The Testpiece Podcast
Testpiece
A podcast about high level climbing. How to go from Good to Great.Hosted by Joshua Horsley.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Apr 7, 2025 • 1h 31min
#152 Ned Feehally — Training For Micro Edges, Being A ‘Good’ Climber Vs Doing A Big Number, 9A Paddle Dyno’s, and A Standardized Beastmaker Board?!
Ned Feehally is an absolute legend from the UK. He’s one of the founders of the iconic climbing company, Beastmaker, and he’s flashed up to V14. How’s that for an intro?!Ned also wrote one of the best books on training — “Beastmaking”, and lately he’s been working on 2 new companies he started with his wife, Shauna Coxsey, “Foxy Climbing” and “Mini Beasts”.SHOW NOTES:BeastmakerBeastmakingFoxy ClimbingJoin Patreon: HERE Follow us on Instagram: HERE Visit our podcast page: HERE
Mar 31, 2025 • 1h 44min
#151 Shauna Coxsey — The One Thing You Can’t Train, Olympics Are Harder Than Parenting, and The Difference Between Motivation and Commitment
Shauna Coxsey is an 2x All Around Bouldering World Cup Winner, an 11x Gold Medalist, An Olympian, The First British Woman to do V12, V13, V14, and she’s a Mom. Since becoming a Mom, Shauna is back in top form and quickly sending multiple V14’s this past year.Shauna is an incredible athlete in every sense of the word and in this episode she shows exactly what makes her so incredible.THIS EPISODE IS SUPPORTED BY Mad Rock! Mad Rock’s mottos is “CLIMBING SHOULD BE FOR EVERYBODY! Innovative, highly technical and affordable climbing shoes and gear.”SHOW NOTES:Shauna Coxsey InstagramShauna Sending Mito (8B+/V14)Foxy ClimbingMad RockJoin Patreon: HERE Follow us on Instagram: HERE Visit our podcast page: HERE
Mar 28, 2025 • 18min
#150 [BONUS] Emil Abrahamsson — Long Term YouTube Goals, Recommendations To The Pro’s, Will Ondra Flash V15?, and The # Of V17’s In The World
This is a behind the scenes discussion right after Episode #149 was finished. Emil shares his longterm goals for YouTube and climbing media in general. Emil shares what he thinks current pro climbers could do better in the media space. Josh and Emil also discuss the number of V17’s in the world as well as the possibility of Adam Ondra flashing V15 or doing V18. We hope you enjoy this peek into what happens right after episodes are “finished”!THIS EPISODE IS SUPPORTED BY Tension Climbing! Tension makes the best climbing training tools on the planet.SHOW NOTES:Emil’s InstagramEmil’s YouTube ChannelTension ClimbingJoin Patreon: HERE Follow us on Instagram: HERE Visit our podcast page: HERE
Mar 24, 2025 • 1h 35min
#149 Emil Abrahamsson — Avoiding Audience Capture, Winning The Arnold Classic, Why He’s A “Lunatic”, and Gaining The Right Kind Of Weight
Emil Abrahamsson is one of the most famous climbers today because of his incredibly popular YouTube channel. Some of his videos have been viewed over 10 million times!Emil also is an incredibly strong climber with sends as hard as V15.Find out how Emil balance YouTube with his love of climbing and how he responds to those that say he’s just a ‘YouTuber’ and not a ‘real climber’.THIS EPISODE IS SUPPORTED BY Tension Climbing! Tension makes the best climbing training tools on the planet.SHOW NOTES:Emil’s InstagramEmil’s YouTube ChannelTension ClimbingJoin Patreon: HERE Follow us on Instagram: HERE Visit our podcast page: HERE
Mar 21, 2025 • 48min
#148 [BONUS] Kenny Suh — MORE Shocking Industry Tell All, How Most Shoe Companies Came To Exist, and $300 Climbing Shoes?!
This is a continuation of the last episode with Kenny, #147. Please listen to that episode first for context!Kenny and Josh hop back on to explore even more drama and links between Mad Rock and 5.10, Evolv, Butora, Red Chili, Black Diamond, So iLL, La Sportiva, Scarpa, Mammut, Edelrid, Yosemite Bum, Cypher... did we forget anyone? Oh ya, Unparrallel! You can't miss that one...Enjoy this deep dive on the usually opaque world of climbing gear manufacturing!SHOW NOTES:Kenny's Previous Episode On Testpiece, #147Kenny Suh InstagramArticle About Young Chu (Mad Rock's Founder)Mad Rock InstagramMad Rock WebsiteJoin Patreon: HERE Follow us on Instagram: HERE Visit our podcast page: HERE
Mar 17, 2025 • 1h 42min
#147 Kenny Suh — Shocking Industry Tell All (The NDA’s Have EXPIRED), Who Actually Makes Your Shoes?, CEO Of Mad Rock, “Finger Condoms”, and Shoes In 2030 Will Be Made Like This
Kenny Suh is the CEO of Mad Rock.Kenny tells us all of the behind the scenes of how climbing shoes are made, WHO actually makes them, the impossible tradeoffs in rubber, how shoes will be made in the future, and some of the innovations of the past and the potential ones in the future.Really fun one that exposes the behind the scenes of shoe making and sheds a surprising light on what’s actually going on.SHOW NOTES:Kenny Suh InstagramArticle About Young Chu (Mad Rock's Founder)Mad Rock InstagramMad Rock WebsiteJoin Patreon: HERE Follow us on Instagram: HERE Visit our podcast page: HERE
Mar 10, 2025 • 1h 54min
#146 Chris Weidner — First 14c At 50, The Invention Of Kneepads, Member #112 At The 1st US Gym, and How Ice Climbing Helped Chris Send 14c
Chris Weidner just sent his first 14c at the young age of 50 years old. Hidden beneath that spectacular achievement is a pyramid of climbing all over the world in many different styles, from FA’ing multi pitch 5.13 trad to summiting mountains in Alaska and Argentina. All of this started when he became member #112 at the first climbing gym in the US!You’ll also recognize Chris’ voice from his years as a commentator for US Nationals and Psicobloc competitions.SHOW NOTES:Chris’ InstagramChris on The Green Mile (14c) by LT11Chris on the FA of Galmbers Fallacy (13b multi pitch FA) by LT11Kong Extendo Cheater DrawJoin Patreon: HERE Follow us on Instagram: HERE Visit our podcast page: HERE
Mar 7, 2025 • 15min
#145 [BONUS] Chris Schulte — Throw It All Away, Fontainebleau Recommendations, and Earning ‘Those Moments’
This is a behind the scenes discussion with Chris Schulte, right after Episode #144 was finished. We hope you enjoy this peek into what happens right after episodes are “finished”!Don’t miss Episode #144 for context!SHOW NOTES:Chris Schulte’s InstagramChris Schulte’s Black Diamond PageChris Schulte’s Testpiece Episode #144Join Patreon: HERE Follow us on Instagram: HERE Visit our podcast page: HERE
Mar 3, 2025 • 2h 4min
#144 Chris Schulte — Chasing Adventure And History, The Origins Of ‘Compression’ Climbing, Bouldering In The 1800’s, and Why “Leave No Trace” Doesn’t Scale
Chris Schulte has been there and FA’d that. You may know of Chris, but you probably haven’t met him because Chris likes to stay off the beaten path. Way off the beaten path! In this episode Chris drops so much knowledge and history about climbing that no matter who you are you’ll enjoy some new stories that you haven’t heard before.SHOW NOTES:Chris Schulte’s InstagramChris Schulte’s Black Diamond PageJosh on French Tickler in Hueco (filmed by Chris)Join Patreon: HERE Follow us on Instagram: HERE Visit our podcast page: HERE
Feb 24, 2025 • 1h 45min
#143 Simon Lorenzi — The Surprising Reason V18 Is So Difficult, Benchmark V16 And V17 Boulders, 9c Vs 9A, ‘Perfect’ Isn’t Perfect, and Why Climbing Is The Best Sport Ever
Simon Lorenzi has done more V17’s on the planet than anyone other than Will Bosi (3 vs 4). And by the time you read this, there’s a good chance Simon has another one or two under his belt!That’s because we chatted with Simon during his trip to Red Rocks where he is working on Return Of The Sleepwalker and Shaolin, the two V17’s there.This was an INCREDIBLE conversation with one of the best boulderers in the world. This is a must listen!If you loved Simon as much as we do, we’ve got great news… you can get trained by him through his company Bushido Climbing!SHOW NOTES:Bushido ClimbingSimon Lorenzi’s InstagramJoin Patreon: HERE Follow us on Instagram: HERE Visit our podcast page: HERE
