative mindset.

We also went over the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, what exactly the flow state is, the psychology of pumped forearms!, and performance anxiety. We also discuss the overlooked importance of communication between belayer and climber, and how much that can affect your climbing negatively or positively.

I hope this conversation helps you dive a little deeper into your own psychology, and maybe take some steps to work on your mindset in climbing.

• Kevin’s website: riseandsummit.co.uk

You may have heard me say that I’ve been doing some mental training coaching with Hazel Findlay this year to help with some fears and mental “blocks.” Well, it’s been so valuable working with her that I wanted to have her on the show to talk about some of the same things we’ve talked about in our sessions together.

Hazel is a 33-year-old professional climber and mental training coach. She made a name for herself at a young age for her bold trad ascents, having been the first British female to send E9 (basically 5.13d but with death fall potential).

She went on to be become the first British female to send 5.14b, and this year she did her first 5.14d (9a). She’s also done a lot of big wall climbing, having done the 3rd ascent of Magic Line (5.14c R, 8c+, E10).

About 7 years ago, she began coaching after completing 2 coaching programs, and she’s been seeing clients ever since. This year she created an online program for climbers, which I took and highly recommend, called Strong Mind. And now, she’s offering the Strong Mind Community, which is an ongoing learning experience for climbers all about mental training.

I wanted to have her on the show to talk about some of the most common things she sees that are holding climbers back mentally. We discuss the ins and outs of fear of falling, fear of failure, and social fears, and how she helps people work through all of them. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

• Hazel’s Strong Mind Course

In the episode, I sit down with Coaches Matt Pincus and Alex Stiger to discuss how our coaching styles, confidence levels, and tactics with clients have changed over the years. Matt and Alex talk about their practices as climbing coaches and I discuss my practice as a nutrition professional.

Some things we all have in common are that we’re less perfectionistic and rigid in our coaching now than when we first started, and that we focus on different facets of climbing or nutrition now than in years past.

We also go over what we believe to be the most important values of coaching, like professionalism, honesty, and compassion.

We also do a check-in about all of our big fall climbing projects, and some of us are doing better than others… 😉

• Do an hour coaching session with Matt

We’re not going to get into the nitty gritty of sets and reps or specific ways to train in this episode, but you will likely find some nuggets that will help you Occam’s razor your climbing and training days.

• Do an hour coaching session with Matt

Coach Matt Pincus provides training plans to climbers of all levels from anywhere in the world. If you need help with your climbing strength, power, mental game, skills, or tactics, Matt can help you. He will sit down with you over zoom to find out your goals, your available equipment, and time restrictions and then create a month-long plan for you on the True Coach app.

You’ll have access to Matt via email and the app for however long you work with him. He also offers one-hour consultations if you just want a few questions answered or to help you build your own training program. Find out more at the link below.

In this episode, I talk all about what to eat at the crag and the couple days before going to the crag so that you can have all-day energy and climb hard.

I know it’s tempting to just not eat all day at the crag so you can feel “light” and climb hard, but the truth is that we need food at regular intervals every day, especially when we’re trying to perform athletically at a high level.

So I’ll tell you what foods to pack in with you, what kinds of nutrients to focus on, and how to structure your day so it feels doable to get all the food you need. Not only will this help your performance on that day, but it’ll also help you recover better so you don’t feel like you got hit by a truck the next day.

This is a recording taken from a 5-day nutrition challenge I did in 2020 in front of a live zoom audience. I talked for about 15 minutes on the topic and then took a bunch of questions from the audience (very common questions, so they’re quite relevant).

Nutrition Podcast Episodes in This Series

TBP 209 :: Calories for Climbing Performance and Body Composition

TBP 190 :: Meal Timing for Climbing Performance and Recovery

TBP 184 :: Carbs for Climbers – How Much, What Kind, Timing, and Why

TBP 175 :: Protein for Climbers 101 – How Much, What Kind, Timing, and Why

After completing my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Zoology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, I did a 4-year nutrition certificate program at Seven Bowls School of Nutrition, Nourishment, and Healing. I graduated in 2007 as a Certified Integrative Clinical Nutrition Therapist.

During those 4 years, I learned about not only nutrition, but herbs, homeopathy, and other alternative practices. I’ve been seeing clients since 2007 and I’ve worked exclusively with climbers since 2013.

If you’re looking for help with your own nutrition and you feel like you need personalized coaching, I’m taking new clients right now. I also have a program that is self-paced with 4+ hours of video from me, PDF’s, and meal plans laid out for you.

In this episode, Dr. Tyler Nelson talks about his new insights about the longstanding use of the fingerboard to train finger strength in climbing.

Once again, Tyler pored over the research and wants us all to know that there are limitations to how fingerboard training translates to actual rock climbing. He talks about the physiology of hangboarding and two potentially better ways to train finger strength.

Tyler also wrote an article about this topic, which you can find here.

Tyler owns and operates Camp 4 Human Performance, a chiropractic sports medicine clinic and strength & conditioning business in Salt Lake City. While earning his doctoral degree, he completed a dual program Master’s degree in exercise science at the University Of Missouri. While in graduate school he worked with the University of Missouri athletics department and currently is employed through two colleges in Utah.

He is certified through the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and spends any extra time in his life with his wife and 4 kids or trad climbing or bouldering.

You can find Tyler in Salt Lake City at his clinic, Camp 4 Human Performance, where he tests athletes, creates training programs, and treats all kinds of athletes for injuries.

• TBP 168: New Insights on Finger Training

• Article on this same topic

Learn More from Tyler: If you want to work with Dr. Tyler Nelson on an individual basis for injuries or strength training, he offers remote consultations to people all over the world. He also teaches online classes on strength training and injuries. Learn more.

Do you want a well-laid-out, easy-to-follow training program that will get you stronger quickly? Here’s what we have to offer on TrainingBeta. Something for everyone…

• At-Home Training Program: trainingbeta.com/covid

In the episode, Coach Matt Pincus talks about the different kinds of “endurance” in climbing, and how to train each of them. We go over the anaerobic lactic system (power endurance), the aerobic system (long-form endurance), and the anaerobic alactic system (power) and the differences between them.

Then Matt goes through some different training methods for each and how to incorporate those into your training program. I also selfishly ask Matt about what I’m doing to train endurance to get his opinions on it, which was super helpful for me.

• Do an hour coaching session with Matt

This episode is a LITTLE bit different than all my others in that we’re going to be talking about training, but for a different species: dogs! So many climbers have dogs, and because climbing has gotten so popular in the past couple decades, there are more and more dogs at crags and boulders.

Sometimes this is an amazing thing and sometimes dogs can be a little out of control. So I asked my dog trainer, Jenna Teti, to come on the show to shed a little light on some things we can do to get our dogs to behave better at the crag and boulders (and all the time).

Jenna is the owner and Head Trainer & Behavior Consultant at Think Smart Dog Training out of Longmont, Colorado, where I live. She has a LOT of certifications in dog behavior, and here is her description of what she does from her website:

As a behavior consultant, my goal is to go beyond teaching you and your dog skills. I work with the human client to help them better understand their dog and their behavior in a way that is informative and fun! With this deeper understanding of not just the individual dog but dogs as a whole, we can address behavior and approach it from a place of compassion and understanding that builds a stronger relationship with your canine companion as you work through the behavior modification process.

Jenna has helped me a ton with our young heeler mix, Willa, by changing the way we approach training. We talk about that in this episode, along with crag behaviors such as being able to just chill while we’re climbing, not being reactive to people and dogs, coming when called, and more.

I hope this helps you have a better experience outside climbing with your dog!

Here’s my dog, Willa, trying to be a good girl at the crag 🙂

More Details

• How she works compared to other famous dog trainers

• Reach Program: www.trainingbeta.com/reach

Coach Alex Stiger and Neely Quinn are hosting an integrated climbing training and nutrition program starting on August 8th, 2022 for 4 weeks! If you want to up your game in nutrition and in climbing training (and learn more about what Alex talks about in this article), you can check it out in the link below.

In the program, you’ll get a 4-week training program from Alex, a comprehensive nutrition course + one-on-one time with Neely, plus weekly live meetings with Alex and Neely and a lot more.

As a podcast listener, you get $50 off the program using the code “Reach” at checkout.

Use Code “Reach” at Checkout for $50 Off of Reach

In this episode, I talk all about how to figure out how many calories–how much food–you should be eating in your meals, snacks, and throughout each day in order to feel energized, climb well, and have the body composition that’s right for you.

We’ll talk about how to objectively and mathematically determine what is a good calorie amount for YOUR body to help you be your best all day every day.

As for the body composition portion of this episode, yes, I’m going there. This is a difficult subject because there’s so much anti-diet rhetoric out there that it’s almost sinful to talk about weight or fat loss at all. But MOST of my clients come to me wanting to lose weight, and they’ve been taught their whole lives how to do it all wrong.

So my goal is to give people the same advice I give my clients: measured, sustainable methods for changing your body composition at a reasonable rate. I get pretty real in this episode and it’s not something I’ve really talked about much on this podcast before. I hope this real talk is helpful for you!

This is a recording taken from a 5-day nutrition challenge I did in 2020 in front of a live zoom audience and I added some bits to the beginning and end about the topic.

After completing my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Zoology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, I did a 4-year nutrition certificate program at Seven Bowls School of Nutrition, Nourishment, and Healing. I graduated in 2007 as a Certified Integrative Clinical Nutrition Therapist. I’ve worked exclusively with climbers since 2013.

• Reach Program: www.trainingbeta.com/reach

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.

Next Tuesday we’re doing a free, live masterclass on zoom to talk about the 5 most common training and nutrition mistakes climbers make and how to avoid them.

When: Tuesday, July 26th at 6-7:30pm Mountain Time

Where: Zoom call

Hosts: Alex Stiger and Neely Quinn

What: 60-minute presentation and 30 minutes of Q&A from live audience:

• How to avoid common training mistakes

*Masterclass will be recorded for anyone who can not make it to the live event.

​>>>Sign up for the Free Masterclass Here

In this episode, I talk with Coach Alex Stiger about our own biggest mistakes in climbing, whether they’re about training, climbing tactics, or nutrition. We both picked about 6 things that stuck out in our minds as WRONG, and we talked about what we’d do differently if we could and what people can do to avoid our own mistakes.

We both talk about pretty vulnerable personal eating habits we’ve overcome that did not help our climbing. But we also talk about various forms of overtraining, undertraining, being stuck in our ways, getting injured from too much training, and lots of other stuff.

This episode is sort of a preamble to our free masterclass on Tuesday, July 26th about the most common nutrition and training mistakes we see our clients making. You can sign up for that free event here.

• Our upcoming free masterclass on the biggest mistakes our clients make