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General Climbing Discussion

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What’s helped you improve your climbing?

Vertical

9-Sep-2006
4:52:05 PM

Loosing weight !!

citationx

9-Sep-2006
6:53:04 PM

learning to use your feet (that's tied in with balance).
and i agree with several other people previously posting:
-non-climbing social life is superfluous. get rid of it.
-4 days on and 1 day off isn't good. try 6 days on and 1 day off. (beware of tendonitis, stop when you feel the twinge).

oh, and i feel that even one drink the night before i climb can put me off if i'm trying something at/near my limits. i tend not to drink at all when i climb. other people would just say "softc--k", "weak", but, you know.

vertical

10-Sep-2006
9:50:50 AM

I find the commitment to regular training difficult so I have to find enjoyable ways to improve. I am always too heavy for climbing so watching my weight for me is significant. Riding push bike is fun and good for this. Having a good belayer and good gear. Need to put any thoughts of belayer incompetence or gear failure out of your mind. Regular climbing gym work with friends working on a routes that are a bit too hard for you. Bouldering. Try and vary you routes and rock types. Extend yourself, be bold. Positive attitude to the route.

mendi

13-Sep-2006
7:57:53 PM

ever tried yoga..great for balance and strength, by holding poses for long periods of time. Plus the mental focus...is an excellent alternative when you cant make it to the wall.

DJ Biggs

13-Sep-2006
9:34:51 PM

capoeira doesn't do any harm being good for bizarre flexibility balance, core strength, and working apposing muscle groups.... and vice versa climbing is good for my capoeira

wyt91t

14-Sep-2006
12:56:07 AM

the less i eat the better i climb


bundybear

14-Sep-2006
7:38:04 AM

On 8/09/2006 adski wrote:
>Once I hitched my wagon to a star it was a non-stop tip-top express ride
>to TickTown.

Is this a difficult procedure. I am willing to try anything, can it be done b4 the weekend ?


vwills

14-Sep-2006
12:33:39 PM

Are you implying you are not going to be in the presence of a star on Saturday Bundy?


adski

14-Sep-2006
1:10:43 PM

Bundy, you need a vice like grip to hang on, it's a wild ride. Like vwills implies, skirt tails are just as good to hang onto as shirt tails, although it gets more difficult when your star is shirtless. You're likely to lose sleep and sacrifice relationships, i think you're in a slightly more dangerous position than I am in that regard. Expect an apprenticeship handling the pole before you graduate to jugging with a couple of bodies, followed by some painful dogging then finally getting a clean route. Believe me, when you finally get on top it makes it all worthwhile. And the good thing is, no matter how messy it gets with your gear shot all over the wall, at the end of the day your star will help you clean it all up. That's my kind of partnership.

jonorock

14-Sep-2006
1:15:56 PM

Climb with someone for a while who is more experienced and stronger.
For the first year of climbing I stumbled up lots of trad climbs up to 17-18 (and tumbled down some) with a partner who could lead no more than 12. So I led everything but never tried anything harder.
Then I started climbing with someone with 30yrs experience and very strong. The first weekend I 2nd up to 23 on natural gear and led up to 20. Within a year I was leading 23 and was much stronger, way better technique, more confident and faster on multipitch climbs.


Paulie

15-Sep-2006
10:03:41 AM

Apart from lots of time on rock, by far and above the best thing I have found is core strength training and stretching, loads of situps, pushups and static core exercises taken from Pilates etc. Being able to do big high steps and long reaches for stems etc makes an unbelievable difference.

It's hard to do living in a city, but if you can, minimise your time on plastic as it undermines your footwork and your mindset, especially when you have to go and stand on small smears on granite slab routes. Go bluestone bouldering if possible. Some walls (Cliffhanger's lead wall for example) have good textured panels so instead of using plastic handholds for feet, try and use only the inbuilt smears and the textured bits - this at least mimics a real-life scenario.

Paul


red

15-Sep-2006
3:53:00 PM

one thing that used to help me was to walk around with a partner who knows your ability well and just find lines that interest you. Let your partnet look up the deatils in a guidebook and guage whether the routes within your ability (lots of trust needed!). If he/she knows you can climb that grade or style of route he/she will say go for it...No preconcieved idea about previous difficulties at the grade, no comparisons. Takes away the initial preconceptions about the route.

Same thing as getting routes mixed up. My best onsight was on a route 4 grades harder than what I thought I was on!!!

One Day Hero

18-Sep-2006
5:50:45 PM

On 15/09/2006 Paulie wrote:
">Apart from lots of time on rock, by far and above the best thing I have
>found is core strength training and stretching, loads of situps, pushups
>and static core exercises taken from Pilates etc.."
">It's hard to do living in a city, but if you can, minimise your time on
>plastic as it undermines your footwork and your mindset"
>Paul

What a pile of shit! Sounds like this dude only climbs slabs and is giving you advice on doing the same.

Rock is best, plastic is a poor substitute, pilates has nothing to do with climbing at all!! What is the point of all that core strength if you can't hold the holds?? Strong fingers and good technique are key, situps and pilates give you neither.


bluey

19-Sep-2006
9:51:26 AM

Harsh, One Day hero. And I don't think your comments are particularly astute either.

Core strength is crucial to climbing. There's no point having fingers of steel if they've got a pile of wobbly crud hanging off them. Having strong core muscles means you can get your body to hold the best position, keeping you balanced and supporting the hard work that your fingers and limbs are doing.

As for plastic, I agree with Paulie - I sometime fails to see the advantage of practising at indoor gyms - the holds are greasy and the routes are mostly steep and reachy. It helps for strength but I wouldn't be surprised if it undermines technique.

19-Sep-2006
10:51:08 AM

I think core muscles are particularly important holding body in position, especially around roof/lettes... that way you can use body positioning to help you out, rather than brute chin up force, which us girlies generally arn't so good at...


dr box

19-Sep-2006
10:56:11 AM

climb slab. wicked for foot work that can be applied on other climbs

Ronny

19-Sep-2006
12:13:25 PM

On 18/09/2006 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 15/09/2006 Paulie wrote:
>">Apart from lots of time on rock, by far and above the best thing I have
>>found is core strength training and stretching, loads of situps, pushups
>>and static core exercises taken from Pilates etc.."
>">It's hard to do living in a city, but if you can, minimise your time
>on
>>plastic as it undermines your footwork and your mindset"
>>Paul
>
>What a pile of shit! Sounds like this dude only climbs slabs and is giving
>you advice on doing the same.
>
>Rock is best, plastic is a poor substitute, pilates has nothing to do
>with climbing at all!! What is the point of all that core strength if you
>can't hold the holds?? Strong fingers and good technique are key, situps
>and pilates give you neither.
>
What a pile of shit! Sounds like this hero only climbs slabs and is giving you advice on doign the same...

Sure finger strength is crucial, and technique is mandatory, but alone they won't get you up anything steep - believe me, I've got plenty strong fingers, not half bad technique, and a majorly jelly like middle, and I can run up and down slab all day, but put me on a steep route of the same grade... hopeless.

Nottobetaken

19-Sep-2006
12:39:40 PM

On 19/09/2006 Ronny wrote:
>Sure finger strength is crucial, and technique is mandatory, but alone
>they won't get you up anything steep - believe me, I've got plenty strong
>fingers, not half bad technique, and a majorly jelly like middle, and I
>can run up and down slab all day, but put me on a steep route of the same
>grade... hopeless.

...yes - but by 'slab' don't you really mean 20 degs overhanging? Depends on your definition of 'slab' and 'steep'!

For what it's worth - barefoot tracking problems on a 55 degs overhanging board using wooden holds is great for promoting Body T (but won't help you on 'real' slabs - obviously!)


cruze

19-Sep-2006
1:37:29 PM

I reckon the answer depends on what stage of climbing you are at. The thing that is common to most indoor climbing venues is that they generally have short, very steep walls. That is great for priming for your Nowra trip where the holds are generally as obvious and the moves about the same. If you climb most other places your typical route will involve stuff of around vertical interspersed with the odd steeper/bulgier bit. The slabby/vertical sections (if testing) will generally require you to use smaller handholds/footholds (and a lot less obvious) than anything you get on in the gym. The routes will be twice as long. Hence Damo making the point that crimp/open hand/contact stength and the technique to use it all day might hold the key. Core strength might help you substantially more on the steeper routes (and good luck to you if you are so good that you never climb anything else) but focussing on core strength is a sure fire way of being underprepared for your next face (or heaven forbid, slab) climb. It probably gets cited so much because people climb on steep indoor routes, fall off and wonder why... (like me)

...as spoken by the true master of the wobbly middle bit.

One Day Hero

19-Sep-2006
4:49:40 PM

I think it was Ben Moon who said "The time to start training is when you stop getting better by just climbing"
I doubt he was talking about punching through the grade 15 barrier!

If you think that doing pilates but no climbing training will crank you through the grades, why not take a pilates instructor out on rock? Those guys have so much body tension they should be able flash 25 on their first day out......don't you reckon??

There are 53 messages in this topic.