Want to hear what the world’s best rock climber thinks about performance training? Then cue up Beyond Focus with Adam Ondra, and get ready to be impressed by the young rock jock’s depth as he executes his intensive Olympic training program.
Granted, the four-part film starts with 20 seconds of hyper-melodramatic (yes, hyper-melodramatic) music as a shirtless Ondra flexes in slow-mo.
But after that, he digs into what might be the most misunderstood principle of training for rock climbing: sacrifice.
If you’re a rock climber (one who climbs outside on rock), you may have a bit of a natural aversion to many aspects of climbing training. Structure, stuffy indoor spaces, and boredom are probably not your thing. Maybe you even virulently reject all codification of the sport by any means. (No one like that is currently writing this copy. At all.)
But Ondra knows what it takes, intimately. Climbing the world’s most challenging rock terrain requires more than psych. Discipline and patience are key.
On the surface, Ondra doesn’t necessarily give off that vibe. Notoriously, he screams and battles his way through high-standard sends that look more like violent ballets than acts of meditation.
Suffice it to say, there’s more to Adam Ondra than meets the eye.
Psyched on The Dawn Wall, El Capitan, Yosemite Valley.
