John Gill on training...

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The article below presents John Gill's aproach towards training. You may be especialy interested in this part:

HÖRST: Clearly, training is necessary to climb overhanging routes. What exercises did you find most useful? What was a typical workout session comprised of?

GILL: Although I did a lot of rope climbing for speed, I don't think that had much carryover to traditional rock climbing--too much a matter of skill and dynamic technique. To train for the dynamic start seated on the floor, I would do about ten consecutive, fast muscle ups on the high bar. This contributed to my dynamic technique on the rock, I suppose. On the rings I was more interested in learning the top strength moves for their own sake. I had not been an athlete in high school, and it was great fun to do these awesome things that very few others could accomplish. My favorite move was a butterfly mount through an L-cross from a dead hang--at one point I did, I believe, three consecutive butterfly mounts. I also did the standard slow straight-body cross mount, the slow straight body pull to a handstand from a hang, the Azaryin (a triple cross combo), front lever, back lever, and (poor) Maltese cross.

Later, as I moved away from formal gymnastic tricks, I began to develop more specific exercises for climbing. One-arm pull-ups were good for overhanging rock, and a one-arm version of the front lever was a move I had never heard of anyone else doing, but seemed to be appropriate for climbing. I did squeeze grip pull-ups on beams, pulling into a front lever occasionally, and at one time, on a really rough and slightly warped beam did a momentary one-arm hang with a squeeze grip.

HÖRST: Did you ever practice regular two-arm pull-ups, or just one-arms?

GILL: I did the requisite twenty consecutive pull-ups for a grade of "A" in that part of my gymnastic class at Tech. For bouldering, one-arm pull-ups are of more value--power over endurance.

http://www.trainingforclimbing.com/html2/johngill-interview.shtml

[kbryk]

John Gill is one of the most impressive people I've read about, he set a standard on a lot, and is a climber, and gymnast both which are the sports I started from. I've been reading his stuff for the longest time, and always have fun looking at the old gymnastics apparatuses and strength machines they used, and all the legends he has links too.