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| The CamPUS - perhaps the biggest strength gains system.. |
Coaching the psyched female climber has become something I have found myself doing more and more over the last year. From a male coach's point of view; it is very interesting to visit the female climbing world from up close. It has struck me that the male climbing perspective is different in one main way:
The main difference is how male climbers' perceive the world of the psyched female boulderer or route climber:
The difference between a psyched female climber wanting to be the best she can and a psyched male climber is
NADA ...
NOTHING! And that seems to be the crux of the less motivated male to understand when in the company of a strong psyched female rock climber.
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| Jo squeezing the shit out of the granite bloc at Can Bouquet, near Barcelona! |
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| Training session en Barcelona |
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| Another psyched Catalan climber at Sant Benet, Montserrat, Espana |
Another interesting area is the CamPUS board, which is potentially the best system for delivering the highest climbing strength gains, yet in Scotland it is not used by both genders in a balanced way. This has nothing to do with the system, just the culture in the sport perhaps?
Female climbers seem more open to coaching in Scotland than males and I find the most exciting part of my personal coaching journey over the last few months is being placed alongside the female climber in a predominately male sport. Various issues are present but the initial level of courage that it takes to deal with having more attention on them than a guy at the local wall is a real factor that is present.
From my point of view it felt nearly as intense as being in a climbing competition environment with allot of eyes on us while we trained together over the last 2 months in Glasgow and Barcelona...
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| Jo at ReAch Climbing Coach doing finger strength work |
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| Marie on campus moves at ReAch for power |
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| Finger strength work on 45 board |
The machine: Amanda has a complete room in her home dedicated to her climbing training with 4 different boards at different angles and various systems training devices to keep her strong and maintain the combination of a hard training regime and a professional working life...
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| Amanda on a campus session at Ratho |
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| la maquina sending her 7c project |
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| Amanda enjoying her other machine after board session in her house |
In the end, the determined athlete quickly breaks down these and many other barriers to succeed in their sport and I am extremely exited that Scotland has allot of strong female climbers and many more in the making especially with the new facilities that we have such as recently opened world class
TCA Glasgow bouldering wall. VENGA!
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| TCA Glasgow |
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| The female seniors final line up at the BLCCs in EICA - October 2011 |
For further information on
Reach Climbing Coach 1:1 coaching and training sessions in Scotland or Spain
(Cataluña) please contact
markmcgowan01@gmail.com
"...working with Mark was a massively positive experience for me. Mark has a well known infectious mad psyche and belief in himself and his clients, it's really hard to fail in that environment". (Amanda Lyons)
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