Enormocast 271: Charlie Schreiber – The Kids are Alright

On Episode 271, I am joined by climbing coach and former (maybe) competitor, Charlie Schreiber. Charlie coaches climbers of all ages, but the meat of this conversation is about youth climbing teams. Charlie has been a youth climbing coach since he was a youth himself. We discuss my own skepticism about the promise of youth sports, but Charlie allays my fears as best he can with his techniques for including ALL kids in the success of the program. By the end, I am not necessarily won over to the party-line on how good sports are for kids, but I am convinced that Charlie is one of the best youth coaches I’ve ever met.

Paradigm Climbing

Enormocast 264: Alita Contreras – The Language of Climbing

On Episode 264 of the Enormocast, I connect with Alita Contreras – a Venezuelan/Colombian climber beaming in from…Georgia. Alita was born in Venezuela to a Colombian father who taught his child to love the traditions and legends of Colombia. At University while studying languages, Alita found climbing, and soon, she was pining to leave her rainy and relatively rockless home for destinations worldwide. Stints in Germany and Canada introduced her to the world of climbing coaching and she brought her own ideas of that craft to Colombia where she became a top competitor and then a top outdoor climber and now a coach. Alita is primed to take a job coaching girls in the States and about to finish a film, Guerreras, about the climbing women of Colombia.

Episode 194: Dru Mack – Getting Out of His Own Way.

On Episode 194, I sit down in Denver, Colorado with Louisville, KY native and Red River Gorge climber, Dru Mack. Dru is a youngish climber and coach who dropped roots in the Red as a kid, and now uses the base he gained there to tick hard sport pitches and boulders worldwide. At an early age, Dru experienced therapy for clinical anxiety, and he now can bring that experience to bear coaching kids not just in climbing, but finding their way in the complicated world of adolescence. Also, Dru is one of those seemingly rare climbers with a love of a ball sport, namely basketball, and apparently he has some actual skill? He uses the inspiration from that sport to drive his goals in climbing.

Dru in the Red