No athlete accomplishes great achievements without strong coaching and support. Over the last five years of my climbing career, I have been fortunate to have worked and interacted with so many great people. I am very thankful to have them in my life.
Merritt Ernsberger, Team Texas Head Speed Coach. Merritt is a tremendous speed climbing coach. Not only is he able to improve even the smallest beta elements for a climber, but he also deeply cares about the success and well-being of his athletes. Merritt took me under his wing in June 2019. With most of Team Texas training in Innsbruck, Austria for Nationals, Merritt patiently worked to get me time on the 15m wall as the Plano gym was being built and created a climbing beta that was customized to my strengths. It worked as I got 5th place at Nationals in Philadelphia and 6th place at Pan Ams in Ecuador. In the midst of COVID, he remotely gave me strength training workouts and video coaching once I could get back on a climbing wall. His commitment to my success at speed climbing is astounding.
Kyle Clinkscales, Coach and Founder of Team Texas. After calling me the most “under-coached speed climber in history” and helping me take 0.5 seconds off of my personal record with less than 10 minutes of initial coaching, Coach Kyle invited me to Team Texas’ pre-Nationals training camp in Salt Lake City in 2018. Those ten days in Salt Lake with great coaching and supportive climbers were incredible for me. I had never pushed myself that hard. After that experience, I asked Kyle if I could join Team Texas, and he did not hesitate to bring me on board the Team. Right after a departing fist bump, the last thing Kyle said to me at training camp in Salt Lake this year was, “Trust me. You are so locked on right now. Climb with confidence.”
The other Team Texas coaches. Marisa, Nico, Matt, and Ellis. Even though they do not directly coach speed, each of them has been incredibly helpful and encouraging of my speed climbing pursuits over the years.
John Brosler, American speed climbing phenom and Team Texas alumni. The six lessons that I have taken from John have been foundational to my climbing. I used his warm-up workout at Nationals this year.
My Team Texas teammates. Even though they are based in Dallas, and I don’t get to see them often, they are an incredibly supportive group who come up with a lot of fun shenanigans while training. They are talented climbers who always push me to my limits when I train with them.
The staff at Momentum Katy including Rees Williams and Nicole Lamb. Even though my dad and I have to travel two hours each way for me to climb on the 15m wall at Momentum, it is my “home” gym. The team at Momentum has been incredibly supportive while watching my progress since I started climbing there in 2017, shortly after the gym opened.
Albert Ok. I’ve only known Albert since February, but his incredibly positive attitude, enthusiasm for speed climbing, and his speed PR progress have pushed me to train harder and try to keep up with him. He produces the most insightful YouTube climbing videos on the web.
USA Climbing, the climbing gyms, and all of the volunteers who run the competitions. In Region 51, Tab Stephens and Josh Calfy do an amazing job running the local, regional, and divisional competitions.
All of the people who cheer me on while I’m training in the gym. Speed climbing is fun to watch. I love doing a fast run and showing people how great the sport of speed climbing is.
My parents, brother, grandparents. They provide constant support and advice. They are my biggest fans. They never doubt my ability to succeed in whatever I try to achieve, whether it’s speed climbing, academics, chess, or computer programming. My dad has driven hundreds of hours to climbing walls across the country. He has filmed hundreds of my speed runs so that I can analyze them. I am so lucky to have them as my family.
