Frequently Asked Questions
What To Expect: Initial Orientation Process
Remote climbing coaching has taken off in the last handful of years. For good reason: remote coaching can help you make big performance improvements to send your projects or move past your plateau. However in the beginning the process can seem a bit confusing and uncertain. Different coaches have different ideas about how to train people from a distance.
At SUBSTR8 I’ve found a method that I feel is very effective for all levels of athlete. After you sign up for a program you will receive a welcome email with links to:
Comprehensive Intake Form with Physical Assessment
Liability waiver
It will take a little time to complete the intake and assessment including a trip to the gym. This is maybe the most important part of the training process. It gives me a detailed snapshot of you as an athlete, and lets me develop a highly personalized training plan that will be both fun and effective. Many people want to start training immediately after they sign up, and rest assured, we will get started as soon as possible.
After I've received this important information for you, I can start drawing up your training program. It will take a few days, up to a week, for me to write up your plan and deliver it to you, so thank you in advance for your patience. During that time you’ll be invited to download the TrueCoach app which will deliver all your workouts and serve as the main channel of communication between us.
What To Expect: Your Training Plan
Every training plan I write is unique to each athlete. I strongly believe in this method because even if two climbers are alike in many ways, their ability to adapt is assuredly different. With that in mind, I always outline your program using non-linear progression instead of traditional block periodization. This means we train the three energy systems our bodies use for climbing simultaneously, rather than month-long blocks dedicated to each. I’ve had amazing success using this method. It allows us to train safer, for longer, and the performance phases tend to last longer versus the peaking windows often associated with block training cycles.
I like to rotate athletes' training days between strength days, power days, and endurance or capacity days:
Strength days are often weightlifting-based but always adapted to each athlete’s equipment availability. These days also include hangboarding and mobility work, and are often the shortest workouts in terms of time commitment, usually under an hour.
Power days are climbing-focused with an emphasis on building skills and developing powerful movement. These days look different for everyone, but bouldering is central to many of these workouts. These days are slightly longer duration workouts than the strength days.
Capacity days are the endurance building sessions. Cap workouts typically take the most time. Unless we determine together that longer sessions are necessary, I try to keep those under 2 hours. Capacity days can be done solo or with a partner. We focus on building your ability to climb for longer, both in terms of daily volume as well as time spent on the wall.
Each of these workouts will be loaded up in your TrueCoach app on assigned calendar days. I really want this program to fit into your life’s schedule, not the other way around. Depending on the program tier you purchase, adjustments to the schedule can be made to accommodate an extra rest day here or there, work conflicts, etc, just let me know ahead of time and I’ll adjust the schedule. During each workout there are sections to comment on each exercise as well as the workout as a whole. The more detailed your notes, the more fine-tuned the program will be for you. It’s also very beneficial to keep good notes because you can look back on your previous logs and results to track our progress for yourself.
After each completed workout I will check in with you to make sure we’re still on track to meeting your goals of the program. This is where I will really get to know you as an athlete, as the old saying goes “the devil’s in the details”. As the program advances and based on our continued dialog, we will likely make some changes to exercises and drills, and even the "look" of the program. As an athlete you’ll start to adapt, and the training will need to adapt with you.
For athletes who sign up for the Tier 3 program there will be a de-load cycle about half way through the training. All this means is that we will schedule a rest period for you - a week or two - to give your connective tissues a break and let your neuromuscular system reset. Recreational climbing during that time is fine, but focused training efforts need to be excluded from day-to-day activity. Training for more than about two months often sees athletes’ plateau and experience burnout.
We may re-test the initial strength exercise periodically throughout the program to make sure the training is doing what it’s supposed to. It can also be incredibly motivating to see the gains made week to week.
While we’re training there will certainly be questions that come up regarding exercises, schedule, and often the theories behind what we're doing. I am always happy to answer those questions, and I appreciate when athletes want to take a little deeper dive into the "why's" of this process. I try to touch base with athletes in the mornings and evenings and will always do my best to respond as quickly as I can.