As has been introduced, I’m Matt and I will be bringing together some of the (many!) great minds from Urban Climb and The Lab and putting them to the task of improving your climbing! First though I’d like to give you a bit of an idea of why Rockology exists and what we hope you will get out of it.
Rockology is designed to bring together sports-based evidence to the world of climbing. One of the most fantastic things about climbing is the culture and the history of the sport – it is hard to deny that climbers are some of the friendliest people around! During my time as a climber though I’ve found that there is not a lot of awareness of the science behind climbing. For example, what are some of the ways that I can manage my fear when climbing? What are the right ways to train to improve my endurance for climbing specifically? How do I climb and train in a safe way to reduce strain on my fingers and help prevent injury? With these kinds of questions in mind, we hope that you will find that Rockology is not just your average tips and tricks for climbing, but a training guide that has the research to back it and the experience to support it!
As I said before, I will not be the only one you will be hearing from in this blog! We have writing with us the well-known and much loved Peta – currently the coach of Adult Squad and all-round great climber! She has many years of experience climbing both indoors and outdoors and has developed over the years an excellent system for understanding and explaining the technical aspects of climbing.
We also have Alister, one of our new additions to the Urban Climb family! Alister is one of the Directors of the Lab and one of the excellent Exercise Physiologists working next-door to Urban Climb. He brings his degree in Human Movements, his accreditation as an Exercise Physiologists and his experience working with a diverse range of clients to improve and enhance fitness training. Alister will be fuelling you full of ideas on the best, most effective and proven techniques to help you train for your climbing.
We also have one of our regular Urban Climbers, the tiny but fantastic, Trina! She had a degree in Physiotherapy with a Masters in Sports Physiotherapy as well as many years of climbing experience. She’ll be helping you improve your training and climbing so as to prevent and manage injuries.
And finally myself! I have been working at Urban Climb for over 3 years now and for the last couple of years have coached the very young through to the (very!) old the important aspects of mental fitness in climbing. I’m currently completing a Bachelor of Psychological Science and have spent close to 10 years training at a national level across a number of sports.
By combining the technical components of Peta’s training, the knowledge of the most effective training techniques from Alister, the information to prevent and manage injuries from Trina and the skills for mental fitness from myself, we will provide a blog that will rock your climbing world! Stay tuned for the next entry…