UKC

hiya,

am throwing myself into climbing even more than i have over the past 6 months (if thats possible) and want to start a proper training programme. I was just wondering if anyone could reccommend a good book to read about this?

Have seen 'the self-coached climber' and 'training for climbing' by horst mentioned a bit on here. which do people prefer? or would you recommend something else?

all helpful advice is much appreciated!

nikki

In reply to nikki_smilez:

Self Coached Climber (with DVD included) everytime. Don't touch Horst with a barge pole.

Lots of emphasis on movement skills as well as "training".

In reply to nikki_smilez:

You could actually construct a good programme by using a bit of thought and applying the principles outlined here: http://www.davemacleod.com/articles/roughtrainingguide.html (keep clicking next page)

As a first book Performance Climbing by Neumann and Goddard is both cheap and readable and still 95% relevant - some more recent research will have changed some aspects. SCC is great but heavy going.

In reply to nikki_smilez:

See Spot Run

That should get you going.

cool, thanks for your advice guys!

In reply to galpinos:

Why not? A lot of people I know seem to recommend him...just curious

In reply to nikki_smilez:

Someone posted this a few a days ago and I'm finding it interesting, lots of stuff by horst on this website.

http://www.nicros.com

In reply to sarah79:
Because his answer to everything is to do more pull ups and buy his sponsor's products. He doesn't make his living as a climbing coach (he's a weather researcher IIRC), he has no sports science qualification, and despite using himself as an example in his books and on his website, he doesn't actually climb hard. Much of what he writes has no basis in sports science (his unrealistic 4321 periodisation plan for example) and is often poorly explained. My particular pet hate is that he often portrays pure speculation as fact, even when what little research there is contradicts it.
I could go on...
















...and on

In reply to sarah79:

What Serpico siad.

In reply to Serpico: Leaving aside whats been written in german,french and spanish(i know that encompass's alot!)what scientific research has REALLY been written on climbing?In defence of Eric Horst,some of what he writes seems valid.It helped my training.Other broader issues he sometimes covers of psychology(visualisation,centering),goal setting,performance v training are also useful.At the very least they act act as pointers for further reading.
No literature is substitute for all or at least one of these- time,training partners,decent training facilities and of course motivation.For a keen climber knowing how to adapt to these changing facets in their climbing is the big skill.If a book can help(even as just a guide) thats good I think.Each person surely has different needs in this respect surely?

In reply to Simon Lee:

The self coahed climber is heavy going?! Did we read the same book? I don't think I've seen a more straightforwardly written training book.

You're seriously saying it's heavier going than Performance Rock Climbing with it's piss poor diagrams and verbose, technical text?

In reply to Serpico:

The guides who live around North Conway, New Hampshire tell an interesting story. After Eric had written "How To Climb 5.12" he was seen backing off a 5.7 on Whitehorse Slabs.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
To be fair, slabs are the work of the devil. I've backed off some V easy slabs in my time.

In reply to Serpico:

ditto .. especially granite ones.

In reply to nikki_smilez:
I like Eric Horst's training for climbing so i would recommend it.
And also "climbing your best" by Heather Reynolds Sagar.

In reply to james oswald:

Now you're really taking the P***. Heather Reynolds' book has to be about the worst ever written. I'm sure she's a far better coach than an author, but some of the stuff in that book is ubelievable; for instance she reckons that to redpoint 8a, you should be bouldering V11!.
Lots of other nonsense like using heart rate monitors for climbing interval training,etc.

In reply to nikki_smilez:
Tbh i am just a newbie and it doesn't seem like there is much climbing related research so i don't know what to believe.