Lessons From the Sharp End of Modern Setting – Mike Bockino

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.

General Topics Covered

• 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?

Show Notes

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

Closing Notes

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.