EICA GCC TCA Alien Rock Avertical World Stirling Spiders Wow! The 3rd and final round of the YCS has come and gone already... Time surely does fly. This years Youth Climbing Series in Scotland has certainly been a rollercoaster of emotions for a lot of kids! I can talk from experience in the South Scotland as I have been coaching many of the kids entering these competitions and all I can say is that all these kids deserve medals for the dedication, training and continual pressure they put themselves under.  As much as the YCS is meant to be a relaxed...

Yo Guys Last Saturday was the first round of the YCS for many regions round the country including both North and South Scotland. In the North it was held at Inverness Leisure Centre and in the South it was at Stirling's "The Peak"!A host of competitors and coaches checking out myself and Jonny's creations (Photo By Rachel Carr)   This year was set to be the biggest one yet with 75 kids participating in total! This is massive for our regional rounds and it really shows just how Climbing as a sport is growing year after year. Rock Climbing is now...

“Fear leads to anger… Anger leads to hate… Hate leads to suffering…”   Yoda   One of my favourite quotes of all time! And it is so very relevant in the world of climbing… Fear of a route or situation holds us back, which if we are competitive in any way, will anger us. The anger we feel leads to hating that climb or situation. The hatred of those climbs or situations forces us to avoid them at all costs which leads to suffering in the way of being held back in our strife for better performance as we are not...

A topic with thousands of different avenues, paths and directions. What does fear actually mean in climbing? Does it help or hinder us? What are the different types of fear? As a climbing coach I am covering the dillema of fear with climbers of all ages and abilities basically every day of the week. There is too much out there to put into one small blog, but at least I can make a start at it. Falling The biggest barrier I have found facing 95% of the climbers I coach is the fear of falling. For everyone the challenge to overcome...

2013 is only less than a month in and already it is proving to be much busier than I expected. Not a bad thing really, I am having to come to terms with the fact that I eventually had to start working full-time :P The great thing is that I am doing a job that I absolutely love, something which I was terrified would never happen. When I first left school I had no idea what I was going to do. A Year of doing not much but climbing taught me my life would have to be involved in the sport...

Things have been pretty fast paced since New Year, although not a bad thing (being busy is never a bad thing), it's all quite tiring and when it catches up with you the feeling of exhaustion is hard to shake off. I am currently sitting in my living room with aching triceps, biceps and finger tips, every click of the keyboard seems to send a shiver up my arm and my eyes are literally aching to close with every minute that goes by.   Climb Newcastle Boot Demo Last night I was in Newcastle working an Evolv Boot Demo at the Bouldering...

  Injury is something I have both little and lots of experience with. Throughout my career as a climber and coach, I have been surrounded by injuries, but I have yet to experience the real horror that is being injured to the point of complete shut down.   Injuries in the Blogosphere Nat wrote an amazing blog on her experiences with injury that touched both myself and many others around the world. It told of her life of training and competing on the Youth European and World circuit whilst dealing with repetitive injuries in her fingers and abdominals. Much more recently, Mr Macleod himself has...

Saturday   I had a pretty full on day at the TCA in Glasgow where I competed in the second round of their Winter Bouldering Series. In the morning I headed over to pick up friends of mine who were also competing, Neill Busby, Eddie Barbour and Lisandro Defays. Eddie is probably for lack of a better term (and possibly the most accurate one that comes to mind right now) my rival :P In a friendly way, but he is a good guy for me to try and beat as we both tend to climb at a fairly similar level, in...

Hey Guys Well since last weeks blog post a number of things have happened.  I got out to Dumbarton a couple of more times... I travelled down to Liverpool for Team selection of both the Lead and Bouldering Junior Team I apparently have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome...   Bouldering On the bouldering front things have been going from really good to totally awesome! Last week I climbed my first F8A "Sabotage" at Dumbarton Rock. Although this is my first F8A, it's probably only my first from a lack of trying. "Sabotage" is the first F8A I have actually tried and coupled with...

OK, so maybe the season begun a while back, but I've not posted on any of my bouldering this winter at all so I thought I would begin now :D To be honest, I don't tend to like posting about my bouldering as it is so utterly dissapointing compared with my route climbing. However, this year I have decided to take a big step forward in my bouldering in an effort not only to better my route climbing for 2013, but also to improve myself as a Boulderer. There is no doubt about it, I am a route climber at heart....