Thanks for tuning into the podcast! You may be familiar with Albert's old viral Youtube videos where he does deep-dive analyses into great comp climbing beta-break moments. Nowadays, he is spending more time working on his own training to hopefully make the USA national team, as well as working as a speed climbing coach (you're probably familiar with a lot of the speed athletes he works with!)
Guest links: https://instagram.com/professorok
https://youtube.com/@albertokay
Reference links:
Albert commentating Chamonix speed finals 2023
Timestamps of discussion topics
0:00 - Introduction
2:52 - What got you into comp climbing?
6:39 - History of comp climbing + has it improved?
10:24 - The beta break Youtube series
14:37 - Copyright issues
20:13 - World cup afterparties
22:16 - Why speed climbing?
26:08 - The difficulties of accessing a speed wall
30:03 - Becoming a speed coach
39:28 - Coaching at the world cups - imposter syndrome
45:47 - Dealing with speed wall differences at different locations
50:42 - Why are countries like Indonesia so good at speed climbing?
52:33 - Speed climber intricacies
58:46 - Speed climbing in the Olympics
1:01:52 - The Salt Lake City vision
1:03:47 - Personal speed climbing pursuit
1:09:06 - Head to toe of injuries
1:16:32 - Discord Q: What stops people from getting into speed climbing?
1:17:56 - Discord Q: Did the 2020 combined format undermine acceptance of speed climbing?
1:19:54 - Discord Q: Do you know what the outcome of the athletes commission will be for speed?
1:22:59 - Discord Q: What's in the future for speed and formats?
1:25:41 - Discord Q: What was it like to rock climb with Akiyo Niguchi?
1:28:34 - Outro + where to find Albert
