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
Follow-Up: Tom Randall — How to Program Your Training Like a Pro (Teaser)
EP 106: Hans Florine — Speed Climbing on ‘The Nose’, Big Wall Tips, and the Evolution of Speed Climbing Competitions
EP 105: Brent Barghahn — How to Retire Before Age 30, Extreme Unicycling, and How to Free Climb Big Walls By Yourself
EP 104: Amity Warme — Crushing in Yosemite, Growing up in Gymnastics, and Eating More to Do More
Follow-Up: Tyler Nelson — How to Train Based on Your Finger Anatomy (Teaser)
EP 103: Mina Leslie-Wujastyk — Chasing Flow State, The Role of Cleverness in Climbing, and Becoming a Mom
EP 102: Matty Hong — The History of ‘Flex Luthor’, Climbing Waterfalls in Japan, and the Camera as a Gift
EP 101: Nina Caprez — Being a Swiss Machine, Leaning into Womanness, and a Beautiful Story of Failing on ‘The Nose’
Follow-Up: Steve Maisch — My Training Plan for Hueco Round 2 (Teaser)
EP 100: Ben Moon — How Ben Moon Uses the MoonBoard, and the Evolution of Sport Climbing
Follow-Up: Paige Claassen — Dreamcatching, and Learning to Celebrate (Teaser)
EP 99: Q&A 4 — Goals for 2022, Dating on the Road, and What I’ve Learned from Nearly 100 Episodes
Follow-Up: Tyson Schoene — Building Champions, and Keeping Things Simple (Teaser)
EP 98: Kyra Condie — The Olympic Experience, Training With a Fused Spine, and Thriving in Organized Chaos
EP 97: Austin Hoyt — Favorite Zones in the Northeast, Rediscovering Old Projects, and Being a GUNKaholic
EP 96: Joe Kinder — The Love of Projecting, Leaving a Legacy, and the Other Side of Cancellation
EP 95: Tyler Algeo — Starting a Climbing Gym in Africa, Climb Malawi, and Raising Black Sons as a White Dad
Follow-Up: Steve Bechtel — When to Stick With It, and Climbing His First 5.14 at Age 47 (Teaser)
EP 94: Nathaniel Coleman — Preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, Climbing in a Sauna, and Kendama Training
EP 93: Tom Herbert (Part 2) —How to Relax to Improve your Passat Reserves, and Tom’s Life Story
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