43: Carl McNeice, Comp Parent
If it’s not obvious, Carl is Erin McNeice’s dad and I’m so thrilled to get a parent perspective on the podcast. In this episode, we’ll learn about the family’s dedication and honest approach to building Erin’s climbing career, how much it cost to support the training and travel of an athlete, why he’s no longer allowed to watch her comps in person, and get adorable dad-anecdotes from the Olympics.
Timestamps
Timestamps of discussion topics
0:00 - Intro
1:19 - Mad Rock Shoutout!!
2:06 - Returning from Innsbruck
5:44 - Carl's climbing and gymnastics background
10:47 - Getting involved in competition climbing
15:57 - When to push vs when to back off
22:43 - The cost of being a comp parent
28:32 - Sudden rise between the 2023-2024 season
33:59 - Erin's intense training schedule
38:37 - Phasing out of Erin's training routine
42:53 - Not being allowed to watch the comps in person
48:06 - The stress of watching your child compete
54:38 - Most stressful competition to watch
58:35 - The Olympics experience
1:06:13 - Thoughts on dangerous setting
1:16:55 - DISCORD Q: How does having a comp kid influence the family dynamic?
1:20:02 - DISCORD: How to avoid good results = good vibes only
1:25:31 - DISCORD Q: Do you approve shots of yourself on Erin's Youtube channel :p
1:27:41 - DISCORD Q: How does it feel to be a worse climber than your child?
1:30:49 - Words of wisdom
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WEBVTT
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We were like, what do you mean she can't go to
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the World Cup? She's good enough. When she got
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appealed out in Prague in 24, we were bracing
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ourselves for full -on depression. It's just
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quite surreal to see your daughter with strangers
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wanting an autograph and stuff. I remember running
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over to the athlete area where you could talk
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to them and the big security guards would step
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in front of her and say, is it okay if this person
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approaches you? I was like, it's me Erin. She
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hardly ever drinks, but she was definitely semi
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under the influence when she had to do that interview.
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Welcome to another episode of the That's Not
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Real Climbing podcast. I'm your host, Jinni,
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and I'm excited to introduce my guest for today,
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Carl McNeice. If it's not obvious, Carl is Erin
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McNeice's dad, and I'm so thrilled to get a parent
00:00:50.990 --> 00:00:53.689
perspective on the podcast. In this episode,
00:00:53.750 --> 00:00:55.729
we'll learn about the family's dedication and
00:00:55.729 --> 00:00:57.469
honest approach to building Erin’s climbing
00:00:57.469 --> 00:01:00.350
career, how much it costs to support the training
00:01:00.350 --> 00:01:03.179
and travel of an athlete, why he's no longer
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allowed to watch her comps in person, and we'll
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get adorable dad anecdotes from the Olympics.
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I hope you enjoy this episode with Carl. Real
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quick, I'm excited to announce my new sponsor
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helping make this podcast episode possible, Mad
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says is the cheat code to heel hooking small
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10 % off your entire Mad Rock order. Info will
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be in the description. Back to the show. It's
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quite late for you, isn't it? It's nine o 'clock,
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yeah. And my first day back at work after two
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weeks off. Oh, wow. A lovely day at work. Yeah,
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just getting back from Innsbruck still? Yeah,
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we had about seven, eight days in Innsbruck and
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then the rest of them building a carriage. Oh,
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okay. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Yeah.
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Is it done? Yeah, it's done. It's standing. It
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hasn't fallen over yet. Impressive. Do you have
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any other travel plans coming up soon? No, I
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did have. But some of the feedback from Innsbruck
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means that I won't have. Oh, wait, what does
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that mean? It's just some of the observations
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from Erin in terms of having the pressure of
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people, not pressure, that's the wrong word.
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I think the expectation and the fact that you're
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there and therefore she feels the need to spend
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time with you. So which sort of breaks the rhythm
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of her being involved 100 % with the coaches,
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getting herself into the right zone, having her
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sort of alone time, recovery time, all that sort
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of stuff. It just distracts from it. And it is
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incredibly stressful, which I'm sure we'll get
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onto later. So I don't think it's a particularly
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bad outcome. Yeah, I mean, I was definitely going
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to ask about that later. I guess, how are you
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feeling about that? I feel like that could be
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a little bit sad to work through. Yeah, I guess
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everybody's different and we get to watch you
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at a lot of, or have got to watch you at a lot
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of competitions. I just think you, at the end
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of the day, I think the thought of going to watch
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them at the competitions is nice and it is nice.
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But yeah, but it is, you know, they're World
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Cups, they're the top level of competition climbing
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and the little things matter. So at the end of
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the day, if the athlete is performing less well
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or could perform less well because you're there,
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then yeah, that's 100 % the right thing to do.
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Plus physically being there for some reason,
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it is a lot worse. for me anyway than than watching
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it on television yeah so does that mean you don't
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like you haven't seen the other world cups uh
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like in the start of the season you didn't make
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it out to those either no the uh the asia ones
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uh no and and again i think that that was very
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much because you start the season you have no
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idea really where you are compared to everybody
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else and i think at that point you can't really
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add very much uh you She doesn't need emotional
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support. If she does need it, she can call. Really,
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she just needs the interaction with the coaches.
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She'll respond better to the coaches. And fundamentally,
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they know more than I know about the competition,
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the performance, why the performance was good
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or bad, what can be tweaked realistically within
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the period of time, all that sort of stuff. And
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they have a way of working, which... yeah which
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you can disrupt quite easily so yeah that that
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and cost well oh yeah cost for sure I get that
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okay well we'll definitely get into all those
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topics um later but first just so we get to learn
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a little bit more about who you are um I mean
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in the intro I will have told everyone you are
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Aaron's dad um but I think a big question a lot
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of people want to know like immediately as soon
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as possible do you climb much yeah so I uh I
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got into climbing about doing the maths when
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I was about 18, when I went to university. And
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I'm 55 now, so a long time ago. And all the time
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I was at university for six years. Not because
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I failed. I did a PhD as well. It was the easy
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option. Get a job or do a PhD. I think I'll do
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a PhD and stay in education a bit longer. So
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I got to climb for sort of six years and I did
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it in North Wales. So I had access to all the
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mountains there. So I sort of got into climbing
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there. I was not very good at it. Because, you
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know, they did have climbing walls, but the climbing
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walls were pretty rubbish. And the people I climbed
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with were proper mountaineers. They only went
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out on rock and they only did lead routes. Okay.
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Dirt bags now? Yeah. And, you know, apart from
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the slate quarries, it was pretty much all natural
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gear. And I just crapped myself basically whenever
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I had to lead, unless it was really, really simple.
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So I overgripped everything, pumped out on most
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stuff. But it was still good fun. And then you
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had people like Johnny Dawes sort of at that
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stage doing amazing stuff. So my few claims to
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fame were going to a few parties and Johnny Dawes
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was there talking to the elite. And I was like,
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wow, we went to a party. Yeah, so I got into
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it that way, then left university, got a job,
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stopped, largely stopped climbing. And then when
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we had kids and they were, I don't know, old
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enough, four, five, six, we introduced them to
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various things and climbing was one of them.
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So I then got back into climbing. I probably
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climb maybe twice a week now, sometimes more.
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Yeah, that's pretty often. Yeah, yeah, not, yeah.
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Yeah, I mean, I guess, yeah, I guess I'm comparing
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myself to the other people I know. Yeah, I mean,
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I climb like three to four times a week. So,
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yeah, I think that's often. I honestly don't
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want to climb more than like three days a week.
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But yeah, twice a week is quite pleasant. And
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obviously it's not, it's just climbing. I rarely
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do any strength and conditioning or fingerboarding.
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And I don't even like the boards themselves.
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Erin makes me do the board and it's just, I'm
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pathetic at that. Well, it's a separate skill
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almost. It seems to be to me anyway. But during
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my interview with Erin, I'll link that in the
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description for those who haven't heard it yet
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also. But she mentioned that you used to do gymnastics.
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When was that? So when I went to university,
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so I'd lived in Australia. I was born in England.
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I was living in Australia from 79 to 83 or something.
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So I competed in Australia. where at that point
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in time, the standard was lower. So I was at
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national level. Then I came back to England and
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I was really right on the periphery of national
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level. But yeah, so I did it at a relatively
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high standard. And then I went to university
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with a thought to sort of continue my training,
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but soon got distracted by other things. But
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I did the university championships in the UK
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and I think I came third. in my final undergraduate
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year and then i did it again in my last year
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of phd i don't want to say i came third again
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but i might have come fourth or fifth but yeah
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but i sort of did did relatively okay um and
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then post -university i i stopped that as well
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it's quite hard to find places to do uh the gym
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especially the six six different sort of disciplines
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so yeah yeah that was i guess everyone will say
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it's useful because i've got some element of
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body awareness and stuff but uh Yeah, and just
00:09:59.559 --> 00:10:02.240
the understanding of what it's like being an
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athlete. She mentioned that she believes you
00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:07.860
could still do some of the tricks from gymnastics.
00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:10.460
What tricks do you think you could still pull
00:10:10.460 --> 00:10:13.000
off right now? I mean, I won't make you do anything,
00:10:13.100 --> 00:10:15.919
but if you want to show off anything, now's your
00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:20.379
chance. Weirdly, the easy handstands and things
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like that are easy. Once you know the tricks,
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you can hold a handstand for a long, long time.
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Flick flacks, backflips, and back somersaults.
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I could probably do a front somersault, but they're
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harder to land. Cool. Wish we could see it. I'll
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go and spend an hour warming up and then send
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you a video. Oh, that would be great, actually.
00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:49.879
I'd really love to see that. Okay, and so now
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getting back into the climbing portion of your
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life, how did you end up getting involved in
00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:59.940
the climbing competition scene with Aaron? Most
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of the walls in the UK run fun competitions each
00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:08.299
year. At least one, but sometimes many. And they
00:11:08.299 --> 00:11:11.620
run the sort of boulder leagues as well. So they
00:11:11.620 --> 00:11:13.500
put the problems up and you've got so much time
00:11:13.500 --> 00:11:15.879
to log how many you do or how many attempts and
00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:19.899
stuff. So we got into it through the fun competitions
00:11:19.899 --> 00:11:23.419
first. And often they have a junior category
00:11:23.419 --> 00:11:27.440
or youth category. So that's how we first got
00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:34.440
into it. And then you've got various competitions
00:11:34.440 --> 00:11:39.500
which run locally in the UK. So we got into some
00:11:39.500 --> 00:11:41.889
of those. and then they have what's called a
00:11:41.889 --> 00:11:46.269
youth climbing series which um which as the name
00:11:46.269 --> 00:11:48.309
suggests is sort of it's done regionally and
00:11:48.309 --> 00:11:50.049
then the i think it's the top three from each
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region go to a grand final uh in in well usually
00:11:54.409 --> 00:11:56.809
in scotland at the national climbing center there
00:11:56.809 --> 00:11:59.789
and then you get crowned the youth climbing series
00:11:59.789 --> 00:12:02.009
champion which then qualifies you for the gb
00:12:02.009 --> 00:12:05.309
team weirdly if you're on the gb team you're
00:12:05.309 --> 00:12:07.730
not allowed to enter it um okay so it's sort
00:12:07.730 --> 00:12:12.539
of like a a sort of backdoor route in but it
00:12:12.539 --> 00:12:15.000
opens it up to a much wider environment and then
00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.480
you unbeknown to us at that time you'd have national
00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:21.860
competitions like the UK UK Nationals Welsh Nationals
00:12:21.860 --> 00:12:25.700
Scottish Nationals all of which if you win or
00:12:25.700 --> 00:12:28.720
podium get you the right to go to the GB selection
00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:32.220
whether it's for junior grades or senior grades
00:12:32.220 --> 00:12:37.600
so Yeah, we had no idea really how the GB team
00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:40.720
thing worked. But through doing some of those
00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:43.860
competitions and the YCS Youth Climbing Series,
00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:47.179
we became aware of the GB climbing team. And
00:12:47.179 --> 00:12:51.379
they were like, I don't know. It's like when
00:12:51.379 --> 00:12:55.620
you see these elite group of people who are warming
00:12:55.620 --> 00:12:57.620
up and doing their thing and then they absolutely
00:12:57.620 --> 00:13:02.159
destroy you on the wall. That was what it was
00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:04.059
like the first time we saw them. And they were
00:13:04.059 --> 00:13:06.220
all wearing their kit and stuff. And I think
00:13:06.220 --> 00:13:08.600
that's when Aaron sort of clocked them and thought,
00:13:08.679 --> 00:13:12.139
oh, they're on a different level. I can go win
00:13:12.139 --> 00:13:15.539
a local comp, but these guys are on a completely
00:13:15.539 --> 00:13:18.019
different level. And I think that sort of inspired
00:13:18.019 --> 00:13:22.360
her to see if she could get up to that level
00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:25.159
and see if she could get onto the team. So how
00:13:25.159 --> 00:13:28.059
young do you think she was when she kind of first
00:13:28.059 --> 00:13:30.539
had that thought of wanting to make the national
00:13:30.539 --> 00:13:33.759
team? I guess it happened quite quickly, so I'm
00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:38.820
guessing it was like 14, maybe something like
00:13:38.820 --> 00:13:43.679
12 or 14. Yeah, I really should know. Okay. Yeah,
00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:49.179
because when she went for it, we just moved her
00:13:49.179 --> 00:13:51.700
from one climbing wall to another climbing wall
00:13:51.700 --> 00:13:56.759
against her will. Why against her will? I guess
00:13:56.759 --> 00:14:03.029
we are one of the challenging things. is to work
00:14:03.029 --> 00:14:05.929
out what's best for them to achieve their goals
00:14:05.929 --> 00:14:10.289
without trying to be pushy about it and so we
00:14:10.289 --> 00:14:13.250
we had two children both climbing uh her brother
00:14:13.250 --> 00:14:15.269
who's about a year and a half two years older
00:14:15.269 --> 00:14:19.830
um and they were they were climbing at a wall
00:14:19.830 --> 00:14:22.769
called the reach in southeast London for their
00:14:22.769 --> 00:14:25.470
squad um but there was another wall called the
00:14:25.470 --> 00:14:29.490
castle in London itself which had a much stronger
00:14:29.490 --> 00:14:31.610
squad and a much more focused squad and a lot
00:14:31.610 --> 00:14:35.429
of those squad had moved into the GB team. And
00:14:35.429 --> 00:14:38.309
our son wanted to go to that squad, wanted to
00:14:38.309 --> 00:14:41.269
go and try out for that squad. Aaron didn't.
00:14:44.409 --> 00:14:47.149
We persuaded them both to go to the tryouts and
00:14:47.149 --> 00:14:49.350
they both got offered a space and Aaron did not
00:14:49.350 --> 00:14:55.250
want to go at all. But yeah, we sort of said,
00:14:55.289 --> 00:14:58.139
well, if Callum's going. There's no way we're
00:14:58.139 --> 00:15:01.820
going to go to two different walls. So you're
00:15:01.820 --> 00:15:03.620
going to have to go there. And eventually she
00:15:03.620 --> 00:15:07.039
decided it was really good and much better. But
00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:11.000
we sort of thought they would put them both in
00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:15.340
the same squad. But for reasons only known to
00:15:15.340 --> 00:15:16.820
them, they decided to put them in two different
00:15:16.820 --> 00:15:20.100
squads. I think because they felt everyone was
00:15:20.100 --> 00:15:22.659
too young to be in the same squad as Callum.
00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:25.259
But that meant that they had to go two times
00:15:25.259 --> 00:15:28.759
a week. One squad was on two days and the other
00:15:28.759 --> 00:15:30.559
squad was on the other two days. So there was
00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:33.100
a period of about two and a half years where
00:15:33.100 --> 00:15:35.279
every single day we were having to drive from
00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:37.220
where we live into the center of London where
00:15:37.220 --> 00:15:40.120
we, my wife, was having to do that drive. So
00:15:40.120 --> 00:15:41.539
she basically picked the kids up from school,
00:15:41.720 --> 00:15:45.100
got them in the car, gave them food, drove into
00:15:45.100 --> 00:15:48.340
the center of London, which was a two hour drive.
00:15:48.500 --> 00:15:51.779
That is so inefficient. yeah yeah and then drive
00:15:51.779 --> 00:15:55.159
all the way back yeah geez yeah thinking back
00:15:55.159 --> 00:15:58.220
to the youth scene or yeah just when she was
00:15:58.220 --> 00:16:00.919
growing up um do you remember any times where
00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:05.840
you need you needed to like push her more or
00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:09.320
um i guess like how do you find the balance between
00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:12.159
when to push versus when to back off and suggest
00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:15.220
more rest my experience when they were when she
00:16:15.220 --> 00:16:21.440
was young girl was that she didn't The schedule
00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:25.740
wasn't intense. It was more intense than a normal
00:16:25.740 --> 00:16:28.759
person, but she probably wasn't doing more than
00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:33.039
three or four days a week. And she probably wasn't
00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:36.000
climbing for more than four hours in any of those
00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:37.519
sessions. And a four -hour session would just
00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:40.919
be like playing around on boulders. They were
00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:42.720
structured to some extent, but not massively
00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:45.200
structured. And the competition sort of lent
00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:49.159
themselves. There were obvious ones that she
00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:53.720
had to do, which were the nationals. So she would
00:16:53.720 --> 00:16:57.500
go to all of those if she could do. And then
00:16:57.500 --> 00:17:01.659
you had some higher profile sort of fun competitions,
00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:05.920
which aspirationally I think she wanted to do.
00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:09.319
But yeah, we didn't really have to. Sometimes
00:17:09.319 --> 00:17:13.980
we had to suggest to her ones to do just because
00:17:13.980 --> 00:17:17.640
we thought it would be a good idea. But generally
00:17:17.640 --> 00:17:21.099
at that age, she was quite happy to compete in
00:17:21.099 --> 00:17:24.240
most scenarios. I would say that that was all
00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:29.019
fine. And then she went to some EYCs. I think
00:17:29.019 --> 00:17:34.359
she did a year. So she had four EYCs, which she
00:17:34.359 --> 00:17:36.900
did okay. And I think she came 25th just in about
00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:40.920
every single one of them. So she didn't make
00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:44.839
semis or anything. But first year on the team.
00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:46.660
She seemed quite happy with that. And we were
00:17:46.660 --> 00:17:51.160
quite happy with that. And then COVID came. So
00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:54.339
the next year was completely wiped out. I think
00:17:54.339 --> 00:17:57.440
she did one national competition, which was,
00:17:57.480 --> 00:18:00.579
she did the Welsh, Welsh boulder and came third.
00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:03.980
And then in her age group, and then she did the
00:18:03.980 --> 00:18:07.859
UK lead or something and won it. And then COVID
00:18:07.859 --> 00:18:11.579
hit and everything was shut down. And then I,
00:18:12.029 --> 00:18:14.309
I think we went like a whole, you know, all the
00:18:14.309 --> 00:18:15.930
way through that season. And then they opened
00:18:15.930 --> 00:18:18.410
up world championships, youth world championships.
00:18:19.670 --> 00:18:22.250
And she got to go to that. And I think she'd
00:18:22.250 --> 00:18:26.490
been allowed to go to two training days as a,
00:18:26.490 --> 00:18:28.150
you know, we were allowed to travel as an elite
00:18:28.150 --> 00:18:32.509
athlete. So she went to the youth world championship
00:18:32.509 --> 00:18:36.490
and came fifth. Oh, okay. Not bad. Which was,
00:18:36.529 --> 00:18:41.009
you know, good or unexpectedly good. Fifth in
00:18:41.009 --> 00:18:46.200
bold, I think. 10th or 11th in lead um and then
00:18:46.200 --> 00:18:48.759
obviously things started to loosen up and she
00:18:48.759 --> 00:18:51.660
could actually get to competitions the following
00:18:51.660 --> 00:18:55.039
year but then she started to break into the senior
00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:58.599
squad um so she had less interest in going to
00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:00.819
the youth ones and was more focused on the seniors
00:19:00.819 --> 00:19:08.319
um and i think i don't know i we had a lot of
00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:11.859
discussions because you're around which competitions
00:19:11.859 --> 00:19:13.759
to go to and all that sort of thing. So when
00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:15.039
you're in the senior squad, you can either go
00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:18.380
to the regionals. So ours would be the European,
00:19:18.460 --> 00:19:20.819
I guess in your case, it would be North, South,
00:19:20.940 --> 00:19:23.039
Asia. It wouldn't be Asia Pacific. It would be
00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:25.299
North, South America. I don't know what they're
00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:31.839
called. So you have a choice between going to
00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:36.220
the European Cups or if you qualify, you can
00:19:36.220 --> 00:19:38.420
go to the World Cups. The European Cups being
00:19:38.420 --> 00:19:42.140
slightly easier. So I think she had a year when
00:19:42.140 --> 00:19:44.819
she first broke into the team, she had a year
00:19:44.819 --> 00:19:47.099
doing the European Cups because they actually
00:19:47.099 --> 00:19:49.400
said, you know, she's transitioning into the
00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:50.799
senior team and we don't think she should go
00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:54.299
to World Cups. At that stage, she was probably
00:19:54.299 --> 00:19:59.059
second, I think, in Boulder in the UK and second,
00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:02.680
third in lead. So we were like, what do you mean
00:20:02.680 --> 00:20:04.819
she can't go to World Cups? She's good enough.
00:20:06.359 --> 00:20:08.819
And actually Tom, who you had on the program
00:20:08.819 --> 00:20:12.319
as well. So Tom sort of said, you know, I think
00:20:12.319 --> 00:20:16.400
it's right. And with hindsight, he was 100 %
00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:19.619
correct. So it's a really good example of why
00:20:19.619 --> 00:20:22.119
you should listen to coaches. It was right as
00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:24.380
in she should have started the World Cups earlier?
00:20:24.460 --> 00:20:27.720
No, no, no. She should have eased herself. She
00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:30.019
should and did ease herself into the European
00:20:30.019 --> 00:20:35.390
Cups. Because I think, you know. You always want
00:20:35.390 --> 00:20:38.009
to jump in. Well, yeah, I think as a parent,
00:20:38.069 --> 00:20:40.349
you sort of like, well, yeah, if she's good enough,
00:20:40.390 --> 00:20:42.049
she's good enough. And then there's merit to
00:20:42.049 --> 00:20:47.109
that to some point. But the gap is so big. You're
00:20:47.109 --> 00:20:50.130
going from the European Cup into the World Cups.
00:20:50.150 --> 00:20:53.349
The gap is huge. If you look at some of the results,
00:20:53.509 --> 00:20:55.630
you'll see people winning a European Cup and
00:20:55.630 --> 00:20:59.609
then not making semifinals at a World Cup. Yeah,
00:20:59.630 --> 00:21:01.630
not always. You get some like Orianne Pertone
00:21:01.630 --> 00:21:05.650
smashed it all the way through. Um, so you do
00:21:05.650 --> 00:21:09.569
get some, some exceptions, but, um, yeah, it's
00:21:09.569 --> 00:21:12.269
just such a big jump up and it's a jump up from
00:21:12.269 --> 00:21:14.829
nationals to Europeans or, you know, the, the
00:21:14.829 --> 00:21:17.690
regional side, you know, it was with hindsight,
00:21:17.710 --> 00:21:20.390
it was 100 % the correct thing to do because
00:21:20.390 --> 00:21:23.069
it allowed her to see where the level was, get
00:21:23.069 --> 00:21:25.069
herself up to a reasonable level within the European
00:21:25.069 --> 00:21:29.650
cups and, uh, and then sort of re reset for the
00:21:29.650 --> 00:21:32.730
world cups. And, and weirdly because of. various
00:21:32.730 --> 00:21:34.829
cancellations because covid was still kicking
00:21:34.829 --> 00:21:37.930
around uh some of the european cups were cancelled
00:21:37.930 --> 00:21:40.210
they said oh in that case because you couldn't
00:21:40.210 --> 00:21:42.150
go to those we'll send you to a couple of world
00:21:42.150 --> 00:21:44.230
cups which so it worked out really really well
00:21:44.230 --> 00:21:46.970
in the end she got to see european cups she made
00:21:46.970 --> 00:21:51.650
one final um and then uh and didn't trouble the
00:21:51.650 --> 00:21:55.309
podium actually she made one final and it was
00:21:55.309 --> 00:21:59.349
a lead and she was completely misread uh a section
00:21:59.349 --> 00:22:02.900
of the uh leader and decided to everybody else
00:22:02.900 --> 00:22:06.920
went like it was like it was a sort of uh pockets
00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:10.440
traverse everybody else did it pocket traverse
00:22:10.440 --> 00:22:13.420
with feet and everyone decides you try to campus
00:22:13.420 --> 00:22:15.960
the whole thing and she campus most of it but
00:22:15.960 --> 00:22:17.779
then just ran out of energy on the final move
00:22:17.779 --> 00:22:21.480
um but uh yeah so she did that and then she could
00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:23.859
yeah so she's like oh yeah i made a semi a final
00:22:23.859 --> 00:22:26.720
um and then she went to the world cups and uh
00:22:27.500 --> 00:22:30.079
i think she was 40 something so yeah she was
00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:32.299
like oh my god that you know that's a whole another
00:22:32.299 --> 00:22:36.680
level what do i need to do and in terms of the
00:22:36.680 --> 00:22:39.380
whole process like memberships teams coaching
00:22:39.380 --> 00:22:43.200
um all of that must kind of add up and be quite
00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:46.019
expensive if you're comfortable with it could
00:22:46.019 --> 00:22:48.220
you like do you want to give an estimate of how
00:22:48.220 --> 00:22:51.599
much all of it like cost every year yeah i mean
00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:54.440
the the membership is not i honestly don't know
00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:57.099
how much it is British Mountaineering Council
00:22:57.099 --> 00:22:59.640
membership. It's not, I mean, it's not debilitating.
00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:04.539
The, yeah, I mean, you have to go to certain
00:23:04.539 --> 00:23:08.279
competitions and they generally cost 60, 70 quid
00:23:08.279 --> 00:23:11.079
to enter. Well, the only ones that we tend to
00:23:11.079 --> 00:23:13.920
go to are the selection ones now, which are two
00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:18.240
of them. So, yeah, again, that's not, yeah, it's
00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:20.160
cost, but it's not a particularly high cost.
00:23:20.299 --> 00:23:23.740
The biggest one I would say is, again, you know,
00:23:23.740 --> 00:23:25.039
different for different athletes, but I would
00:23:25.039 --> 00:23:30.529
say, When your child suddenly decides that actually
00:23:30.529 --> 00:23:33.150
this is something I want to take seriously, then
00:23:33.150 --> 00:23:36.230
you've got to take it seriously as well. And
00:23:36.230 --> 00:23:38.730
generally that means that you can't just go to
00:23:38.730 --> 00:23:41.190
the same wall every day. So if you happen to
00:23:41.190 --> 00:23:44.269
live close enough to a wall, and we chose a place
00:23:44.269 --> 00:23:46.289
to live in Kent, which at that point in time
00:23:46.289 --> 00:23:49.230
had no walls anywhere near it. I think the closest
00:23:49.230 --> 00:23:52.369
one was about 50 minute drive. They've subsequently
00:23:52.369 --> 00:23:55.410
built about... three quite close when we moved
00:23:55.410 --> 00:24:00.569
away um nice but of course but yeah so so when
00:24:00.569 --> 00:24:03.769
yeah when she made that decision we were like
00:24:03.769 --> 00:24:07.670
okay so yeah we need to get you to various locations
00:24:07.670 --> 00:24:09.809
so you can experience different route setting
00:24:09.809 --> 00:24:12.710
uh you know different problems yeah because they
00:24:12.710 --> 00:24:14.970
they do reset quite frequently but not massively
00:24:14.970 --> 00:24:17.130
frequently and if it's the same setters it tends
00:24:17.130 --> 00:24:22.750
to be similar styles um yeah so so basically
00:24:22.750 --> 00:24:26.170
we were writing off weekends um so you make a
00:24:26.170 --> 00:24:29.470
sacrifice in time sacrificing cost because you
00:24:29.470 --> 00:24:31.390
know so we had to you know we'd go up to sheffield
00:24:31.390 --> 00:24:35.049
a lot um that was a four -hour drive staying
00:24:35.049 --> 00:24:40.690
overnight um yeah so yeah i think that's that's
00:24:40.690 --> 00:24:42.630
probably where the the cost element comes in
00:24:42.630 --> 00:24:47.849
and then yeah because they're unknowns a lot
00:24:47.849 --> 00:24:49.410
of the walls would say oh yeah we'll let the
00:24:49.410 --> 00:24:52.809
gb senior squad come and climb for free but uh
00:24:52.809 --> 00:24:54.410
you know the junior squad we won't you've got
00:24:54.410 --> 00:24:57.390
to pay um then you're paying as a parent as well
00:24:57.390 --> 00:24:59.650
often you know if you if you happen to want to
00:24:59.650 --> 00:25:01.349
have a little play as well which is all fine
00:25:01.349 --> 00:25:05.230
but yeah that's another 10 to 15 pounds per day
00:25:05.230 --> 00:25:08.009
uh and then food that you're spending whilst
00:25:08.009 --> 00:25:11.910
you're there and stuff even if you try to you
00:25:11.910 --> 00:25:16.750
do as much of that as you can um and then if
00:25:16.750 --> 00:25:19.180
they get the internationals you obviously got
00:25:19.180 --> 00:25:22.839
to pay for them to go out there, pay for them
00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:25.339
to stay somewhere. Often when they're young,
00:25:25.380 --> 00:25:27.619
I think a lot of parents do accompany them out.
00:25:28.140 --> 00:25:30.039
So then you're paying for yourselves to go out
00:25:30.039 --> 00:25:34.099
as well. Yeah, so I think that's where the cost
00:25:34.099 --> 00:25:41.240
comes in. I'd say it's probably 10 ,000 to 20
00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:46.759
,000. Yeah, I mean, that might be... 10 10 would
00:25:46.759 --> 00:25:48.759
be the minimum 20 would be the absolute maximum
00:25:48.759 --> 00:25:52.859
i'd say um yeah whilst whilst they're spinning
00:25:52.859 --> 00:25:54.460
i've been right at the beginning of it wasn't
00:25:54.460 --> 00:25:57.720
that much towards the end towards the end of
00:25:57.720 --> 00:26:01.339
of us paying for everything it was probably closer
00:26:01.339 --> 00:26:04.559
to that because we were obviously paying for
00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:07.920
everything for her she was living in a lot of
00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:13.000
different hotels to train um and then we were
00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:15.670
ferrying around everywhere And all that sort
00:26:15.670 --> 00:26:19.130
of stuff. Yeah. So I think, you know, it's slightly
00:26:19.130 --> 00:26:21.029
different now because she has got other funding
00:26:21.029 --> 00:26:23.710
options. But yeah, I think at its worst, it was
00:26:23.710 --> 00:26:27.490
probably pushing towards 15 ,000, 20 ,000. Yeah,
00:26:27.490 --> 00:26:31.730
geez. And I suspect, you know, you could probably
00:26:31.730 --> 00:26:33.269
do it cheaper. But that was, you know, we used
00:26:33.269 --> 00:26:36.589
to send her off to competitions with a sort of
00:26:36.589 --> 00:26:39.450
suitcase in which there was a hot pot, you know,
00:26:39.470 --> 00:26:41.809
which you can plug in and make your own pasta
00:26:41.809 --> 00:26:44.819
and stuff. Oh, that's nice. So, yeah. Which,
00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:47.019
weirdly, she still does that, even though she
00:26:47.019 --> 00:26:48.880
doesn't have to now. She still does that because
00:26:48.880 --> 00:26:53.200
she actually likes that process, weirdly. Yeah,
00:26:53.220 --> 00:26:56.259
I mean, like the ritual consistency. Yeah, I
00:26:56.259 --> 00:26:59.839
think, yeah. And it's easy, isn't it? It's not
00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:01.900
particularly exciting. She just makes pasta,
00:27:02.079 --> 00:27:04.779
pesto, and tuna. So she can take all of that
00:27:04.779 --> 00:27:06.299
with her, so she also then doesn't have to sort
00:27:06.299 --> 00:27:08.119
of go out and find it. Oh, yeah, that totally
00:27:08.119 --> 00:27:11.299
makes sense. Okay, geez, yeah. I mean, a lot
00:27:11.299 --> 00:27:14.420
of sacrifice, and it's not cheap to... cheap
00:27:14.420 --> 00:27:17.000
to get into no i do i do remember one of the
00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:20.859
fathers turning around to me i think at the beginning
00:27:20.859 --> 00:27:23.180
of the second year and saying you're going to
00:27:23.180 --> 00:27:27.299
destroy destroy cars and he was right we did
00:27:27.299 --> 00:27:30.759
we did put a lot of miles onto cars yeah i mean
00:27:30.759 --> 00:27:34.059
that's yeah really far drives i didn't know that
00:27:34.059 --> 00:27:36.940
it would i didn't know that the uk was that big
00:27:36.940 --> 00:27:40.420
um yeah if we drive up to uh from from where
00:27:40.420 --> 00:27:44.000
we lived in which is just outside london or commuter
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:46.720
town of London we used to if we had to go to
00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:50.400
Ratho we'd either fly up there or it would be
00:27:50.400 --> 00:27:55.519
a 7 -8 hour drive which in itself then you start
00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:59.980
to get into the whole debate of you've got to
00:27:59.980 --> 00:28:02.480
factor in the fact that sitting down for 7 -8
00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:06.130
hours is not the best uh you know sort of um
00:28:06.130 --> 00:28:08.269
preparation to then go and climb as hard as you
00:28:08.269 --> 00:28:09.950
can because you're going all the way to a really
00:28:09.950 --> 00:28:12.390
really good wall so then you start to get into
00:28:12.390 --> 00:28:14.589
the well actually it would be better to fly even
00:28:14.589 --> 00:28:16.130
though it might be more expensive because then
00:28:16.130 --> 00:28:17.809
i'm gonna have to hire a car when i get at the
00:28:17.809 --> 00:28:22.230
other end and uh drive so yeah so you start to
00:28:22.230 --> 00:28:23.890
get into a lot of those sort of considerations
00:28:23.890 --> 00:28:26.150
good thing you went through the sacrifice it
00:28:26.150 --> 00:28:29.779
paid off thankfully But I mean, it looks like
00:28:29.779 --> 00:28:32.720
when you look through her results, I felt like
00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:36.839
before maybe like 2023 -ish, she was still pretty
00:28:36.839 --> 00:28:40.220
unknown, sort of like even like a little bit
00:28:40.220 --> 00:28:43.200
quiet in the youth scene. What happened between
00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:48.099
like 2023 and 2024 that made it such an incredible
00:28:48.099 --> 00:28:52.220
season after? Yeah, so 2023 was the year when
00:28:52.220 --> 00:28:55.420
she did World Cups. I think it was exclusive.
00:28:55.519 --> 00:28:57.259
She won the European Cup at the beginning of
00:28:57.259 --> 00:28:59.319
the season, then she just did World Cups. And
00:28:59.319 --> 00:29:02.119
that was the year when you had to get the OQS
00:29:02.119 --> 00:29:05.480
points, basically the top 40, I think, ranked,
00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:10.440
went to OQS. And then, yeah, so she was basically
00:29:10.440 --> 00:29:12.279
looking at that year and saying, okay, so this
00:29:12.279 --> 00:29:14.819
is the year I need to try to get myself into
00:29:14.819 --> 00:29:19.539
the top 40. not really trained changed her training
00:29:19.539 --> 00:29:24.759
plan massively um and yeah it was all it was
00:29:24.759 --> 00:29:27.279
all relatively new as well we'd we'd moved to
00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:30.319
a company called lattice who create training
00:29:30.319 --> 00:29:34.000
plans um and we just moved from working with
00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:38.339
um jen wood who's who's a really great gb athlete
00:29:38.339 --> 00:29:41.460
and a coach with lattice and we'd moved to ollie
00:29:41.460 --> 00:29:43.740
tor who who sort of owns and runs lattice who
00:29:43.740 --> 00:29:46.279
was providing even more bespoke because I think
00:29:46.279 --> 00:29:47.960
Jen was in a bit of a weird position because
00:29:47.960 --> 00:29:49.460
she was still on the team at that point in time
00:29:49.460 --> 00:29:53.940
so she was coaching Erin so that was sort of
00:29:53.940 --> 00:29:57.440
new she was working really closely with or starting
00:29:57.440 --> 00:29:59.819
to work more closely with Rachel Carr who was
00:29:59.819 --> 00:30:03.920
one of the GB coaches yeah so we sort of went
00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:05.779
through that year and then she did yeah I think
00:30:05.779 --> 00:30:08.279
she said yeah she squeaked in literally squeaked
00:30:08.279 --> 00:30:13.099
in and then we sat down with Tom Greenall who
00:30:13.099 --> 00:30:15.900
was the GB head coach at the time with Rachel,
00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:26.160
with Ollie and me. And they sort of said to her,
00:30:26.259 --> 00:30:29.200
so Erin's very good at talking to us. She's not
00:30:29.200 --> 00:30:31.460
very good at talking to other people openly.
00:30:31.539 --> 00:30:34.519
She's much, much better at it now. But then she
00:30:34.519 --> 00:30:37.400
was quite quiet. They were like, oh, yeah, what
00:30:37.400 --> 00:30:39.779
do you want? And she was like, well, you know,
00:30:39.799 --> 00:30:41.970
I'm going to do my best, blah, blah, blah. I
00:30:41.970 --> 00:30:44.990
think Tom was saying, but what do you want? Do
00:30:44.990 --> 00:30:48.089
you want to go and do your best and enjoy it?
00:30:48.210 --> 00:30:51.089
Do you want to go and qualify for the Olympics?
00:30:51.309 --> 00:30:56.250
Do you want to go and put down a statement sort
00:30:56.250 --> 00:31:00.210
of thing? And she went, yeah. I think she actually
00:31:00.210 --> 00:31:03.069
said, yeah. And Tom was like, say it, say what
00:31:03.069 --> 00:31:04.569
you want. And they did actually make her say,
00:31:04.650 --> 00:31:10.799
I want to go to OQS and I want to qualify. um
00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:14.839
ideally i'd like to qualify comfortably um so
00:31:14.839 --> 00:31:17.819
they sort of said that and then um and then they
00:31:17.819 --> 00:31:21.039
they basically sort of said okay so there's a
00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:23.799
lot to workshop it wasn't they didn't sort of
00:31:23.799 --> 00:31:27.059
pull any punches in terms of you know what that
00:31:27.059 --> 00:31:29.079
was going to look like in terms of the training
00:31:29.079 --> 00:31:30.559
plan and yeah they've sort of said you're going
00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:33.480
to go go deep into a hole you're going to feel
00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:36.259
like absolute crap um yeah we're going to have
00:31:36.259 --> 00:31:39.059
to push it really hard i think that's the famous
00:31:39.930 --> 00:31:42.829
yeah famous top line of you know well they keep
00:31:42.829 --> 00:31:46.029
pushing if she doesn't break keep pushing yeah
00:31:46.029 --> 00:31:49.710
but yeah she was she was massively behind where
00:31:49.710 --> 00:31:53.410
she needs to be uh yeah and she'll say that as
00:31:53.410 --> 00:31:57.910
well yeah she was nowhere nowhere near um the
00:31:57.910 --> 00:32:03.450
level one to to qualify for the olympics at that
00:32:03.450 --> 00:32:05.970
point in time but actually to be any sort of
00:32:05.970 --> 00:32:09.849
a contender at a world cup she was a non -entity
00:32:09.849 --> 00:32:13.450
um and i don't mean that in a nasty way i mean
00:32:13.450 --> 00:32:16.710
you know there was there was no there was no
00:32:16.710 --> 00:32:21.990
um event which could have happened where she
00:32:21.990 --> 00:32:25.589
would have um you know made a final let alone
00:32:25.589 --> 00:32:30.250
podium um just like honesty of yeah yeah yeah
00:32:30.250 --> 00:32:33.730
yeah absolutely brutal honesty, I think, which
00:32:33.730 --> 00:32:36.390
I think really works well with Erin. And it may
00:32:36.390 --> 00:32:39.109
not work well with other athletes, but it certainly
00:32:39.109 --> 00:32:44.049
worked well with Erin. And she had seen, I think
00:32:44.049 --> 00:32:46.410
she'd been observing some other athletes that
00:32:46.410 --> 00:32:49.910
she'd seen who were dead on their feet at the
00:32:49.910 --> 00:32:51.809
end of a session. And she was like, well, I don't
00:32:51.809 --> 00:32:54.910
actually feel like that a lot of the time. And
00:32:54.910 --> 00:32:57.849
I think the other key thing we said to Ollie
00:32:57.849 --> 00:33:02.609
was, if you look at her 24 season, sort of it
00:33:02.609 --> 00:33:07.309
started off okay um i can't remember where she
00:33:07.309 --> 00:33:09.250
came i think she did one boulder world cup which
00:33:09.250 --> 00:33:12.509
came 39th or something and then she made a semi
00:33:12.509 --> 00:33:16.150
-final in in south korea came 17th or something
00:33:16.150 --> 00:33:18.589
and then she just tailed off it got worse and
00:33:18.589 --> 00:33:23.470
worse um in the 23 season or 23 yeah let's say
00:33:23.470 --> 00:33:26.130
24 i'm pretty sure she made a final yeah yeah
00:33:26.130 --> 00:33:29.410
yeah so uh so we sort of said well how do we
00:33:29.900 --> 00:33:32.799
We need to change the training plan so that it's,
00:33:32.799 --> 00:33:35.799
you know, that we are continuing to work and
00:33:35.799 --> 00:33:37.559
keep up the standards so we can maintain and
00:33:37.559 --> 00:33:40.619
actually ideally improve. So if you look at,
00:33:40.619 --> 00:33:43.319
you know, I think Toby's performances, Toby Roberts,
00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:47.640
they tend to sort of get better. And obviously
00:33:47.640 --> 00:33:50.359
he's had a massive turnaround this year at Innsbruck.
00:33:51.640 --> 00:33:57.460
That's pretty cool. So, yes, all these things
00:33:57.460 --> 00:33:59.759
came into play. She went into a... you know,
00:33:59.759 --> 00:34:05.900
a brutal, brutal training plan. And our job in
00:34:05.900 --> 00:34:11.960
that was quite simple. I guess quickly we realised
00:34:11.960 --> 00:34:15.119
that often she'll have, you know, Rachel will
00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:17.039
sort of work with her, but Rachel can't go there.
00:34:17.079 --> 00:34:19.000
And there were eight, nine hour days. So, you
00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:20.679
know, Rachel can't be there for all that time
00:34:20.679 --> 00:34:22.519
because she's obviously servicing a lot of other
00:34:22.519 --> 00:34:25.519
athletes. You know, Ollie would sort of pop in,
00:34:25.559 --> 00:34:31.369
pop out, have a look at stuff. We brought in
00:34:31.369 --> 00:34:34.110
an S &C person, so they were sort of involved.
00:34:35.670 --> 00:34:39.469
But in reality, I think she just needed company.
00:34:40.010 --> 00:34:44.469
So that tended to be me, sometimes my son and
00:34:44.469 --> 00:34:49.070
Lindsay and me probably more on the, naturally,
00:34:49.510 --> 00:34:52.190
I think I was happy to do the actual physical
00:34:52.190 --> 00:34:55.650
activities. But emotionally, I'm probably a little
00:34:55.650 --> 00:35:00.010
less. uh turned on whereas lindsey my wife she's
00:35:00.010 --> 00:35:02.269
she's much more attuned to that side of it so
00:35:02.269 --> 00:35:04.309
i think she was much better picking her up and
00:35:04.309 --> 00:35:08.769
sort of saying um you need to step away from
00:35:08.769 --> 00:35:11.230
it but not not step away from the training yeah
00:35:11.230 --> 00:35:13.010
so there were a number of occasions i think where
00:35:13.010 --> 00:35:15.690
she was like you you're getting upset you're
00:35:15.690 --> 00:35:20.079
getting frustrated stop And then we'd be like,
00:35:20.199 --> 00:35:22.139
well, I've still got two or three hours. She
00:35:22.139 --> 00:35:23.579
goes, yeah, well, you can still do two or three
00:35:23.579 --> 00:35:25.719
hours, but stop, grab a coffee or grab something
00:35:25.719 --> 00:35:28.159
to eat. Just have a 10, 15 minute break and then
00:35:28.159 --> 00:35:31.219
go back to it. Yeah, so it wasn't sort of making
00:35:31.219 --> 00:35:33.119
an excuse to say, oh, no, you know, you're upset.
00:35:33.260 --> 00:35:35.820
Let's go home. It was sort of saying, take a
00:35:35.820 --> 00:35:39.039
step away and then go back to it. So, yeah, you're
00:35:39.039 --> 00:35:41.619
not here the nicest possible way. You're not
00:35:41.619 --> 00:35:44.760
here to feel good. Yeah, but you knew this is
00:35:44.760 --> 00:35:46.760
what you signed up to. You knew you would feel.
00:35:47.259 --> 00:35:49.860
crappy and tired and all this sort of stuff.
00:35:49.940 --> 00:35:52.500
So it's just part of the process. But obviously
00:35:52.500 --> 00:35:54.480
the first time you do that, it's quite horrible.
00:35:54.579 --> 00:35:56.159
And probably, actually, to be fair, the second
00:35:56.159 --> 00:35:58.260
time you do it, it's not that nice either. But
00:35:58.260 --> 00:36:02.340
the results are nice. So if it all works. So
00:36:02.340 --> 00:36:06.139
yeah, so that was the slightly different aspect
00:36:06.139 --> 00:36:08.940
that we got to experience there because suddenly
00:36:08.940 --> 00:36:12.000
it was like, well, yeah, we need to split our
00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:13.940
time up. So yeah, most of my holiday that year
00:36:13.940 --> 00:36:17.630
was spent in a cold gym somewhere. Just being
00:36:17.630 --> 00:36:20.690
there for Erin Lindsay basically sort of wound
00:36:20.690 --> 00:36:23.110
up her work that she was doing so she could spend
00:36:23.110 --> 00:36:27.630
more time at gyms and ferrying Erin around to
00:36:27.630 --> 00:36:31.769
the various locations, which was absolutely fine
00:36:31.769 --> 00:36:33.789
because it meant that we were still sort of involved.
00:36:34.989 --> 00:36:37.730
I got to find weird and wonderful things to do
00:36:37.730 --> 00:36:40.630
to sort of make some of those exercises more
00:36:40.630 --> 00:36:43.030
fun. Yeah, what were some of those exercises?
00:36:44.510 --> 00:36:49.389
There's so much stuff now on YouTube. on the
00:36:49.389 --> 00:36:53.449
internet. So you can look at the sort of exercises
00:36:53.449 --> 00:36:57.170
that athletes do in other sports and then sort
00:36:57.170 --> 00:36:59.150
of either adapt them or say actually that one's
00:36:59.150 --> 00:37:04.050
relevant to climbing. Plyometrics is one we really
00:37:04.050 --> 00:37:06.570
got into but only where they sort of had some
00:37:06.570 --> 00:37:10.590
element of you could use this for quick footwork.
00:37:11.119 --> 00:37:14.460
on a coordination boulder or you could use this
00:37:14.460 --> 00:37:17.880
for explosive movement off of a boulder you know
00:37:17.880 --> 00:37:19.400
then you adapt that to say okay so let's get
00:37:19.400 --> 00:37:21.039
ourselves into a really uncomfortable position
00:37:21.039 --> 00:37:25.360
and then try to explode out of it or you know
00:37:25.360 --> 00:37:28.260
let's let's you know balance on on one foot on
00:37:28.260 --> 00:37:31.900
this block and that you know if you sort of move
00:37:31.900 --> 00:37:33.599
a weight around and then you can actually start
00:37:33.599 --> 00:37:37.579
to understand which muscles to move in your body
00:37:38.349 --> 00:37:40.489
Um, and a lot of stuff with resistance bands
00:37:40.489 --> 00:37:42.750
where you, you know, you're resisting the movement,
00:37:42.829 --> 00:37:45.909
but still keeping the balance. Um, so you, you
00:37:45.909 --> 00:37:48.030
know, personally, I think it starts to teach
00:37:48.030 --> 00:37:51.590
you how to stop swings and how to counteract,
00:37:51.610 --> 00:37:55.190
uh, barn door, dooring off of stuff. Um, so we
00:37:55.190 --> 00:37:56.889
deal with a lot of that, a lot of balance stuff.
00:37:57.269 --> 00:38:00.510
Um, and we still muck around with a lot of that.
00:38:01.750 --> 00:38:05.659
Uh, yeah. Chucking balls. you know multiple balls
00:38:05.659 --> 00:38:08.980
and sort of throwing them back um i think also
00:38:08.980 --> 00:38:11.000
like med i love doing stuff with medicine balls
00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:14.019
where you catch it at weird angles okay yeah
00:38:14.019 --> 00:38:17.420
and then so you again you sort of utilize your
00:38:17.420 --> 00:38:19.460
muscles which you would normally use and you
00:38:19.460 --> 00:38:21.500
can make that very aerobic if you're throwing
00:38:21.500 --> 00:38:25.469
it all over the place um so that's fun um And
00:38:25.469 --> 00:38:27.590
I think, you know, therefore the warmup can actually
00:38:27.590 --> 00:38:29.710
end up being sort of, you know, an hour plus
00:38:29.710 --> 00:38:31.789
long, but actually you've done a whole load of,
00:38:31.809 --> 00:38:33.050
you've got your body warm, but you've actually
00:38:33.050 --> 00:38:35.449
done a whole load of other stuff, but it's sort
00:38:35.449 --> 00:38:38.550
of badged up as a bit more fun. If that works
00:38:38.550 --> 00:38:41.710
for the person. How are you involved in her training
00:38:41.710 --> 00:38:43.929
nowadays? Or like, how has that evolved? You
00:38:43.929 --> 00:38:46.550
mentioned, yeah, you were like pretty involved
00:38:46.550 --> 00:38:49.030
before and now maybe it's kind of waned a bit.
00:38:49.150 --> 00:38:51.929
Yeah. So I would say we were not that involved.
00:38:52.480 --> 00:38:54.500
Early, early on, because we just relied on the
00:38:54.500 --> 00:38:58.320
coaches. Then when she became more serious, yeah,
00:38:58.380 --> 00:39:01.440
through COVID, we became more involved just because
00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:03.719
we sort of had to because it was all at home.
00:39:05.039 --> 00:39:07.579
And then as she came out of COVID and became
00:39:07.579 --> 00:39:09.639
more serious, we became more involved just because
00:39:09.639 --> 00:39:15.440
we were pulling together a team. So one of the
00:39:15.440 --> 00:39:18.300
challenges we've got is you've got Rachel, Car,
00:39:19.579 --> 00:39:23.070
Olly, Tor. Tom Parkinson, who's the S &C coach.
00:39:25.789 --> 00:39:30.250
Yeah, those three are working together. And they
00:39:30.250 --> 00:39:31.670
do, they work together really well, but obviously
00:39:31.670 --> 00:39:33.829
that's a risk to have that many people involved
00:39:33.829 --> 00:39:36.590
in a training plan. And I remember a number of
00:39:36.590 --> 00:39:37.969
people actually sort of said to me, I don't think
00:39:37.969 --> 00:39:40.389
it will work. But it works for Aaron and it works.
00:39:40.550 --> 00:39:44.170
But one of the things I try to do is make sure
00:39:44.170 --> 00:39:47.929
that we have regular meetings as a threesome.
00:39:49.400 --> 00:39:52.099
to discuss all that sort of stuff and you know
00:39:52.099 --> 00:39:54.880
look at when the next training block is yeah
00:39:54.880 --> 00:39:57.219
and that's where it's really it's quite interesting
00:39:57.219 --> 00:39:59.960
to see them all work together um yeah because
00:39:59.960 --> 00:40:01.860
rachel's at the competition so she's got direct
00:40:01.860 --> 00:40:04.659
feedback ollie's got all this sort of science
00:40:04.659 --> 00:40:06.760
and knowledge and but but obviously you can only
00:40:06.760 --> 00:40:08.900
put so much of it into play at a certain point
00:40:08.900 --> 00:40:11.079
in time and from an snc perspective there's only
00:40:11.079 --> 00:40:13.559
so much you can do so there's a bit of maintenance
00:40:13.559 --> 00:40:15.880
but actually you know if you suddenly sort of
00:40:15.880 --> 00:40:18.239
say to tom we're not going to do this comp So
00:40:18.239 --> 00:40:20.159
that gives us a four week block. You can be like,
00:40:20.199 --> 00:40:21.880
okay, in four weeks, we might be able to achieve
00:40:21.880 --> 00:40:23.579
something. So let's do this, this and this. And
00:40:23.579 --> 00:40:25.780
then your Ollie's feeding into that. Rachel's
00:40:25.780 --> 00:40:27.139
saying, yeah, I think that's a good idea. Or
00:40:27.139 --> 00:40:28.480
actually, no, I don't think it's compression.
00:40:28.679 --> 00:40:31.219
I think we need to work on contact strength or
00:40:31.219 --> 00:40:35.420
whatever. So it works. Yeah, for this dynamic,
00:40:35.539 --> 00:40:37.280
it works really well, but you do have to work
00:40:37.280 --> 00:40:41.320
at it a bit. So I would say our, as she went
00:40:41.320 --> 00:40:43.719
into the Olympic qualifying bit. We were more
00:40:43.719 --> 00:40:45.940
in support role and making it fun and adding
00:40:45.940 --> 00:40:48.079
in exercises which we thought might add value.
00:40:48.760 --> 00:40:53.679
After the Olympic year, we had another discussion
00:40:53.679 --> 00:40:57.039
around what we want to achieve. We wanted to
00:40:57.039 --> 00:41:03.000
achieve 25 and she wanted to be more consistently
00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:08.179
challenging for a medal. So obviously that required
00:41:08.179 --> 00:41:11.550
more training. We had more specific areas of
00:41:11.550 --> 00:41:15.630
weakness to identify there. So winter wasn't
00:41:15.630 --> 00:41:18.230
massively different, to be fair. It was back
00:41:18.230 --> 00:41:22.670
in a hole. But I would say during this year,
00:41:22.710 --> 00:41:25.349
we've probably taken more of a backwards step
00:41:25.349 --> 00:41:30.550
because Erin's getting older, so she knows what
00:41:30.550 --> 00:41:34.269
she has to do. She's got access to more people
00:41:34.269 --> 00:41:40.489
who she can train with. But yeah, we still, I
00:41:40.489 --> 00:41:43.710
probably, when she's in the country and when
00:41:43.710 --> 00:41:45.449
she's in a training mode, I'm probably still
00:41:45.449 --> 00:41:50.150
see her at least once a week. I think her brother's
00:41:50.150 --> 00:41:52.269
a lot more heavily involved in training with
00:41:52.269 --> 00:41:55.929
her now. And to be fair, he's far, far better
00:41:55.929 --> 00:41:58.929
at setting problems than I am and things like
00:41:58.929 --> 00:42:01.789
that. He doesn't set, he doesn't root set, but
00:42:01.789 --> 00:42:06.139
he's actually. doesn't root set yet but yeah
00:42:06.139 --> 00:42:08.300
he will he'll be able to go to a woody board
00:42:08.300 --> 00:42:10.679
and sort of say yeah i'll make up this route
00:42:10.679 --> 00:42:16.159
for you um or he'll be at a point on a on a splat
00:42:16.159 --> 00:42:18.400
wall you know and sort of do a 70 move route
00:42:18.400 --> 00:42:23.280
um to to sort of simulate a lead route and he'll
00:42:23.280 --> 00:42:25.019
be able to eliminate stuff and sort of say okay
00:42:25.019 --> 00:42:28.579
you know either climb that but eliminate that
00:42:28.579 --> 00:42:31.750
and that or actually climb up to the top using
00:42:31.750 --> 00:42:33.730
these three routes but only that hold that hold
00:42:33.730 --> 00:42:36.309
he just sees stuff like that a lot better than
00:42:36.309 --> 00:42:39.170
than i can so yeah that's been really useful
00:42:39.170 --> 00:42:41.190
and i think yeah some of the some of the more
00:42:41.190 --> 00:42:44.650
recent videos certainly on the boards most of
00:42:44.650 --> 00:42:46.769
those problems have been set by callum and they're
00:42:46.769 --> 00:42:49.809
all they're really horrible well it's nice to
00:42:49.809 --> 00:42:51.889
have a lot of family support so yeah earlier
00:42:51.889 --> 00:42:55.429
you mentioned that being you as a parent physically
00:42:55.429 --> 00:42:59.920
being there could be a distraction um which competitions
00:42:59.920 --> 00:43:03.139
did you choose to go to and then i guess i wonder
00:43:03.139 --> 00:43:06.320
like if you only go to a few select competitions
00:43:06.320 --> 00:43:08.980
doesn't she like maybe feel even more pressure
00:43:08.980 --> 00:43:10.960
because that's like the one that you see please
00:43:10.960 --> 00:43:13.219
excuse this brief intermission but if you're
00:43:13.219 --> 00:43:15.139
interested in deleted scenes from this episode
00:43:15.139 --> 00:43:17.500
where he talks about the pivotal moments in her
00:43:17.500 --> 00:43:20.119
training growing up and his perspective on the
00:43:20.119 --> 00:43:22.579
weird parent dynamics in the youth climbing scene
00:43:22.579 --> 00:43:25.659
do consider helping support this podcast on patreon
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helps a great deal as well back to the show yeah
00:43:48.610 --> 00:43:51.599
and i suspect that's some of the some of the
00:43:51.599 --> 00:43:54.000
issue so we're not a constant feature at the
00:43:54.000 --> 00:43:56.519
competition so we're not part of her her setup
00:43:56.519 --> 00:43:58.139
for the comps whereas and you know some of the
00:43:58.139 --> 00:44:00.300
other parents are are a constant feature which
00:44:00.300 --> 00:44:02.800
is you know which which works well i think or
00:44:02.800 --> 00:44:07.900
can work well um yeah so we went to prague which
00:44:07.900 --> 00:44:11.039
to be fair park worked you know quite well um
00:44:11.039 --> 00:44:14.780
she did she did well qualified for finals in
00:44:14.780 --> 00:44:18.139
fourth and then finals were cooled off so there
00:44:18.139 --> 00:44:22.440
was no finals Which was upsetting. Well, upsetting
00:44:22.440 --> 00:44:25.800
was a shame. But yeah, I still think Oriana had
00:44:25.800 --> 00:44:29.519
done a really good job there. So that is what
00:44:29.519 --> 00:44:34.079
it is. And then we went to Innsbruck. Mainly
00:44:34.079 --> 00:44:36.300
because we'd never, we go to Innsbruck a lot
00:44:36.300 --> 00:44:39.079
to train, but we'd never been, she'd never actually
00:44:39.079 --> 00:44:42.360
done the World Cup there. And it was obviously
00:44:42.360 --> 00:44:46.719
quite a well -informed audience and stuff like
00:44:46.719 --> 00:44:50.369
that. one we wanted to go to anyway just to experience
00:44:50.369 --> 00:44:56.550
um yeah and and that i think us being there was
00:44:56.550 --> 00:45:00.929
me lindsey and callum uh and and her partner
00:45:00.929 --> 00:45:07.230
so uh yeah i think it just threw her off yeah
00:45:07.230 --> 00:45:10.710
not not in a big way uh you know and it might
00:45:10.710 --> 00:45:13.170
have happened anyway but but why have that risk
00:45:13.170 --> 00:45:16.250
there i mean at the end of the day like i say
00:45:16.250 --> 00:45:19.960
yeah we were we were sort of stood in the crowd
00:45:19.960 --> 00:45:24.219
um and i tend to do little hand movements so
00:45:24.219 --> 00:45:26.219
i'm stood in the crowd going oh god i look like
00:45:26.219 --> 00:45:30.239
an idiot um and and you're you're yeah you're
00:45:30.239 --> 00:45:31.960
basically climbing every move with them you don't
00:45:31.960 --> 00:45:34.400
you know we don't always get a fantastic view
00:45:34.400 --> 00:45:37.619
i and i just found it really you know really
00:45:37.619 --> 00:45:40.000
stressful lindsey's finds it really stressful
00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.460
as well um and and yeah so when we when we had
00:45:44.460 --> 00:45:46.000
the discussion it was quite an easy discussion
00:45:46.849 --> 00:45:49.570
And I think you're backed up by the coaches as
00:45:49.570 --> 00:45:53.150
well. You almost get to the point of saying,
00:45:53.210 --> 00:45:57.610
well, yeah, if this is the equivalent of a Masters
00:45:57.610 --> 00:46:02.489
or a Grand Slam, you're there in your unit of
00:46:02.489 --> 00:46:06.170
professionalism with your coaches, with your
00:46:06.170 --> 00:46:09.690
separate hotels, you're removed from all those
00:46:09.690 --> 00:46:12.050
influences. And yes, you might see them in the
00:46:12.050 --> 00:46:15.150
audience, but it's, you know. but they'd be doing
00:46:15.150 --> 00:46:18.550
it probably for a number of years. So, yeah,
00:46:18.550 --> 00:46:21.329
for me and Lindsay and actually all of us, it
00:46:21.329 --> 00:46:24.110
was a very simple, you know, we're saying if
00:46:24.110 --> 00:46:26.909
we present any issue to you at all, we're very
00:46:26.909 --> 00:46:29.909
happy not to come. Yeah, we can watch it on,
00:46:29.909 --> 00:46:32.389
in Europe, you have to watch it on Discovery+.
00:46:32.389 --> 00:46:37.250
But, yeah, we can watch it on Discovery+. Yeah.
00:46:37.840 --> 00:46:40.159
She always calls us up after each of the rounds.
00:46:40.219 --> 00:46:43.139
So we get to talk to her anyway. And then when
00:46:43.139 --> 00:46:46.320
she does get back, we can celebrate or commiserate.
00:46:47.280 --> 00:46:50.280
So yeah, it doesn't massively change anything
00:46:50.280 --> 00:46:55.000
because as you go through the rounds, you can't
00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:56.960
really celebrate because you're straight back
00:46:56.960 --> 00:46:59.320
into recovery and all that sort of stuff. And
00:46:59.320 --> 00:47:01.559
generally when it finishes, if you do well. So
00:47:01.559 --> 00:47:04.619
I think Innsbruck, she got third. By the time
00:47:04.619 --> 00:47:06.619
she'd gone through anti -doping and stuff, it
00:47:06.619 --> 00:47:10.139
was... gone 11 o 'clock at night oh yeah so you
00:47:10.139 --> 00:47:14.300
can't really get anything done in in the um yeah
00:47:14.300 --> 00:47:16.139
you can't celebrate too much because you know
00:47:16.139 --> 00:47:18.880
she's not she's not wanting to go to a nightclub
00:47:18.880 --> 00:47:22.860
or anything like that um uh yeah so literally
00:47:22.860 --> 00:47:28.219
it was like oh okay um i think uh we we had the
00:47:28.219 --> 00:47:30.619
leftover food that was in the in the cafe at
00:47:30.619 --> 00:47:33.159
the wall in innsbruck and then uh and then went
00:47:33.159 --> 00:47:36.400
home So, yeah, you know, in some ways it's always
00:47:36.400 --> 00:47:39.119
nicer and easier to celebrate when she gets back
00:47:39.119 --> 00:47:41.519
to the UK and, you know, all of that bit's done
00:47:41.519 --> 00:47:44.420
and she could be 100 % with us. You know, it
00:47:44.420 --> 00:47:48.280
wasn't a hard decision at all. And, you know,
00:47:48.300 --> 00:47:50.119
it was the right decision for her. You know,
00:47:50.119 --> 00:47:54.800
it might not be as we move into 26, 27, 28, however
00:47:54.800 --> 00:47:58.480
long, then I'm sure that we can try to introduce
00:47:58.480 --> 00:48:01.860
it back in, in some way or shape, but I'd much
00:48:01.860 --> 00:48:04.719
rather. her be able to perform at her best than
00:48:04.719 --> 00:48:07.940
you know physically be there and her maybe not
00:48:07.940 --> 00:48:10.840
perform at the best yeah that makes sense yeah
00:48:10.840 --> 00:48:12.800
you also said that the experience of actually
00:48:12.800 --> 00:48:16.039
watching a competition is kind of terrible um
00:48:16.039 --> 00:48:18.639
have you like found any strategies that helps
00:48:18.639 --> 00:48:23.519
you calm down from that or no the uh i i think
00:48:23.519 --> 00:48:25.579
one of the first things that we went to is as
00:48:25.579 --> 00:48:28.119
when she got onto the youth team was was some
00:48:28.119 --> 00:48:31.659
sort of psychology thing for parents you're sort
00:48:31.659 --> 00:48:34.639
of saying oh yeah yeah this is obviously stressful
00:48:34.639 --> 00:48:36.679
for your kid and stuff but actually you've got
00:48:36.679 --> 00:48:40.079
to try to find a way to enjoy it but obviously
00:48:40.079 --> 00:48:44.260
no way i've had to do that um i i've never i
00:48:44.260 --> 00:48:46.760
said yeah i've never found a way of of taking
00:48:46.760 --> 00:48:51.159
away the stress um i i am less stressed about
00:48:51.159 --> 00:48:57.019
it now than than previously um but i think that's
00:48:58.579 --> 00:49:06.500
I think when she first started competing, we
00:49:06.500 --> 00:49:07.920
really didn't have any clues. So we're like,
00:49:08.019 --> 00:49:11.000
oh, maybe, maybe, maybe. And then with knowledge,
00:49:11.199 --> 00:49:16.920
we were like, no. They don't televise the qualification
00:49:16.920 --> 00:49:19.239
and she's not going to get out of qualification.
00:49:19.599 --> 00:49:24.000
So this is what it is. So you were basically
00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:30.840
watching it on the app. And then when she had
00:49:30.840 --> 00:49:36.699
the 24 season, it was like, geez. So that was
00:49:36.699 --> 00:49:39.059
all like a massive shock. So that was relatively
00:49:39.059 --> 00:49:42.420
low stress because we're like, Jesus, this can't
00:49:42.420 --> 00:49:44.219
be happening. But then by the time of the Olympics,
00:49:44.280 --> 00:49:47.739
you then had that glimmer of hope that could
00:49:47.739 --> 00:49:49.480
she make the final? And then she made the final.
00:49:49.519 --> 00:49:53.539
Like, my God, could she get on the podium? So
00:49:53.539 --> 00:49:55.579
you had that glimmer of hope, which added a bit
00:49:55.579 --> 00:49:58.590
of stress. uh into it but i guess that's good
00:49:58.590 --> 00:50:02.070
stress so you know and even now i'm still i i
00:50:02.070 --> 00:50:03.869
think i'm still coming to terms with the fact
00:50:03.869 --> 00:50:06.670
that she's performing at a really high standard
00:50:06.670 --> 00:50:11.309
so you know you would on the performance she's
00:50:11.309 --> 00:50:13.329
done so far you sort of expect her to make finals
00:50:13.329 --> 00:50:15.550
it would be a bit of a shock if she didn't but
00:50:15.550 --> 00:50:17.690
but in my head i'm still like oh you know oh
00:50:17.690 --> 00:50:21.230
she might not make semis um so it did that that
00:50:21.230 --> 00:50:24.230
aspect is weird but but yeah but less stressful
00:50:24.230 --> 00:50:26.480
now i think because she does generally she delivers
00:50:26.480 --> 00:50:29.159
and you know certainly getting into semis that
00:50:29.159 --> 00:50:33.360
seems to be quite yeah you can see quite quickly
00:50:33.360 --> 00:50:36.599
whether it's a boulder or lead that she is where
00:50:36.599 --> 00:50:40.219
she needs to be um we used to joke because you're
00:50:40.219 --> 00:50:41.719
on the lead because you've got those two qualification
00:50:41.719 --> 00:50:44.739
routes often you can qualify on the first one
00:50:44.739 --> 00:50:47.760
if you do a really high or top it and you can
00:50:47.760 --> 00:50:50.019
actually look at the results say you you don't
00:50:50.019 --> 00:50:51.500
actually have to bother to climb the second one
00:50:51.500 --> 00:50:55.659
you'll be in um And that's happened a few times.
00:50:55.920 --> 00:50:57.719
So that was, you know, it was almost like a wow.
00:50:57.860 --> 00:51:00.320
I never thought that would happen. Is that the
00:51:00.320 --> 00:51:02.880
strategy? Like just don't really do the second
00:51:02.880 --> 00:51:06.079
one? No, I think, I don't think, well, you know,
00:51:06.079 --> 00:51:07.699
certainly, I mean, some of the athletes have
00:51:07.699 --> 00:51:09.559
talked in the past around, you know, I don't
00:51:09.559 --> 00:51:13.360
want to come out last. So I'll deliberately muck
00:51:13.360 --> 00:51:16.880
up a bit. But I just, the margins are so close
00:51:16.880 --> 00:51:19.760
now. Yeah. Especially with the boulder scoring
00:51:19.760 --> 00:51:24.019
system and stuff. I think you can't. You can't
00:51:24.019 --> 00:51:26.460
have that attitude. So yeah, certainly for Erin,
00:51:26.539 --> 00:51:28.619
I don't think she ever gives anything less than
00:51:28.619 --> 00:51:32.440
100%, although she will sometimes tape her fingers
00:51:32.440 --> 00:51:34.800
for the lead routes. Oh, that makes sense. On
00:51:34.800 --> 00:51:37.900
the qualification. So she'll sort of bank a bit
00:51:37.900 --> 00:51:40.900
of skin and maybe compromise the climb slightly.
00:51:41.389 --> 00:51:44.289
Okay, smart. Yeah, I'm surprised you would say
00:51:44.289 --> 00:51:48.570
that it's a lot less stressful now because now
00:51:48.570 --> 00:51:52.050
there's more expectations involved too with making
00:51:52.050 --> 00:51:55.630
finals. And then if you don't make finals, then
00:51:55.630 --> 00:52:00.530
it's a lot more painful maybe. Yeah, but it was
00:52:00.530 --> 00:52:03.289
depressing. I can't think of the right word.
00:52:03.530 --> 00:52:07.610
I sort of think it's quite hard to maintain that
00:52:07.610 --> 00:52:13.239
level all the time. So you, I think, I think
00:52:13.239 --> 00:52:16.699
she's been on a final streak since the beginning
00:52:16.699 --> 00:52:19.420
of 2023. I mean, she was, she made the finals
00:52:19.420 --> 00:52:23.539
in Prague in 23, but then was appealed out, which
00:52:23.539 --> 00:52:29.099
is fine. And then every finals through to Innsbruck
00:52:29.099 --> 00:52:31.360
Boulder, where she didn't make the final. Well,
00:52:31.420 --> 00:52:35.050
and that was purely down to performance. Yeah,
00:52:35.150 --> 00:52:38.070
like was that a stressful moment or like disappointment?
00:52:38.230 --> 00:52:40.090
Yeah, it was more disappointment for her because
00:52:40.090 --> 00:52:44.190
she was so close to Boulder 3 and Boulder 4 on
00:52:44.190 --> 00:52:46.949
another day. I'm sure she would have sent one
00:52:46.949 --> 00:52:50.170
or both of them and that would have got her in
00:52:50.170 --> 00:52:52.969
quite comfortably. Yeah, I think you've got to
00:52:52.969 --> 00:52:55.389
be pragmatic. I remember she called us up after
00:52:55.389 --> 00:53:02.239
when she got appealed out in Prague in 24. we
00:53:02.239 --> 00:53:04.260
were bracing ourselves for, you know, full -on
00:53:04.260 --> 00:53:07.880
depression. And she was just like, we're like,
00:53:07.980 --> 00:53:10.199
oh, yeah, you sound okay. And she's like, yeah,
00:53:10.239 --> 00:53:12.260
I just wasn't good enough. We're like, yeah,
00:53:12.260 --> 00:53:13.780
but you weren't good enough. Yeah, you got in.
00:53:13.820 --> 00:53:15.639
She goes, no, no, I wasn't good enough. If I'd
00:53:15.639 --> 00:53:18.320
been good enough, it wouldn't have mattered if
00:53:18.320 --> 00:53:20.019
they'd appealed me out of one. I would have had
00:53:20.019 --> 00:53:23.239
enough points to get through anyway. So, you
00:53:23.239 --> 00:53:24.880
know, I wasn't good enough. I just need to get
00:53:24.880 --> 00:53:27.260
better. So she was really massively pragmatic
00:53:27.260 --> 00:53:29.519
about that. And, you know, I'd sort of say after
00:53:29.519 --> 00:53:31.940
Innsbruck. boulder that was when we had the discussion
00:53:31.940 --> 00:53:34.639
so yeah again pragmatic about it and sort of
00:53:34.639 --> 00:53:37.820
saying well what yeah what's different why you
00:53:37.820 --> 00:53:41.079
know why didn't i perform as i would have expected
00:53:41.079 --> 00:53:43.579
to perform why did i throw myself so much at
00:53:43.579 --> 00:53:45.460
boulder three and not save something for boulder
00:53:45.460 --> 00:53:50.420
four which was the power boulder you so yeah
00:53:50.420 --> 00:53:52.659
i think as long as she's taking something from
00:53:52.659 --> 00:53:55.019
each of them you know it's disappointing but
00:53:55.019 --> 00:53:57.079
um as long as she's taking something from it
00:53:57.079 --> 00:54:00.019
and moving forward in her mind and and you know
00:54:00.019 --> 00:54:02.780
from what we can see i think it's sort of oh
00:54:02.780 --> 00:54:06.920
yeah okay and i guess that's the journey towards
00:54:06.920 --> 00:54:10.179
uh getting to that point where you're like okay
00:54:10.179 --> 00:54:12.739
i'm i now feel i am good enough and i've got
00:54:12.739 --> 00:54:15.480
the mindset and i've got the the structure and
00:54:15.480 --> 00:54:18.119
the team that actually i should be making finals
00:54:18.119 --> 00:54:20.179
and i should be challenging for the medals every
00:54:20.179 --> 00:54:23.099
single time getting into the yanya like category
00:54:23.099 --> 00:54:25.469
yeah Well, that's a good mindset to have. I'm
00:54:25.469 --> 00:54:28.230
glad to hear that. None of these were like super
00:54:28.230 --> 00:54:32.329
depressing moments for her. I think they were.
00:54:32.369 --> 00:54:35.030
I think she was upset. But I think you could
00:54:35.030 --> 00:54:36.690
be upset, can't you? But then you just need to
00:54:36.690 --> 00:54:39.969
process it and think, OK, well, what do I change?
00:54:39.969 --> 00:54:42.449
What do I do differently? Yeah. Can you think
00:54:42.449 --> 00:54:45.449
of like the most stressful competition that you've
00:54:45.449 --> 00:54:49.730
had to watch? Yeah. Budapest OQS. It was the
00:54:49.730 --> 00:54:53.269
second qualifier. And she, yeah, she'd got third
00:54:53.269 --> 00:54:57.190
in the first one in Shanghai. So it was, you're
00:54:57.190 --> 00:54:58.969
sort of thinking, oh, yes, this is nailed on.
00:54:59.030 --> 00:55:02.030
She's going to get the Olympic ticket. And she
00:55:02.030 --> 00:55:04.469
had a disaster, well not disaster, she had a
00:55:04.469 --> 00:55:08.150
really bad for her boulder round. And we were
00:55:08.150 --> 00:55:10.090
suddenly like, oh God, she's got to come out
00:55:10.090 --> 00:55:12.409
and do, she had to, she had to get to the headwall.
00:55:12.710 --> 00:55:14.949
Actually, I think a hold or two onto the headwall
00:55:14.949 --> 00:55:18.360
in order to get into semifinals. And we're like,
00:55:18.400 --> 00:55:20.340
God, if she doesn't make semifinals, then this
00:55:20.340 --> 00:55:24.059
is going to be the most stressful watch because
00:55:24.059 --> 00:55:28.659
people could actually overtake her. So that was
00:55:28.659 --> 00:55:34.380
hugely stressful. I think there's a video that
00:55:34.380 --> 00:55:37.380
is on one of her YouTubes, which is Callum, my
00:55:37.380 --> 00:55:42.260
son, videoing her. And he's super, it's literally
00:55:42.260 --> 00:55:45.260
like this. He was like, and then I think there's
00:55:45.260 --> 00:55:47.750
a bit where he goes, that's it, she's in. in
00:55:47.750 --> 00:55:51.030
semis yes that was probably the the most stressful
00:55:51.030 --> 00:55:54.309
it was about 34 degrees it was really baking
00:55:54.309 --> 00:55:57.070
hot so you're sort of like you've got heat stress
00:55:57.070 --> 00:56:01.050
as i say this is a non -athlete so you as a as
00:56:01.050 --> 00:56:04.050
a as a spectator you got heat stress and stress
00:56:04.050 --> 00:56:05.909
it was it was uh yeah that was quite an unpleasant
00:56:05.909 --> 00:56:08.530
environment um obviously the athletes had it
00:56:08.530 --> 00:56:10.329
easy because they just had to climb up this wall
00:56:10.329 --> 00:56:13.469
in 34 degrees oh yeah that's pretty simple yeah
00:56:13.469 --> 00:56:15.570
that was probably the most stressful because
00:56:15.570 --> 00:56:18.719
he's thinking my god this is a a huge dream and
00:56:18.719 --> 00:56:21.039
a huge moment which might be about to disappear.
00:56:21.579 --> 00:56:23.920
So you were there in person for that? We were.
00:56:24.000 --> 00:56:25.820
We went to the Budapest ones, which was really
00:56:25.820 --> 00:56:30.599
great because, again, we were bystanders in that.
00:56:31.760 --> 00:56:33.579
Probably the first time I'd seen her when she
00:56:33.579 --> 00:56:38.360
actually got your approach by fans. I'd never
00:56:38.360 --> 00:56:41.500
seen that before, so that was quite nice. So
00:56:41.500 --> 00:56:44.159
when she came out of the Atelier area, we'd sort
00:56:44.159 --> 00:56:47.380
of migrated around there. But we didn't get to
00:56:47.380 --> 00:56:49.179
talk to her for quite a long time because she
00:56:49.179 --> 00:56:52.219
was just working her way through a crowd, which
00:56:52.219 --> 00:56:56.260
is quite surreal to see a daughter with strangers
00:56:56.260 --> 00:56:58.840
wanting an autograph and stuff. Yeah, no, she
00:56:58.840 --> 00:57:02.280
had suddenly blew up. I think it was, I don't
00:57:02.280 --> 00:57:05.760
want to say like surprising, but yeah, I think
00:57:05.760 --> 00:57:07.780
still like around that time, it was still pretty
00:57:07.780 --> 00:57:10.440
early. Not a lot of people knew who she was.
00:57:10.480 --> 00:57:13.980
And so it was kind of like... I'd say even in
00:57:13.980 --> 00:57:16.699
the UK, even in the UK, she was still relatively
00:57:16.699 --> 00:57:20.400
unknown. I think Rachel used to say, Coach used
00:57:20.400 --> 00:57:23.039
to sort of say, you're the best boulder in the
00:57:23.039 --> 00:57:29.420
UK and nobody knows it. Yeah, it was a silent
00:57:29.420 --> 00:57:33.400
rise, wasn't it? And I think, yeah, and even
00:57:33.400 --> 00:57:34.980
at the Olympics, because I think she must have
00:57:34.980 --> 00:57:37.179
been one of the lowest, because it was on, I
00:57:37.179 --> 00:57:40.139
think it was on World Cup ranking or World ranking.
00:57:40.559 --> 00:57:43.610
So she was. Always either the last out or the
00:57:43.610 --> 00:57:45.369
first out, depending on which round it was. It
00:57:45.369 --> 00:57:48.809
was a long way back. And Okuress as well. So
00:57:48.809 --> 00:57:50.190
she was like, yeah, you're still thinking, oh,
00:57:50.250 --> 00:57:51.630
yeah, these are the positions. And then Erin
00:57:51.630 --> 00:57:55.590
came out almost like last and was able, well,
00:57:55.630 --> 00:57:57.449
unfortunately for somebody, knocked them out.
00:57:57.849 --> 00:58:00.050
Yeah, I mean, it was so interesting. Like I remember
00:58:00.050 --> 00:58:03.090
when I first interviewed her, she was just saying
00:58:03.090 --> 00:58:05.550
that she was still like waiting hours in ISO
00:58:05.550 --> 00:58:09.340
for like quality. It came a really long way.
00:58:09.420 --> 00:58:13.199
It's very interesting to see. Yeah, yeah. That's
00:58:13.199 --> 00:58:17.539
also presented a challenge because I think qualifying,
00:58:18.059 --> 00:58:20.900
she struggled a bit with the qualifying high
00:58:20.900 --> 00:58:24.679
up in semis. It means you come out earlier for
00:58:24.679 --> 00:58:28.519
semis and that didn't give her enough time to
00:58:28.519 --> 00:58:31.099
warm up. Oh, yeah. So she had to adapt her warm
00:58:31.099 --> 00:58:33.719
up. Yeah. So, yeah, it's quite weird how you
00:58:33.719 --> 00:58:37.219
have to continue to adapt. to uh to your sort
00:58:37.219 --> 00:58:39.539
of yeah what your performance is giving you yeah
00:58:39.539 --> 00:58:42.539
it's ever -changing and of course how was your
00:58:42.539 --> 00:58:45.699
experience at the olympics did you get to enjoy
00:58:45.699 --> 00:58:48.079
the venue much or was it mostly just stressful
00:58:48.079 --> 00:58:53.219
uh stressful to watch that was um yeah it was
00:58:53.219 --> 00:58:58.219
it was okay actually it yeah it was there was
00:58:58.219 --> 00:59:02.880
a little bit of stress actually there's probably
00:59:02.880 --> 00:59:05.250
quite a lot of stress around the Because at that
00:59:05.250 --> 00:59:08.690
point, she really wanted to make finals. And
00:59:08.690 --> 00:59:12.650
there was a possibility. It wasn't beyond the
00:59:12.650 --> 00:59:15.090
realms of possibility. So that was a bit stressful.
00:59:15.250 --> 00:59:20.650
But I'd say the atmosphere was fantastic. The
00:59:20.650 --> 00:59:23.090
venue was fantastic. It was bloody hot again.
00:59:23.190 --> 00:59:27.989
But it was an amazing venue, packed, literally
00:59:27.989 --> 00:59:31.809
at capacity as well, which was fantastic to see.
00:59:31.889 --> 00:59:37.980
They did a really... really good job um yeah
00:59:37.980 --> 00:59:41.179
and so that that sort of i guess being in that
00:59:41.179 --> 00:59:44.539
environment and that um setting sort of took
00:59:44.539 --> 00:59:47.480
away some of the stress yeah but it was it was
00:59:47.480 --> 00:59:50.280
a bit stress i i the things i can remember is
00:59:50.280 --> 00:59:53.440
for whatever reason when she qualified it was
00:59:53.440 --> 00:59:56.199
like the the lead part was was what determined
00:59:56.199 --> 00:59:57.719
whether she was going to get into the final or
00:59:57.719 --> 01:00:01.059
not but somehow we were sat with a whole load
01:00:01.059 --> 01:00:03.639
of other parents So I'm guessing it must have
01:00:03.639 --> 01:00:05.639
been the friends and family tickets. Yeah. So
01:00:05.639 --> 01:00:07.719
we were, we were sat with all, you know, a number
01:00:07.719 --> 01:00:12.159
of the other parents. So you had to be quite
01:00:12.159 --> 01:00:15.099
careful around, you know, what you, what you
01:00:15.099 --> 01:00:17.159
were like, you know, you know, cause obviously
01:00:17.159 --> 01:00:19.659
you want them to get in, but in order for her
01:00:19.659 --> 01:00:21.699
to get in, other people had to fall earlier.
01:00:22.480 --> 01:00:26.000
So, yeah. So it was, it was quite weird, you
01:00:26.000 --> 01:00:28.179
know, weird, weird vibe. But I mean, you know,
01:00:28.179 --> 01:00:30.900
you know, generally all the parents are so. at
01:00:30.900 --> 01:00:33.320
that level they're so supportive and stuff um
01:00:33.320 --> 01:00:39.360
yeah so i think we were sat next to um uh what's
01:00:39.360 --> 01:00:43.139
the name casper cova oh yeah jenya jenya yeah
01:00:43.139 --> 01:00:46.940
her her parents or her mother in particular um
01:00:46.940 --> 01:00:49.340
yeah she was lovely giving us sort of hugs and
01:00:49.340 --> 01:00:53.000
stuff um yeah so it was really really quite cool
01:00:53.000 --> 01:00:56.420
i do i do uh although the other bit i remember
01:00:56.420 --> 01:00:59.739
is she yeah she qualified we knew she'd qualified
01:00:59.739 --> 01:01:04.139
so i was super happy um and then i saw her that
01:01:04.139 --> 01:01:06.360
you had barriers at the front where the where
01:01:06.360 --> 01:01:07.639
the athletes could mill around and then there
01:01:07.639 --> 01:01:10.320
was a sort of area off to the far right which
01:01:10.320 --> 01:01:12.159
is all behind barriers but you could actually
01:01:12.159 --> 01:01:13.579
go and talk to the athletes and get the design
01:01:13.579 --> 01:01:16.219
stuff but it was sort of security patrolled but
01:01:16.219 --> 01:01:17.980
she was at the front and i thought oh yeah i'm
01:01:17.980 --> 01:01:21.179
literally two things away and somebody had gone
01:01:21.179 --> 01:01:23.869
out of the seat So I thought I could jump that
01:01:23.869 --> 01:01:26.070
and get to go and talk to her. So I did jump
01:01:26.070 --> 01:01:28.869
it, really athletically jumped it and went to
01:01:28.869 --> 01:01:30.530
talk to her. I was like, wow, yeah, this is amazing.
01:01:30.570 --> 01:01:31.909
It's happening. And she was like, yeah, I'll
01:01:31.909 --> 01:01:34.110
leave it. And then I could see people minister.
01:01:34.130 --> 01:01:36.130
I'll go back to my seat. And I tried to jump
01:01:36.130 --> 01:01:38.449
back into my seat, completely messed it up. And
01:01:38.449 --> 01:01:41.650
then he smacked my head. So I looked very uncool
01:01:41.650 --> 01:01:46.630
getting back into it. Yeah. So that was, yeah,
01:01:47.030 --> 01:01:48.789
I mean, that was, I guess, stressful, but happy.
01:01:48.869 --> 01:01:51.809
And then the... The final was less stressful
01:01:51.809 --> 01:01:56.250
until there was a brief moment where you're thinking,
01:01:56.349 --> 01:02:01.110
oh, could she scrape into third? I don't think
01:02:01.110 --> 01:02:02.469
she was ever going to get first or second because
01:02:02.469 --> 01:02:04.829
I think Brooke and Yanya had sort of wrapped
01:02:04.829 --> 01:02:08.869
them up. But depending on her lead, I or Jessie
01:02:08.869 --> 01:02:11.650
may not have overtaken her. But I mean, by her
01:02:11.650 --> 01:02:13.670
own admission, she made that lead route really
01:02:13.670 --> 01:02:15.949
hard. I mean, she fought really hard as well,
01:02:15.949 --> 01:02:20.619
but yeah, she didn't read it. maybe in the most
01:02:20.619 --> 01:02:23.260
efficient manner but yeah in reality i think
01:02:23.260 --> 01:02:25.099
by that stage we were just massively happy she
01:02:25.099 --> 01:02:27.900
was she'd made it to the final and got to climb
01:02:27.900 --> 01:02:30.340
again yeah and then suddenly she had all the
01:02:30.340 --> 01:02:32.659
power i remember running over to the the athlete
01:02:32.659 --> 01:02:34.920
area where you could talk to them and and the
01:02:34.920 --> 01:02:37.019
big security guards would step in front of her
01:02:37.019 --> 01:02:40.019
and say she almost stopped you and say is it
01:02:40.019 --> 01:02:42.079
is it okay if this person approaches you yeah
01:02:42.079 --> 01:02:48.139
i was like it's me So yeah, that was quite exciting
01:02:48.139 --> 01:02:51.119
watching her. Yeah, he can come over. Okay, that's
01:02:51.119 --> 01:02:54.179
nice to hear. I'm glad you had a not too stressful
01:02:54.179 --> 01:02:56.800
time. I was going to say the other interesting,
01:02:56.920 --> 01:02:59.760
we went to the, I'm assuming everybody does this,
01:02:59.820 --> 01:03:04.119
but they have like houses, like the GB house.
01:03:04.440 --> 01:03:06.840
So all the athletes and all the friends and family,
01:03:06.880 --> 01:03:08.159
because you can't go to the village, obviously,
01:03:08.159 --> 01:03:11.519
where they're staying. So generally after the
01:03:11.519 --> 01:03:13.719
event, they can invite you to this GB house,
01:03:13.940 --> 01:03:16.760
which is like, I didn't know this was a thing,
01:03:16.840 --> 01:03:21.519
so that's interesting. Yeah, so we went there,
01:03:21.739 --> 01:03:24.780
which is really nice. It's a really nice location.
01:03:24.840 --> 01:03:27.280
They have a bar, and they have a bar which I
01:03:27.280 --> 01:03:29.539
think lots of people can go to. Then by special
01:03:29.539 --> 01:03:31.280
invitation, you can go into the special athlete
01:03:31.280 --> 01:03:34.119
area where, again, they have another bar and
01:03:34.119 --> 01:03:36.260
food and nibbles and stuff. It's a really beautiful
01:03:36.260 --> 01:03:40.019
setting. So she invited us there. Toby had just
01:03:40.019 --> 01:03:43.000
won his gold, I think, the night before. So he
01:03:43.000 --> 01:03:47.480
was there. discovering alcohol i think oh yeah
01:03:47.480 --> 01:03:54.079
uh um but uh yeah i had my dad out there uh erin
01:03:54.079 --> 01:03:56.000
had one of her sort of best friends from school
01:03:56.000 --> 01:03:58.400
where lindsey was there kind of was there uh
01:03:58.400 --> 01:04:02.019
so he went into this um yeah this this area and
01:04:02.019 --> 01:04:05.519
uh yeah and all proceeded to get really really
01:04:05.519 --> 01:04:07.599
quite merry and about halfway through getting
01:04:07.599 --> 01:04:11.940
merry um the uh she was offered this interview
01:04:11.940 --> 01:04:15.480
with eurosport or somebody but it was at the
01:04:15.480 --> 01:04:17.940
eiffel tower or looking out over the eiffel tower
01:04:17.940 --> 01:04:19.920
she was like oh i can't get there i can't get
01:04:19.920 --> 01:04:23.119
there they'll send you a limo so they'll put
01:04:23.119 --> 01:04:25.059
you in a limo drive you out there you'll get
01:04:25.059 --> 01:04:28.260
interviewed by shauna coxie and and other olympians
01:04:28.260 --> 01:04:32.800
and then they'll drive you back um and toby had
01:04:32.800 --> 01:04:34.420
done it it's like yeah it's really good go for
01:04:34.420 --> 01:04:38.179
it go for it So she was, I think, she hardly
01:04:38.179 --> 01:04:41.019
ever drinks, but she was definitely semi under
01:04:41.019 --> 01:04:42.659
the influence when she had to do that interview.
01:04:42.980 --> 01:04:44.800
And then they put it on the big screen where
01:04:44.800 --> 01:04:46.800
in GB House, they put it on the big screen so
01:04:46.800 --> 01:04:50.199
we could watch it. And they'd obviously, she
01:04:50.199 --> 01:04:52.539
never wears makeup, but they'd obviously put
01:04:52.539 --> 01:04:55.480
makeup on there for this television appearance.
01:04:56.139 --> 01:04:58.380
And she just looked bemused for the whole thing.
01:04:58.440 --> 01:05:01.500
Like she went up in a lift and she walked through
01:05:01.500 --> 01:05:03.139
this crowd of people who were all clapping her.
01:05:03.199 --> 01:05:05.480
She's walking through going. what what's happening
01:05:05.480 --> 01:05:08.059
but that was quite cool then she yeah then she
01:05:08.059 --> 01:05:10.539
arrived back we uh we had some more food and
01:05:10.539 --> 01:05:12.340
drink and then that was really really really
01:05:12.340 --> 01:05:15.219
good and yeah really nicely i'd obviously never
01:05:15.219 --> 01:05:17.039
experienced anything like that before but that
01:05:17.039 --> 01:05:19.920
was quite nice quite a nice way i think for the
01:05:19.920 --> 01:05:22.320
athletes to then celebrate with the the families
01:05:22.320 --> 01:05:24.099
because you know you really don't get to see
01:05:24.099 --> 01:05:26.340
them personally because they're always on another
01:05:26.340 --> 01:05:29.389
side of a fence yeah Well, now that I know that
01:05:29.389 --> 01:05:31.929
backstory, I think I would need to go back and
01:05:31.929 --> 01:05:34.789
try to watch that again and see if I can see
01:05:34.789 --> 01:05:39.809
that she's under the influence. Same with Toby,
01:05:39.849 --> 01:05:44.789
I guess? Yeah, well, I'm not sure when he went
01:05:44.789 --> 01:05:49.030
large on the alcohol fund. You were about to
01:05:49.030 --> 01:05:52.269
say Shauna? I think Shauna did a lot of the talking
01:05:52.269 --> 01:05:54.920
for Aaron. Which is lovely. I mean, Sean has
01:05:54.920 --> 01:05:57.599
been absolutely fantastic to Aaron through the
01:05:57.599 --> 01:06:01.679
whole sort of experience. Yeah, I hope I can
01:06:01.679 --> 01:06:04.119
find that video again. I feel like I must have
01:06:04.119 --> 01:06:06.099
watched it at some point, but now I really got
01:06:06.099 --> 01:06:09.260
to find it. Yeah, I think it was Eurosport. If
01:06:09.260 --> 01:06:12.800
I can remember it, I'll ping you. Yeah, I'll
01:06:12.800 --> 01:06:14.860
try to find the link too. But if you find it,
01:06:14.880 --> 01:06:17.840
let me know. So, yeah, I mean, you've watched
01:06:17.840 --> 01:06:20.400
the sport evolve over time. Lots of variations
01:06:20.400 --> 01:06:24.139
in setting. What do you think about the evolution
01:06:24.139 --> 01:06:26.559
of setting? Like, does it ever scare you to watch
01:06:26.559 --> 01:06:29.079
Erin throw herself around on dynamic boulders?
01:06:29.079 --> 01:06:31.659
Or where do you draw the line in terms of danger?
01:06:33.079 --> 01:06:37.719
Yeah, I don't really. I think injury is part
01:06:37.719 --> 01:06:42.219
of most sports, isn't it? We went to a youth
01:06:42.219 --> 01:06:49.239
European cup in Graz. And, you know, one of the
01:06:49.239 --> 01:06:53.400
German guys who is now climbing on the World
01:06:53.400 --> 01:06:58.639
Cup circuit broke his leg, like audibly broke
01:06:58.639 --> 01:07:02.940
his leg. And I remember grabbing Erin and sort
01:07:02.940 --> 01:07:07.320
of moving her away from it. But, you know, obviously
01:07:07.320 --> 01:07:11.159
you get bad things like that happening if Natalia
01:07:11.159 --> 01:07:16.449
sort of doing a ACL. um but i sort of think you
01:07:16.449 --> 01:07:19.289
know that that that is the case with any elite
01:07:19.289 --> 01:07:21.590
sport because you're right at the the cutting
01:07:21.590 --> 01:07:27.269
edge of it um i so so in terms of the evolution
01:07:27.269 --> 01:07:30.469
i guess it sort of had to evolve because i think
01:07:30.469 --> 01:07:35.090
the you know the the athletes doing it just became
01:07:35.090 --> 01:07:37.429
more and more focused on competition climbing
01:07:37.429 --> 01:07:40.380
yes i think it sort of evolved from a people
01:07:40.380 --> 01:07:42.619
who climb then doing competition climbing but
01:07:42.619 --> 01:07:45.019
I think you've now got people who just really
01:07:45.019 --> 01:07:46.880
focus on competition climbing and the rock climbing
01:07:46.880 --> 01:07:50.840
is a side hustle if it's a hustle at all and
01:07:50.840 --> 01:07:55.539
so the things which challenged at the early stages
01:07:55.539 --> 01:07:58.340
of the sport just were not challenging I even
01:07:58.340 --> 01:08:01.559
look at some of the lead routes where you sort
01:08:01.559 --> 01:08:03.719
of see you look at it and you think my god look
01:08:03.719 --> 01:08:05.719
there's a horrible crimp section in there and
01:08:05.719 --> 01:08:08.510
they're resting on the crimps because their finger
01:08:08.510 --> 01:08:10.210
strength is so strong they're sort of like oh
01:08:10.210 --> 01:08:15.989
good this is a rest I could just lock in so yeah
01:08:15.989 --> 01:08:17.970
I guess it had to evolve and it had to evolve
01:08:17.970 --> 01:08:23.829
in ways with different sort of holds and macros
01:08:23.829 --> 01:08:27.550
and volumes to force movement and to change movement
01:08:27.550 --> 01:08:32.289
and body shape so yeah I think I sort of think
01:08:32.289 --> 01:08:38.180
it had to evolve and actually i like the um you
01:08:38.180 --> 01:08:40.539
know i think leads probably evolved or changed
01:08:40.539 --> 01:08:42.619
less but even now yeah when you look at a lead
01:08:42.619 --> 01:08:45.579
route now it's it's comprised of multiple sort
01:08:45.579 --> 01:08:50.359
of sections um and you often snakes up rather
01:08:50.359 --> 01:08:53.640
than go straight up um and it's you know you
01:08:53.640 --> 01:08:55.659
still get the sort of power endurance routes
01:08:55.659 --> 01:08:58.619
but they i'd argue they're generally the ones
01:08:58.619 --> 01:09:01.279
which are topped a lot um whereas the ones with
01:09:01.279 --> 01:09:04.359
sort of you know interest here more interesting
01:09:04.359 --> 01:09:08.520
moves which either cause um you know concern
01:09:08.520 --> 01:09:11.260
amongst the athletes or also attest them yeah
01:09:11.260 --> 01:09:13.479
they're the ones where you get separation yeah
01:09:13.479 --> 01:09:15.760
and so you know they're generally like you know
01:09:15.760 --> 01:09:18.520
dinos in in lead routes i sort of think yeah
01:09:18.520 --> 01:09:21.899
they set them relatively easily but it just adds
01:09:21.899 --> 01:09:25.380
another element of stress to to the athletes
01:09:25.380 --> 01:09:27.119
and so they might get it but they might have
01:09:27.119 --> 01:09:29.239
expended a whole load of energy in getting it
01:09:29.239 --> 01:09:31.739
or concern in getting it so yeah i sort of see
01:09:31.739 --> 01:09:34.569
that and on the bolder side Yeah, you've always
01:09:34.569 --> 01:09:38.069
had slabs and you've always had sort of an element
01:09:38.069 --> 01:09:41.850
of power. Yeah, I think the two new ones are
01:09:41.850 --> 01:09:44.829
coordinations and dynos. And I guess they were
01:09:44.829 --> 01:09:46.289
sort of in there before. They've just become
01:09:46.289 --> 01:09:50.029
a lot more intricate and you're no longer dynoing
01:09:50.029 --> 01:09:52.670
to a jug. You're now dynoing to something which
01:09:52.670 --> 01:09:55.609
is not ideal or you're having to grab a tow hook
01:09:55.609 --> 01:09:58.390
in there whilst doing that. And again, I sort
01:09:58.390 --> 01:10:00.069
of just see that as the evolution of the sport.
01:10:00.700 --> 01:10:03.359
Look at the sort of diners they were doing two,
01:10:03.460 --> 01:10:05.500
three years ago compared to what they're doing
01:10:05.500 --> 01:10:09.579
now. They're a lot harder. Coordination moves
01:10:09.579 --> 01:10:13.060
are a lot more intricate. It's just natural evolution,
01:10:13.340 --> 01:10:17.260
isn't it? I think the no -text holds don't look
01:10:17.260 --> 01:10:21.300
very pretty, but they can force a movement. I
01:10:21.300 --> 01:10:22.979
like the dual -text. I think the dual -texts
01:10:22.979 --> 01:10:24.380
are really clever and I think they look pretty,
01:10:24.520 --> 01:10:27.819
but the clear holds, I don't think they look
01:10:27.819 --> 01:10:32.279
pretty. but you know they add another element
01:10:32.279 --> 01:10:34.659
but again most people have got to grips with
01:10:34.659 --> 01:10:37.880
them now so they're not yeah they're sort of
01:10:37.880 --> 01:10:41.000
nothing new so I suspect it has to continue to
01:10:41.000 --> 01:10:43.520
evolve and I suspect it will continue to get
01:10:43.520 --> 01:10:49.520
you know more intricate and harder for the athletes
01:10:49.520 --> 01:10:55.359
but I actually like the fact that yeah you for
01:10:55.359 --> 01:10:57.500
boulder in particular you'll test across a wide
01:10:57.500 --> 01:11:00.939
range of skills so yeah just being good at power
01:11:00.939 --> 01:11:03.960
or just being good at slab is highly unlikely
01:11:03.960 --> 01:11:06.560
to get you into a you know into a semi -final
01:11:06.560 --> 01:11:10.340
um because you have to be good at all sorts you
01:11:10.340 --> 01:11:14.180
know the crimps the slopers the movements which
01:11:14.180 --> 01:11:16.500
which you know i think is much better as a um
01:11:16.500 --> 01:11:20.840
much better demonstration of being um you an
01:11:20.840 --> 01:11:23.260
athlete in an elite sport an olympic sport and
01:11:23.260 --> 01:11:25.039
something which is hopefully becoming more and
01:11:25.039 --> 01:11:29.720
more um watchable um to the public so i like
01:11:29.720 --> 01:11:32.220
that i also personally i like the combined format
01:11:32.220 --> 01:11:34.119
i think that was really exciting i know it's
01:11:34.119 --> 01:11:36.420
not there for the olympics but i uh for the next
01:11:36.420 --> 01:11:39.199
olympics but i i actually thought that that the
01:11:39.199 --> 01:11:41.600
the combined format made for a very exciting
01:11:41.600 --> 01:11:45.180
competition and obviously you know favors people
01:11:45.180 --> 01:11:47.279
who are good at both but uh it sort of added
01:11:47.279 --> 01:11:49.970
some interesting elements of this person's really
01:11:49.970 --> 01:11:53.090
good at lead and has had an okay boulder round
01:11:53.090 --> 01:11:55.590
so they could actually jump up. Yeah, that's
01:11:55.590 --> 01:11:57.789
actually quite a hot take among the community,
01:11:57.930 --> 01:12:00.510
even among the athletes. So it's interesting
01:12:00.510 --> 01:12:03.210
to hear that you like the combined. I mean, I
01:12:03.210 --> 01:12:05.409
feel like part of it is maybe that Erin's pretty
01:12:05.409 --> 01:12:10.409
good at both. I suspect that helps. Yeah. If
01:12:10.409 --> 01:12:12.390
she was like a boulder lead specialist, I don't
01:12:12.390 --> 01:12:14.810
know if you'd be saying the same thing. I probably
01:12:14.810 --> 01:12:17.390
would not know. Actually, I don't mind the fact
01:12:17.390 --> 01:12:19.479
that it's... two separate disciplines would have
01:12:19.479 --> 01:12:22.739
been fantastic if they'd kept it as we've got
01:12:22.739 --> 01:12:27.180
effectively a combined format but we will whoever
01:12:27.180 --> 01:12:30.199
wins the boulder round will get a gold medal
01:12:30.199 --> 01:12:32.960
for the boulder and whoever wins the lead will
01:12:32.960 --> 01:12:35.300
get a lead gold medal and then we'll put the
01:12:35.300 --> 01:12:36.979
two scores together and whoever wins both of
01:12:36.979 --> 01:12:39.300
them will also get medals that would have been
01:12:39.300 --> 01:12:42.760
fantastic but I think, yeah, the fact that we've
01:12:42.760 --> 01:12:44.760
still got it at the Olympics and the fact that
01:12:44.760 --> 01:12:47.359
we are getting more medals is great. It'd be
01:12:47.359 --> 01:12:51.000
really interesting to see, well, to see what
01:12:51.000 --> 01:12:53.180
the selection criteria are for the Olympics because
01:12:53.180 --> 01:12:56.760
it's not very many athletes. And if you give
01:12:56.760 --> 01:13:00.319
whatever 16 or to actually make up a proper speed
01:13:00.319 --> 01:13:02.699
competition, I think it comes down to 11 or 10
01:13:02.699 --> 01:13:05.979
for lead and 10 for boulder. So that's not a
01:13:05.979 --> 01:13:08.479
very exciting competition. So you've sort of
01:13:08.479 --> 01:13:11.470
got to try to find a way to say, well, We'd ideally
01:13:11.470 --> 01:13:13.770
like people to do both because then we can at
01:13:13.770 --> 01:13:16.409
least have 20 odd people and have a proper semi
01:13:16.409 --> 01:13:19.869
-final format leading into a final. But I'm sure
01:13:19.869 --> 01:13:22.010
they're thinking about that. Yeah, I think that's
01:13:22.010 --> 01:13:25.430
info we're all waiting on. I mean, I would love
01:13:25.430 --> 01:13:28.770
to see individual boulder and lead medals and
01:13:28.770 --> 01:13:31.069
then also a combined medal. I think that would
01:13:31.069 --> 01:13:33.590
be really cool to see. They do it in gymnastics,
01:13:33.750 --> 01:13:36.409
don't they? Yeah, exactly. But also, going back
01:13:36.409 --> 01:13:40.350
to safety in the sport, I'm just thinking about
01:13:40.350 --> 01:13:45.010
the mat situation in Burn. Do you have any thoughts
01:13:45.010 --> 01:13:51.840
on that one? Not massively. I mean, I thought
01:13:51.840 --> 01:13:55.140
Bern was an amazing, yeah, I didn't go, but from
01:13:55.140 --> 01:13:56.760
what I could see in the feedback I've had at
01:13:56.760 --> 01:14:02.779
the venue, it sounded amazing. It was obviously
01:14:02.779 --> 01:14:05.699
temperature controlled, really hot outside, but
01:14:05.699 --> 01:14:08.800
okay inside. It takes away all the concern on
01:14:08.800 --> 01:14:12.399
wind, rain, all that sort of stuff. And they
01:14:12.399 --> 01:14:15.340
had, what, 4 ,000 odd people there. So that must
01:14:15.340 --> 01:14:17.720
be one of the biggest audiences, if not the biggest
01:14:17.720 --> 01:14:20.880
audience of any World Cup this year. yeah so
01:14:20.880 --> 01:14:24.039
the venue itself I thought was fantastic setting
01:14:24.039 --> 01:14:26.319
I'm bound to say this the setting was fantastic
01:14:26.319 --> 01:14:28.260
it was the best Boulder World Cup ever and everyone
01:14:28.260 --> 01:14:33.560
yeah okay yeah yeah in terms of the hardness
01:14:33.560 --> 01:14:37.840
of the mats there was that one move of yes I
01:14:37.840 --> 01:14:41.060
think Yuffie Pan hurt himself didn't he falling
01:14:41.060 --> 01:14:45.239
and there was that one specific move and there
01:14:45.239 --> 01:14:48.119
were some some hard falls it was a crazy move
01:14:48.539 --> 01:14:52.819
I really liked it, but yeah. Yeah. It's really
01:14:52.819 --> 01:14:57.319
hard, isn't it? I think the mats were hard, I
01:14:57.319 --> 01:15:03.739
guess, because they were brand new. Yeah. It's
01:15:03.739 --> 01:15:05.060
just really hard, isn't it? You sort of think,
01:15:05.079 --> 01:15:09.819
what can you do? Do you mandate a softer mat?
01:15:10.439 --> 01:15:13.079
And then you exclude a whole load of more venues
01:15:13.079 --> 01:15:14.520
from being able to put on World Cups because
01:15:14.520 --> 01:15:17.220
they've got to shell out. X amount of money for
01:15:17.220 --> 01:15:19.779
these specific mats, which are going to be, you
01:15:19.779 --> 01:15:22.600
know, probably not last for very long, um, because
01:15:22.600 --> 01:15:25.640
they're softer, um, you know, more, more open
01:15:25.640 --> 01:15:28.060
to damage or whatever. I, yeah, I don't know
01:15:28.060 --> 01:15:31.140
the ins and outs of it. I, I, I do know the,
01:15:31.140 --> 01:15:33.859
uh, some of the coaches who were appealing that
01:15:33.859 --> 01:15:37.779
particular boulder. Um, yeah. And, and I do,
01:15:37.819 --> 01:15:40.960
yeah, I sort of respect their, their, their views,
01:15:41.079 --> 01:15:46.460
but yeah, I sort of. I almost sort of also go
01:15:46.460 --> 01:15:48.520
down the line of, well, yeah, this is the sport.
01:15:51.079 --> 01:15:56.260
Maybe it's more direct interaction with the route
01:15:56.260 --> 01:15:57.800
setters to sort of say, is there any way we can
01:15:57.800 --> 01:16:00.720
put that move lower or have it as a lower down
01:16:00.720 --> 01:16:03.140
move? But I also think having them high up adds
01:16:03.140 --> 01:16:06.920
another element of, I don't know, excitement
01:16:06.920 --> 01:16:10.460
or commitment to the climbers. So you would not
01:16:10.460 --> 01:16:15.300
have put in an appeal to... make it safer yeah
01:16:15.300 --> 01:16:18.560
i personally wouldn't have but i i'm not you
01:16:18.560 --> 01:16:21.439
know i'm not as uh i'm not as attuned maybe to
01:16:21.439 --> 01:16:23.640
the risks that they may well have been seeing
01:16:23.640 --> 01:16:26.039
sure yeah because some of the women took some
01:16:26.039 --> 01:16:28.039
big hits as well i always think you know i i
01:16:28.039 --> 01:16:30.600
love um watching zelia ramazu because i think
01:16:30.600 --> 01:16:33.260
if there's a way for her to try to hit the wall
01:16:33.260 --> 01:16:36.239
or fall off in a dangerous looking manner she'll
01:16:36.239 --> 01:16:39.560
take it yeah she's she's amazingly committed
01:16:40.279 --> 01:16:43.600
Okay, good to know. And yeah, congrats on her
01:16:43.600 --> 01:16:46.319
performance in Burn. It was a good comp. I really
01:16:46.319 --> 01:16:50.060
liked the Burn comp. Yeah, that was a good, well,
01:16:50.119 --> 01:16:52.520
it seemed to be a good one. Okay, so let's get
01:16:52.520 --> 01:16:56.000
into some of the audience questions. Had a good
01:16:56.000 --> 01:16:57.819
few come in. People were really excited to hear
01:16:57.819 --> 01:17:02.180
from you. So first one, how does having a comp
01:17:02.180 --> 01:17:05.880
kit influence the family dynamic? Is it tricky
01:17:05.880 --> 01:17:08.520
to balance, especially with more than one child?
01:17:09.159 --> 01:17:11.239
So I thought it would be a lot trickier than
01:17:11.239 --> 01:17:18.979
it actually is. So my son climbed pretty much
01:17:18.979 --> 01:17:21.039
all the way up to university and then discovered
01:17:21.039 --> 01:17:23.840
other things at university and then sort of got
01:17:23.840 --> 01:17:25.420
back into climbing at the end of university.
01:17:26.579 --> 01:17:30.560
And now he's probably training harder than he's
01:17:30.560 --> 01:17:34.520
ever trained in his sort of life. I think he's
01:17:34.520 --> 01:17:36.500
got a side hustle or side bet on with Aaron.
01:17:36.829 --> 01:17:41.869
around going to the Nationals and seeing where
01:17:41.869 --> 01:17:45.510
he could place. He's not going to win it. Sure.
01:17:45.989 --> 01:17:50.109
The brutal honesty again. But yeah, I think he's
01:17:50.109 --> 01:17:52.109
sort of thinking, well, I wonder if I could make
01:17:52.109 --> 01:17:55.350
semis or that sort of level. Is that going to
01:17:55.350 --> 01:17:59.329
be this year? I think it's in January. That's
01:17:59.329 --> 01:18:01.210
when they tend to hold them. Can't wait to see
01:18:01.210 --> 01:18:05.350
what happens. So that might be quite interesting
01:18:05.350 --> 01:18:07.510
if he did. somehow make finals and get on the
01:18:07.510 --> 01:18:09.609
team that would be an interesting dynamic but
01:18:09.609 --> 01:18:13.649
yeah so so they've they've always gone really
01:18:13.649 --> 01:18:16.949
well which which uh which i put down to great
01:18:16.949 --> 01:18:21.409
parenting but i think in reality but i think
01:18:21.409 --> 01:18:24.270
in reality it's because um we moved around a
01:18:24.270 --> 01:18:27.630
lot as you know when they were young so obviously
01:18:27.630 --> 01:18:29.409
lived in lots of different countries well quite
01:18:29.409 --> 01:18:31.649
a few different countries and then in different
01:18:31.649 --> 01:18:34.409
locations around the uk so they they sort of
01:18:34.409 --> 01:18:37.710
had to rely on each other that you to get on
01:18:37.710 --> 01:18:39.750
whilst they created new networks then as soon
01:18:39.750 --> 01:18:41.229
as they created a network we ripped them out
01:18:41.229 --> 01:18:42.890
of that and put them into something yeah made
01:18:42.890 --> 01:18:47.609
them strong um but uh yeah for that reason they
01:18:47.609 --> 01:18:49.949
seem to get on really well they both um they
01:18:49.949 --> 01:18:53.649
both share a house in sheffield which i didn't
01:18:53.649 --> 01:18:55.130
you know i thought that might not work that well
01:18:55.130 --> 01:18:57.670
but that works really well awesome um you know
01:18:57.670 --> 01:19:01.029
kind of whenever we can we'll run her around
01:19:01.029 --> 01:19:02.930
to the various walls that she wants to go to
01:19:03.930 --> 01:19:06.729
pick her up uh and then yeah we'll often train
01:19:06.729 --> 01:19:11.130
with her whenever we can as well so weirdly yeah
01:19:11.130 --> 01:19:14.050
there's absolutely no resentment he's he's probably
01:19:14.050 --> 01:19:17.229
more invested in some ways than we are as parents
01:19:17.229 --> 01:19:20.590
in what she's doing he does all of her sort of
01:19:20.590 --> 01:19:22.729
you know social media and youtube content so
01:19:22.729 --> 01:19:26.850
he's he sort of enjoy doing that with her um
01:19:26.850 --> 01:19:32.250
yeah it's yeah i mean i did expect that there
01:19:32.250 --> 01:19:36.409
might be a bit of um yeah resentment on what
01:19:36.409 --> 01:19:39.270
she's achieved in climbing yeah and all that
01:19:39.270 --> 01:19:43.449
sort of stuff but but they touch wood yeah nothing
01:19:43.449 --> 01:19:46.470
yet and uh so yeah that's been really really
01:19:46.470 --> 01:19:48.670
good and actually sort of helped out a lot in
01:19:48.670 --> 01:19:52.189
terms of sharing some of the support burden burden
01:19:52.189 --> 01:19:56.189
that's the wrong word support opportunities yeah
01:19:56.189 --> 01:19:58.630
i mean it takes a village so that's really nice
01:19:58.630 --> 01:20:03.520
to hear So this is a question from another parent.
01:20:03.979 --> 01:20:06.579
How do you balance celebrating podiums so that
01:20:06.579 --> 01:20:09.819
it doesn't place too much emphasis on good results
01:20:09.819 --> 01:20:13.859
equals good vibes? Because maybe that results
01:20:13.859 --> 01:20:18.119
in pressure to perform. And then balance it with
01:20:18.119 --> 01:20:23.539
also seeing bad results as being valuable. Yeah,
01:20:23.579 --> 01:20:26.220
so that's a really hard one, isn't it? No matter
01:20:26.220 --> 01:20:28.529
what level they're... performing at because you
01:20:28.529 --> 01:20:34.489
sort of want them to do well for them. So, yeah,
01:20:34.550 --> 01:20:42.609
I think with Erin, she went through a phase where
01:20:42.609 --> 01:20:47.909
she was moving from sort of doing the fun competitions
01:20:47.909 --> 01:20:52.470
to moving into the sort of more focused on nationals
01:20:52.470 --> 01:20:55.869
and internationals and all that sort of stuff.
01:20:57.970 --> 01:21:03.010
And obviously she had to place highly in order
01:21:03.010 --> 01:21:06.069
to qualify for the teams and then highly in order
01:21:06.069 --> 01:21:07.909
to get selection for the World Cups and European
01:21:07.909 --> 01:21:17.050
Cups. So, yeah, I guess we focused on what she
01:21:17.050 --> 01:21:20.590
needed to do in order to place in those positions.
01:21:20.670 --> 01:21:23.430
But also, if she didn't, it wasn't the end of
01:21:23.430 --> 01:21:25.289
the world. Yeah, we can go away. We can work
01:21:25.289 --> 01:21:30.420
on the areas of development. um and uh yeah let's
01:21:30.420 --> 01:21:34.000
see what happens the the following year um i
01:21:34.000 --> 01:21:37.640
yeah so i think that the key bit i would say
01:21:37.640 --> 01:21:41.859
is that you are constantly looking at if you
01:21:41.859 --> 01:21:45.680
win that's great but but almost in the nicest
01:21:45.680 --> 01:21:47.220
possible way you sort of got to forget that and
01:21:47.220 --> 01:21:50.500
say okay so so you won but what could you do
01:21:50.500 --> 01:21:52.939
better or what didn't you do as well as you could
01:21:52.939 --> 01:21:55.449
have done So there's a great moment where you're
01:21:55.449 --> 01:21:57.010
celebrating and then there's a moment where you're
01:21:57.010 --> 01:22:00.909
actually looking at how you did that and what
01:22:00.909 --> 01:22:05.130
you could have done better. I also think there's
01:22:05.130 --> 01:22:08.029
a challenge, and this might actually come down
01:22:08.029 --> 01:22:10.810
to one of your earlier questions around not so
01:22:10.810 --> 01:22:12.609
much the parent culture, probably more the athlete
01:22:12.609 --> 01:22:17.569
culture. So when you start to flip into a World
01:22:17.569 --> 01:22:21.010
Cup, so one, you've got a selection event in
01:22:21.010 --> 01:22:24.220
January. But if you've pre -qualified, so I think
01:22:24.220 --> 01:22:26.000
most of the governing bodies have pre -qualification
01:22:26.000 --> 01:22:28.979
criteria. So, you know, by winning a World Cup,
01:22:29.060 --> 01:22:31.920
you pre -qualify. So Erin's pre -qualified. She
01:22:31.920 --> 01:22:34.000
has to go to the selection event, but she's already
01:22:34.000 --> 01:22:39.979
selected. Oh, okay. So, yeah, I'm assuming like
01:22:39.979 --> 01:22:42.560
Brooke Rapparty was probably pre -qualified by
01:22:42.560 --> 01:22:45.500
placing where she did in the Olympics. So she
01:22:45.500 --> 01:22:47.319
probably still had to go to selection, but she
01:22:47.319 --> 01:22:49.100
was already selected. So certainly that's how
01:22:49.100 --> 01:22:51.859
it works in the UK. So if you... I think here,
01:22:51.899 --> 01:22:54.460
if you pre -qualify, then you don't compete.
01:22:55.300 --> 01:22:58.880
Oh, right, okay. So we still, well, yeah, they
01:22:58.880 --> 01:23:01.039
still want you to go, I think because it shows
01:23:01.039 --> 01:23:07.260
everybody where the potential level is. But you
01:23:07.260 --> 01:23:11.359
don't have to perform. So she's not peaking for
01:23:11.359 --> 01:23:14.420
those competitions at all. And then, you know,
01:23:14.420 --> 01:23:17.840
as you, in the UK, you tend to have a few competitions.
01:23:19.800 --> 01:23:22.760
I call them fun competitions, but they're like
01:23:22.760 --> 01:23:26.840
the Climbing Works International Festival. I
01:23:26.840 --> 01:23:29.840
think it's called QUIF and Plywood Masters. So
01:23:29.840 --> 01:23:32.920
they're good pre -season comps, which are really
01:23:32.920 --> 01:23:36.319
hard comps. And they operate on a qualification,
01:23:36.699 --> 01:23:40.460
semifinals, final basis. But a lot of people
01:23:40.460 --> 01:23:42.420
use those as a benchmark to see where they are.
01:23:43.300 --> 01:23:45.640
But obviously, if you're focused, because you
01:23:45.640 --> 01:23:47.020
know you've got the World Cup, if you're actually
01:23:47.020 --> 01:23:51.420
focusing on peaking in April, you're not really
01:23:51.420 --> 01:23:54.199
going to peak for them either. So she sort of
01:23:54.199 --> 01:23:56.399
struggled a bit with, I'm going to go to this
01:23:56.399 --> 01:23:58.479
competition and I might not win it, even though
01:23:58.479 --> 01:24:03.000
theoretically I should. And then I think you
01:24:03.000 --> 01:24:04.739
do start to get a bit of expectation because
01:24:04.739 --> 01:24:07.560
you've got somebody saying, oh, yeah, they're
01:24:07.560 --> 01:24:08.939
not going to say this to your face, but I beat
01:24:08.939 --> 01:24:12.680
Erin. And then, yeah, she's like, oh. i don't
01:24:12.680 --> 01:24:14.460
want to do these competitions anymore yeah it's
01:24:14.460 --> 01:24:16.939
no fun but actually they still have value because
01:24:16.939 --> 01:24:19.520
it's it's sort of showing you where you are even
01:24:19.520 --> 01:24:21.000
though you might still be in the middle of a
01:24:21.000 --> 01:24:23.159
horrible training block and absolutely knackered
01:24:23.159 --> 01:24:29.140
um so yeah so i think that was the other one
01:24:29.140 --> 01:24:33.319
in terms of yeah podium is podiuming isn't everything
01:24:33.319 --> 01:24:37.020
and and we certainly don't still say to you go
01:24:37.020 --> 01:24:39.220
and win another gold medal or you make sure you
01:24:39.220 --> 01:24:41.840
get to the finals we're like you know if you
01:24:41.840 --> 01:24:44.079
climb well there's no reason why you shouldn't
01:24:44.079 --> 01:24:47.020
get there but the margins are so fine um you
01:24:47.020 --> 01:24:49.279
know a simple mistake somewhere doesn't make
01:24:49.279 --> 01:24:51.979
you a bad climber but does mean that we should
01:24:51.979 --> 01:24:54.399
be analyzing results and stuff whether you win
01:24:54.399 --> 01:24:57.140
or not um and then the other one i think is that
01:24:57.140 --> 01:25:02.260
that flip to you know winning you're winning
01:25:02.260 --> 01:25:05.079
everything locally to actually i may not be winning
01:25:05.079 --> 01:25:08.529
this because and you These people might be peaking
01:25:08.529 --> 01:25:10.689
for their GB selection. Some of those athletes
01:25:10.689 --> 01:25:12.590
are absolutely peaking for that because it's
01:25:12.590 --> 01:25:15.229
the competition they have to perform at to get
01:25:15.229 --> 01:25:18.470
on the team. Whereas at that time, you're probably
01:25:18.470 --> 01:25:22.529
at your weakest. You've had two months of intense
01:25:22.529 --> 01:25:26.170
training. You've probably not really had much
01:25:26.170 --> 01:25:27.670
of a break before going into the competition.
01:25:27.850 --> 01:25:30.970
So you're absolutely not peaking for it. You're
01:25:30.970 --> 01:25:33.949
just going to it and sort of accepting that that
01:25:33.949 --> 01:25:36.340
may well mean you don't win it. Yeah. So I guess
01:25:36.340 --> 01:25:40.060
just being realistic and as honest with yourself
01:25:40.060 --> 01:25:43.279
as you can. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Hopefully
01:25:43.279 --> 01:25:47.159
that advice helps out. um this one is a bit more
01:25:47.159 --> 01:25:49.800
of a fun one do you get final approval of the
01:25:49.800 --> 01:25:53.319
shots of yourself on youtube no i get i get no
01:25:53.319 --> 01:25:55.779
i don't even know that i don't even know they're
01:25:55.779 --> 01:25:58.460
filming half the time i'm gonna need some context
01:25:58.460 --> 01:26:00.920
for this but this person said i'm specifically
01:26:00.920 --> 01:26:03.600
thinking of you pretending to ride a horse and
01:26:03.600 --> 01:26:06.760
getting caught by some random passerby i don't
01:26:06.760 --> 01:26:10.380
i don't know this one yeah you have to Have you
01:26:10.380 --> 01:26:12.760
ever seen Monty Python and the Quest for the
01:26:12.760 --> 01:26:15.340
Holy Grail? No, I actually haven't. So they,
01:26:15.399 --> 01:26:18.439
obviously they're Arthurian knights, but they
01:26:18.439 --> 01:26:21.039
don't have horses. They just literally pretend
01:26:21.039 --> 01:26:24.220
that they're riding a horse. And generally they
01:26:24.220 --> 01:26:25.899
have somebody with coconut shells following them
01:26:25.899 --> 01:26:28.840
to make the clippy cloppy noises. But I think
01:26:28.840 --> 01:26:31.800
it was in Innsbruck and we were walking down
01:26:31.800 --> 01:26:35.579
to get coffee. And yeah, I sort of thought there
01:26:35.579 --> 01:26:37.760
was this lovely bridge which looked a bit medieval.
01:26:37.779 --> 01:26:39.640
So I thought, oh, let's ride our horses across
01:26:39.640 --> 01:26:42.279
the bridge. And they were obviously there. Then
01:26:42.279 --> 01:26:45.760
as I rode off, they put their phones on. Then
01:26:45.760 --> 01:26:47.380
when they caught up to me on the other side,
01:26:47.460 --> 01:26:49.699
I had to suddenly pretend to dismount my horse
01:26:49.699 --> 01:26:52.800
because there was a random stranger walking the
01:26:52.800 --> 01:26:55.619
other way looking quite concerned. I'll have
01:26:55.619 --> 01:26:58.710
to find this clip. It was an Innsbruck. Yeah,
01:26:58.750 --> 01:27:01.430
I think it's the Quest for the 8C. Ah, perfect.
01:27:01.569 --> 01:27:04.050
Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah.
01:27:04.189 --> 01:27:07.229
But I'm on, yeah. And they'll film when I'm not
01:27:07.229 --> 01:27:10.789
even aware. It's very, yeah. And so there's one,
01:27:10.869 --> 01:27:14.529
yeah. Lots of times when I'm not even aware they're
01:27:14.529 --> 01:27:17.770
filming and then I'll watch it later and I'll
01:27:17.770 --> 01:27:20.329
be like, oh, thanks. Thanks for putting that
01:27:20.329 --> 01:27:23.170
in. You watch all the videos? Well, yeah. I don't
01:27:23.170 --> 01:27:26.670
get to see any of the... yeah the prep or what's
01:27:26.670 --> 01:27:28.750
going in and what's coming out but i yeah they
01:27:28.750 --> 01:27:31.170
that they they generally tell me when they're
01:27:31.170 --> 01:27:33.090
out and then yeah me and lindsey will sit down
01:27:33.090 --> 01:27:35.689
with a cup of tea and watch oh that's cute we
01:27:35.689 --> 01:27:38.609
won't understand half of the humor and the brain
01:27:38.609 --> 01:27:41.189
and all that sort of stuff that's fine but apparently
01:27:41.189 --> 01:27:45.409
it's funny yeah yeah yeah no that's cute um okay
01:27:45.409 --> 01:27:51.970
and let's do one last one um This is all in good
01:27:51.970 --> 01:27:54.430
fun, but how does it feel to be a worse climber
01:27:54.430 --> 01:27:57.869
than your child? Or if you had any other competitive
01:27:57.869 --> 01:28:03.729
goals of your own? I don't know when it happened,
01:28:03.890 --> 01:28:07.109
when they overtook me. They both overtook me.
01:28:09.510 --> 01:28:14.329
I guess I was probably quite happy. I certainly
01:28:14.329 --> 01:28:16.430
wasn't disappointed. And it probably happened
01:28:16.430 --> 01:28:21.159
slowly. they would overtake me on slabs and then
01:28:21.159 --> 01:28:24.859
you know and then gradually on the more powerful
01:28:24.859 --> 01:28:27.699
boulders and and that sort of stuff they've always
01:28:27.699 --> 01:28:29.880
been much better than me on lead just because
01:28:29.880 --> 01:28:32.340
of my i have to grip everything as hard as i
01:28:32.340 --> 01:28:34.319
can right before i'm super pumped about halfway
01:28:34.319 --> 01:28:38.760
up um so yeah so that that that wasn't so bad
01:28:38.760 --> 01:28:43.300
the one which was a bit galling was um When my
01:28:43.300 --> 01:28:45.539
son stopped climbing, I got better than him again.
01:28:45.680 --> 01:28:47.539
And I was doing quite a lot of, I was probably
01:28:47.539 --> 01:28:49.680
climbing maybe four times a week at that point
01:28:49.680 --> 01:28:52.800
because I was working a lot with Aaron or going
01:28:52.800 --> 01:28:57.920
to a lot of stuff with Aaron. And then I broke
01:28:57.920 --> 01:29:02.479
my thumb really badly in Innsbruck. How? Oh,
01:29:02.479 --> 01:29:04.880
yeah, you shouldn't ask that question. I just
01:29:04.880 --> 01:29:06.920
leave it. I broke my thumb in Innsbruck and it
01:29:06.920 --> 01:29:10.140
sounds cool. I actually did it running to catch
01:29:10.140 --> 01:29:13.890
the bus. I fell over, wanted to catch the bus.
01:29:15.229 --> 01:29:19.029
Yeah, really upsetting. Yeah. And then they set
01:29:19.029 --> 01:29:21.170
it and then they called me up the next day and
01:29:21.170 --> 01:29:22.810
said, no, this is much worse than we thought.
01:29:22.890 --> 01:29:24.369
We're going to have to come in and reset it.
01:29:24.470 --> 01:29:27.170
And that's horrible. I wouldn't recommend this
01:29:27.170 --> 01:29:30.229
to anybody, but they took me in and they sort
01:29:30.229 --> 01:29:32.189
of said, oh, you know, we're going to break it
01:29:32.189 --> 01:29:36.369
again. You're not under, your arms sort of, you
01:29:36.369 --> 01:29:38.090
can't feel anything in your arm, but you can
01:29:38.090 --> 01:29:40.170
look. So I was looking at them thinking, oh,
01:29:40.229 --> 01:29:42.630
why would you look at that? And they got a hammer
01:29:42.630 --> 01:29:45.250
and like a chisel thing out. And I looked away
01:29:45.250 --> 01:29:48.869
then. I don't want to watch that. But that was
01:29:48.869 --> 01:29:50.569
all like pinned up for a while. And at that point,
01:29:50.590 --> 01:29:54.250
I was really, I was climbing quite hard for me.
01:29:54.949 --> 01:29:58.090
Yeah, probably on the second hardest grade in
01:29:58.090 --> 01:30:00.750
most of the climbing walls. Wow, really? And
01:30:00.750 --> 01:30:05.140
then whilst I took ages to recover. And whilst
01:30:05.140 --> 01:30:07.140
I was recovering, my son started climbing again.
01:30:07.220 --> 01:30:09.000
And by the time I got back to it, it was better
01:30:09.000 --> 01:30:12.399
than me. So that was the only galling one because
01:30:12.399 --> 01:30:14.399
I thought I could have probably had a few more
01:30:14.399 --> 01:30:16.699
bragging rights for a bit longer if I'd actually
01:30:16.699 --> 01:30:21.380
been fit. Yeah, that's it. No other goals. I'm
01:30:21.380 --> 01:30:26.239
just happy nowadays to sort of keep the aches
01:30:26.239 --> 01:30:29.819
and sprains. manageable so yeah wow it sounds
01:30:29.819 --> 01:30:32.119
like you climb pretty hard whole family climbs
01:30:32.119 --> 01:30:36.239
pretty hard um what grade would you say you climb
01:30:36.239 --> 01:30:41.880
now uh i didn't know the v grades sure so i'd
01:30:41.880 --> 01:30:48.020
say v6 sometimes v7 very occasionally but v5
01:30:48.020 --> 01:30:51.159
that's nice and easy not nice and easy but i
01:30:51.159 --> 01:30:55.359
can happily happily do most of those All right.
01:30:55.420 --> 01:30:58.939
Good to know. Yeah, I think that wraps it up
01:30:58.939 --> 01:31:02.119
then. That's all the questions I had. Thanks
01:31:02.119 --> 01:31:05.539
for joining me. And any like last minute thoughts
01:31:05.539 --> 01:31:08.260
you want to get out there? No, I think the only
01:31:08.260 --> 01:31:14.520
thing I'd say as a parent is I think, yeah, well,
01:31:14.640 --> 01:31:17.939
one, keep it fun as long as you possibly can.
01:31:18.800 --> 01:31:24.420
And then if they really are. serious about making
01:31:24.420 --> 01:31:29.039
it or taking it to the next level uh yeah sort
01:31:29.039 --> 01:31:31.460
of try to find a way to support them in that
01:31:31.460 --> 01:31:33.600
but but i mean i still think the brutal honesty
01:31:33.600 --> 01:31:35.439
bit is is absolutely required because i think
01:31:35.439 --> 01:31:38.479
they've got to agree to that commitment as much
01:31:38.479 --> 01:31:40.979
as you've got to then sort of say well how how
01:31:40.979 --> 01:31:42.720
can i support you to get where you need to get
01:31:42.720 --> 01:31:45.439
but i'm only going to do that if you're 100 committed
01:31:45.439 --> 01:31:49.159
to it as well um yeah so if you've not got any
01:31:49.159 --> 01:31:52.350
interest in committing to this training plan
01:31:52.350 --> 01:31:56.949
and committing to this time and not having the
01:31:56.949 --> 01:31:59.270
sort of social life which you might want at that
01:31:59.270 --> 01:32:03.109
age, then there's no point in me committing my
01:32:03.109 --> 01:32:07.729
time either. So I do think there's a bit of sort
01:32:07.729 --> 01:32:10.289
of brutal honesty or at least feedback at some
01:32:10.289 --> 01:32:14.510
point if one party isn't fully committing to
01:32:14.510 --> 01:32:18.539
it. Amazing advice. Thank you so much. um anything
01:32:18.539 --> 01:32:20.579
else you want to shout out or i don't know if
01:32:20.579 --> 01:32:22.760
you're very active on social media if there's
01:32:22.760 --> 01:32:27.300
like i'm i'm not at all that's it all right well
01:32:27.300 --> 01:32:29.760
then just thank you so much for joining me um
01:32:29.760 --> 01:32:32.760
it was really good to get that insight um yeah
01:32:32.760 --> 01:32:35.720
very unique perspective so it was great thank
01:32:35.720 --> 01:32:39.739
you so much no problem cheers Thank you so much
01:32:39.739 --> 01:32:42.220
for making it to the end of the podcast. Don't
01:32:42.220 --> 01:32:44.220
forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed.
01:32:44.460 --> 01:32:48.060
Otherwise, you are a super big climber. If you're
01:32:48.060 --> 01:32:50.500
listening on a podcasting platform, I'd appreciate
01:32:50.500 --> 01:32:53.220
if you rate it five stars and you can continue
01:32:53.220 --> 01:32:55.979
the discussion on the free competition climbing
01:32:55.979 --> 01:32:59.000
discord linked in the description. Thanks again
01:32:59.000 --> 01:32:59.460
for listening.
