Xian Goh

Xian Goh Climber
Coach
Author of bestselling book 'Smooth: Movement Principles and Techniques for Climbing"
The North Face Explorer Team

🤰Weeks 35-39 - the final stretch! It’s mostly been gentle walks, mobility and doing a few exercises here and there. I’ve...
10/04/2026

🤰Weeks 35-39 - the final stretch!

It’s mostly been gentle walks, mobility and doing a few exercises here and there.

I’ve been thinking of pregnancy as the ‘warm up’, and that it is preparing me for what’s to come. Over the last 9 months these are the biggest lessons I’ve learned:

1️⃣ Be adaptable
Previous habits and ways of doing things can stop being feasible very quickly. Don’t waste time fighting it, get on with finding the new way.

2️⃣ Learn to be ok with physical discomfort
As a climber, I really love the feeling of my body being strong, mobile and energetic. I’m learning to let this go and be ok with feeling a bit rubbish most of the time. The less attached I am to this, the less upset I get, the happier I can be everyday 🙂

3️⃣ Enjoy the novelty and adventure
It’s been fun in learning new topics (parenting 😱) and I’ve gained many new perspectives in the process.


WCS 2026 💕 my favourite event of the year! It’s such a special feeling to be in the majority - a confidence boost like n...
07/04/2026

WCS 2026 💕 my favourite event of the year! It’s such a special feeling to be in the majority - a confidence boost like no other 🔥

Big thanks to and for bringing us together to celebrate International Women’s Day

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For the last 6 years, building my coaching practice has been my no. 1 priority. In 2020, I consciously decided to put it...
24/03/2026

For the last 6 years, building my coaching practice has been my no. 1 priority. In 2020, I consciously decided to put it ahead of my personal climbing (which was my former no. 1), and now it’s time to shift focus again to the upcoming project 🐣

I found a similar level of excitement, difficulty and satisfaction in coaching as I had previously found in pursuing climbing performance. And again as with climbing, the things I learnt were not what I thought they would be at the beginning of the journey.

To my future self (when you return to coaching), this is what we’ve learnt so far:
👂listen with an open mind, and try to hear what is not being said
🙇🏻‍♀️ bring to each session unwavering patience and belief that we will find a path forward, no matter how bumpy the road to progress can be sometimes
🤝 learning goes both ways, your clients will often be your greatest teachers
📚 keep learning from books, videos, courses etc. across multiple disciplines, always challenging current beliefs and experimenting with new ideas
🤓 be confident in what you know, that includes being ready to admit to what you don’t know
⏳ there’s a limit to how much you can concentrate each day/week
🗂️ be organised with time, costs and make an effort to develop business skills
🌞 show up every work day and make an effort. Yes, coaching is hard, stop being surprised when you’re tired at the end of it.
🐒 don’t forget to go climbing yourself! Even if it’s not no. 1 anymore, it is the foundation on which you renew yourself and connect with climbers
🐢 and the big lesson from the last 12 months - slower, stricter, smoother. There are the quick wins and there are the slow burns. Quick wins are fun in an obvious way, but sometimes we need to take on the slow burns to really shift the dial.

Thank you to everyone who put your trust in me as your coach 🙏 goodbye for now and I’ll be back in 6-12 months !

24/11/2025

🤰Climbing report 🧗‍♀️

Week 17
1x 2 hour session, 2x 30min

Week 18 (+7kg heavier than pre-pregnancy)
2x 2 hour session, 1x 30min

What I learnt
🐵 the work capacity for climbing is coming back really well! No longer feeling super tired after each session yay
⭐️ Still plenty to climb for me at which is super exciting cos I love it there and I know it’s on the harder side of gyms. For reference I’m peaking out at about V3 at the moment and trying not to fall.
🌈 climbing with rainbow feet whilst following set climb handholds is super fun and massively increases the no. of interesting climbs to do
🤔 it’s actually quite hard to read the fall accurately so now I build up to harder movements by doing modified versions (using extra holds) instead of trying the hard moves directly
🦥 the steepness of the wall angle isn’t as big an issue as how extended I have to be on a move.




18/11/2025

🙋‍♀️ Do you intentionally place your back foot or are you leaving it to random chance❓

📗 Find more technique tips in my book Smooth
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I don’t know about you but I can get so lazy and cosy at home as the weather gets cold (especially since 🤰😅) but luckily...
04/11/2025

I don’t know about you but I can get so lazy and cosy at home as the weather gets cold (especially since 🤰😅) but luckily sent me a super parka to coax me out 😬

💦 Waterproof GORETEX that covers pretty much all of me
❄️ 700 Recycled waterfowl down inner jacket
🍄‍🟫 Snap on buttons (who knew this was a game changer), 2 way zip and adjustable hood

I usually go for more layers and shorter jackets… but I’m definitively a parka convert now!


Expedition GTX 3-in-1 Down Parka

So I’ve been a little missing in action 😅 and this what I’ve been up to🤰It’s exciting and overwhelming in equal measure ...
03/11/2025

So I’ve been a little missing in action 😅 and this what I’ve been up to🤰

It’s exciting and overwhelming in equal measure 😬 tried to climb and failed on multiple occasions (I won’t go into the details 🤢) so it’s been mostly intense jigsaw puzzling and watching the rain from my sofa 🤓

Into the 4th month now, let’s see what November brings 🙂🍂


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