Performance Rockclimbing

This book will not tell you how to hold onto a tiny crimpy hold with one finger while your feet hunt for somewhere to stand. It WILL tell you lots of things about how muscules work, what good training looks like, and what good climbing feels like. This is not a recipe book, because in climbing, there is no recipe. Everyone climbs under a different set of constraints - strength, weight, skill, etc. This is a book that will give you the tools you need to watch your own climbing and improve it. Read it cover to cover.

Improving one's ability in any endeavor can be difficult once one has practiced for a few years. One might think that there's not all that much technique involved in rock climbing, since the climber has but two arms and two legs. But it's not that simple. Performance Rock Climbing breaks climbing down into a number of aspects, then teaches how to optimize each and combine the parts into a whole.When this book hit the shelves, I had stagnated for a few years, unable to improve. Within 6 months, my onsight leading level had jumped nearly a whole grade. I'd learned to channel my energy for climbing in a more efficient way, and to reduce climbing related injuries. Rather than just exercising the climbing muscles, I learned to better exercise my mind - perhaps the most critical muscle of all for a climber.

If you buy only one rock climbing book, this should be it!! Great overview of training techniques and what you can do on and off rock to improve your overall conditioning and climbing. Explains physiology in easy to understand terms so that each person can customize workouts to their own needs and to fit their goals.

Looking back after buying this book two years ago reaffirmed to me that Goddard and Neumann achieved what no other climbing training book has: they combined the scientific principles of physical training with on-the-rock experience and captured it in a very readable form.The material is detailed and informative, blending research with proven results in the form of Goddard's own climbing performance over a decade. I watched him climb a 5.14 in Logan Utah in 1995, and it was nothing short of amazing. Applying the principles has helped me improve from climbing 5.11a to 5.12.

Are you constantly thinking about climbing? Do you salivate when you see the clean vertical wall of your office building? If you are violently excited about climbing and are willing to seriously train for improvement, then this book is for you. This is not a book that details weight room exercises for building bulging biceps. Rather, it is a scientific analysis of the aesthetics of motion in the vertical domain. Let's forget about pulling the overhang with brute force. Let's concentrate on moving past the overhang in the most graceful, precise and energy-efficient manner possible - that's what the tenor of this book is. This book is a careful examination of the physical, biological and mental processes necessary to improve your performance on the rock. It is a serious and comprehensive training manual for serious climbers. As a bonus, it has a beautiful color photo section of climbers in action - looking at it makes me want to go out and get back on the rock!