A Masterclass in How to Progress Your Climbing | ft. Will Anglin of Tension Climbing & Matt Jones

Listen to the full episode 👉 thenuggetclimb...
Or you can check out our library of 150+ interviews with the biggest names in climbing 👉 thenuggetclimb...
About The Guest:
Will Anglin returns and is joined by coach and trainer Matt Jones. This is one of the most valuable episodes I’ve ever recorded and is a GOLD MINE for anyone who wants to progress their climbing. Will and Matt provide clear and in-depth guidance for beginner, intermediate, and advanced climbers in this three-hour masterclass. If you feel stuck at a plateau or simply want to progress to the next level, don’t skip this episode!
Full Show Notes 👉 thenuggetclimb...
Support The Podcast By Joining Our Patreon
•Watch Uncut Videos For Every Episode
•Exclusive Bonus Episodes With Guests
•Ability To Ask Future Guests Questions
•Sneak Peek At Upcoming Guests
•Discounts on Merch
•Ad-Free Episodes
Check It Out 👉 / thenuggetclimbing

[@CamiFL593]

"I used my muscular strength to avoid finger strength" is a great description of my first big plateau. As someone who came to climbing from a calisthenics background with hyper-mobile joints, any chance to press myself into a corner or sink into an insane drop knee was my answer to everything haha.

[@ThatLaggyNoob]

Accurately describes me too. I progressed fairly quickly while barely being able to hang my body weight on a 20mm edge and just hit a wall at a certain point. I could do one arm pull ups but couldn't seem to unlock that strength on any climbs with small holds, whenever I needed to just bone down on an edge I didn't have a hope. The year I decided to start hangboarding twice a week my progress picked up again

[@CamiFL593]

@@ThatLaggyNoob Exactly the same with me. Hangs and more recently board climbing really helped. The muscle memory in knowing you are pulling really fucking hard is its own skill! Also board climbing really is helping me with body tension even more than fingers right now which feels really great. To this day though, if you give me slopers on an arete I can squeeze or a horrible body twisting squeeze into a corner it adds at least a grade to my abilities haha I saw a pro climber saying "don't forget to embrace your superpower" so I still have fun on those climbs.

[@alvarobriceno4500]

Thanks for the content!

[@wrongbeta]

High damn quality content folks, I really appreciate it!

[@calebragatz]

Sick episode really appreciate the full length posts recently

[@AmroNaddy]

Great comment from Matt around 1:45:30: intermediate climbers separate “performance” from “training”. Training might just mean drilling a skill that’s underdeveloped. Performance is often going as hard as you can any way you can to get up a wall. Each of those has different expectations for a days climb. Usedul

[@j.l.5966]

Intermediate climber here. 4 years experience, on-sight level V6/5.11, project V8/5.13. I climb 3 days a week. Wednesday & Fridays are “training” days, and Sunday is performance day. Sunday = Send Day. My gym resets problems on Mondays (after a 4 -6 week rotation) so Sundays work as a last chance day as well.

[@LarryMarkel]

Yes! Not that I’m super strong, but I tend to view every hold as a nail and my hands as a hammer, and definitely fall into somewhat strong not good 😂. Great content

[@spulverable]

A little bit infuriating to fall into their beginner category after climbing for almost 40 years.

[@JoeShowers]

Maybe humbling is a better way to view it? There’s layers to this climbing thing, you and I (15 years myself) are beginners

[@benjaminClimbs]

epic

[@soccutd77]

Maybe I haven’t watched the whole pod through yet, but I always get so disappointed with “strong not good” because they always call strong pull-ups, when int a climbing context strong should mean super strong fingers. It was only touched on briefly with “using body strength to avoid using finger strength.” Past an indoor v4 that finger strength becomes so much more important and pulling strength is very niche or a nice supplement. The “strong not good” category if you’re lacking finger strength is just also “weak and not good.” IE if you look at the comp kid flashing your project vs the muscled gym bro, the comp kid has a way higher finger strength which allows him/her to unlock all the fluidity on the wall. Maybe I’m just an outlier here in the “seemingly strong but really actually weak” category, but to me there seems to be a sizeable population of people like this that consistently get ignored by popular training advice. There’s a huge difference between hanging 1 arm 20 mm and doing one arm pull-ups and projecting v5 (strong not good), and doing one arm pull-ups but barely hanging 20 mm with two hands body weight and projecting v5 (seemingly strong but actually weak and still not good).

[@timothyhoke8219]

As someone who resonates with the "beginner, strong but not good" descriptor who has weak hand strength, the way I'm using these definitions is like a diagnostic tool. E.g. to identify my tendencies toward certain projects and the avoidance of others. If I'm avoiding a project, why? For me at this point they are the slabby problems with small toe holds and minimal hand holds that force me to use technique (and trust in my feet, body position) to get up the wall rather than just pulling passed moves I don't know how to perform. They did address later in the podcast that at a certain point with higher grades you're not going to be able to muscle your way through problems without learning the requisite skills. So I enjoyed the conversation because it gave me better vocabulary and a way of thinking through developing myself, especially as a beginner climber.

[@jrwhisky]

I'm 30 minutes in, is this just 3 hours of nuancing???

[@yclimber]

Beginner climbers are sending 5.11+? Haha okay

[@ArchibaldVonSkip]

I was (and still am) an intermediate boulderer (V9 ish) and climbed 5.11 the first time I tried top rope after 2 1/2 years of bouldering.

[@derekcraig3617]

The amount of commercials you put on this podcast makes listening a major chore. Compared to other pods on YT it's crazy how maby commercials are on this one. I can't even listen anymore and I'm giving up.

[@Strummify]

He's literally providing free content.

[@vincentd333]

Get the frustration, but I think it’s fine. The amount of time, money and risk that goes into making these more than justifies skipping through (or even buying from) a few ads.

[@Kmilushev]

its literally free

[@derekcraig3617]

​@@Kmilushevit's not free when I'm listening at work. it costs me time and money to stop every 3 minutes to fast forward through all the commercials

[@derekcraig3617]

​@@Strummifyit's not free when commercials pop up every 3 minutes. he's getting paid the maximum he can by allowing the most commercials possible...