Full video

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you only have one opportunity on any of

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these routes your forearms are swelling

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your fingertips are losing grip it's

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incredibly High consequence if you slip

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you have to push your body past its

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limits to reach that

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top meet Brian zarella wait Brian where

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are

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you ah there you are I'm a three-time

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national champion I've also won two ifsc

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gold medals at World Cup events um as

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well as a couple silver bronze and a

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silver and a bronze at the IC World

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Championships events and he's competing

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at the US national par climbing

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championships but let's go back to the

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start I knew I wanted to coach Brian

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instantly a lot of times when working

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with people who have an amputation or uh

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a disability they climb a little more

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slowly a little more controlled just

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because you want to be really certain

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that every move you do is going to be

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stable but Brian had this amazing

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ability to just throw himself at holds

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uh in a way that might seem Reckless at

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first but it's something that allows him

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to do moves that other competitors

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simply can't I saw that this kid has

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something special I need to stop calling

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him

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kid Brian's climbing career didn't

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surprise his mom either Brian this this

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[Music]

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so I was actually born with one hand um

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and so this is kind of just how it been

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all my

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[Music]

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life Elementary School

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at the time I thought that's kind of

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cool I got a straight A in gym class for

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doing absolutely nothing and it wasn't

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until I was a little older that I

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understood the negative repercussions

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that ended up happening on

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me

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I first got into sports around Middle

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School there was an after school program

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they had a bunch of free sports to try

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whether it was baseball basketball

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handball football you kind of name it

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martial arts they had it and imagine

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having a kid with built up energy for

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like 10 11 plus years oh my God I was

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just like rapid firing through different

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um kind of different sports and just

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trying a new sport basically every other

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day felt like and then on Brian's 19th

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birthday climbing entered the chat in

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2017 I went to a gym down in New York

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City and the rest is history yeah know I

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was pretty bad when I first started

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climbing oh I just could not figure out

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how to get up the wall and I was super

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scared at the heights at first but

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there's something about the adrenaline

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that kept just driving me to try it more

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and then up getting a membership through

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the rest of summer and that's basically

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been it and I've been climbing ever

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since I think if I tried to tally up the

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amount of hours I put on a Climbing Gym

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i' dve myself insane thinking about it

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it sound a little bit

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[Music]

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obsessive I was pretty insecure about

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how I would navigate this world with one

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hand I always needed different adaptive

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pieces and there was nowhere ever really

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there to teach me what to do and I'm

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finally lifting and I feel really

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confident in the gym but but it

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definitely took a long time to get there

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it's very easy to have imposter syndrome

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kind of take yourself down a notch in

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your own head or still competing at the

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highest level it might look a little

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different from what everyone expects but

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that doesn't change the fact that we're

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still professional athletes at the end

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of the

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day whether you're a novice or a world

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champion it's a Relentless sport

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climbing is incredibly mental incredibly

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physical and Incredibly Technical and

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it's all those three things at the same

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time most of the time well I've seen

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like strongest men in the world come

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into a climbing gym and struggle because

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they don't know what they're doing if

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you can't do all three of those things

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you're not going to make it as a highle

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climber and messing up is high

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Consequence the potential of falling off

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of a 60 to 1,000 ft Cliff is pretty

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obvious you can tear muscles you can

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tear up your skin it can just beat up

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your body so I've personally broken

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bones doing it but I think one of the

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things that makes climbing unique is

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that it's also a slow sport where you

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actually have time every time you make a

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move and so you have to weigh choices

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constantly because consequence is high

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how are you going to manage that and

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scoring is simple each hold is numbered

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so the higher you climb the higher you

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[Music]

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score

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as you go higher and higher each move is

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harder till the last move of the climb

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which a lot of times in competitions is

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going to be after 45 50 ft of climbing

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you're going to have to just throw and

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catch and jump and swing to it at the

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top of the wall whoever's the strongest

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whoever's the best whoever is most

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composed is going to be the one on

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top

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and in first place taking home the gold

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winning the championship men's A2

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category it's Brian

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Z if you have any level of impostor

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syndrome it goes away when you're on the

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podium I think climbing is always

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pushing me to my limits before climbing

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I wouldn't say I was was anywhere near

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as confident in myself um or in my

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abilities I think it's really easy for

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kids with disabilities to grow up a

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little bit more shy a little bit more

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reserved but what they can do it's kind

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of pushed me out of my comfort zone

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ultimately I'm climbing for myself but

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not the me from the present I'm climbing

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for the younger me from the past and

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that little kid who grew up and always

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wanted to do

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