I Trained With USA OLYMPIC Climbers For A Day

Nathan and I recently spent a day training with Natalia Gman and Jesse grouper professional climbers who are set to represent the USA at the Paris 24 Olympic Games nice work walking into the USA climbing National Training Center in Salt Lake City is to be transported into an indoor climbing Dreamscape and I'm willing to bet you've never seen a space quite like it we arrived shortly after the Salt Lake City W up and the space was buzzing with activity and World Cup climbers the training center or TC as the athletes call it has a unique charm you could say it's a little rough around the edges sure but in the most endearing way possible holds of every size and variety Adorn the Vass Warehouse of plywood walls set to test the elite as they train for their next International competition or even the Olympics chalky sities Circle the matting the excited yelling of Team Japan Echoes around the biggest spray wall I've ever seen as another athlete makes a move that would likely dislocate my entire upper body a deflated rubber duck soaks in the atmosphere you may have heard about the USA climbing training center but perhaps only in Whispers of competition climbing or through careful dissection of Instagram posts from climbing Elite inside the facility we peek behind the curtain at how athletes use this space and recorded A Day in the Life with a room full of Olympic medal hopefuls uncovering details of how they train it's kind of cool having a finger injury in some ways cuz uh yeah I'm forced to practice it a lot to the biggest challenges they face on the comp Boulders I'm like like I should be doing these CLS I should be like I shouldn't be flashing these Boulders or else I'm not going to learn but like I want to well that's yeah so true so first off we're going to go and chat to Jesse Grier who has qualified for Team USA for the Olympics he is over in an area that they call the Horseshoe which looks to have lots of different kind of slabby movement based CLS so we going to go ahead over there and see what a session looks like on the Horseshoe for Jesse chat to him a little bit about his preparations for the Olympics and how he is getting on with his training hey my name is Jesse grouper I'm uh competing with Team USA at the Summer Olympics and I'm excited to show you guys where the training center we were met by Jesse mid morning and his infectious energy for movement was obvious despite his recently acquired finger injury wow oh yeah he looks so close there he was adapting his Olympic Training to avoid small grips this week but welcomed us to put on our shoes and join him in the Horseshoe where Nathan had a chance to find out just how tricky Elite Training Boulders really are I'm putting my shoes on I'm not sure for how long they'll stay on as soon as I realize the caliber of the problem that hung up against here Jesse can I ask like what your kind of training day looks like today yeah for sure today I'm doing a little bit of finger rehab cuz I have a finger injury uh and then I'm going to play on some of these uh blocks and what we call the Horseshoe uhhuh um so there are a lot of yeah different jumps and flab problems here that are aren't two finger intensive yeah and how like structured is your session cuz it kind of seems like from just jumping in only 5 minutes ago but it kind of seems like it is it like a play based session or definitely played structure yeah today definitely play based uh yeah I think I'm just going to check out some movements and see how it goes I'll uh yeah maybe we'll put on our shoes in a minute and try and join you on a couple of coordination moves but you working on something in particular at the moment yeah I think just this folder right here uh yeah I don't know uh looks like it starts on like this blue and then finishes on this black all right first try let let I would love to just walk all the way across me too nice I think that is a way though like going slow over the foot like your left foot would you that doesn't feel very like elegant stepping through like that is is that what you did I think that's what I was talking about with yab where like I think you might want to like come that way but then like turn as you're Landing so you're almost going like that yeah sure yeah I also think that uh like when I'm doing moves like this like I've already like sort of felt like the end position of like just running into it and I feel like that might be a good like start okay as well [Music] nice [Music] nice oh nice I feel like I have to hold my breath while you're on the wall do you hold your breath on a slab or do you still have to do like I think especially um I think there are like parts of the climb that I'm like holding my breath on like especially when I'm like trying to like do a move where I'm trying to stay close to the wall um I sometimes think about like how much breathing can like affect those like millimeters uh in but uh I think anytime you're doing like a dynamic move like letting out breath while you're doing it is kind of nice um or just like holding yeah the first was weird I uh I was seeing some people like kind like try to like jump the left foot out first which kind of seems weird to me but I was close under my first try but I hit my and then my second try I didn't want to hit my wrist again you yeah yeah yeah then you're like a little scared yeah I feel like that's like one of the hardest parts about coordination for me like as soon as I get hurt on it I'm like yeah not trying as hard you made the long yeah the long start I like it I think a lot of people like there's climbers at every level out there and I guess injuries seem like they're they're just part parle of being a climber right but it's sometimes kind of hard I think to keep motivation yeah I would say it's a lot of uh disappointment right now for sure uh in like the initial phases um but I think at least when I'm uh trying to structure a session I'm trying to think about the opportunities that I have uh what I can work on that would actually like help my process and progression as a climber um and I think like what's cool about climbing in general is like there's just so many different places to like learn and uh yeah I guess thinking of it as like an opportunity as opposed to a setback um even though it is also a setback uh is important especially like in a session yeah come on Jesse oh that so close yeah are painful when you when do you call it on a block yeah I'll probably give a couple more tries and then be done probably said that a little while ago yeah you did okay we'll come back to that one yeah I can feel close you [Music] are I'll play on this red with you yeah do you want to play on that how does uh slab rate in your kind of skill set are you allowed to have favorite areas or not yeah I would say it's probably not it's like a super fun area for me to explore and like learn from I would say that I'm not not the best at SL but it's kind of cool having a finger injury in some ways cuz uh yeah I'm forced to practice it a lot working your weakness yeah yeah exactly next up we switched Focus to a dynamic Boulder with a big step up and honestly I was surprised to feel almost no pressure climbing despite trading turns with Jesse and yob that was largely because the session was effectively Guided by opportunities to learn new positions and practice coordination rather than by grades or numbers as climbers from different nationalities passed through the space they traded methods and tips with each other which was a marker of how Elite climbing is often both competitive and collaborative oh it's going to be hard not to the like Barn Door out right yeah I think actually the beta is like to cross like this but I'm going to not do that with a pal yeah oh yeah which is your bad hand is this a bad choice that's the right hand no but I'm going to just try it with my left hand see what happens okay okay Jesse let me just pick out like the next Boulder to try and there's nothing's really marked out but I think you can kind of make out roughly where some moves might go or at least I found one that looks like a big move super strange I guess that's kind of the like fun of this like area is almost that you can make up moves or just kind of be drawn to different different positions uh with anyone else who's around Jesse flipped between different methods trying to work around his tweaked finger and I followed suit slowly starting to gather a little bit of belief that not every Boulder problem here would be completely Beyond me after all as Jesse later pointed out World cut Boulder problems are sometimes more about problem solving than pushing your physical limits as in competition athletes only have around 4 minutes to try and solve them soon yakob arrived on block and it was pretty clear he was determined to take every Boulder in the Horseshoe yeah yeah yeah so how do you split your time between Boulder and Lead yeah I do got like half in half on a typical training cycle nice who [Applause] sick Wow way easier staying on the de nice so did you go like straight like that like kind of swing and then go yeah nice okay the tall man's way yeah I feel like all all these jumps are really uh dependent on like your butt being in the right spot yeah and I feel like it's like another limb almost yeah every time we do anything with a pro climber it's like hips yeah yeah yeah it's funny they're all thinking about it all the time well at least for me like it was something that uh of course you're thinking about it with like static movement but I think that for dynamic movement it's just like even more important yeah sure feel like as amateur climbers are busy thinking about our hands yeah just thinking about gripping stuff I do that too but no way I cannot believe you're almost sticking that I think out of any of the problems here this is probably the most suit able for my height and my ability Yak do it in another way to Jesse so I'm sure there's options I think that was actually the closest I've got though now I have one more that was the closest you're learning from me that was the closest I've got just left foot here and like lean over so your last go then Jesse no way all right yeah you're beta you're saving that method for the last go nice work that's cool Jesse's just pulled out the bag on his last go I'm going to follow suit have one more go been pulled yeah nice I hope the top hold is good it's okay you got it yeah is that it or is it over there yeah I think that's it you have completed the boulder all right right how are you good nice job thanks with my own tick list can the training center now open I joined Jesse as he finished his tour onto the last wall of the horseshoe shaped slab teetering up onto a large black hold before attempting to Traverse with no hands onto a barely perceptible nubbin screwed into a gray volume nice C I think so I think you can hit the volume too with the foot and as national team members passed across the bouldering mats I was curious to investigate International perspective on the training center facility I met Campbell who is set to compete for Australia at the Paris 2024 Olympics oo I like the hand yeah maybe I don't know how common would you say it is for a country to have like a facility like this big with this much kind of equipment here is that something that's you think common across all the countries or no I'd say it's it's pretty uncommon for the most part like the big nations with a lot of funding ones that are winning a lot of medals typically have something of the sort um I think like this facility is pretty unique but you know the austrians have inbrook the French have karma in font blue um we don't really have anything like that in Australia but it's I think it's going to become more and more common place that like every every national team has its own facility because I think it is quite crucial yeah sure while Jesse ended his session with the final few attempts I was curious to ask him how these training B ERS compared in difficulty to the type of climbing problems he might face in the Olympics how like tricky are the problems that you try on like training days like this like the stuff that's up here how do they compare to what we watch in the in World Cups in the World Cups I think it varies a lot like these are probably like a similar level or even easier than like World Cups yeah um but I think that it depends on like the kind of style that they're trying to represent like in the World Cup in general um but I think that just like chaining your brain to like work through like tricky moves is like all you need in order to like approach the same kind of problems in a world you're still doing the problem solving process that's the same even if the boulder is slightly easier exactly away from the Horseshoe there was still so much to explore in the training center and it was only by walking through the huge arena with Jesse that we got a sense of the scale and importance of this giant play warehouse at the far end of the building the Salt Lake competition W stands proud a host for the bouldering World Cup just days before and now being reset to provide the local athletes with a new set of Roots it's one of three distinct sections in the warehouse along with the Horseshoe slab and lastly the semi-enclosed spray wall where I was prepping to join Natalia Gman and Oceana McKenzie around the edges of the training center hold stores are jammed to the brim conditioning equipment sits out on the concrete floor and a mismatch of plywood and steel structures are exposed all of which only adds to the feeling that you're in a handmade space the type of place that still remembers climbing's culture and Roots I feel like climbing is going through such a kind of like identity shift or that there's been huge changes to the sport in like the last decade or so it's really nice that spaces like this are really retain that kind of like um yeah that kind of like Co climber feel of like it feels not too dissimilar to we were saying earlier like going around to your like friends home gym they've invited you around to come and climb you're just going to like session together that still kind of retains that feel here which is really nice I think yeah and I think you talked about the charm and I think like for me it is amazing to have like world class climbing uh to like have access to but I think everyone has on the World Cup circuit hasn't like started in a training center right like you start in a spray wall or you start just doing commercial Boulders um and I think that the true charm of this facility is just how it brings people together and kind of makes a community where we can like ask each other questions and like feed off of each other's energy um which I'm sure you guys are seeing like in this space too um so I think that's a really amazing like Dynamic piece of the facility as a whole after a few Hoops on the TC basketball court to settle the pression now I joined Italia Grossman and oana McKenzie for a training experience I'd been at once incredibly excited to have owing to The Prestige of the training center spray wall and the accomplishments of my hosts and dreading having an equal measure because of just how hard that spray wall looked to help introduce me to this Behemoth climbing wall I was honored to be able to join Natalia and O who are both competition climbers I'm sure you'll be familiar with for a power indurance session on the iconic spr spray wall having only small amounts of power and little endurance I was intimidated to say the least but I tried not to make that too obvious you want me to try incl I'll have a have a look a little look both Natalia and oan I have qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics so today's session on the tray spray wall is going to be a real peak behind the curtain at what Athletes Training for the Olympics do in a typical although maybe not so typical training session due to injury we are going to get warmed up and then we're going to try and make our way up the spray wall by any means necessary yeah so today's more of like a power Focus S session so doing some campusing and then doing some Boulders um just yeah working on power on the spray wall walk us through which one you're trying at the moment yeah so uh just working on this little short like campus B SL trying to make the end of it work cuz right now the concept we have seems a little too hard maybe um we quite we haven't quite figured out like the right swing [Music] yet yeah so yeah didn't do it but I think that was closer so it was just like I wasn't pulling for like my first couple of tries I barely ever train on a spray wall I like will climb commercial sets in the gym and what I really like about the spray wall is that there's like kind of almost takes away the emphasis of the success being getting to the top or like completing a color circuit or like completing the route it's like you can really focus in on like specific movements exactly I always think of the spray wall too as just like a training tool like I know commercial Boulders are also training tools but I feel like with spray Boulders it's just about like getting better and using the wall to get stronger it's not necessarily about sending like you said [Music] yeah okay success I wasn't like pulling up at all so I was always hitting it like this and then tried to be more engaged you trying the same Traverse again ah different one this one just set yeah it has this like huge crossunder move and then you have to like swing around okay so are these roots that you've done before like on other days or they just new ones that you come out of each session yeah brand new ones yeah oh okay okay yeah that works who this next move [Music] though wow oh the or full crimp again yeah I don't know this feels I'm having a hard time nice nice come on ni nice come on come on come on yeah nice wow you like really going the wall you got like fling yourself no it's yeah it's not bad like and you can get a good pinch on it and almost like can you like use yellow for your thumb or no I think it's too far okay kind of just looks like you like levitated across like it's actually the weirdest part is to not put your feet down it's so close I'm like get it Trevor come on nice wow you can't yeah it's like just this one and this one what if you like then fli the right hand wait or like came in even to like the blue other pin oh this or something what they come into this one yeah yeah what like nothing to pull from feels weird to it's a big cross it's a big crust yeah come on come nice come on yeah come on come on yeah yeah that's it that's it come on come on come on yeah okay feel a bit better dropping down yeah come on watching ocean Italia go about their regular training with seeming ease after both climbing in finals at the World Cup and with the Olympics just a few months away I couldn't help but think how impressive it was that they seem so composed and happy to be training despite short fatigue and injury I felt nervous just being in the training environment with such strong athletes the drop down from the blue slope to the Crim that Natalia and O were trying look truly improbable I wish I had footage to show you of me trying to campus just one move on this spray wall but when I say I could barely leave the ground on this thing please believe me [Music] yeah that happened last time it looked like you had so much time though you like went it's funny I read this I was reading this book yesterday and it was like talking about video games and said like video games are like all hand eye coordination and I was going to send it to my trainer and be like do I need to pick up video games super reflexes yeah yeah yeah I'm really bad I've like never tried the perfect [Music] engagement oh easy come on yes yes nice H the perfect engagement that's such a weird move cuz it felt like kind of fine thanks like I that did it yeah like drop down this arm completely and then like I don't know just like unravel yeah I'm not very good at articulating movement yeah how long would you normally stick with like one Bolder before moving on to kind of just like depends like I've definitely gotten sucked into a boulder for like over an hour sometimes I'll just try Boulder for like 10 minutes I'm like yeah and move on yeah so kind of just follow the site sure like if you're still learning from it yeah am I right in thinking Natalia that you're introducing feet now moving away from campus yes we're going to do regular climbing this is good news good news for me after campusing it was time to move on to a spray wall session with feet allowed this was my time to shine or at least to string more than one move together while Natalia and her coach set up a special top rope system for her next activity oh bad choice Natalia did have to adapt her session slightly as you'll have seen throughout this video Natalia picked up a knee injury in the semi-finals of the Salt Lake City World Cup impressively she went on to win gold in the finals despite that knee injury but her training today did have to be tweaked a little to restrict Falling come on come on oh that's scary to complete her spray session one of Natalia's coaches was on hand to provide a vay on the bouldering wall adding a top rope into the mix meant that Natalia could make moves without the worry of falling off and it was super interesting to see her dedication to making training possible even with an injured knee okay let's pretend I fall as with any new adaptation the top rad took a little getting used to that work but we all know that top level athletes are good at responding to challenges it work works it's still just scary to like do a jump move though both Natalia and oana were working on a steep route which moved right from a slopy dish to a black sloper Natalia added a small additional hole to make the jump right less committing although I'm not sure it would have made it much easier for any of us my Immortals watching Natalia and O work through the ridiculously difficult moves that they'd set for each other was one of my most inspiring climbing moments in recent memory collaboration sharing ideas and projects solving with a friend has always seemed to me one of the very best things about climbing and I wondered if this willingness to pull ideas and resources was as common of a feature in the more performance Focus competitive environments like this one come on spending a day at the training center really illuminated for me that despite athletes ultimately being competitors there's a deep understanding and respect for the individual self-improvement driving an athletes passion for competition sharing is certainly part of that and a healthy dose of self analysis too maybe still I was going to like do a to go into the under with self analysis in mind I was leaving the TC with my own reminder that failure is always part of the process and typically the more effective teacher it might have been easy for me to leave the TC feeling dejected at not having managed to climb the spray wall to the top but it seemed that the athlete mindset might go more towards zooming in on the opportunities for improvement than the conventional success of sending and while I had one more attempt on the wall Nathan tested to see how obsessive Natalia and O were over remembering roots that they tried previously asking whether they remembered more The Roots they topped or the ones they'd fallen on and the answer was resounding oh no I I remember do you remember more the ones that you talked or the ones that you fell off the ones I fell off you would remember those more well yeah like last year I literally make a I made a folder of every Boulder that I didn't do um yeah and they all had a very common theme so we tried to like yeah yeah that's cool how many was it there were quite a bit like any climb with a coordination I was going to say I was like I feel like while Natalia and O gave their last attempts on the spray W project I reflected on a day well spent with some of climbing's very best in the unique space that is the USA climbing National Training Center the TC fills half Parts like your friend's basement home gym and half Parts the Elite Training Facility that it is but full parts a place where you can really experience the colorful character of our Sport and the passion of the people that make up the competition scene [Laughter] than nice success so thanks to USA climbing Natalia Jesse and oana for showing us around it's an experience we won't forget in a hurry hi [Music] nice yeah [Music] I guess the end might not beable that was so scary I was like wow she's really going for it I was like

Channel: Hannah Morris Bouldering

Views: 43,859

Keywords: bouldering, climbing, rock climbing, natalia grossman, jesse grupper, team usa, olympics, paris olympics, olympic sport climbing, usa climbing, olympic bouldering

Id: sTJ4RNxLYJI

Length: 27min 22sec (1642 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 14 2024