Reflections on Old School Competition Climbing

Tyson Schoene has been the head coach of the Vertical World Climbing Team in Seattle, WA for nearly 20 years, and has shaped some of the best climbers in the world including Drew Ruana, Sean Bailey, and Quinn Mason. We talked about Tyson’s path to coaching, how he and his team build world-class athletes, the value of competition, climbing team as a family, and drills all of us can practice.  

Support on Patreon:

patreon.com/thenuggetclimbing  

Show Notes:  

http://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/tyson-schoene   

Nuggets:   

2:37 – Viento, the resurgence of old forgotten crags, and surfing trips   

6:22 – Coaching during COVID, missing the kids, and home walls  

9:52 – Embracing downtime, training for adversity, and moving forward with new ideas  

12:48 – Feeling privileged and prepared, feeling bored, and struggles with purposelessness and the social climate without a support group during the pandemic  

16:56 – Being born in Seattle, Tyson’s parents as climbers, early climbing, and the pull of the lycra  

21:20 – Other sports and passions, early competing, early coaching, seeing himself in the kids  

26:46 – Climbing with the kids and learning from the kids  

30:24 – Why Tyson feels like he never realized his full potential, and why he wouldn’t trade his impact on the kids for being a 5.15 climber  

33:51 – The benefits of competition  

43:18 – Being competitive vs. being a good competitor  

46:11 – Working with Drew to get better at reachy moves  

53:36 – Why shorter kids tend to become better climbers  

54:30 – How Tyson knew he could push Drew to the edge, the athlete/coach relationship as a two-way street, and adapting to your athletes  

58:38 – Hiring coaches from climbing team, traits that make good coaches, and giving back to the team  

1:06:27 – Repetition, traversing, patience, and the primary things adults are missing as new climbers  

1:14:06 – Efficiency, what makes the best climbers look the best, and why easy movement (i.e. ARCing) is relevant for someone trying to break into 5.14  

1:19:44 – Circuits for power endurance, drawing from track and field, learning through experience, and spray walls  

1:26:19 – Programming circuits  

1:28:14 – Easy circuits vs. easy traversing and ARC training, balancing endurance training w/ power, and why Tyson expects training to change in the next ten years  

1:33:44 – More on ARC training, Tyson’s (amazing) adult client, and why Tyson generally prefers working with kids vs. adults  

1:36:05 – Tyson’s thoughts on why climbers should train both for sport climbing and bouldering to be the best possible athlete  

1:39:27 – Patron Question: Power endurance exercises to break into 5.12?  

1:42:29 – Other factors to consider when it seems like power endurance is our limiting factor  

1:43:37 – Climbing with three fingers (IMR open) to conserve energy  

1:48:30 – Pinkies  

1:49:04 – Patron Question: Favorite App for spray wall?  

1:50:49 – Taping circuits on the spray wall for members and for the kids  

1:52:50 – Patron Question: What was it like competing before competition climbing was popular?  

1:55:26 – Shirts, normalizing greatness, and the Vertical World family  

2:03:41 – Gratitude   

2:06:05 – Drills: Heals only  

2:10:50 – Drills: Fives  

2:17:27 – Thousands of drills, leadership skills, and emotional detachment  

2:20:35 – Proud of the kids