00:00I think this is probably one of the most important things.
00:07It's such an all-body sport, so you've got to be strong in so many different areas.
00:10It's one of the hardest things about climbing because you can't focus on one thing, you've
00:15got to focus on everything.
00:16But it's also the thing I love most about it because it makes training so interesting.
00:35I'm Erin McNeice and I'm on Team GB's 2024 Paris Olympic team.
00:40My name is Shauna Foxy, I am an Olympian, I went to the Tokyo 2020 Games and competed
00:45in sport climbing.
00:47I started climbing at the age of four after seeing climbing on the TV.
00:51I saw a French professional athlete, she was climbing these big cliffs in Africa and I
00:56was just obsessed with the sport.
00:59I started at a local climbing centre, on the kids groups and then my dad and I got really
01:03into it and I guess the rest is history as they say.
01:06I started competing at seven and never looked back.
01:09Climbing just brings me joy I guess, it gives me something to focus on.
01:15It's something that I'm so passionate about and if I think about what I would be like
01:19as a person even without climbing, I really don't know.
01:23I think everybody who knows me would say that I'm really shy and unassuming and don't draw
01:29a lot of attention but climbing has given me so much confidence and just a real drive
01:35so I think I would be so different without climbing.
01:43Climbing is a full body sport, you are literally holding on with the tips of your fingers and
01:49the tips of your toes.
01:50We use every muscle in our body including our brain, we need to be really thinking about
01:55what we're doing and how we're doing it, it's problem solving.
01:59But strength plays a really important role.
02:02Physically, you need to be able to get yourself up the wall but that is everything from your
02:07upper body strength and I think there's this misconception that climbing is all about upper
02:11body, it is not, it is as much about lower body, really strong legs and core strength
02:17as well.
02:18And then finger strength, hand strength, contact strength so being able to, well if you have
02:23strong fingers, if you have strong hands, contact strength so when you hit a hole being
02:29able to actually hold it instead of just sliding off.
02:33In climbing we have to be ready to perform on anything in competition, we don't get to
02:37practice, we don't get to know what the climb might be like so you need to be ready for
02:41those powerful, big, dynamic movements and also those delicate, subtle ones.
02:46You have to have every part of your body as strong as it can possibly be so you can climb
02:51whatever is presented to you.
02:53For me, this past off-season, I've definitely focused a lot on mental strength and mental
03:04shift because my mental approach has changed completely.
03:08I used to be quite serious, I think people would still say that I'm serious but we used
03:13to be focused and no enjoying it, you have to focus, no smiling and now I enjoy it for
03:20the experience of it and I also used to try and tone things out or tune things out so
03:26the crowd or the music or if that was bringing me pressure then I had to completely like
03:31ignore it but now there's always going to be a crowd and there's always going to be
03:35music and a commentator and they're always going to try and build up the event but it's
03:40part of the experience and I love the whole experience so I want to enjoy everything about
03:46it so I sort of, a bit of pressure is good so I just take it all in.
03:53There are many different columns that make up training as a professional climber, both
04:01on the mat, on the wall and off the wall so you will have your climbing based training
04:07which will be on the wall whether that's fitness or technique or creativity, there's a lot
04:15of different elements to train on the wall and then off the wall there's a lot of strength
04:20training that needs to happen physically, you want to be robust, you want to be strong,
04:23you want to be bouncy, you want to be ready for anything and that's everything from training
04:27specific finger strength to arm strength to core strength to leg strength, it's training
04:33head to toe quite literally.
04:35It's usually about six to eight hours a day depending on what I'm doing.
04:39My warm-up is pretty big, I try and fit exercises in there that I like so if there's like mobility
04:48or little exercises that I need to work on then I'll put those in my warm-up.
04:54My morning is usually in my day, not every day of course but usually it's definitely
04:59in my week plan and then I'll always have circuits in a day, I have circuits every day
05:07but they're quite low intensity and then yeah either a board session or max efforts or basically
05:13I don't have any days where I'm just climbing, I'll be training in the gym or I'll have a
05:19board session or I'll do endurance on the power endurance on the boulders.
05:24Rest is quite important, some people do it differently but for me definitely one rest
05:28day if not very low intensity because then I can properly go full out for six days in a row.
05:35Diet, yeah my coaches were very strict because they didn't think I was getting enough protein
05:41in when you're training like eight hours a day you need to actually make it worth it
05:46by eating enough stuff to build the muscle.
05:48And then you've also got the kind of mental side of it so whether that's competition experience
05:53and doing competitions for training and using that as a way to explore different methods when
05:58you're on the wall, different tactics or if it's discussing with other athletes or previous coaches
06:04to explore new tactics or researching them and then you've got kind of the whole sports psychology
06:10side which is an element into itself and then physiotherapy and then kind of nutrition as well
06:16there's a lot of different parts a lot of moving parts going on all at the same time.
06:23I was like nowhere near this level last year I'd made like one semi-final and barely scraped in and
06:31now it's like I've made every final that I've every final for every comp I've gone to this
06:37year it feels absolutely crazy to think that and two podiums like it was a bit unfathomable last
06:44year that this would this would be where I am but yeah I can't believe it. I'm Erin McNeice. I'm
06:50Shona Coxsey. I'm an Olympian. I'm an Olympian. And you've just watched how to train like an
06:55Olympian on Independent TV. Bye! Thank you for watching. Bye!
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