The Self-Coached Climber: The Guide to Movement Training Performance by Dan M. Hague, Douglas Hunter Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $19.23 You Save: $15.72 (45%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $19.18 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Self-Coached Climber: The Guide to Movement Training Performance
Book Review: Very good for most climbers, great for high level climbers, excellent for coaches
Summary: 4 Stars
Pluses:
This is an impressive and comprehensive guide to understanding and improving your climbing. It is my favorite book on climbing technique. (Unfortunately, there isn't much decent competition. Niche, meet potential audience). There are some great movement exercises that I've found very useful in my training (the particularly the traversing and turning section). The authors worked incredibly hard and put together a book that is well worth the cost, even without the DVD. The DVD that's included is worth the price of the book itself, as it's extremely concise, well organized, and clear.
Minuses:
The title is wrong. This is essentially a textbook written for experienced climbers, or better, for people teaching climbing to experienced climbers. For the lay reader, it is far too dense and jargon-y. The intrasport climbing jargon is always frustrating enough (who makes this stuff up?), and then layer on kinesiology and physics, and...oof. Not an easy read. The overall organizational structure is not that effective (too much theory up front) and some of the instructions seem rushed and are difficult to follow. As a self-coaching guide, it would have been more effective with less theory and more technique and training. Overall, the book is written for someone climbing in the high 5.11s and up - the initial examples are for people climbing around 5.12. There are a few later examples for those of us climbing in the 10s (yes, that's me and that's my bias), but they seem a little tacked on. I would like the glossary to be much more thorough, but again, there is an assumption that the reader already knows quite a bit about the subject.
Overall:
This is the best reference book on climbing technique that I have ever read. By far. If you're a climber, you should probably buy this book. If you're a coach, guide, teacher, or experienced climber, definitely buy it. Even if you only skim the book for your specific areas of interest or watch the excellent DVD, it's still worth buying. I think the authors just tried to do too much, which is far better and more admirable than the alternative. If it had been marketed as a textbook or teaching aid, I would give it five stars.
Personal plea:
Someone *please* finally write a basic climbing reference-book that is clear, consistent, well-structured, thoroughly defines its terms (tell me what the jargon MEANS, dammit), and most importantly, assumes that the reader has no knowledge of the sport. A real climbing primer. Please.
Book Review: A Great Training Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Now this is really training what these two guys are teaching !
This is one of the most useful book on training for climbing that I've ever red. Instead of the usual "how to get stronger in order to pull hard moves", this book is about how to get your body smarter in order to be more efficient while climbing.
A must read !
Book Review: Exactly what I'm looking for
Summary: 5 Stars
I had set out to find a book to complete my knowledge of balance & motion in climbing. Sure I can keep progressing up the 5.10d/5.11a treadmill slowly on my own terms, but why not do it with a boost in the form of some good body-oriented knowledge? Everything I'd seen before gave a simple review of holds and rope-handling, leaving me deeply unsatisfied with how to work on the subtle body mechanics.
I'm 1.5 chapters in and I can already say this book is precisely what I was looking for. The detail is there and the material satisfies. I'm already noticing my climbing improve!
Book Review: Good book
Summary: 4 Stars
I cannot say how this book compares to others of its kind, but on an absolute scale, it works very well. There are a lot of suggestions for practical exercises as well as sample training plans for different levels which specify which exercises (laps, bouldering circuits, ...) you should be able to perform at which climbing grade to achieve your goal. All this makes it very valuable in practice.
I am hesitating to give five stars only because the DVD I got has some technical issues, and because I am not sure how good the best (i.e., 5-star) book on this topic is.
Book Review: good, solid information
Summary: 4 Stars
i'm a new climber but this book is well written and easy to understand. lots of terminology and techniques to help any climber improve. has lots of diagrams that are easy to follow.