EP 60: Leif Gasch — Becoming a Trainer, Mini-Goals, and Tackling Listener Questions
Leif Gasch has been a climber for over 25 years and now works as a trainer and coach. We talked about his path from construction to coaching, balancing training with a physically demanding job, how to be a better weekend warrior, mini-goals, breaking into new grades, warming up for hard redpoints, and much more.
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Show Notes:
http://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/leif-gasch
Nuggets:
4:36 – “Back porch kind of a deal”
5:28 – Living on the road during covid, and moving back to Lander
8:06 – The pod, Leif’s first trip to Hueco with Scott Milton, and sending Frogger
11:18 – Years of cherry-picking, new development in Hueco, and becoming a guide
12:51 – Early carpentry, becoming an electrition, and building a house
15:40 – Growing up on a ranch, hunting, and climbing Devils Tower
17:54 – Climbing in Cody, ‘The Fuz’ climbing gang, teaching, and falling in love with climbing
21:45 – “You come to Lander, you gotta bring your own job!”
23:32 – Living with artists, ‘The Plague’, and Leif’s intro to training for climbing
25:46 – Lifting weights in college, and the rocket ship analogy
29:12 – Sticking with the training process, “it takes time”, and Leif’s first 5.14b
35:57 – Learning to stick with it, mental carry over, and testing to be an electrition
38:38 – Moving away from the trades, relating to blue collar workers, and starting SUBSTR8
42:04 – How Leif educated himself to become a better coach, remote vs. in-person coaching, and being receptive to critique
45:42 – The PCC
49:06 – The 75/25 rule, and designing skill drills
54:40 – On the wall tension building, crunches, and the shortcomings of limit bouldering
58:56 – Core tension, the posterior chain, and an example of building tension on the wall
1:02:39 – The benefit of having a specific goal
1:04:19 – The drill Leif learned from Kris Hampton at Power Company, and learning to create more tension through the feet
1:07:10 – Patron Question from Donovan: What should I work on to break into 5.13?
1:19:50 – Patron Question: How can I be a weekend warrior?
1:31:53 – Mini goals
1:34:31 – Patron Question from Tyler: Tips for non-professional climbers?
1:39:03 – Patron Question from Matt: Recommendations for someone who works a physically demanding job in the trades?
1:43:49 – Patron Question from Moritz: Leif’s weight when he climbed 5.14b?
1:45:38 – My restricting eating story, training heavy, and being an opportunivore
1:54:40 – Patron Question from Moritz: Can Leif do a front lever yet?
1:56:43 – Patron Question from Nolan: What does your warmup look like for a hard redpoint?
2:05:14 – Patron Question from Steve Bechtel: How did Leif deal with and get past a severe finger injury?
2:16:01 – ‘Strawberry Roan’
2:26:01 – Patron Question from Darren: Send goals or dream route in Lander?
2:31:11 – Patron Question from Darren: Does it feel like a disadvantage being a big dude pulling on small monos in Lander?
2:33:08 – Grateful for friends and family
