Time to talk about our people again! RE Athlete shout out, this is Dan. I can’t even begin to capture the diverse spectrum of athletes we train, young/old, professional/recreational, recovering/injured. Working with all my athletes is a joy, Dan is no exception, he climbs at a level that maybe 1% of the worlds climbers climb. Helping him stay injury free and improve is a different ball game. I ran into Dan a few days ago at our local bouldering gym and he had just had one of his best “sending” days of his life reappointing back to back 8c+ in a day. I of course was thrilled but less about the grade of the climbs he achieved but more about the joy that was emanating from his soul. It’s a luxury to do these things, when it’s your job it becomes a whole different commitment level, to see improvement in an elite athlete is incredible for the athlete and the coach. Keep up the strong focused work Dan!!
From Dan:
Five years ago I started to incorporate structured training for climbing into my life in order to better achieve my goals. Since then I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from a some amazing people in the climbing world and have successfully been able to evolve, develop new strengths, all leading to new improvement in my climbing to the upper end of 5.14.
Having the opportunity to work with Carolyn Parker at the Ripple Effect has been an amazing experience for me in all aspects of my life. Her focus on foundational, functional strength, balance and proper form are tenements for training and also for life. Her approach as a coach, is straight forward, fun, and no nonsense.
Working with Carolyn has helped me to re-center my approach to training personally and professionally. As an athlete I feel stronger, more activated, more balanced, more in tune with body and healthier than I have in years. And as a slightly older athlete still trying to perform at a high level this is far more important and valuable to me than anything else I can do in my climbing training life.
The sense of community and the positive energy at the Ripple Effect make it an environment I look forward to being in and a place I feel comfortable being myself and trying hard.