6'3 190lbs - also have very good hip and knee mobility which results in constant drop knees and overhead heel hooks. He climbs SO smooth - and absolute clinic watching him move on the wall.
Wow, what an immensely lovely guy Kai is! He seems humble, insightful and wise beyond his age. And he's so captivating to watch on the wall. He epitomises everything I love about this sport (I've only been climbing a year so far). More vids with him please!
Such a great video! Kai is an amazing climber, thank you for sharing your warmup/mobility routine and your experience as a climber of color. Also that starting pinch on the purple route was insane!
He is such an amazing climber - very rare to see such beautiful and effortless movement. Thanks for watching - you'll love the next training video coming out next week where he beats us up with his routine!!
Whoa, little Kai got super big! That’s awesome to see, I always enjoyed seeing him climb and his connection with his mom as a kid … I’m feeling inspired now, thank you!
Always cool to see Kai climb! Would be cool to get a video with a full mobility/flexibily routine with him, and maybe how he works out off the wall. Those shoulders are massive!
I've never heard of Kai before. Thank you so much for introducing me to him. As a somewhat taller and heavier climber I find it so refreshing to see elite climbers that are that tall :D
I always thought Jain Kim was the most efficient climber, but Kai would be a strong contender (or maybe even the top, I guess Jain does a fair amount of lock offs). I also thought Kai was at least 30 with how mature he acts and how much he’s accomplished with Climbing For Change and everything else. 😮
Super inspiring watching him move on the wall. Very smooth and fluid. The discussion about flexibility was so good, it blows my mind that mobility STILL feels really underrated among the general population of climbers. Also the two of you are so wholesome, fricking love it!!
Absolutely agree! It’s so funny that flexible people stretch a lot and those that are knowledgeable lift too. But less flexible people lift and refuse to address flexibility! Thank you so much ☺️
Kai is awesome! The first time I saw a video of him climbing made it very obvious that he is an outstanding cliimber, then I saw a video of him talking and it became obvious that he is an outstanding person as well. Thank you for this video, Alex!
Absolutely! We are certainly big fans of Kai on and off the wall. He is a leader in this sport and making huge progress with brining more diversity into climbing. Plus, a pleasure to watch and listen to! Thanks for watching 🙏
Wow it’s been awhile since I’ve seen Kai and watched him and Ashima climb in their youth. So cool seeing him now and climbing with his height and weight.
I've been climbing for about 20 years, off and on, and I've always wondered why I didn't see more people of color climbing. Recently I moved to Pittsburgh though, and joined a gym where there is a great verity of people, and I finally feel like the sport is getting to where it should be in that respect.
Absolutely, initiatives like the ones Kai puts into place are certainly helping with diversity within climbing. It is certainly work in progress, but it’s amazing to see that it is going in the right direction, like you said!
We agree! Those “easier” climbs are nowhere near as easy as he made them look too! One of the most efficient/effective climbers out there!! Thanks for watching
cool to see such a tall guy b/c I'm just one inch taller than him and being tall has some advantages and disadvantages and not many climbers are as tall as he. so it's cool to see him sliding along the routes :-)
I agree! I’m also a taller climber and struggle with some indoor climbs set by smaller setters, but climbing with Kai removes the excuse book as he’s 1 inch taller than me at 6ft3 and weighs 200lbs! He’s flexible and has the mobility to use it well! Inspiring for sure!
It would be interesting if you guys discussed how the height of a climber also plays a role in the options it gives them. A good example is the overhead heel hook Kai does at 11:07 while still keeping his right foot on the hold which shorter climbers would have no choice but to cut loose and lock off while bringing their heel hook up to the same place or unreal mobility/flexibility due to shorter limbs. Another example is the knee bar Kai uses at 13:28. This gives him the option to perform the move a lot more statically and a shorter climber would have to deadpoint/dyno that move. I don't take away from the fact that he's worked incredibly hard to reach the level he's at and he is incredibly technical and strong, but having more options most of the time (I know they may struggle in small boxes/sit starts) while being very strong can give the "illusion" of having better technique/being a better climber. Another interesting area to see Kai on would be slab and coordination moves. If you call someone the best climber, in my opinion, they should excel on all terrain.
Absolutely. This tie we didn't specifically want to get into the "tall vs small" debate as we wanted to introduce Kai to our channel and talk about "him" a little more. But, this will be coming to the channel for sure. As our Alex is pregnant, it could be that we bring Alex Waterhouse back to the channel for this video and we can go into the analytics of the comparison, which we find more interesting than the "swings and roundabouts" discussion of some moves being easier and some being harder. But, thanks for the notes and good points - rest assured we will be discussing it! :) Appreciate your support!
Kai is awesome! But in that gym I haven’t seen any challenging climbs for his body type. Like some very close and compressed boulders. Seems like his main strength is that he is smart and flexible. He has naturally big reach. And being humble is also very attractive. Super nice guy to climb with, if you climb 9a :)
Okay, but how would anyone shorter than Kai do the problem at 13:21? Anyone else would have to lose the knee bar going up to that pinch and that seems crazy hard... I wish we could see Alex try that one
Hahaha! He made that one look impossible hey?! 😝 we had a youth athlete in town on a training camp and he did it at 5ft 8. But, too big for Alex though!!! 😔
We are having to refill the whole episode as the cameraman we used for the training episode didn't record any sound unfortunately, so this will come in the future.
On the title, I think it’s good to make a distinction between “best climber” and “technically best climber.” The best climber would be the most proficient at getting up any problem or route they see, while the technically best climber would be doing the most in the most efficient way. If your competitor is just way stronger than you and does every boulder with raw power with no efficiency, they’re still a “better” climber than you even if you’re technically much better. To use a different sport example, you can be an amazing soccer or basketball player and reach an elite level, outcompeting people who have better technique than you, if you have elite physical gifts. Of course, we should all strive to be technically good because it can only help us. But I don’t believe we should downplay how awesome being stronger than everyone else is as well when it comes to excelling at climbing!
Yes, a little click bate, but we want our viewers to appreciate that Kai understands movement far more so than most climbers. You will see next week how "strong" he is during our training session with him and where he is lapping V11s after hours of training. An efficient climber can get strong in a fairly simple way. Getting this understanding of movement takes far longer - even for V14+ climbers. Thanks for the comment though, we really appreciate your thoughts and it is certainly a valid point that we don't disagree with.
I will never understand why some people feel so compelled to always bring up race. Most of that segment could've been spent climbing and talking about his technique, but I suppose that's just me. amazing climbing, though. a couple things i might try in my warmup.
If it's his pet issue and he says it affected him, who are we to say it didn't? I say fine, he can advocate for it (as if it was up to me 😂), and I'm all for it. Why not? He certainly wasn't telling some disempowering victim narrative. He didn't make the climbing community out to be racists, not at all: he praised their acceptance. It sounds like he just wants black folks to feel like climbing isn't just a nerdy white kid thing. Why not? What could possibly be bad about that? Some people have a really toxic race narrative, but I don't think we should jump down everyone's throats because of it, I thought he came across well.
Have you seen when Honnold, Segal and Jorgeson hit the grit and basically do every "hard grit" trad route...Although we completely respect Johnny Dawes and his achievements and note that his movement was certainly ahead of the times, climbing has progressed and modern professional athletes will be able to do these routes far more easily than you'd expect. Safe to say that V14 and 9b are far harder than E9s.
It doesn’t sound like you’ve been the only person of color in a gym for years. Climbing is changing now (for the better) and you are right that now (in certain areas) there are climbers of all races. But this didn’t use to be the case.
I would probably listen to Kai and other members of the climbing community attempting to increase representation and access before seeming this confident in your own opinion. Almost as though you won't find communities or organizations being flagrant with racism, sexism, etc., and yet are still discriminatory, and the way an outside observer would know this might be a positive and inclusive culture is folks which represent them already in the culture. Sure, climbing doesn't discriminate, but if you don't already climb then how do you know, especially since gyms and crags definitely can discriminate.
The guy himself didn’t notice anything about race until he showed up at competition and then noticed he was the only black person. I didn’t hear anything about him being treated poorly. He was treated well in the climbing community and there is no racial issue .
@JayZoop Kai was 6 when he started climbing. A 6 year old is oblivious to most things until an issue is made. We definitely encountered racial issues in climbing . I shielded him from a lot, for as long as I could. Kai has written about some things that he has faced. Unfortunately, there is a lot more that he has never publicly discussed ...
@@JayZoop Except Kai has created an organization around creating access to the outdoors... and I support several nonprofits with similar initiatives. But no, they probably just need to hear the undoubtedly white cishet male perspective that climbing has no bias...
The beauty of opinion. Both very capable climbers with extremely high climbing IQs. Watch them both climb though, appreciate Kai’s movement. It’s incredible and he weighs a lot more than Adam! This sport (and life) is all about learning and we can ALL learn from Kai
@@user-yk1cw8im4h it's amazing to me that you were able to watch this guy's incredible movement on the wall and come up with a negative comment, I was hit with more of a "wow" type thing 😂
The vibes are A+ in this one. Really great to get Kai's insight into his climbing journey and representation in climbing spaces.
Ahh, thanks Hannah, means a lot coming from you! Yes, Kai is so incredibly smooth. A pleasure to watch on the wall
6'3 190lbs - also have very good hip and knee mobility which results in constant drop knees and overhead heel hooks. He climbs SO smooth - and absolute clinic watching him move on the wall.
Absolutely! A masterclass every time he’s on the wall!!
Wow, what an immensely lovely guy Kai is! He seems humble, insightful and wise beyond his age. And he's so captivating to watch on the wall. He epitomises everything I love about this sport (I've only been climbing a year so far). More vids with him please!
Couldn’t have put it better! Absolutely, more coming your way! 😊
Such a great video! Kai is an amazing climber, thank you for sharing your warmup/mobility routine and your experience as a climber of color. Also that starting pinch on the purple route was insane!
He is such an amazing climber - very rare to see such beautiful and effortless movement. Thanks for watching - you'll love the next training video coming out next week where he beats us up with his routine!!
I was thinking the same thing about that start. Blew my mind!
Love this guy. He's so good. He's got those albatross arms but he's also SO flexible! Definitely want to see more of Kai!
Plus 7 inch span!! 🦅
But an incredible climber!!
Whoa, little Kai got super big! That’s awesome to see, I always enjoyed seeing him climb and his connection with his mom as a kid … I’m feeling inspired now, thank you!
Awwww amazing to hear! We get to hear about his mom a little more in a future episode. Yeah, he’s grown!!! Thanks for watching!!
as being a 6ft5 climber, kai is so relatable and inspiring, flexibility at that hight is a must for me
Absolutely! We love the point he made about as he grew, he worked twice as hard. Being tall isn’t easy, he just makes it look that way
Nice video, I would appreciate a lot more videos with Kai about movement (he moves amazingly smooth and coordinated)
More coming your way. We feel the same, a pleasure to learn from and watch! Thanks for your support
Can’t wait for more! :)
Can’t wait for more! :)
🙏
Psyched
Always cool to see Kai climb! Would be cool to get a video with a full mobility/flexibily routine with him, and maybe how he works out off the wall. Those shoulders are massive!
Incoming! Robin jumped on his normal pre-climb routine, and we do a hangboard workout as well as a power endurance one too! It's a good'n!
@@roapcoaching917 Let's goo!
HAha
I've never heard of Kai before. Thank you so much for introducing me to him. As a somewhat taller and heavier climber I find it so refreshing to see elite climbers that are that tall :D
Yeah, glad you know him now. He’s a phenomenal climber!!
I always thought Jain Kim was the most efficient climber, but Kai would be a strong contender (or maybe even the top, I guess Jain does a fair amount of lock offs).
I also thought Kai was at least 30 with how mature he acts and how much he’s accomplished with Climbing For Change and everything else. 😮
Completely agree - Jain Kim is an incredible climber too! Both understand their bodies and movement so well. I know - how is he only 24?!?!?!
Loved this and all his advocacy work. Thanks for this episode it was fun to watch!
😊 thank you! Glad you enjoyed it and thank you for the support!
Awesome episode!!!! Incredible guest :) thank you!
Awww, glad you liked it, the next one with us training is definitely better too, so keep an eye out for that one! Really appreciate your support!
Super inspiring watching him move on the wall. Very smooth and fluid. The discussion about flexibility was so good, it blows my mind that mobility STILL feels really underrated among the general population of climbers. Also the two of you are so wholesome, fricking love it!!
Absolutely agree! It’s so funny that flexible people stretch a lot and those that are knowledgeable lift too. But less flexible people lift and refuse to address flexibility!
Thank you so much ☺️
He looks amazing on the wall, that is the kind efficient technical skill I want. Gonna study him, definitely want to see more.
Study him! Genuinely one of the best movers out there!
Kai is awesome! The first time I saw a video of him climbing made it very obvious that he is an outstanding cliimber, then I saw a video of him talking and it became obvious that he is an outstanding person as well. Thank you for this video, Alex!
Absolutely! We are certainly big fans of Kai on and off the wall. He is a leader in this sport and making huge progress with brining more diversity into climbing. Plus, a pleasure to watch and listen to! Thanks for watching 🙏
I felt that so much when Kai said thank you Alex for being nice to him when he was competing against adults ❤❤❤
❤️ ☺️ he’s such a 💎
We need Ai and Kai to do a session together!
Yes! 😝 😂 that would be amazing!!
Really great Episode. Thanks for Sharing Humble, deep Content. All the best to Kai and the Roap-Team😊
Awww ☺️ thank you so much! Yes, some deeper points in there, which are so necessary to talk about in this sport. We appreciate you and your support!
Love this! Both of you have good energy.
🥰 thank you so much!!
"you tried!" I got this from here 🤣🤣🤣
Hahahahahahaha
I would love to see more poc out on the crag! Climbing is a wonderful sport for diversity
Absolutely! Kai is leading that front for sure!!
Wow it’s been awhile since I’ve seen Kai and watched him and Ashima climb in their youth. So cool seeing him now and climbing with his height and weight.
The old-school crushing team!! Yeah, he’s been laying low, but crushing hard! Thanks for watching!!!
I've been climbing for about 20 years, off and on, and I've always wondered why I didn't see more people of color climbing. Recently I moved to Pittsburgh though, and joined a gym where there is a great verity of people, and I finally feel like the sport is getting to where it should be in that respect.
Absolutely, initiatives like the ones Kai puts into place are certainly helping with diversity within climbing. It is certainly work in progress, but it’s amazing to see that it is going in the right direction, like you said!
An inspiration to all of us tall ckimbers!
Absolutely!! 👍
Kai is so strong he looks like hes just floating up the wall! Such maturity at 24 aswell!
We agree! Those “easier” climbs are nowhere near as easy as he made them look too! One of the most efficient/effective climbers out there!! Thanks for watching
cool to see such a tall guy b/c I'm just one inch taller than him and being tall has some advantages and disadvantages and not many climbers are as tall as he. so it's cool to see him sliding along the routes :-)
I agree! I’m also a taller climber and struggle with some indoor climbs set by smaller setters, but climbing with Kai removes the excuse book as he’s 1 inch taller than me at 6ft3 and weighs 200lbs! He’s flexible and has the mobility to use it well! Inspiring for sure!
lol why is the section where kai is talking about his work called 'not my style'
No clue?!?
It would be interesting if you guys discussed how the height of a climber also plays a role in the options it gives them. A good example is the overhead heel hook Kai does at 11:07 while still keeping his right foot on the hold which shorter climbers would have no choice but to cut loose and lock off while bringing their heel hook up to the same place or unreal mobility/flexibility due to shorter limbs. Another example is the knee bar Kai uses at 13:28. This gives him the option to perform the move a lot more statically and a shorter climber would have to deadpoint/dyno that move. I don't take away from the fact that he's worked incredibly hard to reach the level he's at and he is incredibly technical and strong, but having more options most of the time (I know they may struggle in small boxes/sit starts) while being very strong can give the "illusion" of having better technique/being a better climber.
Another interesting area to see Kai on would be slab and coordination moves. If you call someone the best climber, in my opinion, they should excel on all terrain.
Absolutely. This tie we didn't specifically want to get into the "tall vs small" debate as we wanted to introduce Kai to our channel and talk about "him" a little more. But, this will be coming to the channel for sure. As our Alex is pregnant, it could be that we bring Alex Waterhouse back to the channel for this video and we can go into the analytics of the comparison, which we find more interesting than the "swings and roundabouts" discussion of some moves being easier and some being harder. But, thanks for the notes and good points - rest assured we will be discussing it! :) Appreciate your support!
I love the video and Kai is such a role model.
One small point: I think the somewhat clickbaity title is a bit besides the point.
A little clickbait, but also genuine thoughts from us. Incredible climber and human being. One of the best for sure. And he’s just getting started
Kai is awesome! But in that gym I haven’t seen any challenging climbs for his body type. Like some very close and compressed boulders. Seems like his main strength is that he is smart and flexible. He has naturally big reach. And being humble is also very attractive. Super nice guy to climb with, if you climb 9a :)
Yeah, there were certainly some. Next video shows him having a tougher time
@@roapcoaching917 looking forward to :)
Okay, but how would anyone shorter than Kai do the problem at 13:21? Anyone else would have to lose the knee bar going up to that pinch and that seems crazy hard... I wish we could see Alex try that one
Hahaha! He made that one look impossible hey?! 😝 we had a youth athlete in town on a training camp and he did it at 5ft 8. But, too big for Alex though!!! 😔
cool video! what is Alex's wing span? :)
☺️ thank you! My wingspan is +3 and I’m 5ft 2, so about 5ft5
Finally, someone with my body, 6´4 and long ass arms
Hahaha!
Did not in fact drop the mobility routine
We are having to refill the whole episode as the cameraman we used for the training episode didn't record any sound unfortunately, so this will come in the future.
Kai please do 3 degrees of separation in Ceuse!
YES @kailightner you need to do this (and biographie and bibliographie)
@@roapcoaching917 and perfecto mundo!
On the title, I think it’s good to make a distinction between “best climber” and “technically best climber.” The best climber would be the most proficient at getting up any problem or route they see, while the technically best climber would be doing the most in the most efficient way. If your competitor is just way stronger than you and does every boulder with raw power with no efficiency, they’re still a “better” climber than you even if you’re technically much better. To use a different sport example, you can be an amazing soccer or basketball player and reach an elite level, outcompeting people who have better technique than you, if you have elite physical gifts.
Of course, we should all strive to be technically good because it can only help us. But I don’t believe we should downplay how awesome being stronger than everyone else is as well when it comes to excelling at climbing!
Yes, a little click bate, but we want our viewers to appreciate that Kai understands movement far more so than most climbers. You will see next week how "strong" he is during our training session with him and where he is lapping V11s after hours of training. An efficient climber can get strong in a fairly simple way. Getting this understanding of movement takes far longer - even for V14+ climbers. Thanks for the comment though, we really appreciate your thoughts and it is certainly a valid point that we don't disagree with.
Come to Memphis Rox!
We’d love to!
I will never understand why some people feel so compelled to always bring up race. Most of that segment could've been spent climbing and talking about his technique, but I suppose that's just me. amazing climbing, though. a couple things i might try in my warmup.
I’m not talking from experience, but gather being the only person of color can be fairly isolating. More Kai climbing incoming!
If it's his pet issue and he says it affected him, who are we to say it didn't? I say fine, he can advocate for it (as if it was up to me 😂), and I'm all for it. Why not? He certainly wasn't telling some disempowering victim narrative. He didn't make the climbing community out to be racists, not at all: he praised their acceptance. It sounds like he just wants black folks to feel like climbing isn't just a nerdy white kid thing. Why not? What could possibly be bad about that?
Some people have a really toxic race narrative, but I don't think we should jump down everyone's throats because of it, I thought he came across well.
I'd like to see this bloke repeat some of jonny dawes grit stone routes before any cliams are made about how good he is.
Have you seen when Honnold, Segal and Jorgeson hit the grit and basically do every "hard grit" trad route...Although we completely respect Johnny Dawes and his achievements and note that his movement was certainly ahead of the times, climbing has progressed and modern professional athletes will be able to do these routes far more easily than you'd expect. Safe to say that V14 and 9b are far harder than E9s.
I genuinely can't tell if she is just starstruck or super nice or has a crush on the guy :D
? 😆 they’re friends!
@@roapcoaching917 I wish my friends looked at me like that :D
happy to debunk the title: No
We strongly believe that Kai is up there. Keep watching this space!
7:46 imondagookushanalcohol 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣
Song in the background?
@@roapcoaching917 yes
Who cares if nobody looks like you. We are all unique. And nobody is stopping blacks from rock climbing. I see all races at the climbing gym.
It doesn’t sound like you’ve been the only person of color in a gym for years. Climbing is changing now (for the better) and you are right that now (in certain areas) there are climbers of all races. But this didn’t use to be the case.
I would probably listen to Kai and other members of the climbing community attempting to increase representation and access before seeming this confident in your own opinion. Almost as though you won't find communities or organizations being flagrant with racism, sexism, etc., and yet are still discriminatory, and the way an outside observer would know this might be a positive and inclusive culture is folks which represent them already in the culture. Sure, climbing doesn't discriminate, but if you don't already climb then how do you know, especially since gyms and crags definitely can discriminate.
The guy himself didn’t notice anything about race until he showed up at competition and then noticed he was the only black person. I didn’t hear anything about him being treated poorly. He was treated well in the climbing community and there is no racial issue .
@JayZoop Kai was 6 when he started climbing. A 6 year old is oblivious to most things until an issue is made. We definitely encountered racial issues in climbing . I shielded him from a lot, for as long as I could. Kai has written about some things that he has faced. Unfortunately, there is a lot more that he has never publicly discussed ...
@@JayZoop Except Kai has created an organization around creating access to the outdoors... and I support several nonprofits with similar initiatives. But no, they probably just need to hear the undoubtedly white cishet male perspective that climbing has no bias...
Kai is looking DIESEL
😂 had to look that term up! But yeah, 💪
Just no, Ondra is the best and way ahead of this random.
The beauty of opinion. Both very capable climbers with extremely high climbing IQs. Watch them both climb though, appreciate Kai’s movement. It’s incredible and he weighs a lot more than Adam! This sport (and life) is all about learning and we can ALL learn from Kai
Calling Kai (or anyone for that matter) a random is pretty disrespectful.
You realize that you can appreciate more than 1 climber right? Kai is extremely graceful on a wall, clearly we can all learn a ton from him ✌️
@@sylvaingilbert6296 You realize what “best” is, right? “BEST climber” does not allow more than one. That’s part of the definition of what best is.
@@user-yk1cw8im4h it's amazing to me that you were able to watch this guy's incredible movement on the wall and come up with a negative comment, I was hit with more of a "wow" type thing 😂
Kai is awesome! Thank you for making this video.
Of course! Thank you for watching