EP 60: Leif Gasch — Becoming a Trainer, Mini-Goals, and Tackling Listener Questions

Leif Gasch has been a climber for over 25 years and now works as a trainer and coach. We talked about his path from construction to coaching, balancing training with a physically demanding job, how to be a better weekend warrior, mini-goals, breaking into new grades, warming up for hard redpoints, and much more.

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Show Notes:  

http://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/leif-gasch

Nuggets:

4:36 – “Back porch kind of a deal”

5:28 – Living on the road during covid, and moving back to Lander

8:06 – The pod, Leif’s first trip to Hueco with Scott Milton, and sending Frogger

11:18 – Years of cherry-picking, new development in Hueco, and becoming a guide

12:51 – Early carpentry, becoming an electrition, and building a house

15:40 – Growing up on a ranch, hunting, and climbing Devils Tower

17:54 – Climbing in Cody, ‘The Fuz’ climbing gang, teaching, and falling in love with climbing

21:45 – “You come to Lander, you gotta bring your own job!”

23:32 – Living with artists, ‘The Plague’, and Leif’s intro to training for climbing

25:46 – Lifting weights in college, and the rocket ship analogy

29:12 – Sticking with the training process, “it takes time”, and Leif’s first 5.14b

35:57 – Learning to stick with it, mental carry over, and testing to be an electrition

38:38 – Moving away from the trades, relating to blue collar workers, and starting SUBSTR8

42:04 – How Leif educated himself to become a better coach, remote vs. in-person coaching, and being receptive to critique

45:42 – The PCC

49:06 – The 75/25 rule, and designing skill drills

54:40 – On the wall tension building, crunches, and the shortcomings of limit bouldering

58:56 – Core tension, the posterior chain, and an example of building tension on the wall

1:02:39 – The benefit of having a specific goal

1:04:19 – The drill Leif learned from Kris Hampton at Power Company, and learning to create more tension through the feet

1:07:10 – Patron Question from Donovan: What should I work on to break into 5.13?

1:19:50 – Patron Question: How can I be a weekend warrior?

1:31:53 – Mini goals

1:34:31 – Patron Question from Tyler: Tips for non-professional climbers?

1:39:03 – Patron Question from Matt: Recommendations for someone who works a physically demanding job in the trades?

1:43:49 – Patron Question from Moritz: Leif’s weight when he climbed 5.14b?

1:45:38 – My restricting eating story, training heavy, and being an opportunivore

1:54:40 – Patron Question from Moritz: Can Leif do a front lever yet?

1:56:43 – Patron Question from Nolan: What does your warmup look like for a hard redpoint?

2:05:14 – Patron Question from Steve Bechtel: How did Leif deal with and get past a severe finger injury?

2:16:01 – ‘Strawberry Roan’

2:26:01 – Patron Question from Darren: Send goals or dream route in Lander?

2:31:11 – Patron Question from Darren: Does it feel like a disadvantage being a big dude pulling on small monos in Lander?

2:33:08 – Grateful for friends and family