How to train like an Olympian: Climbers Erin McNeice and Shauna Coxsey share TeamGB strength training tips

  • 2 months ago
In the lead-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, The Independent’s Kate Gill looked into what it takes to train like a Team GB athlete ahead of competing on the world stage.IndependentTV’s How To Train Like A Olympian is a series focused on the individual fundamentals Olympians have to focus on within their training.Olympic finalist Erin McNeice, 20, and Tokyo 2020 Olympian Shauna Coxsey, 31, explore the importance of strength in their sport. SOURCE: The Independent

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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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