The Power Company Climbing Podcast

Be the first to learn about about the new Movement Assessment Tool & Mini-Course!   In Part 2 of this special Q & A episode, Kris fields questions from YOU! Sent in from our YouTube subscribers, training clients, and more, Kris digs into what you want to know when it comes to climbing movement. This is Part 2 so be sure to check out Part 1 , if you haven't already! ________________________...

You’re scrolling Instagram or YouTube or listening to the newest podcast episodes, and now, just today, you’ve got three new finger strength protocols to try, you learned that your footwork needs overhauling, you’re warming up all wrong, and you have to buy a few new training devices. And you have to implement it all right now, because, well, you just do. It doesn’t matter that you have no idea if...

Be the first to learn about about the new Movement Assessment Tool & Mini-Course!   In this special Q & A episode, Kris fields questions from YOU! Sent in from our Patrons, Kris digs into what you want to know when it comes to climbing movement. This is Part 1 of 2 episodes so be sure to stay tuned for Part 2, coming soon! Thanks to Patrons Cody Ratterman, Matt, Martin Bertram, Lydia Benit...

Short climbers are good at getting scrunchy, and tall climbers are good at climbing extended, right? Ummm, no. Not always. Actually, not even most of the time. Believing that, particularly if you’re one of those short or tall climbers, is a trap. I’m going to tell you why, and I’m going to tell you exactly how to make sure you don’t fall into this trap. Or if you’re in it already, how to get out,...

Today we rewind to an episode of Breaking Beta where Kris and Paul dig into a paper that presents and then tests a method for measuring movement skills in climbing: Climbing performance analysis: A novel tool for the assessment of rock climber's movement performance Authored by Nicola Taylor, Dave Giles, Michaela Panáčková, James Mitchell, Joel B. Chidley, and Nick Draper; published in the Interna...

Ben Mayforth is a decorated climber well known for dialing in his training regimen. He's a Paraclimbing World Cup multi-medalist. Since 2019, he hasn't missed a silver medal at the Paraclimbing World Championships. Ben has a reputation of being extremely disciplined, but he’s recently loosened some of his self-imposed rules, and we discuss the impacts from that “letting go” in this episode. Every...

Today's episode comes from The Struggle Climbing Show and features our very own coach Nate Drolet in consultation with the show's host Ryan Devlin, who has been working hard towards a goal to climb 13a.  They'll talk movement analysis, technique improvement, and more.  This is the first of two episodes with Nate on the topic, so be sure to head over to The Struggle to hear the second part!   Check...

Udo Neumann is a climber, performance coach, and motor-learning explorer. He’s the author of several books, including the cult classic Performance Rock Climbing.  He was the German National Team coach from 2009 to 2017, working with several European and World Champion athletes during that time, including Jan Hojer and Jule Wurm. Today he advises federations and works with athletes and coaches all...

Where's the first place your mind goes when you don’t stick a move? If you’re like most climbers, it’s probably your finger strength, or tension, or even your effort, and you’re already considering what hangboard protocol to use or some front lever workout. But it’s possible you’re looking in the wrong direction entirely...   Read the rest on the blog ! Watch the video on YouTube ! _______________...

Will Anglin is one of the founders of Tension Climbing, a company that not only makes training tools, but also is committed to innovation in a way that leads climbers toward mastery over success. In this episode we discuss movement skills, some ways climbers are going wrong in their pursuit and how they can continue improving, and the tools that might get them there. Check out Tension Climbing and...

Lauren Abernathy works hard to be a better climber. In fact, it’s part of her job as owner of Good Spray Climbing to help other people become better climbers, and she walks the walk. For several years she’s worked with our coach Blake Cash, and has recently been supplementing that with private movement sessions with Nate Drolet.  In this episode, we discuss why she chose to also do in-person sessi...

For most of us, climbing looks like this: Pull on, try the move, fall off. Stare at your hands and try to understand why you fell.  Pull on, try the move, fall off. Stare at your hands and come up with a new reason why you fell.  Pull on again, try the move again, fall off.  Again You get it. You've been there. But there’s a better way. In this episode, we’re going to talk about the obvious thing...

Taylor Reed is a climber and coach who has worked with high-level athletes – both competitive and outdoor climbers – for many years. He’s the vice president of the International Rock Climbing Research Association and also runs The Beta Angel Project, which takes climbing-specific research and synthesizes it with ideas and experience in order to find evidence-informed methods that can help us all b...

A common refrain in climbing is that the more you climb, the better you get. But all of us know some old crusty who has been climbing for 45 years and is stuck at mid 5.10. And they have all of the excuses as to why. But they’re wrong. In this episode, Kris and Nate explore why we believe we’ll just get better if we keep at it, as well as offer strategies to continue improving no matter how long (...

Go ahead, grab that foothold. I mean, it’s only a foothold until someone uses it as a handhold. Then it’s just a hold. So use it. And if you don’t want to because you’d rather challenge yourself to do it without using that really obvious hold right there, that’s fine, too. There’s no heroism in skipping an obvious hold. There’s no shame in using a hold other people aren’t. What’s possible, though,...

Today we REWIND back to one of our favorite Board Meetings of all time. We chose this episode because we are spending the next couple months digging deep into movement and learning, and exploring if there might be a better way to consider movement than the technique-based way we’ve always done it.  In this episode, Kris and Nate discuss ideas presented by author Josh Waitzkin about our mental mode...

Rob Gray is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University, host of The Perception & Action Podcast, and a Skill Acquisition Specialist for the Boston Red Sox. He’s also the author of two great books, How We Learn to Move and Learning to Optimize Movement. In this Part 2 of 2, Kris and Rob discuss the differences between the two predominant theories of skill acquisition and adaptability –...

Rob Gray is an associate Professor at Arizona State University, host of The Perception & Action Podcast, and a Skill Acquisition Specialist for the Boston Red Sox. He’s been studying movement and publishing research on it for 25 years. In this Part 1 of 2, Kris and Rob discuss the limitations and challenges of using sports science research for coaches and practitioners, as well as some ways bo...

Introducing: Something new. Something different. Something FOCUSED. Rather than doing what most podcasts do and jumping from subject to subject with each new episode, we’re going to be spending the next couple of months focused on discussing one topic. Through Board Meetings, Expert episodes, Taped Tips, and our new Builder series that you’ll hear more about later, as well as on Youtube, Instagram...

Indoor and outdoor climbing have different constraints, and as such, lead you into different solutions for how to interact with that environment. But there are lessons from the climbing gyms that should absolutely be applied to outdoors in order to get the most out of it and become a better climber faster.  In this bonus episode from our Patron feed, Kris and Nate discuss 3 of their Top 6 Indoor L...

Many people view indoor climbing as less serious than climbing outside, but if we're looking to improve, that may be a mistake. There are aspects of climbing outside that lead us into learning specific things that we don't necessarily find as easily indoors.  In this episode, Kris and Nate discuss their top 5 lessons from climbing outside that, when taken indoors, can help us become better climber...

With more and more information out there, it would seem that we can learn faster and better. But that isn't always the case. In this episode, Kris and Nate discuss why learning is more challenging in our current environment, ways we can better structure our time, tools we can use for learning, and the changes we are making to this podcast and our website in order to make them more valuable learnin...

Two of the legendary routes from the 90s are now at odds with each other (sort of). One of them was likely the first 9a in the world, but which was it? Hubble or Action Directe? In this bonus episode from Written In Stone, we examine the circumstances, discuss where the debate began, and hear from the only two people in the world who have climbed both routes – Alex Megos and Buster Martin – to try...

Four years ago this month in 2019, Yosemite’s Magic Line, a 5.14 crack originally put up by Ron Kauk and not repeated until more than 20 years later by his son, Lonnie, saw its third ascent. Pushing her limits both physically and mentally, the formidable Hazel Findlay solidified her status as one of the strongest trad climbers in the world with the send. She reflected on her experience working the...

The Red River Gorge Climber’s Coalition was one oof the first climber owned organizations to OWN their local climbing. Now they have the opportunity to purchase a huge tract of land with miles and miles of cliffline. Some existing climbing, and a lot of potential climbing of nearly all grades.  But they need our help to make it happen.  This might include big donors, partners, or creative developm...