Jesse Firestone

Been a while since I did an intro post! If my math is right, tomorrow is 19 years since the first time I walked into a climbing wall. A humble racquetball court refitted with plywood walls and those old Metolius swirly resin holds. I've come a long way from that scrawny college kid who quit video games and needed something new to do with his time. I'm still pretty scrawny... but I've come a long way. 19 years ago I didn't even know this job existed. In between then and now I had an entire different successful career, started a family, and traveled to lots of interesting places in the US and the world to climb rocks. Sometimes people ask me if I get sick of talking and thinking about climbing all the time. I meet with climbers all week, record a podcast, create all the content you see here, and I still go climb outside or on my board a few times a week. And my answer is, I really don't get tired of it. Climbing is so endlessly fascinating and multifaceted. More psych just begets more psych. Despite the half a life in the meantime, I still feel a deep connection to that 20 year old kid who was down at the climbing wall every single day, pumped and awkward and weak and figuring it out. Despite all that has changed for me, my love for climbing is just as strong as ever. That's why I am a coach and a climber today. Even though this job isn't easy, I'm good at it and I love doing it. And that keeps my inner fire burning :) Thanks Ryan Palo, Charlie Egan, Joey Jannsen, Logan Carr, Kris Taylor and maybe others I've forgotten for these photos, and for the memories within.

Pros climbing hard grades got there by more than just finger and shoulder strength. Being super strong won’t get you up a limit climb if you don’t have the patience to project it. If you’re not focused and present when you need to be, you might not be able to give the same effort that you gave when you were putting up great numbers in the gym. Tactics and mindset are the unsung heroes when aiming for peak performance. #climbingcoach #climbingtraining #climbingmindset #tactics

Kingslayer One of the best flow states of my life, on one of the best boulders in the world. What more can you ask for?

Happy weekend

Here’s a sample from my most recent Inner Fire Climbing podcast AMA episode. Topics I covered this month: 👉 What is good form? 👉 When to go for send attempts? 👉 Crag dog etiquette 👉 Finger training after outdoor session 👉 Utility of off-the-wall balance exercises Available on Spotify, Apple and other major platforms. If you want to ask questions in next month’s AMA, find out about upcoming guests and get a bunch of other goodies you can support me on Patreon – link in bio. #climbingcoach #podcast #climbingtraining

Death Blossom V8 Spicy one up above the Fourth of July trailhead. Honestly was ready to walk away from this one after working it on a rope. It was hot AF and that no-hands V2 slab move after the mantle is super intimidating. But as I started the slow process of hiking out all my stuff, @lildantryhard was on his way up the hill. I didn't really feel like re-rehearsing it and carrying a bunch of pads up again later so I locked in and went for it. Made a plan that would maintain a single flat big-pad-sized landing zone for that top move, not ideal but good enough. Thanks Dan for the spot! It's a fantastic addition to Leavy's pantheon of highballs, props @owengmassey . I recommend previewing this one on a rope for all but the most confident in their abilities!

Risk vs consequence This is a super important distinction to understand in bouldering. And no, you cannot avoid this by always climbing in a group. It’s an incredibly common misconception that climbing in a group is automatically safer than climbing alone! The first lesson I would teach someone about climbing safely is that every single time you step off the ground, you are taking on risk. There is no 100% safe climbing environment, even the jugs on the kid’s wall at your local gym. The consequence in that situation is much lower than the consequences of say, free soloing a wall. But the risk is not zero. Holds spin and break. The human body is not a totally predictable system, either. The second lesson would be that you are always responsible for your own safety, even when in a group. You should never assume the pads are set up correctly, or that a toprope is set up the way you want it to be set up. You need to take steps to review these things yourself or at least get assurances in cases where review isn’t possible before you take on risk. The third lesson is the one in this reel – to learn to distinguish between risk and consequence. In this case I am speaking specifically about setting up the pads for bouldering, but here are some examples: Low risk / low consequence: climbing an easy, short boulder or an easy route. Low risk / high consequence: free soloing a route that is extremely easy for you. You are unlikely to fall, but a fall would be catastrophic. High risk / low consequence: Situations where you are likely to fall, but not in a bad way. Harder bouldering close to the ground and most sport climbing. High risk / high consequence: a highball boulder or trad route that is challenging for you. Individual problems and routes can also have different sections that fall into different categories, as I imply in the reel, and this is worth taking time to understand. #climbingcoach #climbingtraining #bouldering

Sending is a skill, and you need to practice it just like any other, even on non-limit problems. From stepping off the pad to topping out, there are innumerable little lessons your body learns whether the climb is V0 or V17. This skill set is easy to forget about when we get laser-focused on our projects. However, if what you want to do is send boulders, you need to spend more time doing just that, sending boulders, even if they are below your limit. #climbingcoach #climbingtraining #bouldering

On a recent podcast episode with Karly Rager, we talked about red point strategies and more. What else we talked about: 👉 Coaching focus and philosophy 👉 Preparing for hard multi-pitch 👉 Managing energy and stoke on long trips 👉 Dealing with uncertainty when projecting Karly Rager is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), an AMGA Single Pitch Instructor (SPI), and has over 13 years of climbing experience. Karly is the founder and head coach for Project Direct Coaching. On this episode, we talk about her multi-pitch first ascent in Mexico, her strategies for hard projecting, her coaching focus, and much more. Available on Spotify, Apple and other major platforms. The show is supported by my patrons (/innerfireclimbing) – patrons get dibs on questions, and a bunch of other coaching content and goodies. #climbingtraining #podcast #sportclimbing

April AMA episode is out! Topics this month: 👉 What is good form? 👉 When to go for send attempts? 👉 Crag dog etiquette 👉 Strength and finger training after outdoor session 👉 Utility of off-the-wall balance exercises Available on Spotify, Apple and other major platforms. If you want to ask questions in next month’s AMA, find out about upcoming guests and get a bunch of other goodies you can support me on Patreon – link in bio. #climbing #podcast #climbingcoach #climbingtraining

Injury basically comes down to tissue capacity. Can the tissues tolerate the load being placed on them by climbing? There are many long-term factors affecting tissue capacity, such as age, training age, lifestyle factors, and genetics. There are also transient factors like current climbing and training volume, and recent recovery habits. There are also factors in the sport challenge, such as the novelty of the movement – but if the tissue capacity is sufficiently high, novelty can be effectively ignored. For instance, if you've been climbing for 20 years, a mono on vert with big feet is much less of an issue than if it's your 3rd day in the gym. Lauersen et al. (2018): "The result was consistent across robustness tests and strength of evidence was high. A 10% increase in strength training volume reduced the risk of injury by more than four percentage points." High-quality meta-analyses like these point to the idea that the act of strength training itself is useful for preventing injury, rather than just strength. We do not have studies like this for things like foam rolling or theragun or the rice bucket. I'm not discounting that foam rolling can make you feel good. Sometimes I do it when I'm sore after climbing. It's great for that. If feeling good allows you to then load tissues appropriately, that can be useful. I'm also not discounting that very low load exercises like the rice bucket can be helpful as initial loading. BUT, if the load is so low, the tissue capacity will never adapt to be high enough to tolerate hard climbing. You can't prepare your fingers for climbing using a rice bucket any more than you can prepare for hill sprinting by walking. Furthermore, some of the research suggests that strength alone is not a total predictor of injury. Flexibility and coordination are other areas of future study that are harder to test reliably. Luck also cannot be overstated as a factor in injuries. We simply won't always understand why people get injured. With this in mind, volume management and strength training are essential, being the "controllable" variables. Related – anyone who says they can train you to be immune to injury is full of 💩.

You can do any exercise…if you choose the right weight. Progressive overload is the key to expanding the library of exercises you can do. #climbingcoach #climbingtraining #strengthtraining