47: Sagi Damti, German Bouldering Coach
Sagi has been the German team’s bouldering coach since 2022! In this episode, we’ll get insight into Team Germany’s training and challenges, hear why he thinks the losses hurt the coaches more than the competitors, we’ll get a story about his experience as a homeless person while in the US, and most importantly, we’ll DEBUNK his famous statement in the Magnus video that Olympic qualifiers will still be in the combined format for 2028!
Timestamps
Timestamps of discussion topics
0:00 - Intro
1:40 - Mad Rock Shoutout!!
2:24 - Youth worlds + Spain travels
4:59 - Climbing + coaching with no experience!
12:02 - Becoming the German bouldering coach
19:42 - Do pros still need climbing tips??
22:41 - Team Germany's training breakdown + reaction time practice
28:19 - Comforting athletes who have a bad round
37:58 - DEBUNKING LA 2028 qualification process
44:07 - The issue with bouldering points system
47:32 - HOT TAKE: Bouldering is no longer real climbing
54:53 - New generation of climbing
1:02:55 - German team challenges
1:09:42 - Price of hosting world cups
1:11:13 - Bouldering needs to change
1:18:50 - USA travel nightmare
1:28:03 - IG Q: Athletes in Germany that hate the DAV?
1:32:11 - DISCORD Q: Talk through the process of an appeal
1:38:58 - DISCORD Q: What do you do in ISO?
1:40:55 - Words of wisdom + where to find Sagi
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WEBVTT
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This video got me into so much troubles with
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no reason. Just sitting in the background and
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helping them with stuff they needed in the gym,
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nothing more. It was a solid rumor that IFSC
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have an idea to do the qualification for Olympic
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in the combined format. But sliding on a volume,
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I don't know if it's necessarily climbing, okay?
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It's hard to be an athlete in Germany. We say
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the German mothers prefer to have engineers or
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doctors or lawyers or accountants. I cannot teach
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Alex Megos how to put a toe hook. He knows it
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better than me. I cannot teach Yannick Flohe,
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you know, how to become stronger. He can maybe
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teach me how to become stronger. Welcome to another
00:00:53.719 --> 00:00:55.960
episode of the That's Not World Climbing podcast.
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I'm your host, Jinni, and I'm excited to introduce
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my guest for today, Sagi Damti. Sagi has been
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the German team's bouldering coach since 2022.
00:01:05.480 --> 00:01:08.019
In this episode, we'll get insight into Team
00:01:08.019 --> 00:01:10.680
Germany's training and challenges, hear why he
00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:12.939
thinks the losses hurt the coaches more than
00:01:12.939 --> 00:01:15.239
the competitors, we'll get a story about his
00:01:15.239 --> 00:01:17.980
experience as an almost homeless person while
00:01:17.980 --> 00:01:20.980
in the US, and most importantly, we'll debunk
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his famous statement in the Magnus video that
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Olympic qualifiers will still be in the combined
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format for 2028. Lots of interesting stories
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coming up, so I hope you enjoy this episode with
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Sagi. I'm excited to announce that my sponsor,
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Mad Rock Climbing, just came out with a brand
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new pair of shoes, the Remora Pro. I was so excited
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to try them on that even though I broke a toe
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on my right foot, I had to at least try on the
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left shoe. So I can definitely say that the Remora
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Pro is better than a rental shoe. But really,
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these are their softest shoe ever, which means
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you no longer need to worry about standing on
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sketchy volumes and comps. They also have a crazy
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3D heel that allows you to get more surface area
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when heel hooking and inserts that lock your
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heel into the shoe no matter how hard you're
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pulling. Feel free to message me if you have
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any questions about the shoes or sizing and you
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can use the discount code NOTREALCLIMBER for
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10 % off your entire MedRock order. Back to the
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show. What's been keeping you busy? Now, those
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days, we are handling the preparation for the
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world championship in Korea. Yeah, it's been
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a pretty, pretty busy summer. I did the youth
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worlds in Helsinki as well. So now facing Korea,
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we do every week preparation for it. And the
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second thing is that in Germany, they are super
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planned. to the future so already now i started
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to deal with um the plans for for next year for
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the training season of next year and how we're
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gonna handle everything budget wise and oh you
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have to deal with budget too not really so my
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boss is dealing with uh with the budget the the
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sport manager But for him to establish the budget,
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he needs to know what I want to do in terms of
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settings, in terms of training camps and traveling.
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And how was your vacation? Where did you go again?
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I've been in Spain. Let's say the home for my
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soul. Okay. Yeah, I love Spain. I've been there
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for two weeks. So after the boulder season ended,
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I could take... some chill time. Also, the athletes
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took some chill time. And then directly from
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Spain, I flew to Helsinki to deal with the youth
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worlds. Did you climb in Spain? A little bit,
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yes. I got to admit that the last years when
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my, let's say, full -time job and mind is focused
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on competition climbing. And it's getting harder
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and harder for me to see it also as my hobby.
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It started as my hobby and I really love climbing,
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but then I find myself more and more feeling
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that the climbing gym is not the place I want
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to be in my free time. It feels like a little
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bit coming to the office, you know? Well, what
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about like climbing outside? It's more exciting
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and it's nicer and I love it. But also, I do
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it less and less, to be honest. I did climb outside.
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I've been in some nice locations around the place
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I've been. Nothing famous. And most of all, I
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see it more as a chill day in the rocks, not
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pushing too hard, just enjoying being in nature
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and outdoors. Well, I guess I actually don't
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really know your climbing background. So how
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did you get into it? How long have you been doing
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it? Like, did you ever compete? No, no, no. I
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haven't competed professionally. I used to do
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some fun camps, like in the gym, but nothing
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more than that. I started climbing maybe 17 or
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18 years ago, something like this, around the
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age of 20. I don't remember if it was a bit before
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or a bit after. And I came to climbing from a
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different sport that I did. I was doing a lot
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of skydiving and base jumping. And then from
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there, somehow I got transferred into climbing.
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And yeah, it was very cool. I was actually in
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Italy doing some base jumping. One of the locations
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that we wanted to jump from required you to climb
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there. Never climbed before, never did it before.
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It was a very easy climbing, like chill climbing.
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And for me, it was very hard for the first time
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ever to go and climb outdoors and lead climbing.
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But yeah, eventually I loved it. I came back
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home and started to do it more and more professionally.
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And then how did you get into coaching from there?
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So it was like a side hustle. I was a student
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in university and I needed some, let's call it
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some easy income as a student. And they offered
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me in the gym that I climbed, they offered me
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to take some kids classes. And I told them, I
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don't really know. I was maybe climbing for a
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year back then. And I told them, I don't know
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how to teach climbing because I am not a professional
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climber. And the guy told me, ah, it's okay.
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You don't need to know how to climb. You need
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to know how to work with kids. And this is something
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that I do very well. For many years, I was a
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guide in a youth movement. Also, my studies was
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to become a teacher in school. So, yeah, I just
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started like this with random kids in the gym.
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And step by step, I liked it more. And there
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was kids that wanted to push a little bit harder.
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So I started like reading some articles and books
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and figuring out some climbing exercises, something
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that was foreign to me. And we kind of learned
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it together. I learned how to coach. Then it
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became more and more serious in my life. Also,
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I kept doing it. Also, after university, I was
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already a teacher in school. And I kept coaching
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climbing in the afternoons till it came to a
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moment that I felt I love it way more than anything
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else I'm doing. And I fully committed to... to
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coaching and route setting and yeah and then
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the years went by i became more and more uh let's
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say professional in the field and yeah so you
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never had like a degree in like coaching or like
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physio stuff or anything like that yeah so most
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of the if we talk about uh coaching degrees in
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climbing it's more rare uh we talk about uh sport
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science so right yeah a lot of of coaches learned
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the sport science i did not learn uh sport science
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it's uh everything is let's say more autodidact
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like i i just learned by myself the field that
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i was interested in i did took some courses in
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in a sports school but Not in a way of full degree
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or any kind of certification or something like
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this. These days I do have a coaching license
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and a certification from the DAV, from the German
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Federation. But again, I collected knowledge
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for 15 years and it came by. Also, I think universities
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is a fraud. In general? Yeah, yeah. I think it's,
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especially those days, I don't feel it's needed.
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I think there are better ways to collect information
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and to educate yourself or get educated by others.
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But yeah, I was never good at sitting in class
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and listening to lectures for hours. Interesting.
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Okay. Yeah, I guess I'm kind of surprised to
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hear. I thought most of the World Cup coaches
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would have some sort of background in exercise
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science or have been a pro competitor in the
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past. So that's surprising to hear. I don't know
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if you know other coaches who kind of took that
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path. My guess, I know a lot of my colleagues'
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education and knowledge. My guess will be that...
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um inclining i will bet 50 50 like i will bet
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that 50 of us have the the formal uh university
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education and 50 of us are more self -taught
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or or have the experience from years of of doing
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it anyway we are babies in in in the perception
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of of sport you know this uh If we look at IFSC,
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it's a federation existing for 20 years, like
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since 2007. Anyway, it's a very young sport,
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professional -wise. It's also creating one of
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the difficulties in our sport that the community
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is exploding, like climbing gyms all over the
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world. It's becoming more and more, I don't know.
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popular and commercial but from the other hand
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um the professional people that are supposed
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to push the field it's taking time so you see
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a lot of genes spreading around like mushrooms
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but you don't have enough people that uh root
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set root set professionally or coach professionally
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so uh but i'm sure that we'll start catching
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up like with time Well, it's good to hear for
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people out there that it's possible to get into
00:12:06.350 --> 00:12:08.649
something like this without having a formal education
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background. Yeah, for sure. And so then more
00:12:11.750 --> 00:12:13.909
specifically, how did you become the German coach?
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I don't know if it's interesting. I just have
00:12:16.570 --> 00:12:24.129
my own story. I was in a training camp in Innsbruck
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with my team from Israel, with the Israeli team
00:12:28.470 --> 00:12:34.580
or some of the Israeli team. And I had some,
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let's say, some meetings from other coaches around
00:12:37.500 --> 00:12:39.980
the world, people that I know from the IFSC circuit
00:12:39.980 --> 00:12:45.179
as a youth coach. One of them was Ingo Filswieser.
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He is currently the sport manager of DAV. Back
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then, he was the head coach of the German team.
00:12:55.500 --> 00:12:58.539
And they were looking for a boulder coach, like
00:12:58.539 --> 00:13:02.639
a coach that his specialty is bouldering. And
00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:06.360
he asked me what I'm doing and if I'm interested
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of this kind of position. My first reaction was,
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no, thank you. I'm happy where I am. Most of
00:13:16.460 --> 00:13:20.460
all, probably because to me it sounded imaginary,
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you know, for me from a country that is... pretty
00:13:24.779 --> 00:13:28.720
much disconnected in the climbing bubble, pretty
00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:35.379
much disconnected from the world. And so it sounded
00:13:35.379 --> 00:13:45.039
like big shoes for my small feet. And yeah, it
00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:49.139
was a process of a few months when Ingo was pushing
00:13:49.139 --> 00:13:53.399
me and trying to convince me. yeah to go for
00:13:53.399 --> 00:13:59.139
it then they invited me to to come for a few
00:13:59.139 --> 00:14:01.480
days of training in munich to see the facility
00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:04.779
to meet with the athletes and this is what i
00:14:04.779 --> 00:14:07.980
did i traveled with the israeli kids we just
00:14:07.980 --> 00:14:11.879
came for a weekend in in munich and yeah i liked
00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:14.840
it i like the atmosphere i like the the german
00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:19.080
athletes and it sounded more and more uh interesting
00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:27.559
to me and then eventually I sat with one of my
00:14:27.559 --> 00:14:30.139
athletes in Israel, not personal athlete, but
00:14:30.139 --> 00:14:34.460
Alex Kazanov is one of the best, let's say, Israelis,
00:14:34.740 --> 00:14:38.440
still the only Israeli that have a gold medal
00:14:38.440 --> 00:14:43.159
in a World Cup. Yeah, he was the first one, by
00:14:43.159 --> 00:14:47.659
the way, in Tayan World Cup 2018. Oh, okay. Yeah.
00:14:48.179 --> 00:14:51.679
And I sat with him and I told him, hey, I have
00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:55.080
this opportunity, what do you think about it?
00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:57.740
And he told me, no question that you should go
00:14:57.740 --> 00:15:02.480
for it because we needed back then someone to
00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:06.200
a little bit burst the Israeli bubble and go
00:15:06.200 --> 00:15:12.279
above what we used to know. And yeah, with his
00:15:12.279 --> 00:15:15.860
support and support from my personal friends
00:15:15.860 --> 00:15:20.200
that knew how... How scared I am from going out
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of my comfort zone and going to a different country.
00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:27.320
I don't speak the language. I don't know the
00:15:27.320 --> 00:15:33.460
people. I think it's not the hardest thing that
00:15:33.460 --> 00:15:35.980
you could do, but it's hard also personally.
00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:41.419
In my age, I was over 30. To move to a new country,
00:15:41.659 --> 00:15:45.440
no friends, no family, no background there. It
00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:51.100
was pretty random for me. Um, and yeah, eventually
00:15:51.100 --> 00:15:54.519
I had to, to deal with all my, uh, imposter syndrome
00:15:54.519 --> 00:16:01.419
and just like, uh, uh, go for it. And yeah, I
00:16:01.419 --> 00:16:04.820
did, I did the interviews that they wanted and,
00:16:04.820 --> 00:16:06.860
and all the background checks and everything.
00:16:06.980 --> 00:16:11.679
And I, I remember the day that I got a call from
00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:16.529
the boss of the AV back then. And he called me.
00:16:16.570 --> 00:16:19.409
I was in Israel. It was morning. I was on my
00:16:19.409 --> 00:16:22.750
way to the gym or still at home. I don't really
00:16:22.750 --> 00:16:27.909
remember, but I answered and he told me, so we
00:16:27.909 --> 00:16:30.870
are interested. We want to hire you. Would you
00:16:30.870 --> 00:16:34.929
move to Germany next month? And I was like, you
00:16:34.929 --> 00:16:37.049
know, I haven't even figured out like stuff.
00:16:37.490 --> 00:16:40.350
Where would I live? What does it mean to move
00:16:40.350 --> 00:16:43.370
to another country? I don't have a European passport.
00:16:44.279 --> 00:16:47.679
how do i go through all the visas that like it
00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:52.840
yeah and then i got uh a huge uh tummy ache and
00:16:52.840 --> 00:16:56.159
a huge storm in in my belly and i was just in
00:16:56.159 --> 00:16:59.480
bed all the rest of the day thinking what am
00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:04.240
i doing like is it what am i uh the thing that
00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:07.000
i'm supposed to do should i go there should not
00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:12.859
and yeah i'm pretty happy that that I took the
00:17:12.859 --> 00:17:17.819
opportunity and I think both me and the German
00:17:17.819 --> 00:17:23.099
team are benefiting from, let's say, a different
00:17:23.099 --> 00:17:27.160
mind and a different spirit than the German mentality
00:17:27.160 --> 00:17:31.059
coming and trying to do new stuff with them.
00:17:31.309 --> 00:17:34.029
Yeah, I mean, it's really hard to move. I've
00:17:34.029 --> 00:17:37.609
moved around a bunch within the US, so it's different.
00:17:37.710 --> 00:17:39.470
I can't even imagine moving to a different country.
00:17:39.609 --> 00:17:42.509
But yeah, not knowing anyone, especially not
00:17:42.509 --> 00:17:44.069
speaking the language, I feel like that's hard.
00:17:44.210 --> 00:17:47.970
Did you pick up any German? Absolutely not. Wow,
00:17:47.990 --> 00:17:50.289
really? You're pressing. It's like the hardest
00:17:50.289 --> 00:17:56.910
point for me. My federation really wants me to
00:17:56.910 --> 00:18:03.220
learn German. I am trying a little bit, but to
00:18:03.220 --> 00:18:08.759
be honest, it's just my ADHD is not allowing
00:18:08.759 --> 00:18:13.039
me to sit and study properly. I did catch up
00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:16.400
some of the language in a way that I can understand
00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:19.920
and connect some words together from what I hear.
00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:23.380
To speak it out is almost impossible for me.
00:18:23.619 --> 00:18:27.019
And yeah, for sure you can hear also that my
00:18:27.019 --> 00:18:30.920
English is... maybe okay but my grammar is not
00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:34.220
correct or maybe i'm using like the words not
00:18:34.220 --> 00:18:37.259
in the most correct way but as long as long as
00:18:37.259 --> 00:18:41.339
you understand me i think it's uh okay um so
00:18:41.339 --> 00:18:44.200
yeah i have difficulties learning different uh
00:18:44.200 --> 00:18:48.839
languages and i mean your english is fine i think
00:18:48.839 --> 00:18:52.589
so My English is fine. It's considered to be
00:18:52.589 --> 00:18:56.930
very low level in Israel. In Israel, the level
00:18:56.930 --> 00:19:00.329
of English is very, very high. I failed English
00:19:00.329 --> 00:19:03.789
in high school and then I failed English in university
00:19:03.789 --> 00:19:11.549
multiple times before that. But yeah, I think
00:19:11.549 --> 00:19:14.450
what I'm happy about, something that I paid attention
00:19:14.450 --> 00:19:18.109
after working for four years in Germany and my
00:19:18.109 --> 00:19:22.079
whole life are in English. I think today I came
00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:25.259
to a new situation when I am not doing the process
00:19:25.259 --> 00:19:29.180
of translating in my mind. So before I used to
00:19:29.180 --> 00:19:31.799
think what I want to say in Hebrew, then translate
00:19:31.799 --> 00:19:35.140
it to English, then saying it. And now I think
00:19:35.140 --> 00:19:38.799
I'm becoming more fluent in the way that I don't
00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:41.859
need to stop and think how to say every specific
00:19:41.859 --> 00:19:44.980
word. Yeah, that's a good feeling. So I guess
00:19:44.980 --> 00:19:48.079
for a lot of more casual climbers like me, it's
00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:50.359
hard to picture in what ways the pros need to
00:19:50.359 --> 00:19:53.420
improve. Do you ever need to give basic climbing
00:19:53.420 --> 00:19:56.279
tips or reminders? Or is it just as simple as
00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:58.059
showing them a video of them climbing and then
00:19:58.059 --> 00:20:01.039
they know what to fix? No, no, no, no. Of course,
00:20:01.079 --> 00:20:06.720
there are great climbers, but a different perspective,
00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:09.920
it's always something beneficial. Also, when
00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:13.140
those top athletes that I work with are climbing
00:20:13.140 --> 00:20:16.440
on the wall, I'm capable of seeing stuff that
00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:18.980
they are not capable of seeing. Just because
00:20:18.980 --> 00:20:21.839
we have different perspectives, different kind
00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:25.539
of, I don't know, understanding of movement,
00:20:25.619 --> 00:20:28.220
because we are different people with different
00:20:28.220 --> 00:20:32.099
morphology. But it will come. So, for example,
00:20:32.099 --> 00:20:35.359
when I work with youth, so sometimes I will explain
00:20:35.359 --> 00:20:40.960
basic stuff like... how we can pull better with
00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:43.539
our heel, how to move the weight more correct
00:20:43.539 --> 00:20:48.440
on the wall. With people like Jalik or Lucia,
00:20:48.599 --> 00:20:52.099
Elias, like top athletes, it will be more a conversation
00:20:52.099 --> 00:20:55.900
about how do you think we could make this move
00:20:55.900 --> 00:21:01.680
better, what we can try to improve. And yeah,
00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:05.880
of course, it's also in the physical part and
00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:10.529
the technique part. But as a team coach, most
00:21:10.529 --> 00:21:14.990
of my focus is how we compete, how we go to competitions,
00:21:15.349 --> 00:21:18.230
how we perform, and what will be the team strategy
00:21:18.230 --> 00:21:21.369
to, for example, to gain more spots for next
00:21:21.369 --> 00:21:26.009
year or whatever. It's less the day -to -day
00:21:26.009 --> 00:21:29.809
training. I do day -to -day training, but my
00:21:29.809 --> 00:21:34.450
main topic is how we're going to take all of
00:21:34.450 --> 00:21:38.490
your capabilities. advantages as an athlete and
00:21:38.490 --> 00:21:41.089
bring them on the mattress on the right time
00:21:41.089 --> 00:21:44.750
on the right moment i didn't come and say i have
00:21:44.750 --> 00:21:48.730
new exercises how to how to do bicep curls in
00:21:48.730 --> 00:21:50.990
a different way that will make your bicep stronger
00:21:50.990 --> 00:21:55.049
you know every everybody knows how to train every
00:21:55.049 --> 00:21:58.970
muscle there are no secrets so i think especially
00:21:58.970 --> 00:22:03.569
in climbing most of the most of the effects that
00:22:03.569 --> 00:22:06.599
you can give are more on the mental part You
00:22:06.599 --> 00:22:09.619
know, I came to be the adult coach, not a youth
00:22:09.619 --> 00:22:14.319
coach. So I work with Alex Megos. I cannot teach
00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:17.640
Alex Megos how to put a toe hook. He knows it
00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:21.200
better than me, you know. I cannot teach Yannick
00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:24.339
Flohe, you know, how to become stronger. He can
00:22:24.339 --> 00:22:26.779
maybe teach me how to become stronger. Yeah.
00:22:27.180 --> 00:22:31.940
But I can teach them how to fight correctly,
00:22:32.259 --> 00:22:35.599
how to come with a better mental state. to the
00:22:35.599 --> 00:22:38.960
mattress. Now, sometimes you succeed, sometimes
00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:42.240
you don't. It's all a big journey that we do
00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:45.779
together. So do you have insight into the German
00:22:45.779 --> 00:22:48.299
team's time spent on wall training versus strength
00:22:48.299 --> 00:22:51.240
training versus handboarding or cardio, stuff
00:22:51.240 --> 00:22:54.619
like that? Each one with his plan. No, no athletes
00:22:54.619 --> 00:23:01.340
are the same. There is no right, correct. for
00:23:01.340 --> 00:23:05.420
the time schedule for each athlete. It's a bit
00:23:05.420 --> 00:23:10.420
different. But they are on the wall day to day.
00:23:10.579 --> 00:23:14.819
There is no... Besides the full rest days, they
00:23:14.819 --> 00:23:18.400
are on the wall every day. Of course, every day
00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:22.559
has its own focuses or methods. And it also depends
00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:26.019
on the time of the year. So before we start the
00:23:26.019 --> 00:23:29.329
season... We, like everybody, we go through the
00:23:29.329 --> 00:23:32.650
phases of improving power and improving technique,
00:23:32.789 --> 00:23:36.210
and it's going side by side. For sure, I won't
00:23:36.210 --> 00:23:43.369
spread our plans here, but to be honest, I think
00:23:43.369 --> 00:23:50.250
it's also, let's say, hard to compare or to say,
00:23:50.390 --> 00:23:53.829
hey, what Alex is doing, and I will do the same
00:23:53.829 --> 00:23:57.390
and get the same results. It's not working this
00:23:57.390 --> 00:24:01.329
way. And there are teams that are working on
00:24:01.329 --> 00:24:05.509
very different stuff. What we see in our field
00:24:05.509 --> 00:24:08.549
is also the root setting is really affecting
00:24:08.549 --> 00:24:12.470
the abilities that we need to have. So, for example,
00:24:12.470 --> 00:24:16.829
with the new style of setting, explosive power
00:24:16.829 --> 00:24:21.430
is more important than it used to be in the past.
00:24:23.099 --> 00:24:25.720
Of course, also in the past, we would train explosive
00:24:25.720 --> 00:24:30.299
power, but now we do it way more. Okay, or reaction
00:24:30.299 --> 00:24:34.480
time on the wall. Okay, so in these days with
00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:37.559
all the crazy coordination movement and parkour,
00:24:37.579 --> 00:24:40.740
reaction time is something that you have to train
00:24:40.740 --> 00:24:44.119
really, really a lot, a lot, a lot, because a
00:24:44.119 --> 00:24:46.779
lot of it is what's happening to my body in this
00:24:46.779 --> 00:24:50.119
second and how should I react for the occurring
00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:54.079
on the wall. And this is stuff that I can tell
00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:58.359
you easily. 10 years ago, we would barely deal
00:24:58.359 --> 00:25:01.460
with reaction time. How do you train reaction
00:25:01.460 --> 00:25:03.839
time? Is that something you're, is that a secret?
00:25:04.339 --> 00:25:08.940
Well, you know, it's not a secret, but there
00:25:08.940 --> 00:25:12.140
is a lot of methods of how to train reaction
00:25:12.140 --> 00:25:14.940
time. I think the best training for reaction
00:25:14.940 --> 00:25:18.420
time, we should ask speed coaches. Because this
00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:22.329
is like, yeah, you want to hear. I will tell
00:25:22.329 --> 00:25:25.369
you a funny story. It's pretty embarrassing for
00:25:25.369 --> 00:25:31.450
me, but I will be honest enough to tell it. Last
00:25:31.450 --> 00:25:34.109
year, the last competition of the season was
00:25:34.109 --> 00:25:36.930
in Korea, and it was boulder lead and speed.
00:25:37.529 --> 00:25:42.269
In our federation, it was the last competition,
00:25:42.450 --> 00:25:45.109
so we had some budget struggles, so we could
00:25:45.109 --> 00:25:48.289
not send too many coaches. So I was responsible
00:25:48.289 --> 00:25:51.519
for the first time. to also do the speed competition
00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:55.220
oh no never did a speed competition before i
00:25:55.220 --> 00:25:57.680
was literally sitting in the hotel the days before
00:25:57.680 --> 00:26:02.259
reading all the rules because you know i i i'm
00:26:02.259 --> 00:26:05.700
not so deep in the details like it's okay i know
00:26:05.700 --> 00:26:08.059
how speed climbing works and everything's fine
00:26:08.059 --> 00:26:11.099
but you know the the small the small stuff that
00:26:11.099 --> 00:26:15.319
you need to pay attention to um then i was sitting
00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:19.019
during the qualification I was sitting next to
00:26:19.019 --> 00:26:23.380
Yasui, the head coach of the Japanese team. We
00:26:23.380 --> 00:26:25.519
are friends. We are chatting about some athletes
00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:28.839
and what's going on. And qualification, they
00:26:28.839 --> 00:26:33.279
started running. And then I saw that the minute
00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:39.140
they are jumping into the climbing, the clocks
00:26:39.140 --> 00:26:43.319
that chose the time is like blinking in blue,
00:26:43.420 --> 00:26:46.539
something that I was not familiar with. I didn't
00:26:46.539 --> 00:26:50.160
know. what it means and after it blinks in blue
00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:52.619
it goes back to the red color and running the
00:26:52.619 --> 00:26:55.619
time and i was looking and i'm like something
00:26:55.619 --> 00:26:57.960
is wrong with the clock there is a problem with
00:26:57.960 --> 00:27:00.539
the clock and i was looking at yesu and i'm telling
00:27:00.539 --> 00:27:03.099
him hey hey i think there is a problem with the
00:27:03.099 --> 00:27:04.799
clock and i saw it again and again it looked
00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:08.259
so weird to me that i stood up i marked to the
00:27:08.259 --> 00:27:11.599
judge and then yesu is catching me in the back
00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:14.640
pulling me back to my seat and he tells me saggy
00:27:15.019 --> 00:27:18.160
It shows the reaction time. That's all. It's
00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:21.000
okay. Everything is fine. I was sure that the
00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:24.940
timing system is breaking down or something,
00:27:25.180 --> 00:27:29.019
but actually, and yeah, I was not aware of it
00:27:29.019 --> 00:27:31.400
and it's okay. I'm not a speed coach, but the
00:27:31.400 --> 00:27:33.500
first thing that the clock is doing is showing
00:27:33.500 --> 00:27:37.339
the reaction time. uh between the the last beep
00:27:37.339 --> 00:27:40.579
that symbol then they can they can go and the
00:27:40.579 --> 00:27:43.759
foot leaving the the pad it's okay i didn't i
00:27:43.759 --> 00:27:45.599
guess i didn't know that either i don't think
00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:48.279
i noticed it you you need to know speed climbing
00:27:48.279 --> 00:27:51.900
but in this moment being a coach most of the
00:27:51.900 --> 00:27:54.180
people in the coaching area they know me they
00:27:54.180 --> 00:27:57.000
know i'm like heading the the the boulder team
00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:00.059
of of germany And standing up and saying, ah,
00:28:00.180 --> 00:28:03.700
there is a problem with the clock. And no, Sagi,
00:28:03.779 --> 00:28:07.720
this is how speed climbing works. Yeah, it was
00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:09.839
funny. No, that's understandable. It would happen
00:28:09.839 --> 00:28:13.200
to me too. Okay, so yeah, earlier you mentioned
00:28:13.200 --> 00:28:17.299
that you feel like one of your main roles as
00:28:17.299 --> 00:28:20.559
coach is to help your athletes through competitions
00:28:20.559 --> 00:28:23.000
emotionally. They are very emotionally charged
00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:27.069
competitions. So what's your approach of... comforting
00:28:27.069 --> 00:28:29.869
someone who just had a terrible round i i think
00:28:29.869 --> 00:28:32.869
it's it's not a secret but i i think compared
00:28:32.869 --> 00:28:36.509
to other sports the the mentality have a crucial
00:28:36.509 --> 00:28:41.829
effect in climbing so you first need to kind
00:28:41.829 --> 00:28:45.069
of believe that you can do the move before you
00:28:45.069 --> 00:28:49.089
are actually able to do the move and i think
00:28:49.089 --> 00:28:53.670
something that that i understood when I started
00:28:53.670 --> 00:28:57.509
with coaching professional athletes in climbing,
00:28:57.690 --> 00:29:02.470
is that climbing is an individual sport, meaning
00:29:02.470 --> 00:29:05.630
there is only one athlete in the fight, correct?
00:29:05.730 --> 00:29:12.049
It's not a team. And the problem with climbing
00:29:12.049 --> 00:29:16.089
is that there is no one to counter your emotions.
00:29:16.210 --> 00:29:20.200
So tennis is an individual sport too. And I'm
00:29:20.200 --> 00:29:23.059
fighting someone. I see my fight. I see how he
00:29:23.059 --> 00:29:26.319
reacts. I see that he's getting frustrated or
00:29:26.319 --> 00:29:29.440
angry. And we are not just passing the balls.
00:29:29.539 --> 00:29:33.279
We are also passing emotions between us and reactions
00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:36.859
to these emotions. And it's the same with almost
00:29:36.859 --> 00:29:40.660
every individual sport. Running, you see the
00:29:40.660 --> 00:29:43.180
people run next to you. They are pushing you.
00:29:43.240 --> 00:29:45.700
When you see an athlete coming close to you,
00:29:45.740 --> 00:29:48.200
you have this energy to push a bit stronger.
00:29:50.020 --> 00:29:54.519
And climbing is very different because we don't
00:29:54.519 --> 00:29:57.839
have a fight, or at least we don't see our fight.
00:29:57.980 --> 00:30:02.180
The athlete is alone against the wall. So he
00:30:02.180 --> 00:30:05.539
has no interaction to counter his emotions or
00:30:05.539 --> 00:30:09.119
to check, am I good, am I not good? Not more
00:30:09.119 --> 00:30:12.059
than looking to the side for a second and seeing
00:30:12.059 --> 00:30:15.460
another athlete climbing another boulder. But
00:30:15.460 --> 00:30:21.140
you have no fight with you. From that, the conclusion
00:30:21.140 --> 00:30:24.779
is that the athletes in climbing, it's a pretty
00:30:24.779 --> 00:30:29.079
lonely sport. I'm alone. I sit alone in ISO.
00:30:29.299 --> 00:30:31.779
I sit alone in the call zone. I'm not allowed
00:30:31.779 --> 00:30:34.359
to communicate in the call zone, although we
00:30:34.359 --> 00:30:36.420
see some communication in the call zone, but
00:30:36.420 --> 00:30:39.440
it's not allowed basically. And then I go to
00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:42.940
the field of play and I don't have an enemy or
00:30:42.940 --> 00:30:46.839
a fight to go against. I'm alone. It's me against
00:30:46.839 --> 00:30:51.210
the wall. And in this situation, I think the
00:30:51.210 --> 00:30:54.990
best mental thing that I can do as a coach is
00:30:54.990 --> 00:30:58.410
try to give the athlete the feeling of together.
00:30:59.069 --> 00:31:03.490
Try to create a situation when the athlete hears
00:31:03.490 --> 00:31:06.829
my voice, he gets the feeling of, I'm not alone
00:31:06.829 --> 00:31:11.049
here. It's not only for me, it's for the coaches,
00:31:11.069 --> 00:31:15.970
for the team. Eventually... I think that it's
00:31:15.970 --> 00:31:21.130
also from a different perspective. It's how to
00:31:21.130 --> 00:31:25.730
say it in English. It's easier to quit on yourself
00:31:25.730 --> 00:31:29.950
than to quit on someone else. So when I wake
00:31:29.950 --> 00:31:32.430
up in the morning, I say I want to get fit. I'm
00:31:32.430 --> 00:31:34.710
going to run 10 kilometers every morning now.
00:31:34.910 --> 00:31:38.210
So I go to my 10 kilometer run. If I'm running
00:31:38.210 --> 00:31:42.210
alone, the... possibility of me stopping after
00:31:42.210 --> 00:31:45.390
five or six or eight kilometers and saying that
00:31:45.390 --> 00:31:50.609
that's enough for today it's good it's super
00:31:50.609 --> 00:31:54.750
high compare that if we go together if we say
00:31:54.750 --> 00:31:57.150
now we're gonna run 10 kilometers together i
00:31:57.150 --> 00:32:00.130
don't want to quit because i told you we're gonna
00:32:00.130 --> 00:32:02.490
run 10 kilometers together you don't want to
00:32:02.490 --> 00:32:04.970
quit because you said okay saggy let's run 10
00:32:04.970 --> 00:32:08.160
kilometers together and this mentality is We
00:32:08.160 --> 00:32:10.220
are pushing each other to keep it to the end
00:32:10.220 --> 00:32:13.339
line. But if I run alone, it's way easier to
00:32:13.339 --> 00:32:17.339
quit on the way. So it's another element why
00:32:17.339 --> 00:32:21.799
I want my athletes to feel that, yes, they are
00:32:21.799 --> 00:32:24.640
climbing eventually alone, but they are not alone
00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:28.539
mentally. There is a coach behind me. There is
00:32:28.539 --> 00:32:34.200
a team behind me. when when you do something
00:32:34.200 --> 00:32:38.279
not only for yourself only not only for your
00:32:38.279 --> 00:32:44.140
win then a team spirit can can push you a little
00:32:44.140 --> 00:32:48.700
bit harder it's true yeah it's it's an opinion
00:32:48.700 --> 00:32:51.799
i'm i'm not uh bringing like i'm not saying it's
00:32:51.799 --> 00:32:54.779
fact for sure there are some people that are
00:32:54.779 --> 00:32:57.220
better off alone no i mean it's definitely true
00:32:57.220 --> 00:33:01.079
but then i know in the past when i've i've had
00:33:01.079 --> 00:33:05.930
like coaches it it does push me to try harder
00:33:05.930 --> 00:33:11.690
but then if i try harder and i still fail then
00:33:11.690 --> 00:33:14.130
it feels so much worse because i know that someone
00:33:14.130 --> 00:33:16.750
was like behind me watching me and like hoping
00:33:16.750 --> 00:33:20.230
that i did well yes and the athletes are i'm
00:33:20.230 --> 00:33:22.490
really open with my athletes and the athletes
00:33:22.490 --> 00:33:26.369
know that when i'm disappointed with their performance
00:33:26.369 --> 00:33:30.559
they know i'm disappointed i don't Yeah, it hurts.
00:33:31.480 --> 00:33:34.119
You know, it's life. No, no. Think about it.
00:33:34.200 --> 00:33:37.400
The athletes are not the only competitors in
00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:40.240
the competition. You know, I am a competitor
00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:43.799
as well. I'm super competitive. This is why my
00:33:43.799 --> 00:33:48.039
career is competitive sport. If I was not a competitor
00:33:48.039 --> 00:33:51.819
myself, I would go be a mountain guide or teaching
00:33:51.819 --> 00:33:54.900
climbing outdoors, not necessarily being on the
00:33:54.900 --> 00:34:00.940
biggest stages in the world. To be honest, I
00:34:00.940 --> 00:34:03.400
think, and I'm not taking anything away from
00:34:03.400 --> 00:34:07.539
the athlete, from the specific athlete, but a
00:34:07.539 --> 00:34:11.360
failure in a competition is way bigger to the
00:34:11.360 --> 00:34:14.519
coach than to the athlete. And I will explain
00:34:14.519 --> 00:34:19.159
it because let's say I'm coming to a competition.
00:34:19.239 --> 00:34:21.960
I have 10 athletes competing, so five girls,
00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:26.800
five boys. One of them maybe is doing good and
00:34:26.800 --> 00:34:29.480
going to finals. Maybe two of them are going
00:34:29.480 --> 00:34:32.480
to finals and that's great. So the athlete that
00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:35.480
failed and didn't go to semis even, he's feeling
00:34:35.480 --> 00:34:39.920
bad for himself. This is like one person perspective.
00:34:40.699 --> 00:34:43.980
When my team, even when I have one or two athletes
00:34:43.980 --> 00:34:49.019
in finals, I still have four or eight athletes
00:34:49.019 --> 00:34:53.239
that lost the competition. So I lose for each
00:34:53.239 --> 00:34:56.739
one of them. When I finish a competition, I lost
00:34:56.739 --> 00:35:01.360
eight times. Not the personal one time. Now,
00:35:01.400 --> 00:35:03.780
it doesn't mean that my disappointment is bigger
00:35:03.780 --> 00:35:05.800
than the athletes. The athletes, it's basically
00:35:05.800 --> 00:35:09.659
their life. They are giving everything. And to
00:35:09.659 --> 00:35:13.989
put it on the table. Each one of the athletes
00:35:13.989 --> 00:35:18.530
or 99 .9 % of the athletes that are coming to
00:35:18.530 --> 00:35:21.530
fight in a World Cup, it's because they dedicate
00:35:21.530 --> 00:35:25.210
their life and they dedicate years of their life
00:35:25.210 --> 00:35:31.590
to this specific issue. And I'm not saying my
00:35:31.590 --> 00:35:35.190
disappointment is bigger. It's just, I don't
00:35:35.190 --> 00:35:38.010
know how to say it, wider. I don't know because
00:35:38.010 --> 00:35:44.599
I feel bad for each one of my athletes. I think
00:35:44.599 --> 00:35:49.860
the best World Cup that we ever had was Brixen
00:35:49.860 --> 00:35:54.480
in 22. And Brixen 22 was a competition when we
00:35:54.480 --> 00:35:58.099
had Yannick Floé winning the gold medal and we
00:35:58.099 --> 00:36:01.159
had Hannah Moyle winning the silver medal in
00:36:01.159 --> 00:36:05.539
female. It was amazing. It's an event that didn't
00:36:05.539 --> 00:36:08.199
happen 10 years before in Germany when we had...
00:36:08.429 --> 00:36:11.909
Two athletes from two genders. We had some medals
00:36:11.909 --> 00:36:15.210
for Jan Hoyer, some medals for Jula Worm. But
00:36:15.210 --> 00:36:18.130
both together didn't happen for many years in
00:36:18.130 --> 00:36:21.510
Germany. It was a great success. Still, in the
00:36:21.510 --> 00:36:25.469
end of the day, after finals, I did eight talks
00:36:25.469 --> 00:36:29.090
with losing athletes that were disappointed.
00:36:29.329 --> 00:36:32.750
And I was disappointed for them. And the end
00:36:32.750 --> 00:36:35.789
of the day, with all the joy of the medals. It
00:36:35.789 --> 00:36:39.849
didn't cover the big disappointment for the majority
00:36:39.849 --> 00:36:43.110
of the athletes. Yeah, I see. Okay, I guess that
00:36:43.110 --> 00:36:45.570
makes sense. I'll let you have that. Even though
00:36:45.570 --> 00:36:49.110
you have four chances to win, it's still a lot
00:36:49.110 --> 00:36:52.989
of losses. If it's interesting, I don't know.
00:36:53.090 --> 00:36:57.570
But we were fighting for Olympic tickets last
00:36:57.570 --> 00:37:01.630
year. We were fighting mainly for athletes. We
00:37:01.630 --> 00:37:05.090
had more fighting for the ticket. The main athletes
00:37:05.090 --> 00:37:08.130
were four athletes with the probability of fighting
00:37:08.130 --> 00:37:12.630
for Olympics. And out of these four, we were
00:37:12.630 --> 00:37:15.730
able to qualify three. So we got three tickets.
00:37:15.789 --> 00:37:20.170
Now, every reasonable person will say, that's
00:37:20.170 --> 00:37:22.570
a great success. You qualified three out of your
00:37:22.570 --> 00:37:27.849
four. That's amazing. For me, it was a terrible,
00:37:27.929 --> 00:37:31.599
terrible competition after the OQS. Because of
00:37:31.599 --> 00:37:34.920
this specific athlete that didn't qualify, the
00:37:34.920 --> 00:37:39.059
feeling of failure was bigger to me than being
00:37:39.059 --> 00:37:44.039
happy for the three tickets. It's mixed and it's
00:37:44.039 --> 00:37:48.619
hard. No, I think the losses always hurt more
00:37:48.619 --> 00:37:50.760
than the wins. I think that's kind of how life
00:37:50.760 --> 00:37:53.860
goes, unfortunately. Yeah, I mean, when I think
00:37:53.860 --> 00:37:55.980
about it, when I see coaches at competitions,
00:37:56.280 --> 00:37:58.619
they're often the ones who are most emotionally
00:37:58.619 --> 00:38:00.860
charged, like even more so than the athletes.
00:38:01.059 --> 00:38:04.199
I think a lot of times like the emotionally chargedness
00:38:04.199 --> 00:38:06.800
of coaches comes down to like decisions that
00:38:06.800 --> 00:38:10.659
were made at specific comps or like IFSC decisions.
00:38:11.480 --> 00:38:13.699
What are some things that you want to see changed
00:38:13.699 --> 00:38:17.920
as a coach? I think the main topic that all coaches
00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:21.539
are dealing with now, it's what will be the system
00:38:21.539 --> 00:38:24.719
that will qualify for the next Olympic for Los
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:29.059
Angeles 28. And the urgent topic with the coaches
00:38:29.059 --> 00:38:32.280
commission, we are now establishing the coaches
00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:34.739
commission. It's still not done. The application
00:38:34.739 --> 00:38:37.500
process is done and we are waiting for confirmation
00:38:37.500 --> 00:38:41.760
of the names by the board of IFSC. And I think
00:38:41.760 --> 00:38:44.380
the first topic that will be on the table of
00:38:44.380 --> 00:38:48.340
the coach commission is what is the right way
00:38:48.340 --> 00:38:51.380
to qualify for Los Angeles? Because we have a
00:38:51.380 --> 00:38:59.119
very weird situation, let's say, when IFSC is
00:38:59.119 --> 00:39:01.639
the only federation and climbing is the only
00:39:01.639 --> 00:39:06.380
sport that got upgraded in two ways for the next
00:39:06.380 --> 00:39:09.769
Olympics. So we got another medal. And we got
00:39:09.769 --> 00:39:13.630
more places for athletes. So we know that every
00:39:13.630 --> 00:39:16.530
sport, they get two limitations, how many medals
00:39:16.530 --> 00:39:19.710
they can play on and how many athletes they can
00:39:19.710 --> 00:39:23.489
bring to the Olympics. Now, we are the only sport
00:39:23.489 --> 00:39:27.150
that got both of them raised, but still not to
00:39:27.150 --> 00:39:30.550
an ideal situation. So now with the new limitations
00:39:30.550 --> 00:39:32.969
that we got, we're going to have a medal per
00:39:32.969 --> 00:39:37.019
discipline. The amount of athletes that we can
00:39:37.019 --> 00:39:40.679
put in every discipline is very small. Boulder
00:39:40.679 --> 00:39:44.139
and lead are going to be 12 athletes per discipline.
00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:50.219
Yes. And for speed, it's going to be 14. Now,
00:39:50.219 --> 00:39:54.119
to IFSC and also to us, it's clear that a Boulder
00:39:54.119 --> 00:39:57.400
competition cannot run with 12 athletes. It's
00:39:57.400 --> 00:40:00.380
not enough. It's enough for a final. It's enough
00:40:00.380 --> 00:40:03.800
for one round. But it's not enough for more than
00:40:03.800 --> 00:40:08.360
one round. And what IFSC is trying to understand
00:40:08.360 --> 00:40:11.320
is how to play with the amount of athletes that
00:40:11.320 --> 00:40:15.000
they gave us. Because, for example, if I qualify
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.519
for Olympics, I am one athlete, but I can compete
00:40:19.519 --> 00:40:24.880
in all disciplines. So actually, if 12 athletes
00:40:24.880 --> 00:40:28.010
from bouldering will compete in Elite 2, And
00:40:28.010 --> 00:40:30.230
the other way around, the 12 athletes that qualified
00:40:30.230 --> 00:40:33.110
for LEAD will compete Boulder too. We will actually
00:40:33.110 --> 00:40:36.610
get 24 athletes per discipline. And then it's,
00:40:36.610 --> 00:40:41.650
of course, better. And now the big question is,
00:40:41.909 --> 00:40:46.010
we were working so hard to get another medal
00:40:46.010 --> 00:40:49.349
and to separate the discipline because, to be
00:40:49.349 --> 00:40:52.510
honest, the majority of the climbing community
00:40:52.510 --> 00:40:56.900
don't like the combined format. But now it will
00:40:56.900 --> 00:40:59.179
be ridiculous that we got another medal, but
00:40:59.179 --> 00:41:02.420
still we will tell the athletes you have to do
00:41:02.420 --> 00:41:05.239
both because it's still combined. It's just another
00:41:05.239 --> 00:41:10.380
medal. So the question will be, how can we play
00:41:10.380 --> 00:41:16.840
with this situation? And how can we make it more
00:41:16.840 --> 00:41:22.059
established in a way that elite competition can
00:41:22.059 --> 00:41:25.960
run with 20 or more athletes? same for the boulder
00:41:25.960 --> 00:41:30.760
um and there is no good answers by the way nobody
00:41:30.760 --> 00:41:34.860
figure out like a magic solution here okay so
00:41:34.860 --> 00:41:38.159
i know like in that famous quote famous video
00:41:38.159 --> 00:41:42.840
in magnus's video you spread some public rumors
00:41:42.840 --> 00:41:45.880
that olympic qualifiers for 2028 will still be
00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:49.599
a combined format so now it's like it's not for
00:41:49.599 --> 00:41:53.949
sure it's it's still being decided This video
00:41:53.949 --> 00:41:57.469
got me into so much trouble with no reason. If
00:41:57.469 --> 00:41:59.590
you're interested in ad -free episodes and would
00:41:59.590 --> 00:42:01.909
like to unlock over four hours of deleted scenes,
00:42:02.170 --> 00:42:04.349
including one where Sagi talks about how his
00:42:04.349 --> 00:42:06.789
cultural background shapes his coaching for Team
00:42:06.789 --> 00:42:09.510
Germany, do consider helping support this podcast
00:42:09.510 --> 00:42:34.800
on Patreon. Back to the show. I was not supposed
00:42:34.800 --> 00:42:37.699
to appear on this video. I was just sitting in
00:42:37.699 --> 00:42:40.039
the background and helping them with stuff they
00:42:40.039 --> 00:42:44.480
needed in the gym, nothing more. It was, yeah,
00:42:44.579 --> 00:42:48.099
but it was a solid rumor that we started to hear
00:42:48.099 --> 00:42:51.679
in the beginning of the season around China and
00:42:51.679 --> 00:42:56.900
Brazil World Cups that IFSC have an idea to do
00:42:56.900 --> 00:42:59.420
the qualification for Olympic in the combined
00:42:59.420 --> 00:43:05.130
format. But since then, If we understood IFSC
00:43:05.130 --> 00:43:09.070
correctly, we had a conversation with Markov
00:43:09.070 --> 00:43:12.690
Skolaris, the president of IFSC in Bern, and
00:43:12.690 --> 00:43:15.670
he said that they understand that it's not going
00:43:15.670 --> 00:43:20.230
to happen in a combined format, but we still
00:43:20.230 --> 00:43:22.989
need to find a way how to make it happen. Of
00:43:22.989 --> 00:43:26.769
course, there are athletes in our field that
00:43:26.769 --> 00:43:30.269
would like to compete in both disciplines. Like
00:43:30.269 --> 00:43:33.380
we have athletes that... are controlling both
00:43:33.380 --> 00:43:35.400
of the disciplines and they are pretty good and
00:43:35.400 --> 00:43:39.260
that's nice but it's not the majority so we can
00:43:39.260 --> 00:43:44.400
mark maybe three to five athletes that really
00:43:44.400 --> 00:43:47.099
can do both disciplines in a really good way
00:43:47.099 --> 00:43:52.079
but the majority of athletes does have like a
00:43:52.079 --> 00:43:57.230
specialty discipline and yeah but I have no new
00:43:57.230 --> 00:44:00.630
information about the new ideas. I'm sure there
00:44:00.630 --> 00:44:03.429
are some ideas in the background, but I'm not
00:44:03.429 --> 00:44:08.250
aware of it. But again, this is relatively a
00:44:08.250 --> 00:44:12.030
big problem. If we talk about small problems
00:44:12.030 --> 00:44:14.809
that will come to coaches' commission, it will
00:44:14.809 --> 00:44:19.150
be, for example, this year we had a new pointing
00:44:19.150 --> 00:44:22.500
system for bouldering. So now we don't have a
00:44:22.500 --> 00:44:25.179
zone, we have a 10 -point mark, and then after
00:44:25.179 --> 00:44:28.820
the 10 -point mark, we have the top with 25 points.
00:44:29.199 --> 00:44:34.579
For each attempt, it's taking down 0 .1. So first
00:44:34.579 --> 00:44:38.460
problem, nobody likes to see numbers after the
00:44:38.460 --> 00:44:43.239
dot as a ranking. This is one. It's not important,
00:44:43.400 --> 00:44:47.059
it's just visualization. But the main problem
00:44:47.059 --> 00:44:52.610
is that in the old system, attempts to tops and
00:44:52.610 --> 00:44:55.550
attempts to zones didn't have the same meaning
00:44:55.550 --> 00:44:59.750
you know so so attempts to to top were more important
00:44:59.750 --> 00:45:04.769
than attempts to zone so now what we did is actually
00:45:04.769 --> 00:45:07.510
attempts to zone attempts to top meaning the
00:45:07.510 --> 00:45:12.130
same the 0 .1 and we got this year because of
00:45:12.130 --> 00:45:16.349
that so many ties during the competition like
00:45:16.349 --> 00:45:21.300
we saw multiple semi -finals with 25, 27 athletes
00:45:21.300 --> 00:45:25.019
instead of 24 because of all the ties that we
00:45:25.019 --> 00:45:28.079
had. Actually, in the first World Cup of the
00:45:28.079 --> 00:45:32.380
season in China, during the semifinals, because
00:45:32.380 --> 00:45:38.239
of all the ties that were created, the head of
00:45:38.239 --> 00:45:40.739
delegation in the competition already started
00:45:40.739 --> 00:45:44.400
a discussion in the semifinals how we will handle
00:45:44.400 --> 00:45:50.269
a situation of 10 or 11 athletes in finals. And
00:45:50.269 --> 00:45:54.449
it's problematic, not necessarily for the sport.
00:45:54.550 --> 00:45:56.989
Yeah, the final will be very long if we have
00:45:56.989 --> 00:46:02.849
10 or 11 athletes, but also because IFSC is broadcasted
00:46:02.849 --> 00:46:08.210
in multiple medias and you cannot say the final
00:46:08.210 --> 00:46:10.530
is going to be from 9 to 10 and then suddenly
00:46:10.530 --> 00:46:13.480
the final is from 9 to 11. Like, we're going
00:46:13.480 --> 00:46:15.800
to get cut off before the competition is done.
00:46:16.139 --> 00:46:18.380
Well, it hasn't happened yet where that many
00:46:18.380 --> 00:46:22.380
people went into finals. No, we had, by the way,
00:46:22.440 --> 00:46:27.400
we had nine people in finals. Oh. We were very
00:46:27.400 --> 00:46:31.679
lucky this season. We were very lucky. But it's
00:46:31.679 --> 00:46:34.079
clear that it needs to be changed. And there
00:46:34.079 --> 00:46:37.780
are easy solutions to it. Attempt to zone is
00:46:37.780 --> 00:46:41.519
0 .1. Attempt to top is 0 .2. The other way around,
00:46:41.639 --> 00:46:47.019
there are easy fixes for it. But if we talk about
00:46:47.019 --> 00:46:50.460
ties, you know that this year for the first time
00:46:50.460 --> 00:46:54.460
in IFSC history, there was a tie for the gold
00:46:54.460 --> 00:47:01.880
medal in female lead in Wuzhang in China. It
00:47:01.880 --> 00:47:04.820
was a historical moment. I don't think the athletes
00:47:04.820 --> 00:47:07.820
like this historical moment because IFSC was
00:47:07.820 --> 00:47:12.719
not ready with two gold medals. But yeah, it's
00:47:12.719 --> 00:47:15.480
the first time ever that doesn't matter if they
00:47:15.480 --> 00:47:18.900
went for count back or time or anything. Everything
00:47:18.900 --> 00:47:24.000
was exactly, exactly the same. It was an interesting
00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:27.179
incident. Yeah. Although that one wouldn't have
00:47:27.179 --> 00:47:29.980
been fixed with like, I mean, the point system
00:47:29.980 --> 00:47:32.860
didn't change for that. So it was just a crazy
00:47:32.860 --> 00:47:36.940
moment. I know you had also mentioned that you
00:47:36.940 --> 00:47:39.650
kind of think. I think this is kind of a hot
00:47:39.650 --> 00:47:43.010
take. You think that even as a bouldering coach,
00:47:43.110 --> 00:47:45.469
you think this is like getting into no longer
00:47:45.469 --> 00:47:50.969
real climbing territory. We can talk about it.
00:47:51.130 --> 00:47:54.909
Before that, I will say, if you are a route setter
00:47:54.909 --> 00:47:59.869
and you watch this podcast or hear this podcast,
00:48:00.170 --> 00:48:03.929
please know that I think route setting is amazing.
00:48:04.010 --> 00:48:07.289
And I think route setters are amazing. being
00:48:07.289 --> 00:48:10.369
professional and artist and all of that. And
00:48:10.369 --> 00:48:13.289
it's not criticism towards woodsetters that are
00:48:13.289 --> 00:48:16.869
trying to invent new moves and push the sport
00:48:16.869 --> 00:48:23.010
forward. But yeah, I do think there is some kind
00:48:23.010 --> 00:48:27.750
of movement when we cross the border between
00:48:27.750 --> 00:48:32.530
climbing and different kinds of sports that are
00:48:32.530 --> 00:48:37.230
great sports but are not climbing. Parkour is
00:48:37.230 --> 00:48:40.869
not climbing. It's crazy cool. I love it. It's
00:48:40.869 --> 00:48:44.769
great to watch it. But it's not necessarily climbing.
00:48:45.590 --> 00:48:53.190
But for me, the main problem, let's say, is all
00:48:53.190 --> 00:48:58.210
kinds of moves like sliding. Okay, so climbing
00:48:58.210 --> 00:49:03.500
is about... controlling your body is about positioning
00:49:03.500 --> 00:49:06.639
your body is about your strength about your body
00:49:06.639 --> 00:49:10.320
awareness now to put a huge volume on the wall
00:49:10.320 --> 00:49:14.019
that is dual texture and ask the climber to slide
00:49:14.019 --> 00:49:18.599
on it i i feel it's not more and and again it's
00:49:18.599 --> 00:49:21.739
a subjective perspective of mine like the the
00:49:21.739 --> 00:49:23.940
next guy will tell you no it's climbing and it's
00:49:23.940 --> 00:49:28.840
super cool um and it is cool but i think that
00:49:28.840 --> 00:49:32.110
for example And I have more examples, but sliding
00:49:32.110 --> 00:49:36.570
on a volume, I don't know if it's necessarily
00:49:36.570 --> 00:49:41.429
climbing, okay? It can be cool moves that people
00:49:41.429 --> 00:49:45.030
are doing, but I don't know. What else takes
00:49:45.030 --> 00:49:56.070
it too far for you? So stuff like... that we
00:49:56.070 --> 00:49:58.849
already saw in competitions and that I don't
00:49:58.849 --> 00:50:03.510
like. For example, handstand on the wall. Well,
00:50:03.630 --> 00:50:06.630
that's not allowed, right? That's allowed. There
00:50:06.630 --> 00:50:14.429
is no rule against handstand. There was a competition.
00:50:14.630 --> 00:50:19.710
It was Salt Lake 23, if I'm not mistaken, or
00:50:19.710 --> 00:50:25.110
23 or 24. I don't know. 23 for sure. Salt Lake
00:50:25.110 --> 00:50:30.309
23, the setters set a handstand and the head
00:50:30.309 --> 00:50:35.610
judge canceled the boulder because for his perspective,
00:50:35.690 --> 00:50:39.789
it was not safe because falling head down to
00:50:39.789 --> 00:50:42.369
the mattress, it's not a safe situation for him.
00:50:43.349 --> 00:50:47.989
But we did saw this move coming in. It was the
00:50:47.989 --> 00:50:51.329
quiff last year or the year before. And then
00:50:51.329 --> 00:50:55.300
they did the handstand and. It was super cool.
00:50:56.139 --> 00:51:00.360
Really. I liked watching it. I liked to see the
00:51:00.360 --> 00:51:05.380
athletes trying it. Is it climbing? I don't know.
00:51:05.519 --> 00:51:08.659
What do you think about this year's change in
00:51:08.659 --> 00:51:12.679
allowing downward dynos? For me, I have no problem
00:51:12.679 --> 00:51:17.260
with jumping down. I have a problem if it's a
00:51:17.260 --> 00:51:21.699
high risk for the athlete. So, for example, this
00:51:21.699 --> 00:51:24.599
year in the World Cup in Bern, we had the discussion
00:51:24.599 --> 00:51:28.199
around the boulder final number two or three
00:51:28.199 --> 00:51:31.960
with the crazy spin in the top of the boulder.
00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:37.480
And we saw some very harsh falling. The problem
00:51:37.480 --> 00:51:40.900
was not necessarily the move, but the whole constellation,
00:51:41.119 --> 00:51:43.219
like the mattress that they provided there were
00:51:43.219 --> 00:51:47.570
very, very new, so very, very stiff. And because
00:51:47.570 --> 00:51:51.570
of this, hard falls in an awkward position with
00:51:51.570 --> 00:51:55.909
your body can be very dangerous. Some of the
00:51:55.909 --> 00:52:01.329
coaches did a safety appeal. And I think also
00:52:01.329 --> 00:52:03.469
the competition was delayed a little bit, a few
00:52:03.469 --> 00:52:06.590
minutes, until IFSC figured out the issue and
00:52:06.590 --> 00:52:12.150
then decided to allow it and to let it go. Yeah,
00:52:12.170 --> 00:52:16.090
I don't like when we take unnecessary risks.
00:52:16.590 --> 00:52:19.650
on the body of the athletes. I mean, in that
00:52:19.650 --> 00:52:23.750
burn situation, are you happy with how it turned
00:52:23.750 --> 00:52:25.849
out? I mean, because I don't know what they would
00:52:25.849 --> 00:52:27.750
have done if they got rid of that one boulder.
00:52:27.949 --> 00:52:30.309
I feel like that would have been hard to deal
00:52:30.309 --> 00:52:34.909
with. So for me, I don't think what they have
00:52:34.909 --> 00:52:37.690
done, how it would affect the results or anything.
00:52:37.829 --> 00:52:41.610
For me, if it's risking the athletes, then it
00:52:41.610 --> 00:52:46.960
shouldn't be there. For me, the safety appeal
00:52:46.960 --> 00:52:50.480
should have accepted and the boulder should have
00:52:50.480 --> 00:52:54.960
been cancelled or at least be considered only
00:52:54.960 --> 00:52:57.440
till the zone although there is no rule talking
00:52:57.440 --> 00:53:05.519
about it. But it's happened so rarely that a
00:53:05.519 --> 00:53:07.940
boulder is getting cancelled in a competition.
00:53:08.099 --> 00:53:12.719
I saw it happen twice. Once because of weather,
00:53:12.920 --> 00:53:15.460
like the wall was wet on this side. And then,
00:53:15.500 --> 00:53:23.619
of course, they cancel it. And in 2017 or 2018,
00:53:23.860 --> 00:53:27.199
I don't remember exactly, in a youth competition
00:53:27.199 --> 00:53:32.260
in Graz in Austria, there was a dyno to the top
00:53:32.260 --> 00:53:36.599
hold. It was dangerous. People knew it was dangerous.
00:53:36.679 --> 00:53:40.239
People saw the risk of it. But the competition
00:53:40.239 --> 00:53:43.760
ran until one athlete fell and broke his foot.
00:53:44.380 --> 00:53:49.440
It was a very hard incident. And then the boulder
00:53:49.440 --> 00:53:54.019
got canceled. After an athlete completely broke
00:53:54.019 --> 00:54:03.510
his foot, it was not a delight to see it. I think
00:54:03.510 --> 00:54:06.309
this is another, we talked about it before, about
00:54:06.309 --> 00:54:09.550
the sport is exploding, but there is still not
00:54:09.550 --> 00:54:13.610
professional people running in this level. So,
00:54:13.630 --> 00:54:19.590
for example, we have no concrete rules or guidelines
00:54:19.590 --> 00:54:23.369
about how stiff the mattress should be or how
00:54:23.369 --> 00:54:27.449
soft the mattress should be. It's all kind of
00:54:27.449 --> 00:54:30.070
stuff, kind of rules that we are taking from
00:54:30.070 --> 00:54:33.190
other sports, but we don't have professional
00:54:33.190 --> 00:54:36.829
people handling this specific issue. I'm sure
00:54:36.829 --> 00:54:39.630
that IFSC have it on its table. It's just that
00:54:39.630 --> 00:54:43.110
you need to run after many, many, many stuff.
00:54:43.349 --> 00:54:47.250
And I'm sure this subject will be addressed soon.
00:54:47.469 --> 00:54:50.489
Good to know. Yeah, just going back to, I guess,
00:54:50.489 --> 00:54:53.130
like the kind of movement we see in competitions
00:54:53.130 --> 00:54:58.489
nowadays. I feel like in my mind, a lot of the
00:54:58.489 --> 00:55:03.710
athletes growing up in youth nowadays, I feel
00:55:03.710 --> 00:55:06.530
like a lot more of them want to only climb on
00:55:06.530 --> 00:55:09.130
plastic anyway. And maybe this is something they're
00:55:09.130 --> 00:55:11.829
more used to now. So maybe it won't really be
00:55:11.829 --> 00:55:16.469
how you think so. I think I was a history teacher
00:55:16.469 --> 00:55:20.329
in school. And I think you should at least know
00:55:20.329 --> 00:55:26.059
your history. I have no problem with development.
00:55:26.199 --> 00:55:30.380
I have no problem that climbing is now competition,
00:55:30.500 --> 00:55:34.820
competition, bouldering. It's not bouldering
00:55:34.820 --> 00:55:38.139
outdoors. Those are two different sports that
00:55:38.139 --> 00:55:41.019
you train completely different to those kinds
00:55:41.019 --> 00:55:45.179
of fields. And I have no problem with that. But
00:55:45.179 --> 00:55:51.119
I, I do think that we, yeah, we, we came to a
00:55:51.119 --> 00:55:55.539
point. That now, as you said, there are many
00:55:55.539 --> 00:55:58.360
kids that are, we call them gym rats, you know,
00:55:58.420 --> 00:56:01.860
that they are jumping amazing. They are doing
00:56:01.860 --> 00:56:05.420
crazy parkour stuff. They can switch their hands
00:56:05.420 --> 00:56:07.840
like 10 times before they stop. They do beautiful
00:56:07.840 --> 00:56:11.599
stuff. But if you take them to magic wood, they
00:56:11.599 --> 00:56:14.579
are not capable of climbing a 7B, you know, because
00:56:14.579 --> 00:56:17.340
then you need to be static, control your body,
00:56:17.480 --> 00:56:19.679
hold the crimp, deal with the pain of holding
00:56:19.679 --> 00:56:26.699
this sharp crimp. But I think like most of, I
00:56:26.699 --> 00:56:30.820
don't know, developing sports, I'm accepting
00:56:30.820 --> 00:56:33.300
it. It's okay. It's a different sport what I
00:56:33.300 --> 00:56:37.980
do now than what we do outdoors. And of course
00:56:37.980 --> 00:56:42.420
there are, you know, it's a different generation
00:56:42.420 --> 00:56:45.760
and it's completely okay. I don't want to be
00:56:45.760 --> 00:56:49.880
this, you know, this... old generation that says,
00:56:49.900 --> 00:56:53.239
oh, the youth is hearing terrible music. You
00:56:53.239 --> 00:56:55.659
know, the same that my father told me that my
00:56:55.659 --> 00:56:58.679
music is terrible and his father told him. It's
00:56:58.679 --> 00:57:02.199
just a new generation. And I think I have two
00:57:02.199 --> 00:57:07.920
options here. And it's something that I tell
00:57:07.920 --> 00:57:11.679
my athletes when they are frustrated with the
00:57:11.679 --> 00:57:15.199
style of setting. I say, well, you know, this
00:57:15.199 --> 00:57:18.780
is the game. It's our choice now if to play it
00:57:18.780 --> 00:57:21.119
or not to play it. And if we don't want to play
00:57:21.119 --> 00:57:24.000
this kind of game, it's okay. Don't play it.
00:57:24.019 --> 00:57:26.960
Go outdoors. Go do what you want to do. But if
00:57:26.960 --> 00:57:30.219
we choose to play this game, we have to recognize
00:57:30.219 --> 00:57:33.139
that this is the game and this is what we need
00:57:33.139 --> 00:57:35.500
to do. The first thing that comes to mind when
00:57:35.500 --> 00:57:38.510
I hear that is that... I know Yannick was very
00:57:38.510 --> 00:57:42.969
outspoken about the setting being a little bit
00:57:42.969 --> 00:57:47.670
no longer his style and no longer powerful and
00:57:47.670 --> 00:57:51.690
hard crimps and stuff like that. Yes, Yannick
00:57:51.690 --> 00:57:56.070
has a lot of feelings about this new generation
00:57:56.070 --> 00:57:59.829
of bouldering and where does it take him. And
00:57:59.829 --> 00:58:04.030
many times he heard me say, this is the game.
00:58:04.130 --> 00:58:09.919
If you want to play it, this is the game. And,
00:58:09.919 --> 00:58:14.519
you know, we need to start working with the next
00:58:14.519 --> 00:58:17.880
generation. Yannick Flo is an amazing climber
00:58:17.880 --> 00:58:22.599
and I think easily top three when we talk about
00:58:22.599 --> 00:58:30.360
power and his ability to climb. But now in the
00:58:30.360 --> 00:58:33.679
competitions, you are not judged by your power
00:58:33.679 --> 00:58:37.639
anymore like it used to be. You are judged by
00:58:37.639 --> 00:58:42.000
new parameters and a thousand new abilities that
00:58:42.000 --> 00:58:45.639
you need to have. Sometimes it's hard to catch
00:58:45.639 --> 00:58:49.400
up when you don't start as a young kid with this
00:58:49.400 --> 00:58:52.840
kind of style and movements. And this is, you
00:58:52.840 --> 00:58:54.639
know, this is something interesting. When we
00:58:54.639 --> 00:58:57.690
look at the athletes that are more... Old, old.
00:58:57.849 --> 00:59:01.309
Yannick just a few days ago celebrated 26. I
00:59:01.309 --> 00:59:05.610
wish I was 26. It's not being old, but I mean
00:59:05.610 --> 00:59:09.309
the older generation, you know, they had their
00:59:09.309 --> 00:59:12.329
own style. They had their different style. And
00:59:12.329 --> 00:59:17.530
it's not only Yannick, you know, it's also Yoshiyuki
00:59:17.530 --> 00:59:20.889
and it's also Jakob Schubert. And it's athletes
00:59:20.889 --> 00:59:25.510
from the old generation or the older generation.
00:59:26.480 --> 00:59:29.480
that used to have a different kind of climbing
00:59:29.480 --> 00:59:32.099
on the wall and there were winning competitions
00:59:32.099 --> 00:59:34.380
with the old style and now the style changed
00:59:34.380 --> 00:59:38.440
and you have two options or you adapt or you
00:59:38.440 --> 00:59:42.440
just go away that's both of them are completely
00:59:42.440 --> 00:59:46.260
acceptable some of the athletes are capable of
00:59:46.260 --> 00:59:51.460
of adapting some some not and You know, for example,
00:59:51.719 --> 00:59:55.719
Yannick, he loves climbing so much and he loves
00:59:55.719 --> 01:00:02.920
competing so much that I think for him, for example,
01:00:02.920 --> 01:00:06.340
all the hard work that we did in 24 to qualify
01:00:06.340 --> 01:00:10.440
for Olympics was not bicep curls. He is strong
01:00:10.440 --> 01:00:14.199
enough. Most of the work that we did was... handling
01:00:14.199 --> 01:00:17.820
the new moves how to how to find myself in dynamic
01:00:17.820 --> 01:00:21.619
coordination movements how to do slabs this was
01:00:21.619 --> 01:00:24.400
the majority of the work that we did and i think
01:00:24.400 --> 01:00:27.039
we were pretty successful with doing the best
01:00:27.039 --> 01:00:30.800
we can with this um and i don't know if you know
01:00:30.800 --> 01:00:33.480
this year for example he decided not to compete
01:00:33.480 --> 01:00:36.400
in bouldering because for him bouldering he needs
01:00:36.400 --> 01:00:39.239
a break of it and that's that's completely fine
01:00:39.239 --> 01:00:44.219
and lead is more let's say more basic style or
01:00:44.219 --> 01:00:48.519
more um fitting to what he likes to climb yeah
01:00:48.519 --> 01:00:52.019
and it's really important to like uh what you're
01:00:52.019 --> 01:00:54.860
climbing otherwise you have no chance you know
01:00:54.860 --> 01:00:57.579
even if you are winning off all the time but
01:00:57.579 --> 01:01:00.980
you don't like it then you're not going to to
01:01:00.980 --> 01:01:04.699
survive you know and these athletes they are
01:01:04.699 --> 01:01:09.159
dedicating their life so hard to to this sport
01:01:09.159 --> 01:01:13.960
that they need they they like it you cannot wake
01:01:13.960 --> 01:01:16.760
up in the morning every morning to do hard trainings
01:01:16.760 --> 01:01:21.380
and and uh be wear down all day long and and
01:01:21.380 --> 01:01:24.980
be you know it's it's tiring you are skipping
01:01:24.980 --> 01:01:28.699
friends you are skipping nights out you are not
01:01:28.699 --> 01:01:31.900
drinking like a lot of stuff that if you ask
01:01:31.900 --> 01:01:36.000
me about my early 20s i love to party you know
01:01:36.000 --> 01:01:40.320
i i was i was all over but if you are a professional
01:01:40.320 --> 01:01:43.480
athlete athlete you're skipping a lot of these
01:01:43.480 --> 01:01:48.940
uh pleasures not all the time but but yeah so
01:01:48.940 --> 01:01:51.739
you need to love what you do do your athletes
01:01:51.739 --> 01:01:55.039
not drink i know that some athletes in the in
01:01:55.039 --> 01:01:58.440
the circuit love to drink a lot so i guess um
01:01:58.440 --> 01:02:04.780
my athletes sometimes they drink it's not nobody's
01:02:04.780 --> 01:02:09.039
a nun you know but uh they they don't drink like
01:02:09.909 --> 01:02:13.789
normal people in their age uh drink they don't
01:02:13.789 --> 01:02:17.429
get first of all i think maybe they hide it from
01:02:17.429 --> 01:02:21.309
me but i think they don't get drunk in a way
01:02:21.309 --> 01:02:23.230
that you don't remember what you did the next
01:02:23.230 --> 01:02:26.070
morning they drink a beer here they drink a beer
01:02:26.070 --> 01:02:31.409
there um sometimes after the competition we will
01:02:31.409 --> 01:02:35.510
go drink like If we won, we want to drink and
01:02:35.510 --> 01:02:38.329
celebrate it. If we lost, we want to drink to
01:02:38.329 --> 01:02:46.969
drown our sorrow. I have one or two athletes
01:02:46.969 --> 01:02:49.550
that are not drinking alcohol, but not as a principle.
01:02:49.650 --> 01:02:53.769
They don't like it. This isn't like a thing that
01:02:53.769 --> 01:02:56.610
you have a requirement for the team or anything.
01:02:57.659 --> 01:03:00.840
Okay, good to know. Yeah, just thinking about
01:03:00.840 --> 01:03:03.719
the German team as a whole for a second, are
01:03:03.719 --> 01:03:05.860
there any unique challenges you feel like the
01:03:05.860 --> 01:03:09.139
German team is facing right now? I'm thinking
01:03:09.139 --> 01:03:14.519
what will be the correct way to present these
01:03:14.519 --> 01:03:16.920
challenges. I think every team has challenges.
01:03:17.039 --> 01:03:20.019
Also, the most successful teams in the world
01:03:20.019 --> 01:03:25.300
have their own challenges. Specifically in Germany,
01:03:25.400 --> 01:03:30.260
I can say it in my perspective again, that the
01:03:30.260 --> 01:03:34.679
main struggle is the way that professional sport
01:03:34.679 --> 01:03:40.840
is perceived in Germany. Okay, so it's hard to
01:03:40.840 --> 01:03:48.329
be an athlete in Germany. We say the German mothers
01:03:48.329 --> 01:03:52.230
prefer to have engineers or doctors or lawyers
01:03:52.230 --> 01:03:57.389
or accountants. It's less like that. But also
01:03:57.389 --> 01:03:59.789
my mother is kind of the same. My mother still
01:03:59.789 --> 01:04:03.809
calls me every weekend and asks me, Sagi, when
01:04:03.809 --> 01:04:06.170
will you stop with this climbing game and go
01:04:06.170 --> 01:04:13.190
do your real job? So yes, it's hard. And the
01:04:13.190 --> 01:04:16.300
biggest struggles that we had the last... year
01:04:16.300 --> 01:04:20.360
is a budget struggle we are lucky enough that
01:04:20.360 --> 01:04:26.280
our mother federation the dav is a relatively
01:04:26.280 --> 01:04:31.000
strong organization also financially so they
01:04:31.000 --> 01:04:34.619
could cover a lot of our problems but but most
01:04:34.619 --> 01:04:37.880
of them are are still open and we have some budget
01:04:37.880 --> 01:04:42.099
struggles as i told you a huge country like germany
01:04:42.099 --> 01:04:45.559
and when when the the dav by the way it's the
01:04:45.559 --> 01:04:49.099
biggest climbing federation in the world. Wow,
01:04:49.139 --> 01:04:52.659
really? Yes. And it's one of the top five biggest
01:04:52.659 --> 01:04:57.820
sport organizations in Germany. But we still
01:04:57.820 --> 01:05:00.880
struggled. For example, last year in Korea, we
01:05:00.880 --> 01:05:03.559
still struggled to send another coach that will
01:05:03.559 --> 01:05:08.159
do the speed. This year, it's the first year
01:05:08.159 --> 01:05:11.400
when some of the German athletes have to pay
01:05:11.400 --> 01:05:15.429
their own competitions. yeah till last year everything
01:05:15.429 --> 01:05:18.550
was fully paid all the athletes all the work
01:05:18.550 --> 01:05:21.690
everything this year started to change our budget
01:05:21.690 --> 01:05:27.010
is in a struggle situation and now the a team
01:05:27.010 --> 01:05:30.829
is getting paid the the lower ranked athletes
01:05:30.829 --> 01:05:35.670
are um self -paid for some of the the the situation
01:05:35.670 --> 01:05:41.309
so it's not so easy um yeah it's not so easy
01:05:41.309 --> 01:05:44.800
budget wise but Again, we are far from being
01:05:44.800 --> 01:05:47.719
the only federation that is struggling with finance
01:05:47.719 --> 01:05:52.360
in our community. The Japanese team, by far the
01:05:52.360 --> 01:05:55.139
number one team in the world, have huge struggles
01:05:55.139 --> 01:05:58.659
with budgets. What do you think necessarily happened
01:05:58.659 --> 01:06:01.860
between two years ago or last year and this year
01:06:01.860 --> 01:06:04.599
that, I guess, made it harder with the budget?
01:06:04.880 --> 01:06:11.920
For us specifically? For the DAV? So, first of
01:06:11.920 --> 01:06:16.179
all, uh inflation you know okay the the ifsc
01:06:16.179 --> 01:06:19.159
circuit is becoming more and more expensive we
01:06:19.159 --> 01:06:22.960
are required to um go to further and further
01:06:22.960 --> 01:06:26.139
places all around the world and the schedule
01:06:26.139 --> 01:06:29.099
is getting bigger with the countries that we
01:06:29.099 --> 01:06:32.320
need to arrive to and from the other hand um
01:06:32.320 --> 01:06:36.420
we need to stay longer in in in each event so
01:06:36.420 --> 01:06:41.300
so um for example we started this season with
01:06:41.800 --> 01:06:45.380
World Cup bouldering in China, then lead World
01:06:45.380 --> 01:06:48.420
Cup in China, speed World Cup in China, and then
01:06:48.420 --> 01:06:54.059
lead World Cup in Indonesia. And we had to keep
01:06:54.059 --> 01:07:00.739
all the team for so long in Asia. And this year
01:07:00.739 --> 01:07:04.300
suddenly appeared a competition in South America.
01:07:04.380 --> 01:07:07.699
We were in Brazil for the first time this season.
01:07:08.409 --> 01:07:11.369
And a week after it was Salt Lake. And actually
01:07:11.369 --> 01:07:15.789
to arrive from Brazil to Salt Lake was more expensive
01:07:15.789 --> 01:07:21.150
than arriving from Europe to Salt Lake. So under
01:07:21.150 --> 01:07:25.849
these circumstances, and, you know, now we are
01:07:25.849 --> 01:07:27.969
going again. The end of the season, we go to
01:07:27.969 --> 01:07:34.050
Korea. It's a lot of money that teams are spending
01:07:34.050 --> 01:07:36.969
on this circuit around the world, traveling and
01:07:36.969 --> 01:07:41.210
traveling. And yeah, our field is still not commercial
01:07:41.210 --> 01:07:48.269
enough to earn enough money for it not to be
01:07:48.269 --> 01:07:52.719
a problem, you know? Yeah, I see. Yeah, we saw
01:07:52.719 --> 01:07:55.519
a lot of federations coming with less athletes
01:07:55.519 --> 01:07:58.639
to competitions. You know, they have a quota
01:07:58.639 --> 01:08:01.079
of five and five, but they are coming only two
01:08:01.079 --> 01:08:03.360
and two because this is the budget they have.
01:08:05.119 --> 01:08:11.019
And it's a true struggle here in Germany. I think
01:08:11.019 --> 01:08:14.239
maybe it will be solved the next year or two.
01:08:14.820 --> 01:08:19.600
Olympics is helping a little bit, but yeah, not
01:08:19.600 --> 01:08:22.720
as much as we need. I think I've heard that the
01:08:22.720 --> 01:08:27.220
IFSC wants to do it in these new areas to like,
01:08:27.220 --> 01:08:31.899
I guess, expand reach and expand like the global,
01:08:32.079 --> 01:08:36.399
something globally about climbing. It's coming
01:08:36.399 --> 01:08:40.579
from Olympics. The base of Olympics, it's the
01:08:40.579 --> 01:08:45.000
five continents coming together. So yeah, IFSC.
01:08:45.760 --> 01:08:48.640
needs to spread out. And I think it's amazing.
01:08:48.800 --> 01:08:51.720
I loved when I saw Brazil on the schedule. I
01:08:51.720 --> 01:08:57.199
was super hyped about it. That's amazing. Although
01:08:57.199 --> 01:09:01.199
I'm not sure that it's going to happen again
01:09:01.199 --> 01:09:05.479
next year. Oh, in Brazil. Yeah, I don't think
01:09:05.479 --> 01:09:10.039
so. Not because the IFSC don't want to, probably
01:09:10.039 --> 01:09:12.899
because the local federation is struggling with
01:09:12.899 --> 01:09:15.460
raising the budget to produce the competition.
01:09:16.699 --> 01:09:20.079
World Cups are also very expensive to produce,
01:09:20.340 --> 01:09:26.399
you know, till 2019. We had the legendary World
01:09:26.399 --> 01:09:29.300
Cup in Munich every year. The Munich World Cup
01:09:29.300 --> 01:09:32.000
was one of the biggest ones. He always finished
01:09:32.000 --> 01:09:34.739
the season. There was a huge party around it.
01:09:34.800 --> 01:09:38.479
It was a really hyped World Cup. And yeah, the
01:09:38.479 --> 01:09:43.100
DAV stopped doing it because the cost of producing
01:09:43.100 --> 01:09:47.239
World Cups, it's getting crazy. Do you know the
01:09:47.239 --> 01:09:51.359
cost right now? Yeah, I'm just not... I'm just
01:09:51.359 --> 01:09:54.920
not sure that I should speak in numbers, but
01:09:54.920 --> 01:10:02.060
I think that the basic World Cups are costing
01:10:02.060 --> 01:10:07.920
federations more than you think. It's a lot of
01:10:07.920 --> 01:10:13.460
money. I think it easily can come to a million.
01:10:14.800 --> 01:10:17.840
I'm sure that federations, yeah, they're doing
01:10:17.840 --> 01:10:21.119
it cheaper because we are taking shortcuts. But
01:10:21.119 --> 01:10:24.539
I think it's almost impossible to produce a World
01:10:24.539 --> 01:10:28.479
Cup these days with less than 400 or 500. Oh,
01:10:28.539 --> 01:10:30.260
that's more than I thought. Because the last
01:10:30.260 --> 01:10:33.560
I heard, it was like 100 ,000. So that's much
01:10:33.560 --> 01:10:36.779
more than I thought before. Also depends in the
01:10:36.779 --> 01:10:39.680
location. So for example, I believe that Salt
01:10:39.680 --> 01:10:43.000
Lake is relatively cheap. Because they own the
01:10:43.000 --> 01:10:45.439
facility, they do what they want in the facility,
01:10:45.640 --> 01:10:49.819
and so cheap. But if you look at the new World
01:10:49.819 --> 01:10:53.739
Cups, look at Bern, look at Prague, those venues
01:10:53.739 --> 01:10:59.140
are being, not how you say, they build them for
01:10:59.140 --> 01:11:02.500
the competition. They rent this park or they
01:11:02.500 --> 01:11:05.739
rent these huge stadiums. Only the rent for these
01:11:05.739 --> 01:11:09.949
stadiums, it's tens of thousands of euros. They
01:11:09.949 --> 01:11:13.510
build a portable wall, everything. Yeah, it's
01:11:13.510 --> 01:11:18.850
getting pretty expensive. Okay, so moving on
01:11:18.850 --> 01:11:21.369
a little bit, I guess we already talked about
01:11:21.369 --> 01:11:24.289
the Olympics a bit, but thinking more about 2028,
01:11:24.569 --> 01:11:27.670
what are you excited to see? Or do you have any
01:11:27.670 --> 01:11:30.609
predictions? First of all, I've never been in
01:11:30.609 --> 01:11:33.149
Los Angeles. I'm super excited to go to Los Angeles.
01:11:33.550 --> 01:11:36.449
Oh, great. It's a great place. I've been in the
01:11:36.449 --> 01:11:40.489
U .S. four times in my life. And all the four
01:11:40.489 --> 01:11:44.829
times were in Salt Lake. So I need to spread
01:11:44.829 --> 01:11:51.069
around a little bit. What am I excited to see?
01:11:51.390 --> 01:11:54.130
First of all, Olympics with three medals. It's
01:11:54.130 --> 01:11:56.590
something that we wanted for many years. And
01:11:56.590 --> 01:12:04.229
I'm very excited about that. Also, I want...
01:12:04.800 --> 01:12:09.739
this Olympics to kind of symbol a new era of
01:12:09.739 --> 01:12:13.659
bouldering specifically. I think the format that
01:12:13.659 --> 01:12:17.340
we are working with now is not a good format,
01:12:17.399 --> 01:12:20.500
not for Olympics and not generally commercially.
01:12:20.819 --> 01:12:28.380
And I hope that the IFSC is working on bringing
01:12:28.380 --> 01:12:33.510
better formats. You know, it's scary to think
01:12:33.510 --> 01:12:36.130
about a new format because we need to change
01:12:36.130 --> 01:12:38.930
everything. The base of the format is not good.
01:12:39.350 --> 01:12:45.750
If I ask why we compete on four boulders, nobody
01:12:45.750 --> 01:12:49.289
knows why it's four boulders. Why we give them
01:12:49.289 --> 01:12:55.489
four minutes on the boulder? I don't know. What
01:12:55.489 --> 01:13:00.729
I know is that what's... I think it's wrong with
01:13:00.729 --> 01:13:04.550
the format. And again, I love competitions. I
01:13:04.550 --> 01:13:07.529
love boulder competitions because I'm a boulderer
01:13:07.529 --> 01:13:10.890
and I understand what's happening. But think
01:13:10.890 --> 01:13:18.510
about it as a non -athlete. We present no fight.
01:13:18.770 --> 01:13:22.289
So the majority of people in the world are going
01:13:22.289 --> 01:13:28.130
back to our nature instinct. We like to see fight.
01:13:28.250 --> 01:13:31.390
We like to see blood. The first sport documented
01:13:31.390 --> 01:13:35.449
is gladiators, okay? Sure. We need to see two
01:13:35.449 --> 01:13:38.189
people fighting each other, not necessarily boxing,
01:13:38.390 --> 01:13:42.710
but you know what I mean. And when we see a climber
01:13:42.710 --> 01:13:46.050
climb, we don't see the fight. This is why speed
01:13:46.050 --> 01:13:48.229
climbing is so interesting because we see two
01:13:48.229 --> 01:13:52.449
athletes fighting each other. So you don't need
01:13:52.449 --> 01:13:54.850
to understand if the hold is good or bad. You
01:13:54.850 --> 01:13:58.899
know who is winning. And we don't have it in
01:13:58.899 --> 01:14:02.939
bouldering. Also, it's hard to get the perspective
01:14:02.939 --> 01:14:06.479
you need. But in bouldering, you really don't
01:14:06.479 --> 01:14:08.979
know. If you are not a climber and you don't
01:14:08.979 --> 01:14:11.960
know, oh, this big sloper is so hard to hold,
01:14:12.239 --> 01:14:19.279
it's nothing for you. And so this is a big element
01:14:19.279 --> 01:14:21.539
that I think we are missing. We are missing the
01:14:21.539 --> 01:14:24.680
fight to see two athletes. fighting each other
01:14:24.680 --> 01:14:28.380
and we can easily tell who is the the winner
01:14:28.380 --> 01:14:31.159
or who have the the advantage now or whatever
01:14:31.159 --> 01:14:35.359
and the second thing because of the format that
01:14:35.359 --> 01:14:38.279
we use today think about the absurd situation
01:14:38.279 --> 01:14:42.819
that you are in finals and yanya is in finals
01:14:42.819 --> 01:14:46.899
okay yanya is coming out flashing all the boulders
01:14:46.899 --> 01:14:50.539
okay and you are coming out and you are struggling
01:14:50.539 --> 01:14:55.470
to even get the zone So what we see as audience
01:14:55.470 --> 01:14:59.569
on the screen, we see our best athlete, the star,
01:14:59.810 --> 01:15:03.350
the Messi of climbing. We see it 20 to 30 seconds
01:15:03.350 --> 01:15:06.869
on the screen. And then we see four minutes in
01:15:06.869 --> 01:15:12.130
a row of the worst athlete just failing on live.
01:15:12.310 --> 01:15:15.210
And, you know, can you imagine a situation that
01:15:15.210 --> 01:15:18.569
the football game is the camera is not running
01:15:18.569 --> 01:15:23.649
after Messi and just focusing on a random. No,
01:15:23.789 --> 01:15:28.270
it won't happen, you know. So we actually give
01:15:28.270 --> 01:15:32.909
more screen time to the less attractive athletes
01:15:32.909 --> 01:15:37.069
and less screen time to the best athletes that
01:15:37.069 --> 01:15:40.590
we have, to the stars. And this is a weird concept
01:15:40.590 --> 01:15:46.449
in general. And we should think how, and what
01:15:46.449 --> 01:15:50.609
I think is... It's not about changing it, small
01:15:50.609 --> 01:15:53.829
changes, like saying, okay, let's do it two minutes
01:15:53.829 --> 01:15:56.689
or let's do three boulders. It's not these kind
01:15:56.689 --> 01:16:00.270
of changes. We need to have a new format to this
01:16:00.270 --> 01:16:03.550
game. And it's not easy to do something like
01:16:03.550 --> 01:16:08.609
that because it's hard to shake away old perspectives
01:16:08.609 --> 01:16:13.810
and how we perceive bouldering these days. But
01:16:13.810 --> 01:16:16.329
it will have to change. It will take some years.
01:16:17.149 --> 01:16:19.750
It will have to come. Do you have like an idea
01:16:19.750 --> 01:16:23.189
of what you think would be most ideal? Yes. Okay.
01:16:24.050 --> 01:16:27.350
You don't want to share it? I don't want to discuss
01:16:27.350 --> 01:16:31.710
it. I'm sure a lot of people in our industry
01:16:31.710 --> 01:16:34.810
have great ideas. So it's not like I'm saying
01:16:34.810 --> 01:16:37.909
I have the best one, blah, blah, blah. I have
01:16:37.909 --> 01:16:40.329
an idea for a format that I will think will be
01:16:40.329 --> 01:16:43.270
more attractive to audience. The reason I prefer
01:16:43.270 --> 01:16:45.510
not to talk about it is because I'm trying to
01:16:45.510 --> 01:16:49.130
push it. Like I'm trying to go to IFSC with these
01:16:49.130 --> 01:16:55.250
ideas and to test them. IFSC is doing test events
01:16:55.250 --> 01:17:00.029
in the end of every season. So last season, yeah,
01:17:00.069 --> 01:17:03.189
last season there was test event for speed formats.
01:17:03.949 --> 01:17:08.510
You heard about it? so yeah so it it happened
01:17:08.510 --> 01:17:11.369
in in spain and they did an event they invited
01:17:11.369 --> 01:17:14.409
athletes it was not with points or going to the
01:17:14.409 --> 01:17:17.390
record or anything it was just a test event and
01:17:17.390 --> 01:17:20.890
they tried to to test new formats for speed like
01:17:20.890 --> 01:17:25.569
relay speed or group speed or those stuff uh
01:17:25.569 --> 01:17:31.880
this year in in the end of uh in october We have
01:17:31.880 --> 01:17:36.300
a test event for a new format for Boulder and
01:17:36.300 --> 01:17:40.760
Lead happening in Japan. Oh, okay. I had no idea.
01:17:40.979 --> 01:17:48.060
Yeah, for a group format. Something new. I'm
01:17:48.060 --> 01:17:50.939
not saying if I like it or not, just saying IFSC
01:17:50.939 --> 01:17:54.500
is trying all the time and testing those formats
01:17:54.500 --> 01:17:59.039
all the time. It's not broadcasted or anything
01:17:59.039 --> 01:18:03.720
ever. Maybe it will. No, I think it will be broadcasted.
01:18:03.720 --> 01:18:06.439
You can find all information on the IFSC. They
01:18:06.439 --> 01:18:11.359
did a press release about this competition two
01:18:11.359 --> 01:18:20.380
or three weeks ago. It's involving only the six
01:18:20.380 --> 01:18:24.659
best teams in the world ranking from last year,
01:18:24.720 --> 01:18:28.159
not from this year. And they are invited to just
01:18:28.159 --> 01:18:30.829
come and... and test the event to see if the
01:18:30.829 --> 01:18:33.770
format is working or not working. Wow, I feel
01:18:33.770 --> 01:18:35.949
so out of the loop. Did they broadcast the speed
01:18:35.949 --> 01:18:41.529
one last year? I don't remember. I'll need to
01:18:41.529 --> 01:18:44.909
take a look. No, no, the one in Japan, because
01:18:44.909 --> 01:18:49.170
it's a collaboration with a local company, I
01:18:49.170 --> 01:18:53.430
think it will be broadcasted. I'm not sure. Okay,
01:18:53.590 --> 01:18:55.880
I hope so. That'll be exciting to see. Okay,
01:18:55.960 --> 01:18:59.119
so then moving on a little bit more into, I guess,
01:18:59.140 --> 01:19:04.140
your own personal life. I know you travel a lot.
01:19:04.220 --> 01:19:06.180
Do you like traveling? How do you handle it?
01:19:06.239 --> 01:19:08.399
I know some people struggle with that. I love
01:19:08.399 --> 01:19:12.800
it. I love it. I love traveling. I actually hate
01:19:12.800 --> 01:19:17.220
being on the same point for too long. I love
01:19:17.220 --> 01:19:19.760
traveling. I'm sleeping amazing on airplanes.
01:19:19.939 --> 01:19:22.439
I have no problem with that. I know that people
01:19:22.439 --> 01:19:26.390
struggle. Not me. I can literally fall asleep
01:19:26.390 --> 01:19:28.710
before the plane is taking off and wake up in
01:19:28.710 --> 01:19:31.289
the landing. I'm really proud of it. Do you have
01:19:31.289 --> 01:19:35.949
any tricks? Yes, sleeping pills. I'm joking.
01:19:36.770 --> 01:19:42.289
I don't use those. No, there are tricks, not
01:19:42.289 --> 01:19:45.130
tricks, but methods that we work with athletes
01:19:45.130 --> 01:19:49.010
before we go to countries like USA or Japan.
01:19:50.239 --> 01:19:53.380
You are starting to work on your internal clock
01:19:53.380 --> 01:19:56.579
before you go to these competitions. You try
01:19:56.579 --> 01:20:00.659
to get tired to the flight so you can handle
01:20:00.659 --> 01:20:06.279
it better. Some athletes are using, not sleeping
01:20:06.279 --> 01:20:12.020
pills, but melatonin. Oh, sure, yeah. Not sure
01:20:12.020 --> 01:20:15.220
if I'm saying the correct word, but it's like
01:20:15.220 --> 01:20:17.920
a sleeping hormone. Not sleeping. It doesn't
01:20:17.920 --> 01:20:23.100
work for me. Yeah, there are all kinds of, you
01:20:23.100 --> 01:20:26.479
know, warm milk. I don't know. It's helping as
01:20:26.479 --> 01:20:31.220
well. Yeah, there are methods, but I actually
01:20:31.220 --> 01:20:35.279
love traveling. I love this opportunity that
01:20:35.279 --> 01:20:39.500
I get in my job, in my work time to visit so
01:20:39.500 --> 01:20:46.569
many different countries. Yeah, but... Of course,
01:20:46.569 --> 01:20:49.409
during the competitions, you're getting exhausted.
01:20:49.770 --> 01:20:53.989
And it's a lot of... Sometimes days of flights
01:20:53.989 --> 01:20:56.529
are feeling like the biggest waste of time in
01:20:56.529 --> 01:20:59.649
your life. You come to the airport and you wait.
01:20:59.810 --> 01:21:02.090
And you go through security and you wait. Then
01:21:02.090 --> 01:21:04.569
you sit on the airplane and you wait. And everything
01:21:04.569 --> 01:21:08.510
is... Yeah. Yeah, do you have any favorite travel
01:21:08.510 --> 01:21:13.210
stories? In 22, it was my first season with the
01:21:13.210 --> 01:21:19.130
German team. And we had some issues. The Federation
01:21:19.130 --> 01:21:23.170
had some issues fixing my working visa in Germany.
01:21:23.170 --> 01:21:27.510
It took longer than they thought. And then we
01:21:27.510 --> 01:21:31.029
actually came to a situation that I flew to the
01:21:31.029 --> 01:21:35.850
World Cup in Korea. And then we figured out that
01:21:35.850 --> 01:21:38.989
I cannot go back to Germany. My visa is not fixed
01:21:38.989 --> 01:21:42.909
yet. I already spent all the time that I'm allowed
01:21:42.909 --> 01:21:47.510
to stay in Europe. And I actually can't go back
01:21:47.510 --> 01:21:52.010
to Germany. So the solution came from the Federation
01:21:52.010 --> 01:21:55.829
is the next World Cup was in Salt Lake. So they
01:21:55.829 --> 01:21:59.630
flew me directly from Korea to Salt Lake. And
01:21:59.630 --> 01:22:03.750
I was in Salt Lake two weeks before the team
01:22:03.750 --> 01:22:08.409
arrived there, just sitting in the most trashy
01:22:08.409 --> 01:22:13.220
hotel room ever. Yes. And just waiting. It was
01:22:13.220 --> 01:22:17.260
actually very funny. I waited for the flight
01:22:17.260 --> 01:22:21.340
in Korea. Okay. The flight was delayed six hours.
01:22:21.399 --> 01:22:24.279
So I was just waiting for six hours for the flight.
01:22:24.720 --> 01:22:29.260
Then I took the flight. I was landing in Dallas.
01:22:29.479 --> 01:22:32.500
Okay. And the flight was, I don't remember exactly
01:22:32.500 --> 01:22:35.479
how long, but very long, like more than 10 or
01:22:35.479 --> 01:22:39.000
12 hours, something like that. I landed in Dallas
01:22:39.000 --> 01:22:42.579
and I had exactly one hour to run to catch my
01:22:42.579 --> 01:22:46.079
connection. Originally, I had a lot of time,
01:22:46.140 --> 01:22:48.859
but now I have one hour to catch my connection
01:22:48.859 --> 01:22:53.659
between Dallas and Salt Lake. And I was waiting
01:22:53.659 --> 01:22:57.800
in the huge line for the border control for the
01:22:57.800 --> 01:23:01.720
passports. And I came. I know you are American.
01:23:01.840 --> 01:23:06.060
I love America. I love USA. You don't have to
01:23:06.060 --> 01:23:08.699
say that. It's okay. You can be hard sometimes,
01:23:09.060 --> 01:23:13.680
especially on the border control. Oh, yeah. I
01:23:13.680 --> 01:23:16.020
came to the border control. I give him all my
01:23:16.020 --> 01:23:19.760
documents. I'm with an Israeli passport and a
01:23:19.760 --> 01:23:25.399
German residency. And the guy was checking my
01:23:25.399 --> 01:23:29.220
papers and he looked up to me and he say, so
01:23:29.220 --> 01:23:32.899
let me get it straight. Yeah, you are Israeli.
01:23:33.079 --> 01:23:36.659
And I'm like, yes. But you live in Germany. And
01:23:36.659 --> 01:23:39.680
I'm like, yes. And you came here from Korea?
01:23:39.960 --> 01:23:43.680
And I was like, yes. And he said, I have some
01:23:43.680 --> 01:23:46.819
questions for you. And then he took me to the
01:23:46.819 --> 01:23:50.420
side. It took way more than an hour, all the
01:23:50.420 --> 01:23:55.500
questions. I had to show him pictures and approvals
01:23:55.500 --> 01:23:57.880
from IFSC that I'm going to the competition.
01:23:57.979 --> 01:24:02.260
It was a long story. Of course, I missed my connection
01:24:02.260 --> 01:24:07.220
to Salt Lake. And actually, I arrived to Salt
01:24:07.220 --> 01:24:10.060
Lake in the middle of the night the day after.
01:24:11.319 --> 01:24:14.600
It was 2 a .m. I came to the hotel that I was
01:24:14.600 --> 01:24:17.220
booked in. And they tell me in the entrance,
01:24:17.479 --> 01:24:20.520
sorry, we have no room for you. And I was like,
01:24:20.619 --> 01:24:23.380
what do you mean? I'm booked for like two weeks
01:24:23.380 --> 01:24:26.079
to this hotel. What do you mean you have no room?
01:24:26.239 --> 01:24:30.039
And they say, well, you were late more than 24
01:24:30.039 --> 01:24:34.100
hours. the reservation is canceled and we have
01:24:34.100 --> 01:24:38.579
no room for you 2 a .m and i'm like okay come
01:24:38.579 --> 01:24:41.319
on so can just just give me a room and can we
01:24:41.319 --> 01:24:43.460
fix it in the morning i will be here first thing
01:24:43.460 --> 01:24:45.619
seven eight in the morning whenever you want
01:24:45.619 --> 01:24:48.479
and we will fix it and he said i have no room
01:24:48.479 --> 01:24:50.460
to give you man there is there is no availability
01:24:50.460 --> 01:24:55.619
and i was like okay so i took my bag i throwed
01:24:55.619 --> 01:24:58.279
it on the couch in the lobby and i told him then
01:24:58.279 --> 01:25:01.380
i will just stay here Till the morning will come
01:25:01.380 --> 01:25:06.260
and we will fix it. And eventually it was nice
01:25:06.260 --> 01:25:10.979
enough. He took me to the employer's room where
01:25:10.979 --> 01:25:16.619
they can rest for an hour or two. Yeah, I was
01:25:16.619 --> 01:25:18.680
super hungry. It was the middle of the night.
01:25:18.739 --> 01:25:21.319
I told him, thanks a lot. What I can eat here.
01:25:21.439 --> 01:25:24.930
It was my first time in Salt Lake 22. what I
01:25:24.930 --> 01:25:26.810
can catch up to eat. And he said, well, you can
01:25:26.810 --> 01:25:29.289
go to the vending machine and eat some Pringles
01:25:29.289 --> 01:25:32.949
or you can go to the McDonald's across the street.
01:25:33.569 --> 01:25:36.189
I said, okay, it is what I have now. It's the
01:25:36.189 --> 01:25:38.489
middle of the night. I'm going to buy some fries
01:25:38.489 --> 01:25:42.250
and a burger and it will be fine. I go to the
01:25:42.250 --> 01:25:46.130
McDonald's. Of course, the restaurant was closed.
01:25:46.189 --> 01:25:48.829
You have to go in the driveway, the drive -in.
01:25:48.869 --> 01:25:52.840
Only the drive -in was open. I was standing between
01:25:52.840 --> 01:25:57.579
cars to go to the window. And then I come up
01:25:57.579 --> 01:26:01.760
to the window and the nice lady there tells me,
01:26:01.779 --> 01:26:03.680
sorry, I cannot serve you if you're not in a
01:26:03.680 --> 01:26:08.300
car. I've heard that before. I look at her. I'm
01:26:08.300 --> 01:26:12.060
that close to crying. No joke. It was the worst
01:26:12.060 --> 01:26:17.619
20. No, it was 48 hours since I left Korea. It
01:26:17.619 --> 01:26:20.420
was just. The worst time of my life. I looked
01:26:20.420 --> 01:26:23.239
terrible. I was exhausted. I was more than 24
01:26:23.239 --> 01:26:28.840
hours just waiting in airports. And I told her,
01:26:28.880 --> 01:26:33.739
listen, I've been through so much and it's so
01:26:33.739 --> 01:26:37.060
hard for me right now. I'm just hungry. Can you
01:26:37.060 --> 01:26:41.180
just please, please sell me some food? And she's
01:26:41.180 --> 01:26:44.380
like, let me check it. She goes to the back.
01:26:44.810 --> 01:26:48.810
And she comes back with a to -go bag, brown McDonald's
01:26:48.810 --> 01:26:51.489
bag, full with fries. I didn't order it yet.
01:26:51.550 --> 01:26:54.350
I didn't ask for anything. She gives me this
01:26:54.350 --> 01:26:57.409
bag and she tells me, have a safe night, sir.
01:26:57.590 --> 01:27:00.029
And I'm like, yeah, okay. I'm bringing my wallet
01:27:00.029 --> 01:27:02.590
up and she's telling me, you don't need to pay.
01:27:02.689 --> 01:27:06.149
Have a safe night. And I'm like, oh, that's super
01:27:06.149 --> 01:27:09.159
nice. I never know that it's... They're so kind
01:27:09.159 --> 01:27:11.920
in America. And I'm walking with my doggie bag.
01:27:12.060 --> 01:27:14.720
And the next thing I see is a group of homeless
01:27:14.720 --> 01:27:18.079
people with the same doggie bag as me. And I'm
01:27:18.079 --> 01:27:21.380
like, okay, she thought I'm anomalous. So the
01:27:21.380 --> 01:27:24.460
first thing I did the day after is to go take
01:27:24.460 --> 01:27:29.539
a haircut and shave my beard. But for sure, this
01:27:29.539 --> 01:27:33.930
was the worst traveling I ever had. I asked for
01:27:33.930 --> 01:27:36.949
favorite travel stories, but okay, that's fine.
01:27:37.149 --> 01:27:41.250
I think it's the best one. Now I can laugh about
01:27:41.250 --> 01:27:47.810
it. Back then it was pretty terrible. Sorry for
01:27:47.810 --> 01:27:51.449
that terrible experience. It might be even worse
01:27:51.449 --> 01:27:54.590
now, given all the border protection stuff. So
01:27:54.590 --> 01:27:56.750
yeah, let's get into some of the audience submitted
01:27:56.750 --> 01:28:02.979
questions. I didn't know that we have this thing.
01:28:03.140 --> 01:28:05.520
Okay, yeah, let's go for a question. So first
01:28:05.520 --> 01:28:09.600
one from Instagram. This one might be controversial.
01:28:09.720 --> 01:28:11.359
I don't know. I don't know where it came from.
01:28:12.039 --> 01:28:14.500
Opinion on the situation of the athletes in Germany
01:28:14.500 --> 01:28:19.779
that hate the DAV. I don't know what that means.
01:28:19.880 --> 01:28:28.939
I need some context. Yeah. So it's never easy.
01:28:29.659 --> 01:28:35.060
to a balance between what an athlete need and
01:28:35.060 --> 01:28:40.020
a federation that have other priorities than
01:28:40.020 --> 01:28:43.140
what the athletes need necessarily. So we need
01:28:43.140 --> 01:28:46.539
to understand the structure of DAV is a huge
01:28:46.539 --> 01:28:50.180
federation and competitive climbing, it's maybe
01:28:50.180 --> 01:28:55.739
the smallest, how do you say, part of the federation.
01:28:56.380 --> 01:29:00.100
The DAV have huge, huge things going in the world.
01:29:00.140 --> 01:29:02.760
They are managing the mountains of Germany. They
01:29:02.760 --> 01:29:08.840
are responsible for tracks in the mountains,
01:29:09.159 --> 01:29:12.399
for the huts in the mountains. It's a crazy big
01:29:12.399 --> 01:29:16.159
and very interesting federation. And competitive
01:29:16.159 --> 01:29:23.279
climbing is the smallest dot on this DAV map.
01:29:25.159 --> 01:29:28.560
To put it in context, I'm guessing that this
01:29:28.560 --> 01:29:32.939
question is coming because the last years that
01:29:32.939 --> 01:29:35.500
the money support that we're getting is less
01:29:35.500 --> 01:29:38.659
and less, and we are coming the first year ever
01:29:38.659 --> 01:29:42.060
that athletes need to pay for their own competitions.
01:29:43.159 --> 01:29:50.760
And of course, we have some struggles. And in
01:29:50.760 --> 01:29:56.000
the core of DAV, they are not very competitive.
01:29:56.279 --> 01:30:00.760
So competition climbing is not as important as
01:30:00.760 --> 01:30:04.960
climbing, as a culture, you know? So the culture
01:30:04.960 --> 01:30:08.399
of climbing is more important than winning this
01:30:08.399 --> 01:30:11.760
medal or winning this medal. It's not on the
01:30:11.760 --> 01:30:15.199
top of their priorities and it's conflicting
01:30:15.199 --> 01:30:19.319
with athletes that for them, the top of the priority
01:30:19.319 --> 01:30:22.359
is... this and they are dedicating their life
01:30:22.359 --> 01:30:26.300
for the sports and then you know they train for
01:30:26.300 --> 01:30:30.600
years and prepare and and now saggy as the coach
01:30:30.600 --> 01:30:33.380
decided to send them to a competition in china
01:30:33.380 --> 01:30:36.600
and the federation is saying well that's nice
01:30:36.600 --> 01:30:38.939
and that's very cool that you have some achievements
01:30:38.939 --> 01:30:42.279
but you need to pay it by yourself and when we
01:30:42.279 --> 01:30:44.560
are talking about going to a competition in china
01:30:44.560 --> 01:30:46.939
we are talking thousands of euros that you need
01:30:46.939 --> 01:30:50.210
to pay from somewhere Also, I think it's a bit
01:30:50.210 --> 01:30:55.289
of an online wording, or I don't want to say
01:30:55.289 --> 01:30:59.930
propaganda, but I don't think athletes are hating
01:30:59.930 --> 01:31:04.090
DAV. I think they have conflict, they are not
01:31:04.090 --> 01:31:07.869
agreeing on everything, or maybe they have personal
01:31:07.869 --> 01:31:13.829
problems with specific people. But DAV as a federation
01:31:13.829 --> 01:31:19.609
is... Maybe I will get in trouble for saying
01:31:19.609 --> 01:31:22.989
it, but DEV is not a competitive sport federation,
01:31:23.210 --> 01:31:27.750
you know. It's an alpine federation, you know.
01:31:27.810 --> 01:31:35.189
And they exist since 1869 as a federation. And
01:31:35.189 --> 01:31:38.210
this climbing sport came to them like, you know,
01:31:38.229 --> 01:31:41.970
this federation is almost 200 years old. Almost,
01:31:42.050 --> 01:31:46.819
you know. This sport came seriously like 20 years
01:31:46.819 --> 01:31:50.380
ago, and it's just something that the Federation
01:31:50.380 --> 01:31:53.840
is catching up with. I think it will take two,
01:31:53.979 --> 01:31:57.239
three, four years for the Federation to maybe
01:31:57.239 --> 01:31:59.600
a little bit catch up with what's happening.
01:31:59.659 --> 01:32:03.140
And then I imagine or I hope the situation will
01:32:03.140 --> 01:32:06.520
be better in a few years. All right. Sounds good.
01:32:07.260 --> 01:32:09.859
Um, next couple of questions will be a little
01:32:09.859 --> 01:32:12.739
bit more climbing related, not so heavy hitting.
01:32:13.079 --> 01:32:17.020
Oh, I love heavy. I have no problem. I think
01:32:17.020 --> 01:32:19.779
that was the only heavy hitting one. Um, so the
01:32:19.779 --> 01:32:22.439
next one, just, uh, talk through the thought
01:32:22.439 --> 01:32:25.159
process on an appeal, both against another athlete
01:32:25.159 --> 01:32:28.520
and appealing for your athlete. I think as like
01:32:28.520 --> 01:32:30.380
viewers, we don't get much info into how that
01:32:30.380 --> 01:32:33.579
works. It's pretty simple and different coaches
01:32:33.579 --> 01:32:38.659
have different agendas about that. So for me,
01:32:38.680 --> 01:32:44.159
I appeal only if it affects one of my athletes.
01:32:44.520 --> 01:32:48.260
So for example, if I appeal an American athlete
01:32:48.260 --> 01:32:51.279
and the appeal is going through and it makes
01:32:51.279 --> 01:32:55.819
my athlete being 24 in semis instead of 25 out
01:32:55.819 --> 01:32:59.399
of semis, I will go for this appeal if it has
01:32:59.399 --> 01:33:03.119
meaning. If it's not affecting my athletes, most
01:33:03.119 --> 01:33:07.899
of the time I will choose not to appeal. But
01:33:07.899 --> 01:33:11.720
sometimes, and it's not my personal agenda, it's
01:33:11.720 --> 01:33:14.439
just because I know the other coaches, sometimes
01:33:14.439 --> 01:33:20.600
appeals are coming for IFSC to notice a problem
01:33:20.600 --> 01:33:26.460
in the rules or to, let's say, educate the judges.
01:33:27.979 --> 01:33:31.039
If in qualifications you see a judge that is
01:33:31.039 --> 01:33:35.880
not judging zone positions correctly, even if
01:33:35.880 --> 01:33:38.619
it's not affecting your athletes, you want to
01:33:38.619 --> 01:33:41.680
appeal about it and to make the head judge notice
01:33:41.680 --> 01:33:44.939
because this same judge will judge your athletes
01:33:44.939 --> 01:33:48.260
in the next round in semifinals and you want
01:33:48.260 --> 01:33:54.779
him to be more correct. But it's not a secret
01:33:54.779 --> 01:33:58.560
that... a lot of coaches are doing a strategical
01:33:58.560 --> 01:34:01.979
appeals and a strategical appeals their point
01:34:01.979 --> 01:34:04.920
is it's like a big check game you know we we
01:34:04.920 --> 01:34:07.779
try to get the best advantages that we can get
01:34:07.779 --> 01:34:13.779
for our athletes um so and and this is sometimes
01:34:13.779 --> 01:34:17.220
people don't know it this is the main job of
01:34:17.220 --> 01:34:20.399
a coach in a competition since we are not allowed
01:34:20.399 --> 01:34:23.560
to communicate with the athletes you know so
01:34:23.560 --> 01:34:26.300
if i'm sitting in the coach area And I'm not
01:34:26.300 --> 01:34:29.100
allowed to communicate what's the difference
01:34:29.100 --> 01:34:32.500
between me and the guy sitting in the audience
01:34:32.500 --> 01:34:35.899
taking a video with his phone, you know? This
01:34:35.899 --> 01:34:39.239
is kind of my main job, is to look for the holes
01:34:39.239 --> 01:34:42.699
in what the judges are doing and to bring it
01:34:42.699 --> 01:34:46.619
up and to fight with it. And I can give an interesting
01:34:46.619 --> 01:34:51.819
example now from Helsinki, from the semifinal
01:34:51.819 --> 01:34:56.350
in Bouldering, okay? I had an athlete ranked
01:34:56.350 --> 01:34:59.689
number eight, meaning going into finals. Okay.
01:35:00.029 --> 01:35:03.289
And the French team had an athlete ranked number
01:35:03.289 --> 01:35:05.930
nine or 10. I don't remember exactly where she
01:35:05.930 --> 01:35:09.470
won, but she was below. Then the French coaches
01:35:09.470 --> 01:35:13.090
decided to appeal for her to get a zone. Okay.
01:35:13.149 --> 01:35:16.649
That she didn't got. Okay. Now the appeal went
01:35:16.649 --> 01:35:19.890
through, IFSC went through the judging cameras
01:35:19.890 --> 01:35:22.630
and then decided, yes, it is a zone. And it made
01:35:22.630 --> 01:35:26.130
the French athlete go to eighth place and drop
01:35:26.130 --> 01:35:29.770
down the German athlete out of finals. Never
01:35:29.770 --> 01:35:33.750
mind that if you, after the competition, when
01:35:33.750 --> 01:35:36.170
we checked the videos, the judges were wrong
01:35:36.170 --> 01:35:39.250
and it was not a zone. So during the competition,
01:35:39.329 --> 01:35:42.449
I had nothing to do about it because we are not
01:35:42.449 --> 01:35:45.449
allowed to appeal against an appeal. If an issue
01:35:45.449 --> 01:35:48.470
has been appealed once, it's not allowed in the
01:35:48.470 --> 01:35:51.649
rules to appeal against about it. After the French
01:35:51.649 --> 01:35:54.350
submitted an appeal for them to give her a zone,
01:35:54.510 --> 01:35:57.890
me as the German coach, I have nothing in my
01:35:57.890 --> 01:36:01.289
hands to do. Interesting that the day after,
01:36:01.350 --> 01:36:04.329
the same French athlete stood on the podium.
01:36:04.810 --> 01:36:08.710
So this appeal by the coaches had a lot of meaning.
01:36:08.810 --> 01:36:11.609
It's not only that they brought her from not
01:36:11.609 --> 01:36:14.470
going to finals to go to finals, they brought
01:36:14.470 --> 01:36:18.789
her a medal. And so this is why appeals are so...
01:36:19.100 --> 01:36:21.439
a lot of times emotional. Sometimes you see it
01:36:21.439 --> 01:36:23.939
in the camera, you see the coaches arguing with
01:36:23.939 --> 01:36:27.479
the judges. Of course, sometimes appeals don't
01:36:27.479 --> 01:36:30.300
have this much, this much, uh, uh, importancy,
01:36:30.380 --> 01:36:34.479
but most of the times we are fighting for the
01:36:34.479 --> 01:36:37.340
next round. We are fighting for the chance for
01:36:37.340 --> 01:36:41.159
a medal. My job is to know the rules so good.
01:36:41.359 --> 01:36:45.720
So I can find where the judges are missing, you
01:36:45.720 --> 01:36:49.319
know, and to play with it. Any harsh feelings
01:36:49.319 --> 01:36:53.000
there with getting appealed? Of course, harsh
01:36:53.000 --> 01:36:58.899
feelings, yes. I argued with the judge a lot,
01:36:59.100 --> 01:37:03.500
and after she didn't accept my arguments, I also
01:37:03.500 --> 01:37:06.300
discussed it with other judges around the world,
01:37:06.439 --> 01:37:10.920
getting their feedback about the videos. So,
01:37:11.000 --> 01:37:14.239
of course, I feel bad for my athlete, but...
01:37:14.970 --> 01:37:17.829
most of us coaches because we know each other
01:37:17.829 --> 01:37:20.670
so well you know yeah it's most of the coaches
01:37:20.670 --> 01:37:23.930
i see them more than i see my family you know
01:37:23.930 --> 01:37:27.270
during the competition rounds we we spend so
01:37:27.270 --> 01:37:30.210
so much time together we have to be also friendly
01:37:30.210 --> 01:37:33.970
with each other and you know in the end of the
01:37:33.970 --> 01:37:36.449
day when i am broken after a hard competition
01:37:36.449 --> 01:37:40.380
and for example uh nico januel the french coach
01:37:40.380 --> 01:37:42.560
is broken from a difficult competition we will
01:37:42.560 --> 01:37:45.020
sit together and we will be each other friends
01:37:45.020 --> 01:37:49.439
not only in a professional level most of us are
01:37:49.439 --> 01:37:52.439
able to be professional about it so now i'm not
01:37:52.439 --> 01:37:55.340
angry at the french coach the french coach did
01:37:55.340 --> 01:37:57.979
his job and he found the hole in the system and
01:37:57.979 --> 01:38:01.659
he took it and he made a medal for for for the
01:38:01.659 --> 01:38:04.880
french team and this is his job i have no bad
01:38:04.880 --> 01:38:07.789
feelings toward The coach. So towards the judge.
01:38:08.149 --> 01:38:15.609
Yes. Okay. Also that there are some judges that
01:38:15.609 --> 01:38:17.829
you like their character, some judges that you
01:38:17.829 --> 01:38:20.569
don't like. But in the end of the day, we have
01:38:20.569 --> 01:38:25.529
to remember two key issues. First of all, it's
01:38:25.529 --> 01:38:28.710
nothing personal. The judge does not take the
01:38:28.710 --> 01:38:32.550
decision against me. You know, he took a decision.
01:38:33.079 --> 01:38:36.539
A professional decision in his perspective, even
01:38:36.539 --> 01:38:39.720
if I don't agree. So nothing here is personal.
01:38:39.899 --> 01:38:42.880
It's all professional. And the second thing,
01:38:43.100 --> 01:38:48.159
it's a game. We are here to play and have fun.
01:38:48.300 --> 01:38:51.640
Sometimes we lose, sometimes we win, but the
01:38:51.640 --> 01:38:56.899
main issue is having fun. Good to hear it's mostly
01:38:56.899 --> 01:39:02.050
okay. Okay, let's do one last one. I know we're
01:39:02.050 --> 01:39:04.770
kind of running low on time. So what do you do
01:39:04.770 --> 01:39:09.289
in ISO? Sleeping. Okay. No, it's of course a
01:39:09.289 --> 01:39:13.289
complete joke. What I do in ISO. So I prepare
01:39:13.289 --> 01:39:16.449
my athletes for the moment of competition. So
01:39:16.449 --> 01:39:19.989
we do warm -up together. We do activation for
01:39:19.989 --> 01:39:24.409
the body. If it's lead, I'm giving them circuits
01:39:24.409 --> 01:39:27.550
to get the pump out. If it's boulder, we are...
01:39:27.800 --> 01:39:33.739
trying to expect moves. And yeah, we are most
01:39:33.739 --> 01:39:39.199
of all warming up. Second of all, it's also a
01:39:39.199 --> 01:39:43.800
very friendly place to mingle with other coaches.
01:39:44.420 --> 01:39:47.500
I can tell you that sometimes ISO is very boring.
01:39:47.680 --> 01:39:51.159
If you're going to ISO at 7 in the morning and
01:39:51.159 --> 01:39:54.460
your athlete is climbing at 11, you are not warming
01:39:54.460 --> 01:39:57.680
up for four hours. You have it like two hours
01:39:57.680 --> 01:40:00.100
and then two hours you are kind in a waiting
01:40:00.100 --> 01:40:02.899
position. Well, but are you usually in ISO or
01:40:02.899 --> 01:40:05.659
like usually you'd be out in the coach's area
01:40:05.659 --> 01:40:08.979
in the mats? It depends. So we need a coach on
01:40:08.979 --> 01:40:11.239
the mats from the minute the competition started
01:40:11.239 --> 01:40:14.039
because we need to take care of appeals from
01:40:14.039 --> 01:40:17.119
the first athlete that is climbing. And also
01:40:17.119 --> 01:40:20.640
most of the times we need a coach in ISO taking
01:40:20.640 --> 01:40:23.979
care in all of the athletes are getting warmed
01:40:23.979 --> 01:40:26.779
up, blah, blah, blah. Usually what most of the
01:40:26.779 --> 01:40:29.159
teams are doing is all the coaches are going
01:40:29.159 --> 01:40:33.000
in ISO when it's open. And then when the first
01:40:33.000 --> 01:40:36.000
athlete is starting, half of the team would leave
01:40:36.000 --> 01:40:40.039
out to take care of appeals or to watch the competition
01:40:40.039 --> 01:40:43.039
and some of the coaches. And we change between
01:40:43.039 --> 01:40:47.020
us. Me and my dear colleague Fritzi, she's the
01:40:47.020 --> 01:40:51.819
love of my life. She's the lead coach. We change
01:40:51.819 --> 01:40:55.010
between us. The round of the boys, I'm going
01:40:55.010 --> 01:40:57.590
out, she's staying in. Then the girls, I will
01:40:57.590 --> 01:41:02.449
go. We change. There is no specific. Cool. Okay,
01:41:02.550 --> 01:41:05.869
so let's wrap up here then. Thanks for joining
01:41:05.869 --> 01:41:08.710
me today. Do you have any last -minute words
01:41:08.710 --> 01:41:10.970
of wisdom you want to get out there? You know,
01:41:11.090 --> 01:41:14.470
the graveyard is full with people that thought
01:41:14.470 --> 01:41:18.289
they are irreplaceable. Oh, okay. You asked for
01:41:18.289 --> 01:41:23.199
wisdom. I don't remember. How does that apply
01:41:23.199 --> 01:41:26.039
to competitions? Oh, it's not applying for competition.
01:41:26.199 --> 01:41:29.220
I just think it's a really wise thing to understand
01:41:29.220 --> 01:41:31.739
in your life, you know? Okay, let me think about
01:41:31.739 --> 01:41:38.880
it. You want wise climbing wise. I mean, that
01:41:38.880 --> 01:41:41.560
one's good too. I need to think about that one
01:41:41.560 --> 01:41:46.100
for a few days. I will give you something else.
01:41:47.850 --> 01:41:50.750
something that you discover when you work very
01:41:50.750 --> 01:41:55.510
very very hard as a coach yeah that most of the
01:41:55.510 --> 01:42:00.729
time uh the win of the athlete is the athlete's
01:42:00.729 --> 01:42:06.310
win but the loss of an athlete you share it so
01:42:06.310 --> 01:42:10.010
it's the loss of both of you and it's it's a
01:42:10.010 --> 01:42:13.710
hard position in the for for coaches you know
01:42:13.710 --> 01:42:16.170
because There's only one guy standing on the
01:42:16.170 --> 01:42:18.329
podium and it's the athlete. It doesn't matter
01:42:18.329 --> 01:42:21.409
how much hard work coaches are putting behind
01:42:21.409 --> 01:42:25.689
this athlete. But when you lose, you all lose
01:42:25.689 --> 01:42:28.890
together. Okay, that's good. And I will still
01:42:28.890 --> 01:42:31.770
think about the other one. I haven't heard that
01:42:31.770 --> 01:42:35.989
one before. Never, really? No, yeah, no. It's
01:42:35.989 --> 01:42:39.550
for the concept of people that are giving me
01:42:39.550 --> 01:42:43.210
ultimatums or telling me... If you do that, then
01:42:43.210 --> 01:42:46.510
I leave. And I always like saying, hey, everybody's
01:42:46.510 --> 01:42:51.590
replaceable. Yikes. No, I think it's a good,
01:42:51.609 --> 01:42:54.770
humble position for people to work with. I know
01:42:54.770 --> 01:43:00.449
that I'm replaceable all the time. No, I think
01:43:00.449 --> 01:43:02.390
that makes sense. A lot of people get really
01:43:02.390 --> 01:43:05.109
invested in their work and they feel like they
01:43:05.109 --> 01:43:07.029
have to give everything to their work. And then
01:43:07.029 --> 01:43:08.970
it's like, well, they don't really care that
01:43:08.970 --> 01:43:11.810
much about you necessarily. So I get that. Okay,
01:43:11.869 --> 01:43:15.930
cool. Do you want to let people know where they
01:43:15.930 --> 01:43:19.810
can find you? So six or seven months ago, like
01:43:19.810 --> 01:43:23.170
beginning of the season, I deleted my social
01:43:23.170 --> 01:43:28.229
medias. Not because blah, blah, blah, just because
01:43:28.229 --> 01:43:33.789
it was destroying my dopamine and harming my
01:43:33.789 --> 01:43:39.409
sleeping time. And I said, okay, I just have
01:43:39.409 --> 01:43:45.279
to get rid of it. But rarely I slowly start to
01:43:45.279 --> 01:43:49.100
check. I check my DMs on Instagram from time
01:43:49.100 --> 01:43:54.100
to time. Naknik setting on Instagram. But, you
01:43:54.100 --> 01:43:56.760
know, there is always ways to get to me if people
01:43:56.760 --> 01:43:59.939
want to. Sounds good. I will leave that in the
01:43:59.939 --> 01:44:02.579
description. Well, thank you again. And it was
01:44:02.579 --> 01:44:05.680
great to chat with you. Yeah, thank you. It was...
01:44:06.159 --> 01:44:09.279
way way easier than i expected i was a bit terrified
01:44:09.279 --> 01:44:12.020
in the beginning thank you so much for making
01:44:12.020 --> 01:44:14.300
it to the end of the podcast don't forget to
01:44:14.300 --> 01:44:16.819
like and subscribe if you enjoyed otherwise you
01:44:16.819 --> 01:44:20.199
are a super big climber if you're listening on
01:44:20.199 --> 01:44:22.699
a podcasting platform i'd appreciate if you rate
01:44:22.699 --> 01:44:25.460
it five stars and you can continue the discussion
01:44:25.460 --> 01:44:28.640
on the free competition climbing discord linked
01:44:28.640 --> 01:44:31.060
in the description thanks again for listening
