UKC

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone could help me out doing a training schedule or something to help me with bumping my grade up a notch. Im currently doing 6a-6b (5.10a-5.10d) and I my goal is to reach 6c-7a (5.11c/d) by the end of this year. Any input would be great. Thanks in advance

In reply to CallumKX:

Hi Callum, some more info could make it easier to give an informed response. How long have you been climbing? How frequently do you climb at the moment? Is it mostly indoor (bouldering or routes?) or outdoor (trad sport or bouldering?)? Do you have easy access to outdoor crags? Indoor walls? A home wall/fingerboard? I assume your goals are for sport routes, given that you use French grades, but because you also give YDS, I suppose you might mean trad.

In reply to Nick Russell: hey nick umm I climbed for four months then I had to stop for 2 months due to finals. I mostly climb indoors, sport and boulder. For outdoors, my group usually goes off to the crag once a week. An indoor wall is just 10 minutes from home.

In reply to CallumKX: I feel like I've made that grade jump over the past 6-12 months, two things I've done that helped the most:

Lost about 5 kg (I thought of it as the equivalent of taking 9 size 6 Camalots off my harness)

Made a goal-based spreadsheet - the goal was to do 1000 moves per week (roughly equals 50 routes at my local wall) with a certain split between route difficulty, this was advice from a coaching session we attended and really worked, probably because I love log books and statistics.

If you have google docs I can share my spready with you so you can have a look. I'm not doing this anymore as it's difficult to find a partner willing to do 18+ routes in a session.

Also, if you're bouldering notably harder moves than you're doing while leading, you should work on endurance. If you're bouldering the same difficulty moves as you're leading, also work on power/strength.

In reply to CallumKX:

That's not very long really... The first advice that I want to give is to avoid injury. Muscular strength can be gained very quickly (weeks), while tendon strength typically takes years. I expect you can see how this is a recipe for getting injuries from a rapid increase in volume and/or intensity


Injury disclaimer over, the main point in the grade range you're talking about is to go climbing frequently. Do you have a membership/subscription at the wall? If not, get one. Build up to going three times a week, and make sure your sessions are focussed. That is, if you're having difficulty with the moves, no matter how much you rest, do more bouldering. If you're finding the moves easy, but after half way just can't hold on to even the biggest mega-jugs, train endurance. Plenty of articles on that here, but essentially drop the grade and do 2-4 routes back-to-back. Take a rest, repeat 3-4 times.

On non-climbing days, do some cardio, or core, or antagonist training in the gym (press-ups, dips, etc.)

Of course, this is all pretty general common-sense stuff, some people will doubtless disagree with at least bits of it, but it should set you off on the right track.

In reply to Nick Russell:

+1 to injury advice. I got up to the stage you are at a couple of years ago and then struggled with injuries when I tried to 'pump up the volume' a notch. Looking back now it was inevitable, I had bad technique, always muscled through difficult moves and most importantly didn't understand about muscle imbalances, instability etc.

I consider myself lucky that at the time I was regularly practicing yoga which involved a lot of pushing but after a long break and dropping yoga, I really struggled with tendonitis.

Can't offer more advice as I haven't climbed at the grades you want to get to but from experience with other sports consistency is super important so pace yourself and don't underestimate the importance of getting a lot of 'easier' climbs under your belt and focusing on doing them really well instead of just trying for those 7a all the time.

In my case my technique was actually getting worse when focusing on really hard routes and improved when doing easier routes over and over again until I got them right.

In reply to Nick Russell: Thanks nick. Also, for endurance, does traversing alot help? Someone at the gym told me to find a slightly inclined wall and do rainbow(all colours) up 5 times. Taking 30 seconds rest (feet on ground) at most but resting on holds up the route are fine. but the advice which made most sense to me was to climb a route which i can barely do clean and train for it till i finished it clean and move on. Whats your input on this?

In reply to CallumKX: sounds like climbing a lot will help the most. You'll learn a lot of movement skills in bouldering, really concentrate on how you move when you're warming up, try and make very movement as 'easy' and efficient as possible. When you're warmed up start trying harder boulder problems, if you can't do something try it again but think about body position and footwork and how it can change to make the move easier - it'll teach you a lot about the subtle techniques.

I don't like 'rainbowing', the great thing about indoor walls is that specific movements can be set and learnt and you lose this.

Mostly indoor walls aren't very tall, but if you find that the reason you're falling off the harder grades is that you get too pumped maybe try some 4x4s (lots of info on the internet) or climb to first bolt, clip, climb to the bottom foothold, back up the second bolt, down to the last foothold, third bolt etc.

If you physically can't hold/do the moves themselves, go back to bouldering. Hangboards etc might see like a quick fix at this stage but I'd wager the safest and most beneficial way to get stronger and have better movement is actually climbing.

When you climb routes make sure you 'plan' them before you set off, identify the crux/es, look where you can potentially rest and where you can clip the bolts in the most efficient manner. Lots of indoor routes have good holds near the bolts for example, don't waste energy holding bad holds in strenuous positions.

Redpointing (trying a route over and over until you can do it) is good, but don't get stuck on it - lots of mileage on different angles and styles is the name of the game.

In reply to CallumKX: You'll be limited in your climbing by strength/fitness, technique and mental approach. It's early days, so at the moment strength/fitness will develop naturally (if you put the hours in), I wouldn't worry too much about that. Technique and mental approach will require more focus. You're best learning technique when you're not climbing too hard, so make sure you spend plenty of time on routes that aren't at your limit, and try to climb them as smoothly and perfectly as possible (and repeat routes to try different sequences). Silent feet is good for footwork. For mental strength, get used to falling now. Try the odd route that is above your limit, and go for it. If you don't fall, try a harder one. If you can't go for it, get used to jumping off (tell your belayer before you do) and progress from there. Also, make sure you have a good look at the route before you set off, it might be hard to work out exact sequences, but get a general feel for where the route goes and where the big rest jugs are. Good strategy takes a while to develop.

Also, if you haven't watched the Neil Gresham Mastercall DVDs, get part 1 and watch it, then watch it again. I found it a revelation when I first saw it.

In reply to CallumKX:

Learning to redpoint did it for me. Not strictly an improvement in ability, more a change of game but it'll get you to your goal.

jk

In reply to alooker: One of the problems that i indentified about myself is that when i does come to the crux, i just immediately get into this mental state where i just pull up and i wont even remember proper technique. Especially when the route is getting a little intense. But on easier routes, i can still mantain proper technique

In reply to CallumKX: if you get good technique on easier climbs this will get into your unconscious and it will come more naturally. As somebody else said above, learning to fall (on the lead) is very important, you'll find that when the mind isn't full of the stress you can concentrate on the actual climbing, this focus makes a huge difference.

In reply to CallumKX:

Being totally honest with yourself about what the weakest aspects of your climbing are will go along way. Work on those weaknesses and turn them into strengths.

It's very easy to deny the mental part of climbing and simply think: "I need to be stronger, fitter etc." We all want to be fitter and stronger. But if your weakness is elsewhere (fear of falling, technique etc) you'll get much bigger gains working on that. Fix the weakest link firt. And if you're climbing regularly strength and fitness with progress naturally anyway.

The main failure many people make with strength training is not enough intensity. It's far harder to push oneself to one's limit when you've got the fear of falling, complicated techniques to execute etc. than say repeatedly lifting a barbell. But if your climbing is not getting you to breath pretty damned heavily then your intensity is gonna be low and you might hit sticking points.