Training for climbing may seem like the hot new thing right now.  However, while training may be more popular than ever, there have been people systematically training with incredible amounts of discipline for decades.  While they didn’t have the beautiful new training facilities we have now, it definitely didn’t prevent them from making massive gains.  Climbers like Jerry Moffatt, Ben Moon, and Wolfgang Gulich were able to push climbing difficulty to new heights simply by becoming stronger than everyone else.  However, no embodies maniacal devotion to training more than Scottish climber Malcolm Smith.

Today, we have an interview with Smith from The Project Magazine that delves into the methods, motivations, and tactics behind Malcolm’s impressive climbing career.

“I had the mindset that I was stronger than the route. What worked for me was hold specific training to reduce any crux moves down to a manageable level. Once the moves felt easy compared to what I was doing in training then that gave me a big psychological boost. I also wrote everything down and tried to get an improvement each session on the climb, whether a bigger link or achieving the same link more times in a session.” – Malcolm Smith

Malcolm Smith was truly a climber ahead of his times and the rest of this interview is not to be missed.  Check it and the rest of the amazing content from The Project Magazine out by clicking through below!

Full Interview: The Project Magazine – Malcolm Smith Interview

(photo courtesy of theprojectmagazine.com)

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