We’ve heard from British boulderer and coach David Mason before on TrainingBeta.  He’s been on the TrainingBeta Podcast and has written an article detailing his training.  Since then, it seems not much has changed for David and that’s a good thing.  He’s still training hard, getting stronger, and making trips to some of the world’s premier bouldering destinations to climb their best and hardest lines.

Today though, we have an interview with David Mason from The Project Magazine in which he talks about his motivation behind his travels, training, and sends.  David doesn’t go into details about his physical training, but he does have a candid discussion about his struggles with the mental side of climbing and how he has actively worked on it.

“Once I have this goal I tailor my training towards it and try to work specific areas that may help, whilst maintaining a good level of body fitness and condition. The physical aspect of training is not something I struggle with; I love training and working hard to see progression.”

“For me the key area to succeeding is in the mind; I have always struggled with my head game no matter what sport I am doing. I find it very easy to go down a path of frustration, negative self-talk and, the worst of all, disappointment in myself.” – David Mason

David Mason Working on the Mind

Working on the mental side of climbing is obviously not as concrete as physical training.  As a result, not everyone needs to approach mental training in the same way.  However, dialing in the mental side of climbing for yourself is just as important as trying to get physically stronger.  Reading about how other climbers’ struggles and how they have worked to cope with them is a great place to start.

Click through below to read the full interview.  It’s also full of some pretty amazing photos from Dave’s travels and be sure to check out the rest of The Project Magazine’s website for more quality climbing content.

Full Article: The Project Magazine: David Mason on Training, Travel, and Mind Games

(Photo: El Corazon 8b (V13) – Rocklands, South Africa. Photo: Jeremy Huckins; courtesy of theprojectmagazine.com)

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