Lea Volpe is a paraclimber for Great Britain and a 2x medalist at the IFSC Paraclimbing World Championships. Lea holds down a 9-5 job working in health policy, coaches junior athletes, and is essentially a professional climber on the side. We talked about paraclimbing competitions, being diagnosed with Ataxia, how we perceive wheelchairs, empathy in coaching, and much more.
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Show Notes:
thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/lea-volpe
Nuggets:
0:07:04 – Getting over covid
0:08:06 – A normal weekday in Lea’s life
0:11:32 – How Lea recharges her mental batteries
0:14:14 – Balancing an intellectual and sedentary job with the physical activity of climbing
0:16:54 – How most climbers feel guilty for taking downtime
0:18:59 – Lea’s energy reserves, and learning to budget her energy
0:21:28 – An introduction to paraclimbing, Lea’s disability of Ataxia, and strategies she uses to climb around a coordination and balance impairment
0:26:32 – Why Lea uses a wheelchair day-to-day, and climbing with her disability
0:31:33 – Experiencing imposter syndrome as a strong para athlete
0:34:04 – How climbing levels the playing field, and how many of us start at V0
0:36:58 – Failure is part of climbing
0:39:06 – Lea’s life as a kid and teenager, and getting diagnosed with Ataxia and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome in her early 20s
0:44:21 – How Lea discovered climbing
0:46:10 – How we perceive people in wheelchairs, and feeling self-conscious at the climbing wall
0:53:00 – What we can learn from Lea in regards to how we think about disability
0:58:01 – The paraclimbing competition format, and some of the different athlete categories
1:02:04 – Climbing to be in the paraolympics, and classification systems
1:07:03 – How athletes get assessed to determine their classification
1:17:35 – How route setters influence competition outcomes, and setting guidelines in paraclimbing competitions
1:20:47 – Working with a coach vs. being self-coached
1:24:51 – Keeping training sustainable
1:28:49 – What a “bad day” looks like for Lea
1:35:48 – How Lea got into coaching
1:42:24 – What Lea hopes to pass on to the kids she coaches, and the role of coach/teacher
1:48:10 – Having the questions vs. asking questions, and qualities that make a good coach
1:51:40 – Empathy in coaching, and how climbing brings out our deepest and darkest fears
1:56:12 – Inspiration porn and how it can reduce people down to a tool, and how Lea wants to use her platform
2:02:42 – The barriers involved in climbing outdoors
2:13:22 – What’s next for Lea
SEND ALERT: Will Bosi — ‘Return of the Sleepwalker’ V17, and What He Plans to Try Next!
EP 207: Paul Houghoughi (The Climbing Physio) — How to Rehab Finger Injuries, Build Bulletproof Wrists & Elbows, and Never Get Injured Again
EP 206: Building a Perfect Replica of ‘The Big Island’ V15, Training on Your Projects, and the Ideal Circuit — Charlie Schreiber Returns
SEND ALERT: Kai Lightner — ‘Life of Villains’ 9a, Not Rushing the Process, and Building Jamaica’s First Climbing Wall
EP 205: Adrian Vanoni — Finger Crack Wizardry, Blue Collar Sending, and Lucid Dreams About Beta
EP 204: Anak Verhoeven — How to Build 9a Endurance, Why Motivation Trumps Fancy Facilities, and Being Public About Her Faith
EP 203: Jakob Schubert — World Champion to 9c and 9A, Adam Ondra’s Risky and Efficient Style, and Failing on ‘Sleepwalker’
SEND ALERT: Jon Cardwell — Establishing ‘Wind Up Bird’ 5.15b, and Uphill Athlete Training
EP 202: Tyler Nelson Returns — How to Get Stronger Fingers, Habits to Prevent Injuries, and Why Climbers Shouldn’t Train Like Gymnasts
EP 201: James Pearson — The Full Redemption Story, Proposing the Mythical Grade of E12, and Climbing Harder After Kids
EP 200: Brooke Raboutou — An Olympian’s Mindset, Dancing on the Wall, and Competing Against Your Friends
EP 199: Will Anglin & Matt Jones — A Masterclass in How to Progress Your Climbing
EP 198: Travis Tameirao — The Day His Life Changed Forever, Climbing V10+ With an Artificial Knee, and Taking the Wheel
EP 197: Melina Costanza Returns — Harnessing the Power of Nerves, Praising Your Effort, and Choosing Good Over Perfect
EP 196: Pete Whittaker — Chasing the Hardest Cracks in the World, Embracing the Suck, and Futuristic Desert Projects
EP 195: Matt Segal Returns — The Recipe for a Peak Year, Cooking Tips, and High Summits and Higher Grades
EP 194: Will Anglin — Why We Should Treat Climbing Like Baseball, and the #1 Thing All Climbers Should Do
EP 193: Mat Wright — Risking It All to Send, The Power of Specific Goals, and Relaxing Hard to Climb Harder
EP 192: Alex Biale — Bootlegging Wine, Training With Ollie Torr, and the Keys to a Balanced Life
EP 191: Jesse Firestone Returns — Finding Silver Linings, How to Move Like Adam Ondra, and Key Benefits of Visualization
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