Tactics - 'Free' improvement

Tactics are too often forgotten in our quest to get good at our climbing. A climber once asked me if he should train to lock off on one arm for several minutes to prepare for placing gear on a steep grade IX in the Cairngorms. That would be one way, sure (taking several years of effort no doubt). But another would be to learn to place the gear in 30 seconds rather than 5 minutes. Tactics.

Its good to be focused on getting strong an fit, but not good to focus on it at the expense of methods to sidestep the need to get strong and fit. I'll be adding many sources of advice on tactics over the coming weeks to the links section. To Kick off, check out Andy Kirkpatrick's site

www.psychovertical.com

Andy is a walking encyclopedia of clever tactics and trick to get the most out of your gear and systems while climbing. Many of these come from alpinism, but can be applied to any type of climbing.

davemacleod.com now running

www.davemacleod.com

davemacleod.com is up and running now. Apart from information and images of my own climbing, you can find articles about training for climbing, preventing and dealing with injury, details of my climbing coaching services and upcoming lectures.

Introducing the Online Climbing Coach blog

My name is Dave MacLeod, I am a sport scientist, climbing coach and pro climber based in Glasgow, Scotland. You can find out more about me at my website. I decided to start this blog to share all the information and experience I carry around in my head and read about all the time, providing a good resource of advice about training for climbing. I'll be dissecting the latest research, analysing and reporting news and other people's work on the subject and providing links to good sources of information elsewhere.

I originally studied sport science to help me coach myself and take my climbing as far as it could go. My study helped me so much and I wan't to make it easier for others climbers to access the same knowledge and apply it.

I'm sure I'm going to enjoy this blog. I hope you do to and it helps you climb better and harder!

Dave Macleod