Customer Reviews

Self-Coached Climber: The Guide to Movement, Training, Performance

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This makes "Performance Rock Climbing" completely obsolete (great in it's day, way outdated now). And it blows "Training for Climbing" away with better content on movement training and a DVD that brings it all together. The authors have clearly put a lot of time and research into this book -- it's technical but very readable.

This is a must-have for anyone serious about hard rock. BUT it has zero content about nutrition or injury prevention and recovery; serious oversights that are covered best in "Climbing: Training for Peak Performance" (a great book but more for alpine climbers and weekend rock warriors). For example, it doesn't warn how easy it is to hurt an ACL doing a drop knee or even discuss an A2 pulley injury. And you really can't climb at your best if you aren't eating well. Despite these short-comings, Self-Coached Climber rocks!

Training to climb is very sport specific. That is..... there is ample evidence that cross training to climb is not useful. For example being able to do 100 pull ups is probably not going to enhance your climbing ability much. Perhaps the only exception to this rule once you reach a certain level of climbing, is "reading" to climb. I must stress that without a certain baseline climbing experience reading about HOW to climb is not going to help you . However, as you excel you will find yourself plateauing. This is when mentoring will be of greatest benefit. Most cannot afford to be mentored by an experienced climber so you do the next best thing....mentor by proxy...you read a book.

In this regard, this book is one of the best "mentors" around. It takes you from your current plateaued level of climbing into an exponential phase of improvement. The book explains climbing by looking at movement which is composed of space, time, force and balance, efficiency of movement and psychology of movement. After explaining these topics the author gives specific exercises to improve these aspects of climbing.

The author then integrates these concepts into a coherent training schedule by first identifying your current level of performance in actual climbing. He then spells out what you should be doing at that level of climbing to progress to the next level. I particularly appreciated this part of the book.

For example let's say your current level of climbing is 5.10. He gives you a detailed training schedule of how to improve your level of climbing to 5.11. He holds your hand telling you how to warm and for how long, what bouldering problems to do, what climbs to do and how to do them, how to train both aerobically and anaerobically. Detailed training is provided to the 5.13 level.

If you are beginner I would not recommend buying any books yet. Rather go out a climb. For an introduction on "how to climb" please see my listmania: " so you want to rock climb".

"The Self-Coached Climber" is an excellent training resource for climbers at just about any level. I bought the book recently and before even finishing reading it, I started seeing improvements in my technique from working on the exercises.

In contrast to other books like "How to Climb 5.12," SCC is highly detailed and specific in its approach to improving fundamentals like balance, center of gravity and movement skills. The book provides excellent exercises for particular skills, and these are illustrated with abundant photos and/or drawings that show how the exercise should be done. Additionally, videos on the accompanying DVD can clarify any confusion with the exercises. Finally, a detailed training plan is presented for developing the stamina, strength and technique needed to move up in the climbing grades.

I think it's worth noting that while this is billed as a "self-coached" training book, some of the exercises can't be done without a partner. In fact, working with an equally-motivated partner through the course of the book would probably be the ideal approach.

I believe "The Self-Coached Climber" is a perfect companion piece to Arno Ilgner's mental training book "The Rock Warrior's Way" for anyone wanting to become a better and more confident climber.

I've read and been through just about eery other training book for rock climbing. This is the first book that reads like a textbook for school. It breaks things down into a science, increasing your understanding and vocabulary of how climbing works enabling you to cognitively apply practical skills immediately. Unlike other books, this one instructs the reader how to actually construct a training plan and what excercises to perform for his/her level based on what level they are trying to reach instead of simply stating the obvious, "to get better you need to train." This book is a must read for anyone looking to train for climbing and a bible for any serious climber looking to amp up their training regime.

Pluses:

This is an impressive and comprehensive guide to understanding and improving your climbing. It is my favorite book on climbing technique. (Unfortunately, there isn't much decent competition. Niche, meet potential audience). There are some great movement exercises that I've found very useful in my training (the particularly the traversing and turning section). The authors worked incredibly hard and put together a book that is well worth the cost, even without the DVD. The DVD that's included is worth the price of the book itself, as it's extremely concise, well organized, and clear.

Minuses:

The title is wrong. This is essentially a textbook written for experienced climbers, or better, for people teaching climbing to experienced climbers. For the lay reader, it is far too dense and jargon-y. The intrasport climbing jargon is always frustrating enough (who makes this stuff up?), and then layer on kinesiology and physics, and...oof. Not an easy read. The overall organizational structure is not that effective (too much theory up front) and some of the instructions seem rushed and are difficult to follow. As a self-coaching guide, it would have been more effective with less theory and more technique and training. Overall, the book is written for someone climbing in the high 5.11s and up - the initial examples are for people climbing around 5.12. There are a few later examples for those of us climbing in the 10s (yes, that's me and that's my bias), but they seem a little tacked on. I would like the glossary to be much more thorough, but again, there is an assumption that the reader already knows quite a bit about the subject.

Overall:

This is the best reference book on climbing technique that I have ever read. By far. If you're a climber, you should probably buy this book. If you're a coach, guide, teacher, or experienced climber, definitely buy it. Even if you only skim the book for your specific areas of interest or watch the excellent DVD, it's still worth buying. I think the authors just tried to do too much, which is far better and more admirable than the alternative. If it had been marketed as a textbook or teaching aid, I would give it five stars.

Personal plea:

Someone *please* finally write a basic climbing reference-book that is clear, consistent, well-structured, thoroughly defines its terms (tell me what the jargon MEANS, dammit), and most importantly, assumes that the reader has no knowledge of the sport. A real climbing primer. Please.

This book does what others only hint at - give you comprehensive tools to get past peaks, develop and strengthen weaknesses, and actually create a plan on how to get there.

No other book (and I've gotten them all) does this. I don't agree with the writer that this book should have included how to deal with injuries - that is more than covered in other books and I didn't miss it in this one.

The training plans and exercises in this book (and I only climb 2 x week, not 4 - due to my advanced age) brought my bouldering grade up one level (solid on-sight) and leading two grade: In less than six weeks!!

Don't skip the technique sections - they are vital even for advanced climbers.

Brilliant book.

So many ideas for those non-professional climbers (like me) who don't have a coach.
Turning, flagging, drop knees are fully explained. Chapter about Movement initiantion - was like total revelation to me. Plus it has DVD - so you can see how you MUST move.

After reading this book I got really sceared: what if I had not bought it, then I might have spent hundreds of hours of my climbing training deepening bad climbing habbits !

It certainly deserves six stars.

The book arrived moments before I left the house for a day of climbing. I skimmed through the book, taking note of some new moves to try. I went on to reach personal bests that day.

Now that I've had a chance to read more, the book is still my favorite book on climbing. Full of thought provoking images and ideas, the "Self Coached Climber" is clearly written and fun to read. The book is so full of terrific info and images, I haven't even looked at the enclosed DVD yet.

One of the nicest features about the images is that they show the climbing moves from several angles rather than just one so there is no need to guess at what you can't see (a problem with many climbing books).

I had set out to find a book to complete my knowledge of balance & motion in climbing. Sure I can keep progressing up the 5.10d/5.11a treadmill slowly on my own terms, but why not do it with a boost in the form of some good body-oriented knowledge? Everything I'd seen before gave a simple review of holds and rope-handling, leaving me deeply unsatisfied with how to work on the subtle body mechanics.

I'm 1.5 chapters in and I can already say this book is precisely what I was looking for. The detail is there and the material satisfies. I'm already noticing my climbing improve!

This book really took me by surprise...I was expected the normal lame guide to technique that briefly explains moves while barely saying anything about when and where to use these moves. However, I was amazed when I began to flip through the pages of this book. The Self-Coached climber not only has amazingly detailed images (in color too) and captions to match, but it also features a very well written and deep text. It doesn't just explain moves so that we have a finite toolbox and think like computers, it explains the theory behind all technique. The theory, which once applied to your own climbing, will cause drastic improvements in your ability.

Buy this book. It is the most essential beta you can own.