Page 21 - 2017 AMA Winter

company to push the knowledge of sport science and training within climbing.
As our data base and client lists grew, we were constantly reminded of the need for science based training knowledge within climbing. Our protocols seemed sound and the results we were getting in both testing and training were reliably good, showing us that we had found a formula that worked. This showed us that we had enough interesting and powerful data to indicate a good methodology but neither the know how or time to maximise it’s use. Concurrently, the thought of creating a global product to be used by other coaches started to creep into meetings between Tom and myself on a more frequent basis. During a bleak and harrowing trip in Switzerland to climb the Eiger North face, my climbing partner provided the solution to both my issues. As a professional design engineer and avid climber Dale Comley would be the perfect person to develop Tom’s original banister design into a marketable product. He also provided me with the person to take hold of our data base, which by this point consisted of around 4 messy excel sheets spread across 3 laptops. Remus Knowles joined us soon after and has been crunching numbers for us ever since, splitting his time between his house in Sheffield and the back of a transit van at any amazing climbing destination of your choice.
With a working formula for profiling climbers, a tried and tested training methodology and now a team to help us handle and share this idea the concept of our Lattice system was becoming more widely spread. With a keen climbing community ready to take on any new information heading their way we began to accelerate our plans for a wider reach. However, with all this enthusiasm and motivation came general chaos, a disregard for working hours and chronic levels of fatigue. Kim Randall a.k.a the boss a.k.a Tom’s better half has now been working with the team for the last year in order to stream line our operation and keep
us on target. Another recent member to the team is Oli Grounsell, who as a prodigy of Tom’s earlier coaching years has become an extraordinary climber and is now under an apprenticeship in training plan design and profiling write ups.
Performance Profiling
Regardless of any expansion for Lattice Training as a business we still see the development of performance profiling as a central part to our operation. Training for climbing has been happening for decades, however the use of profiling methods to determine how to train is still rare today.
Performance profiling has been used in other sports for a very long time. Rowers will be put on Ergs, runners on treadmills and rugby players in the weights room. Despite each of these methods not necessarily being a direct replication of the sporting event, the controllable aspects of using equipment and a gym environment will mean testing can be replicated. This means results can be compared between athletes. Despite performance in most sports being reliant on a multitude of factors, such as team dynamics, psychology and technique, understand- ing the physical attributes of an athlete can mean that at least one very important aspect of performance is being monitored. Tom and myself first saw this in our clients who would spend seasons training hard and seem fitter than ever and yet somehow not apply this ability to their chosen goal on rock climbs or in competition. Physical profiling allows us to see if the hard work has paid off and physical improvements made. If this is the case and success still hasn’t occurred, we can look into other area’s to work on instead of just focussing on something which is already good enough.
Lattice assessments aim to stress a climbers strength, energy system condi- tioning and muscle function in a way that is specific to the demands of climbing. We use set protocols of dead hangs, body
weight exercises and circuit climbs in each assessment which can be repeated with a climber of any ability in any location that has a Lattice board. An assessment will require a climber to work through several maximal protocols whilst being observed and guided by a coach. The repeatability of these assessments has meant we can collate scores for climbers from 6a to 9b from all over the world. With this greater data set we can now compare aspects of performance within the testing to aspects of performance within real climbing scenarios. This means that a potentially ideal physical profile can be built for any destination, any specific route and any individual athlete.
Unfortunately, as humans our ability to perform in sport is never quite as simple as this. As coaches we understand the nature of pressured sporting performance and therefore use the Lattice assessment data as a tool from which to use our insight. The results of an assessment will help inform the process of working with an individual but it will never be able to directly produce an interpretation without the knowledge of an experienced coach. This is a very important thing to remember if you are ever profiled in anyway, data and science can predict an outcome but it cannot guarantee it. A great example of this is when comparing the performance between many of the top climbers we have worked with. Several of the UK climbing stars such as Ben Moon and Steve McClure have not always scored as highly during our testing protocols compared to their equally performing peers. We are now able to see how much of their experience, movement skills and tactics have allowed them to perform at such high levels with lower physical capabilities (relatively speaking). On the other hand, climbers such as Alex Megos and junior athletes like Will Bosi, are managing to tick off some of the worlds top routes BUT from what we can see, neither of these athletes has really applied themselves in the same way and
Steve McClure getting ready for Lattice testing (Photo: Keith Sharples)
Tom and Ollie debating data (Photo Peter Kneen)
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