Members only Updates RC News #7: Getting to the Professional Athlete and Sewing Grind I've been making chalk bags!
Members only Travel RC News #6: Zach Doesn't Travel Well and Finishing Canada As you've now inferred from the title, Zach didn't have quite as good of an experience in time-zone shifted Canada. He got up with me, we trained in the mornings, we caught bakeries as they opened, but for some reason he still felt jet-lagged. Travel is
Members only Self-Improvement Don’t Be a Fan: How to Become the Competition Don't let the best in the world intimidate you. It's as simple as that.
Competitions RC News #4: Studio Bloc Masters So, this past weekend I landed second place at the 2023 Studio Bloc Masters Bouldering Competiton. Studio Bloc Masters! That literally happened. Let me tell you five reasons why this is so incredible: 1. It's the largest open international event outside of the World Cup Circuit 2. Studio
Competitions RC News #3: Dock Masters Moving to Langen means that we have a new home climbing gym - Studio Bloc Darmstadt. This is the gym that will host our first event of the season, Studio Bloc Masters on March 11. On March 2nd, our second day in the new apartment, and first training day, we
Updates RC News #1: Montreal - Victoria - Toronto - Munich Zach and Madison Richardson are married and living in Germany!
Members only Self-Improvement The Training Camp Effect Leaving your comfort zone is not an easy task, but if you can manage it, there are great gains to be had.
Members only Self-Improvement Pushing Further For the longest time, I thought my best chance of getting really good at climbing was to specialize, and train exclusively for the discipline of bouldering, opposed to training for lead (rope climbing) or speed as well. For over four years, I did exactly that, and I became one of
Members only Self-Improvement Man and Machine As an athlete, you’re constantly iterating on your training. Five years ago, my training was child’s play, at least compared to what I’m doing now. Whenever a new iteration comes about, I’m always disappointed I hadn’t been doing it all along. But I’m certain
Members only Self-Improvement You Have to Suffer I’ve spent a lot of time over the years, thinking about what it means to be a professional athlete. Apart from the basics of diet and training, I’m moreover intrigued by what’s going on upstairs. There’s something special about a person that will devote every waking
Members only Self-Improvement The One Hit Wonder In all my years of competing, I’ve come to an absolute conclusion: anyone can win a competition. Whether it’s a lucky turn of events, conditions that suit certain strengths, or a payoff of training, the results of a competition simply can’t be predicted. Underdogs keep winning championships
Members only Self-Improvement The Process I started meditating because I wanted to be a better athlete. While that motivation is still present, meditation practice and theory has opened my eyes to its farther reaching benefits, benefits I once cared very little for. I held rock climbing up as the most important thing in my life.
Members only Self-Improvement Training on the 25th Christmas day is a pretty major holiday. Most people get the day off work, there’s a good two, even three month ramp up, it even has its own genre of music. Along with it comes a certain atmosphere as well. Typically you think of a lazy day, with comfort
Members only Self-Improvement High Quality High Fives Anyone who knows me knows I’m a competition climber. I have little business being outside, but recently I thought I’d work some leisure days into my schedule. This was my first season outside in two and a half years. I had injured myself on a boulder in my
Members only Self-Improvement The Question of Passion People often question whether I enjoy training. After all, training takes up the majority of my athletic life. If you don’t enjoy training, you can’t possibly enjoy being an athlete, and if you don’t enjoy being an athlete, “Why are you doing it?” People aren’t just
Members only Self-Improvement What If Ego Isn't the Enemy? I was recently reading Clyde Brolin’s Overdrive: Formula 1 in the Zone, when a line caught my attention: “On the way up you have to believe you are the best or you won’t make it anywhere near the top… Once you have a world title a major element
Members only Self-Improvement The Thunderstorm In August of 2017, I was 16 years old and in Europe. I was there to attend the Youth World Championships in Austria, and my first Open World Cup (WC) in Germany. Qualifying to attend these competitions was, in a certain sense, scandalous. I injured myself shortly before youth Nationals
Members only Self-Improvement NO SUCH THING AS BAD DAYS The first entry of my training log was dated March 12, 2018. The day I got the book, I opened the cover and wrote something in all caps along the top. It would guide every training session and competition round - everyday of my life - that followed. I wrote,
Members only Self-Improvement Rule #17 - Don't Be a Hero People love heroes. Most of the highest grossing films in history portray some heroic protagonist who fights through turmoil and adversity to achieve a greater good. A key element of a hero is their affinity to putting themselves in harm’s way. We like seeing heroes take crazy risks in
Members only Self-Improvement May the Odds Be Never in Your Favour The selection process for astronauts. A place where thousands upon thousands of people ended their dreams to go to space, and a place where a remarkable few broke out of the crowd. To date, there have been 560 astronauts selected around the world. Canada has contributed 14 to that number.
Members only Self-Improvement Body Image Part 2: The Scale In climbing, you can benefit a lot from being light. Many sports are the same. For women in climbing, the bar is particularly high (or rather, low) for being light. A lot of athletes pull out all the stops to be as small as possible on competition day, sometimes to
