The Rock Climber's Training Manual is Now Available!

In case you're on the fence about getting it shipped vs waiting for a local store to hopefully stock it, or an online vendor to stock it:

I had one shipped to me last week and it got lost in the mail - package arrived torn and empty. I emailed Mark and Mike to let them know and they put a new book in the mail for me the next morning, no questions asked, even though I had mentioned I was going to check with the post office to see if there was any way to recover the book.

So quality business practices in addition to a quality product.

Just wanted to give a positive review of the book based on my early impressions - very impressed with the content and layout. The progression of the chapters is great and very logical, and I love the attention paid to the often neglected "non-training" areas (e.g., skill development, deliberate practice, etc.). It's been fun and rewarding to read; an interesting mix of nodding my head in vindication when I read a tidbit that seems patently obvious from a vaguely scientific/rational standpoint, but for whatever reason is not in climbing training "conventional wisdom" (e.g., "Sharma just climbs, so that's all I need to do to send hard" = bad idea), and also coming across new tidbits that are probably patently obvious to others but that I have overlooked (for whatever reason) and can incorporate into my climbing/training going forward.

I haven't actually developed or implemented my own training plan yet, so I can't really speak to the effectiveness of the program. That said, I'm not skeptical/doubtful of the approach or exercises put forth in the book in terms of steadily improving performance. What I'm most worried about is my own discipline in actually following through and sticking to whatever plan I do develop. First order of business is going to be waking my lazy ass up to get to the gym before work so I can start ARCing without fighting crowds, and for me that will probably be at least as hard as hanging onto a half pad edge with 10 lbs of weight added! :)

Dan Austin wrote:Just wanted to give a positive review of the book based on my early impressions - very impressed with the content and layout. The progression of the chapters is great and very logical, and I love the attention paid to the often neglected "non-training" areas (e.g., skill development, deliberate practice, etc.). It's been fun and rewarding to read; an interesting mix of nodding my head in vindication when I read a tidbit that seems patently obvious from a vaguely scientific/rational standpoint, but for whatever reason is not in climbing training "conventional wisdom" (e.g., "Sharma just climbs, so that's all I need to do to send hard" = bad idea), and also coming across new tidbits that are probably patently obvious to others but that I have overlooked (for whatever reason) and can incorporate into my climbing/training going forward. I haven't actually developed or implemented my own training plan yet, so I can't really speak to the effectiveness of the program. That said, I'm not skeptical/doubtful of the approach or exercises put forth in the book in terms of steadily improving performance. What I'm most worried about is my own discipline in actually following through and sticking to whatever plan I do develop. First order of business is going to be waking my lazy ass up to get to the gym before work so I can start ARCing without fighting crowds, and for me that will probably be at least as hard as hanging onto a half pad edge with 10 lbs of weight added! :)

Thanks a lot Dan, I appreciate the review! Perhaps this will help you:

Wolfgang Gullich wrote:The hardest part of training is making the decision to start training at all.

FYI, for those in the Denver area who hate paying for shipping, I will be at Earth Treks tonight teaching two training clinics, and I will have books with me for sale. The clinics run from 7-8pm and 8-9pm, so if you'd like to get a book (or just flip through one), come look for me, probably upstairs. 7pm-ish, 8ish and 9ish would be good times to avoid disrupting the clinics.

Also if you want to drop in on one of the clinics that's great too.