Olympian Toby Roberts: 'Climbing is a big mental battle - the environment is pretty intense'

Here, rock climber Toby Roberts and his dad Tristian reflect on his journey so far.

Toby

I enjoyed all the sports I did growing up – rugby, football, cross-country, hockey – but they felt a bit monotonous. Climbing was a new challenge. Being able to push my limits in a way that wasn’t so repetitive was addictive. I’ve always also had a passion for Formula 1, so if I wasn’t a climber, I’d probably be a motorsports driver.

It’s great having my dad as my coach. It’s so nice to have someone I’m so close to that I’m 100 per cent comfortable with and can talk to about anything. While he doesn’t climb, he still has an incredible depth of knowledge. There’s always going to be times where I’m like, "OK, just leave me alone for a second," or, "I’ve spent a lot of time with you now," but it’s always really friendly.

When I’m in my hardest training phase during the winter, I train six days a week, seven or eight hours a day, whether it’s in the gym doing weights or climbing. To switch off, I read a lot so I’m engaged, but without physically exerting myself. I love the Lord of the Rings series. I also play video games, including Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty. Now I’m in competition season, my training load has dropped a bit, and it’s more about feeling good and getting rid of some of that fatigue.

My typical diet is enough fuel to sustain the training. It’s relatively clean, home-cooked meals. My mum’s a very good cook. Her banana bread is perfect training fuel.

There are three types of climbing in the Olympics – speed climbing, lead climbing and bouldering. Lead climbing is my preferred discipline. Climbers have six minutes to climb as high as they can on a route they haven’t seen before.

Climbing is a big mental battle. Before I’m on the wall, there’s loads of emotions going on, but when I’m climbing, my mind goes blank – I’m just so focused. When you go into a competition, there’s the isolation phase, where you’re not allowed to watch other people climb the boulders or routes, because it’s an unfair advantage. All the team coaches and athletes are put into a room for many hours and that’s where people do their warm-up routines. The environment is pretty intense. There are people trying to play pathetic mind games, saying things like, "Your skin doesn't look great today."

Skin is the most important part about climbing. It’s your first contact point with the walls. When I climb a lot, my fingertips bleed. I spray hydration sprays on my skin during climbing to keep it moist, but not wet.

Bits of skin flake off, or get damaged, so I’ll take a sanding block and sand those bits off, so they don’t catch on things. I’m trying to keep a smooth surface to maximise friction. When my skin goes too hard, it’s not grippy, so I moisturise a lot to keep it soft, but not too soft, because then it’s more prone to tearing. It’s a fine balance. I use a range of products, from Nivea to Elizabeth Arden.

I’m so grateful for my parents’ support, because it has enabled me to do what I love. When sport climbing was first introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, that’s when I knew: "This is what I want to do. I want to make this my life."

Toby's dad, Tristian

When Toby was only four or five months old, my wife Marina and I went into his room and he’d managed to half get himself over the cot rail. We caught him just as he was about to fall. He was also always climbing over stair gates.

The first time he actually climbed, he was three or four. We were on holiday and there was a climbing wall at an activity centre. He got to the top and the guy running it said: "He’s the youngest person who’s ever got up there."

When Toby was eight, he joined an after-school climbing club and that was when he properly got hooked. He was very obsessive and wouldn’t let things drop. Whatever sport he did, he was really good at it. He was incredibly determined – we’d go up to his room after we’d put him to bed and he’d be doing a plank. We’d be like: "You’ve got to stop training now. You’ve got school tomorrow." He pushes himself really hard and he’s built up a huge capacity for training, but equally, he doesn’t know when to stop.

I didn’t start as Toby’s coach, but it evolved into that. I’m a terrible climber so I learnt the sport by watching it. From being observant, I’ve picked up Toby’s patterns and techniques. Climbing coaching doesn’t pay very much, and we’ve got four children – Toby is the second youngest – so I still work in IT and run my own business.

During lockdown, Toby had to take a year out from competitions, so we built a climbing wall in our garden that measures 3.6 square metres and has varying angles on it – 40, 50 and 60 degrees [pictured in main photo, left]. It’s useful as a base level of conditioning, strength and power and it helped him to build up his physicality.

We spend six to eight months of the year travelling for training, because the facilities aren’t good enough in the UK – we’ve been to China, Japan, Austria and the US – but we’ve also trained on the Titan bouldering wall in Wandsworth, London, which is a replica of the one at the Paris Olympics.

Toby is achieving something incredible. The word "sacrifice" isn’t something Marina and I relate to – it’s a privilege to be able to support Toby and see him do what he loves.

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