The USA Climbing competition season is well underway and athletes are showing up to qualification events across the country. On this episode of The Impact Driver Podcast, host Holly Chen invites former USAC Routesetting Director Mike Bockino to chat all about competition setting.

Mike is someone who needs no introduction, but we’re going to introduce him anyway. Climbing since 1999 and setting commercially since 2009, Mike estimates that he has set over 150 competitions, including 28 National Championships and 6 World Cups. He bounced between Salt Lake City and Boise in his early setting days before landing at The Front Climbing Club, where he eventually became the Director of Setting. In 2020, he became USA Climbing’s Routesetting Director. Mike left that position in 2025 to join Essential Climbing. He is a USAC Level 5 National Head Routesetter, an IFSC Level 2 Routesetter, and a certified strength coach. When Mike is not setting or climbing, he enjoys making restaurant-grade tomato sauce.

• Life of USAC’s Routesetting Director and what comes next
• The evolution of difficulty in bouldering events
• The specialization of setters: Why do setters often gravitate toward bouldering competitions?
• Selective memory of competition setters: If competitions are so taxing, why do we keep doing it?
• Setting for athletes versus setting for spectators
• Assessing difficulty based on a setter’s abilities
• How setters can manage the pressure of perfection and look past it
• Don’t sleep on the soft skills of routesetting
• Personal limits within routesetting: Do they exist?

• Find Mike Bockino on Instagram
• Essential Climbing Welcomes Mike Bockino to the Team
• Mike’s blog

If you’d like to nominate someone as a next guest, have a topic you want to see us tackle or have questions, we’d love for you to reach out. You can find our pitch form here.

The Impact Driver podcast is a production of the Climbing Business Journal. Today’s episode is sponsored by Approach and Butora. It was edited and produced by Holly Yu Tung Chen, Megan Cheek, Scott Rennak, and the team at CBJ. Our theme music is by Devin Dabney.

Today's episode features an interview with Parker Sims, founder of Gravity Bear, a new bouldering gym built inside a century-old, renovated building in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. Parker talks with host John Burgman about the process it took to bring this ambitious project to life, from managing construction timelines and subcontractors to refining the gym’s vision around a “minimum-viable-product” approach.

Throughout the conversation, Parker shares the challenges of acting as his own project manager, the importance of hiring the right team early, and how the gym’s design evolved to balance financial reality with addressing community needs. He also explains how his military background shaped his leadership style and resilience through the ups and downs of construction.

Listeners will hear how Parker drew inspiration from climbing gyms around the world, blending a European-style, café culture with a focus on creating a community gathering space and true “third place” for locals and visitors alike.

Tune in to learn how Gravity Bear came together—one deadline, renovation and lesson at a time.

• Project Management and Construction Challenges
• Team Building and Organizational Structure
• Facility Vision with a Minimum-Viable-Product Focus
• Building Renovation and Historical Preservation
• Military Influence on Leadership and Business Philosophy
• Competitive and Community Insights from Global Climbing Gyms

• @climbgravitybear

Thank you Approach and Kilter for your support! And thank you Devin Dabney for your music!

As the routesetting field continues to become more professionalized, so do our standards and expectations. On this episode of The Impact Driver Podcast, host Holly Chen talks with Colorado-based routesetter Daniel Cornella about the state of routesetting education and the elements of good competition sport routes.

Dan first discovered climbing thanks to his high school biology teacher, took a detour to serve in the Marines in California, and eventually found his way back to the Colorado climbing scene. In 2013, he was introduced to routesetting at Life Time Fitness by Matt Lloyd. If you’ve climbed in a Colorado gym in the last decade—from the iconic 90s-era gym Rock’n & Jam’n (now The Spot Thornton) to various Movement locations—chances are you’ve pulled on something set by Dan, who is now the Assistant Director of Routesetting at Movement’s Centennial facility.

Dan is also a USAC Level 4 Setter and has set for Youth Nationals, National Cups and Vail Citizens competitions. He has also chiefed half a dozen youth championship events. Outside of climbing, Dan works in high rigging for concerts at major Colorado venues, such as Ball Arena. Above all else, he is a proud husband and father.

• A catch-22 of routesetting
• How gyms can work internally to educate setters through a standardized pipeline
• Balancing the creative and technical aspects when educating setters
• Preparing routesetters for their first competition
• Speed is style
• The elements of a good skeleton for a rope route
• Tips and tricks on building pump, from recreational to Olympian-level routes, and why every limb should have a job
• Systematic forerunning and how to approach skeletons versus near-comp-ready routes

• Find Dan Cornella on Instagram
• Movement x B-Pump Collaboration Brings Japanese Routesetting and Training to Colorado
• Rumble in the Rockies

If you’d like to nominate someone as a next guest, have a topic you want to see us tackle or have questions, we’d love for you to reach out.

The Impact Driver Podcast is a production of the Climbing Business Journal. Today’s episode is sponsored by Essential Climbing and Strati. It was edited and produced by Holly Yu Tung Chen, Megan Cheek, Scott Rennak and the team at CBJ. Our theme music is by Devin Dabney.