Take the survey!

The crew here at Rock Prodigy Training is always trying to improve our tools and techniques, so we can all keep improving at climbing. While I originally created what we now call the “Rock Prodigy” method waaaay back in the ‘90s, it has been significantly and regularly revised and improved many times to get to where we are now: A pretty sure-fire way to maintain steady improvement in our complex and potentially frustrating sport!

Mike and Mark developing the original Rock Prodigy method.

These revisions were based on experimentation and feedback from many of you through our limited personal correspondence. Writing the Rock Climber’s Training Manual was not easy, but one thing that really motivated us was the hope that by writing down our training program and distributing it, we could vastly increase the pace of feedback for the Rock Prodigy method. In March 2014 there were probably less than one hundred climbers that we corresponded with using the Rock Prodigy method. Now, almost a year later, there are THOUSANDS. From the standpoint of scientific discovery, this is extremely exciting. It means our pace of experimentation, data collection and feedback has increased exponentially, along with the potential to further optimize the program. We should all be psyched for what the future of rock climbing training holds!

Along those lines, I am performing research on the effectiveness of our current Rock Prodigy Training Methods and the Rock Prodigy Training Center. Part of that research includes collecting data on usage and results from as many athletes as possible. To collect the data, I am introducing the first Rock Prodigy Training Methods survey. The data collected will be used to support an academic research paper that I will present at the 7th Asia-Pacific Congress on Sports Technology in September, and later published. Of course, we will also share the results with the loyal users of our site, and we will incorporate the findings into future editions of the Rock Climber’s Training Manual.

So, please join us in the pursuit of improved science on rock climbing training! Please take the survey!

The survey can be found at the links provided above and below. Please consider the following before you start:

1. The survey is pretty detailed, but you don’t have to answer all the questions. Please provide as many answers as you have time for, and we will make the most of the data. We figured it was better to ask too much, than too little, and we believe that many of our super-users will be psyched to provide all the nitty-gritty details.
2. Please note that the survey will ask you for data about your climbing performance, so please have this information available before you begin. If you have a training journal, it will be helpful here. You will be asked to provide information such as:
   • How often you climb and train
   • How many days in a year you climb outdoors
   • How many “Rock Prodigy” training cycles you have completed
   • Your hardest redpoint and onsight ascents both before and after using the Rock Prodigy method, and the Rock Prodigy Training Center.
3. You will have the option of entering detailed hangboard training data, if you would like. This is entirely optional, as we realize it is asking a lot (then again, if you are as psyched about training as we are, you might think it’s fun!!!) Therefore, you will want to have your hangboard training logs available in order to enter this data. In particular, you will be asked to enter how much weight resistance you are able to hang from each grip in your workout (both before and after using the rock prodigy methods). The survey will refer you to this chart for hangboard grips. I’m including it here in case it doesn’t show up in the survey.

All survey data will remain anonymous, and will be used solely to improve the Rock Prodigy method and the Rock Prodigy Training Center.

If you encounter any technical difficulties with the survey, please contact us through the site.

Thanks for taking the time to help us improve training; together we can all send more!

Take the survey.