TBP 051 :: Sean McColl Tells Us How He Trains

About Sean McColl

This is an interview with 28 year-old Sean McColl, a well-known Canadian climber who's accomplished amazing things both outdoors and in competitions. 

I can't describe his amazing accomplishments better than he does on his website, so here's an excerpt... 

"Sean was the Canadian Youth Champion in his age group ever year from 1999-2005 having won every National Championships he attended. During his youth career, Sean claimed 5 world titles; since no other youth competitor has won more titles; this achievement is unsurpassed in youth climbing history to this day."

"Since Sean started competing on the World Cup circuit, he has won 4 events (2 in bouldering, 2 in lead) and been on the podium another 23 times. Sean has won the Overall CombinedRankings and has been 2rd and 3rd in the Lead and Boulder Overall rankings respectively."

"As an outdoor climber, Sean has onsighted 5.14a (8b+) and climbed multiple 5.14d’s (9a). On the bouldering side, Sean is one of a dozen climbers in the world to flash the grade of V13 (8B) and redpoint V15 (8C)."

He seems to only be getting stronger as he gets older. In March of this year (2016), he won the Rab CWIF, a big competition in Sheffield, England, where he beat out Ty Landman, Jimmy Webb, and Jorg Verhoeven (video).

He spends most of his year training for competitions, and only sometimes makes it outside to climb on real rock. 

Whew! Sean is a badass. We've all seen videos of his crazy training (here he is on the campus board), but I wanted to find out more details about how he trains. 

What We Talked About

• How he trained as a kid
• What his training cycles look like
• Training for bouldering vs route climbing
• Campus board, fingerboard, climbing drills
• His schedule
• His diet

Sean McColl Links

• Sean's website: www.seanmccoll.com
• Sean on Facebook
• Sean's Instagram: @mccollsean
• Sean on Dreamcatcher (14d in Squamish) (Video)