Hi, I'm adam
Hello and welcome to Southern Grit Training. I am a professional climbing coach and lifelong climber obsessed with helping others take their climbing to the next level. I founded this company in 2024 to follow that obsession, and bring my passion for climbing training to the greater climbing community.
My Coaching philosophy
Climbing training is not a linear process. As climbers, we experience physical and mental peaks, valleys, and plenty of obstacles. We get injured, we fall, we get stronger, we get weaker. In this rocky and uncertain journey, we must remain resilient, determined, and most of all patient. In climbing, to improve is to welcome failure into every session, and to let failure teach and guide us.
To me, the acceptance of these principles is the most important training tool. Being content in the process no matter the obstacles, and not letting fear of failure stand in our way. No amount of training can prevent these unpredictable barriers in our climbing, but training can and should prepare us. Accepting failure and learning patience in our climbing journey is no small feat, but there are methods and mentalities we can practice within and outside our climbing sessions to progress.
Grits are a staple cuisine in the south, where I am from. A hearty and cheap breakfast for the working-class southerner. Grit is also a word for a particular mentality. To have Grit means to prioritize discipline, passion, perseverance, resilience, courage, and conscientiousness over perfection. This is the southern working-class mentality, and a motivated climber should embody these mentalities in order to become mentally and physically stronger.
Adam's story
I first became a climber at the age of 12 at a dingy climbing gym in Florida. I could only admire the local gym rats - the dedicated Floridians who would regularly journey 9 hours for climbing trips to North Georgia. Their testing ground was Rocktown, an iconic bouldering crag in the Southeast famous for an abundance of lines on gorgeous rock. Their determination to climb shaped my perception of climbers at an early age.
Despite this, the climbing gym was still an hour’s drive from my hometown and hard to access for a young kid. I would not take my climbing journey seriously until I moved to Atlanta, where I was immediately hooked. My progress through the grades was quick, but like many I plateaued. I began searching for the secrets to become better- only to find a confusing array of conflicting knowledge about training and technique. However, the further I became obsessed with climbing movement and training methods, the more I progressed. My dedication to learning and observing led me to coaching the youth team at my local gym, which happened to be one of the most prestigious youth climbing teams in the country.
From the first week I started coaching youth climbing teams, I knew it was something that deeply fulfilled me. Coaching youth and adult athletes allowed me to utilize all my life experiences and skills. I felt that there was no ceiling to my impact as a coach, and my level of commitment and passion would directly translate to positive change in the lives of the athletes I coached. Armed with this philosophy, I became endlessly interested in improving. I began to take every opportunity possible to learn about competitive climbing, movement, and coaching strategies.
My passion then drove me to Salt Lake City, where I began coaching for another competitive youth team. My experience coaching youth and adult climbers full time in Salt Lake City gave me my voice, and has allowed me to refine my values and ideology as a coach. I’ve been so grateful to become part of a diverse community with such a rich history in climbing.
Now, years later, my potential impact as a coach has proven itself to have no ceiling. Coaching an array of climbers with different backgrounds and skill levels is my greatest passion. I continue to endlessly search for learning opportunities and show up every day for my athletes with more motivation and psych than I had the day before.