Climbing Resources

Guide to Eating Disorders for Climbers

Fact sheets from Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitian Association

Balancing exercise-induced inflammation
Building a performance plate
Caffeine and athletic performance
Dietary supplements fact sheet
Energy availability fact sheet
Healthy snacking fact sheet
Fad diet confusion
Healthy grocery shopping
Nutritional support for injury recovery and return-to-play
Orthorexia nervosa fact sheet
Periodization and timing of macronutrients
Power performance with protein
Pre-workout nutrition
Probiotics and the gut
Transitioning to healthy eating

Fact sheets from USPOC
Nutrients for Bone/Joint Injury Recovery
Nutrients for Soft Tissue Injury Recovery
Nutrients for Head Injury Recovery
Travel Nutrition Factsheet
Vegan and Vegetarian Nutrition

Fact sheets from Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitian Association

Hydrate early and often
Sleep for success
The science of hydration
Wasted workouts (on alcohol)

Fact sheets from USPOC 

Altitude Factsheet
Recovery Factsheet
Hydration Factsheet

Climbing Resources

Fueling Climbing: What to Eat to Crush Your Route

Fact sheets from Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitian Association

Fueling on-the-go
Fueling to win
Fueling with a purpose
Fueling during exercise
Fueling essentials for the lactose intolerant athlete

Fact sheets from USPOC

Fueling Strategies – Performance
Athlete Plates – Easy Day
Athlete Plates – Moderate Day
Athlete Plates – Hard Day

Climber’s Mental Health Toolbox
Rock climbing doesn’t just create strong bodies, it can create strong minds too. Every new problem is a chance to use growth mindset. Each fall is an opportunity to develop resilience. Frustrating moments are great times to practice self-regulation — the list of ways to develop mental skills in climbing goes on and on.

Anxiety During the Pandemic

Meet Your Amygdala

In some team dynamics, there are going to be unavoidable rivalries: teammates will struggle for spots, personalities will clash over leadership responsibilities, and issues will arise with other teams. Conflict is normal and not always a problem on its own, but ongoing rivalries can slowly poison a team. Nadia Kyba, MSW, TrueSport Expert and President of Now What Facilitation, has seen teams go through rough patches navigating these types of situations.

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When a young athlete has a conflict with their coach, it’s often hard for parents to know exactly how to handle it. It’s tempting to immediately interfere and email the coach on behalf of your child, but that’s not always the best solution for your growing athlete. Helping your athlete advocate for themselves and deal with conflict head-on, rather than relying on you to have the hard conversations, is going to be better for your child in the long-term.

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COACHES: How to Align Team Goals and Set Individual goals

Setting team goals for the season or the entire year should be a group effort—not a coach-driven spreadsheet or list. Each athlete on your team will come into the season with different goals, motivations, and values, and as a coach, part of your job is to help the team blend the overarching team goals and values with those individual drivers.

PARENTS: When To Pivot and Set New Goals

As parents and as coaches, we often understand that there’s value in pursuing a goal, even when it seems unattainable. Every hero’s journey encounters some moment of adversity, some chance that they won’t reach their goal. And even losing out on a goal has value because it instills resilience.

But at some point, there’s also value in pivoting and setting new goals. “In general, we only tell stories of perseverance,” notes TrueSport Expert, family physician, and resiliency guru Dr. Deborah Gilboa. “You hear about athletes who persevere through years of struggle, and finally succeed, but that can be a damaging perspective. To say that perseverance is always the answer,
that perseverance towards achievement is always the best or right path, simply isn’t true. Resilience means navigating change and coming through it as the kind of person you want to be. And if the only kind of person your child wants to be is a winner, that’s a problem because then persevering towards achievement is the only option. And on that path, you have to recognize the risk of permanent damage.”

Why and How to Help Your Team Practice Appreciation

Teammates who regularly spend time praising, acknowledging, and appreciating each other will work better as a unit. And as the sport cliche goes, sometimes the best offense is a good defense. When coaching a team, creating a culture of appreciation is absolutely the best defense against bullying and other issues amongst teammates. The good news is that it doesn’t take much work to develop this culture, although in this case, more is better!

9 Easy Ways to Prevent Cliques on Teams

When it comes to preventing cliques and bullying behaviors, it’s best to be proactive. While it’s easy to get caught up in drills, rosters, and logistics, coaches who focus on building strong team-wide relationships from the first day of practice are less likely to run into the social problems, like cliques, that hurt teams and players.

Parents: How to Regulate and Manage ALL Emotions

As the parent of a young athlete, you’re probably used to seeing a whole range of emotions, from wild joy to intense anger to devastating sadness. While it’s tempting to try to help your athlete ditch the anger and sadness, it’s actually more important that you let your athlete experience, understand, and move through their range of emotions.

Coach: 4 Questions to Help Change a Young Athlete’s Negative Thought Process

As a coach for young athletes, whether they’re in elementary school or high school, you’re going to deal with the emotional rollercoasters that young people experience. A fight with a friend over the weekend can translate to feelings of despair on game day, and stress over a championship game can leave an athlete feeling paralyzed. But as a coach, you can teach your athletes how to examine their feelings and move on from negative moments.