UKC

Working towards 5.12 the big 7s!

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 FL1PD4N 25 Apr 2014
OK, so my goal is to be climbing above 6c, as in comfortably onsighting 6c+, redpointing 7a,7a+ and projecting 7b and above both indoor lead and outdoor sport.

Currently, I can onsight 6b+ indoors, redpointing 6c.

I have only climbed outdoors once on a one week holiday, I onsighted 6a+ fairly comfortably, not having had a major go at anything harder, due to time constraints. These routes being twice the length of indoor ones I regularly climb.

I have easy access at the local indoor wall, will be able to go outdoors this summer with friends and also have free access to a gym and swimming pool because I work at one.

Basically what I would like to know is what kind of time span it takes to get towards the 7s.
Also, how to break up the week for training, I can devote a lot of time to this. Flexibility training and stretches, climbing/bouldering, strength training with free weights, I want to climb hard but have balanced physique to stay injury free.

I would love any advice you amazing folk could give me, if you have experience in training/coaching especially helpful, share your story and what worked for you and it will be a good read too.

Dan

 Jon Stewart 26 Apr 2014
In reply to FL1PD4N:

I'm not into sport climbing and don't know much about training, so take this with a pinch of salt.

I think the time it takes to go from 6b+ to low 7s varies enormously between people. Often seems to me that teenagers seem to be able to get to E6, 7c etc in about 3 weeks (I exaggerate...) whereas those goals don't feel possible to me. Age and natural physiological factors play a big part.

Some general hints though. The best training for climbing is climbing. If your primary goal is getting better at climbing, then all the time you're doing weights or yoga or whatever, you'd be better off climbing. There's very little danger of causing yourself injury from imbalances - it might be an idea to do a few press-ups (or general antagonist exercises) but you don't need to spend sessions doing that instead of climbing. If you do 3 or 4 full-on climbing sessions a week, you should achieve that goal pretty quickly (weeks/months?).

I reckon bouldering is very helpful - it's how you gain strength and learn how to do hard moves. All time spent bouldering is helpful in climbing of any style, you can never have too much strength or technique. Worth bearing in mind that strength is hard won but lasts, and stamina comes and goes easily. So time invested in gaining strength is time well spent.

Also, if you can onsight 6b+, you can probably redpoint 7a anyway. The difference between someone's onsight grade and redpoint is normally a few notches.

Hope that's a useful start.

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...