Author Archives: coachjfire

If you haven’t heard or seen it yet, I did a 6 episode series on the Nugget. In this series, Steven and I talk about some of the most basic topics in climbing. We bring our top tips and most common pitfalls for each subject. The aim is to create an “evergreen” resource which weContinue reading “Nugget Fundamentals series”

It’s expected on a long trip that certain performance aspects will change over time. Maximum strength will usually go down due to a lack of focused training. Coordination and speed may improve or plateau depending on the demands of the problems being climbed. Endurance on the wall is one physical factor that can be expectedContinue reading “Managing the beatdown: the long trip performance curve”

Where’s the joy in climbing? I ask this question in consultations a lot. It catches people off-guard, and the answers are often illuminating. My least favorite thing about this question is it makes me feel like a life coach. It’s a kneejerk presumption in the climbing community that everyone is in it for higher numbers.Continue reading “The Joy Question”

Intuition is an essential tool for the climbing athlete. As climbing gets more popular, training and coaching inevitably follows that growth. The pressure to organize and record and meticulously obsess over every trackable detail gains momentum each day. But you are not these numbers; and if you let them, they’ll start making your decisions forContinue reading “You are not your max hang”

“Is it really summer if you don’t get granite rash scrapes on top of your poison oak rash?” my friend Sean joked, while we tried to stuff our things back into our packs without dropping anything essential down the abyssal holes between talus. I had just given up trying our “warmup project.” After thrashing myContinue reading “Why bother?”

Henry George said, “Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal who is never satisfied.” Now, obviously Mr. George didn’t own a dog… if my partner and I get home at different times, our dog will try to convince the later arrival that the earlier one didn’t alreadyContinue reading “Improving work capacity, the mileage paradox, and the Progression Zone”

Topping out is anxiety-inducing for a lot of climbers. There are a few reasons for this, but most of them stem from the fact that climbing skills are terrain specific. Every topout involves a significant and often novel angle change, and each one requires a different set of movement skills, strategies, and body awareness. MaybeContinue reading “The Topout Guide: how to stop floppin’ and start toppin’”

Have I lost my fire? Feeling haggard and out of breath near the very beginning of this modest approach, I pause for a step and drink deep from the forest air. Maybe I packed too much crap in my crash pad. Do I really need both pairs of shoes, a full liter and a halfContinue reading “Objects in Mirror: On aging, dying and the push to perform”

I sat down in June for almost 3 hours of conversation with Steven Dimmitt, and the result was this podcast! I relistened and I’m very happy with the result – he must have done a great job editing it. Anyways, the show notes are incredibly helpful and detailed as always: https://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/jesse-firestone and that link willContinue reading “Coach JFire on the Nugget podcast!”

Most climbers want to get better at climbing. I ask all my clients what motivates them, and progression is the most common answer. Generally I’m of the mind that progression is a great goal and motivator. But I think progression has downsides which are rarely discussed. There are two obvious reasons we want to progress:Continue reading “Is it actually better to climb harder?”