EP 40: Tonde Katiyo (Part 1) — Discrimination vs. Privilege, and Making a Better World by Making Better Climbing

Tonde Katiyo is a professional route setter, a passionate climber, a father, and a coach. His mother is French and his father is Zimbabwean. We talked about the connection between route setting and coaching, about coaching Nathan Hadley, Sean Bailey, and Margo Hayes, about his discrimination and privilege resumés, about exposing his kids to risk, and about making better climbing to make a better world.  

Support on Patreon:

patreon.com/thenuggetclimbing  

Show Notes:  

http://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/tonde-katiyo-part-1  

Nuggets: 

3:10 – The joys of parenting  

4:34 – Tonde’s shitty gym session, the ratio of “good” to “bad” sessions, and collecting bad sessions  

7:01 – Getting back in shape, Tonde’s “Level 1” goals, and climbing with Nathan Hadley  

8:50 – Tonde’s current role at the Bouldering Project  

9:56 – Getting hired, Tonde’s dream world, and the happy accident of circuit setting  

15:05 – The problem with treating climbing grades as a fixed measurement  

17:50 – Being talked into coaching Nathan Hadley, Sean Bailey, and Margo Hayes  

22:16 – Tonde’s inside joke, emotion and intention, and speculation as to why those three athletes saught coughing from Tonde  

24:42 – Learning to apply the appropriate amount of effort, the complexity of climbing, the mental and emotional boxes, and tweaking dials on the switchboard  

29:34 – Learning who people are, and learning to say exactly the right thing at exactly the right time  

32:13 – Tonde’s competition background, and how his experience competing and route setting has informed his coaching  

36:39 – Asking competitors interesting questions through route setting, and the hand jam scandal  

40:44 – Tonde’s training camps, the role of route setting in coaching, and helping athletes work through frustration and other emotions  

48:03 – “How do you feel?”, and answering that question with honesty  

51:34 – Working with Nathan on his footwork  

56:14 – “Your climbing should resemble your personality”  

58:44 – When our personalities work against us, winning competitions on your weaknesses rather than strengths, and the inconveniences of competitions vs. those of outdoor climbing  

1:03:16 – Tonde’s discrimination and privilege resumes (see show notes for links to his Instagram posts)  

1:13:20 – Patron Question: With the BLM protests and social change going on right now, has Tonde seen climbers trying to be more inclusive? Could we get some examples of people employing some good tact and also some bad tact?  

1:18:59 – Hoping for a more tolerant world for his kids, and “better climbing makes better people, and better people will make a better world.”  

1:23:14 – Patron Question: I would love to hear Tonde talk about being a dad, and also someone that participates in a potentially high consequence past time. How does he manage progression and risk of injury? How does he look at risk for himself, and how does he prepare to take on more risk to move the bar up a notch? How does he manage risk for his kids, and how does he introduce them to it in a healthy way?  

1:30:55 – How Tonde thinks about introducing his kids to climbing, and hoping they find passion (even if it’s crocheting)