In reply to Taurig:
> As a bit of background, I've been bouldering and top roping indoors since about February this year, and top roping outside since April. I'll leave the outdoor climbing aside for the moment as it's my head that holds me back there, but indoors I'm comfortable with falling off and I think it's my hands and/or forearms holding me back.
I bet it's not. That's not to say it's not worth getting stronger, more that the biggest and safest gains you'll make given your relative inexperience will likely come from exploiting your feet better and improving your efficiency.
> ...whilst I know what shapes to make and can make them in terms of gymnastics, my forearms are screaming pumped on the smaller, mainly crimpy and pocket holds by 1/3 to 1/2 way up, and I just can't hold myself on.
With sticky out footholds you should barely need to hold yourself on even on modestly overhanging walls.
> ...but I didn't ever get that acute pump. It's strange because the height I was attaining on the 6b's was probably about the same or even less than at the bouldering wall.
Was the pacing the same? Are you really as relaxed about falling as you think?
> So, basically I'm looking for some guidance on what to train?
Climbing mildly overhanging walls, the sort of thing that's causing you to pump out. Get quick and genuinely relaxed so you're not afraid to fail/fall. Once you're comfortable increase the grade a notch and get comfortable again. Don't just dog up resting on the clips, if a route needs rests or causes a fall then work it out and redpoint it, the process is quite enlightening.
On the bouldering wall pick similar angles to the routes you want to do and move around on the holds, twist this way and that experimenting to see which motion unloads which limb and which position gives the best reach in each direction. Find the sneaky rests and shakeout positions. Then find the really sneaky ones.
> Will using a power ball and doing wrist curls help with the forearm pump.
Probably not though you'll get big forearms if you do enough. Squishy ball finger exercisers seem to help me keep my fingers from stiffening up after climbing but I only use the soft ones and not routinely.
> or is it finger strength I need to work on? Do you think it's pure grip strength, is it more endurance based, I don't know? Any advice appreciated.
It sounds like an endurance problem to me. As I said earlier it's unlikely to be a physical limitation. Maybe because I'm lazy and weak I'd go for efficiency over strength every time. Maybe that's why I'm lazy and weak!
jk