UKC

My local wall recently shut down. Ive got a steep board in my garage. And have been training exclusively on that for the past 3 months. However no one has yet come over to climb so I've pretty much been climbing on my own 5 times a week for 3 months. I don't mind training on my own occasionally but I'm starting to lose motivation to climb. Ive got loads of hard projects that i currently can't do and trying them over and over on my own is super frustrating.

Any tips to stay motivated when climbing on your own?

I occasionally visit other centres, the best near me in the manchester depot. But being 17 and broke i don't like spending loads of money on petrol and entrance fees when i can climb at home.

Any tips appreciated.
Cheers!

In reply to AlexSmurthwaite:

film yourself on projects.Share it with folks on here or other platform and ask for feedback.
Organise a woodie league with other folks in your area.
Make the effort once a month to get somewhere else and see how much your training is paying off.
I seem to to be unable to type question marks. All the above where top of my head suggestions which may or not be possible.

In reply to AlexSmurthwaite:

Other ideas:

- Make endurance circuits and redpoint them

- Have 1 project of each different style, e.g.
- huge dynos;
- very small moves on very small holds on small footholds;
- slopers;
- sidepulls;
-crimps.

- Target a grip type you are weak at, e.g. 3 finger openhand drag. Work on it.


- Lap some boulder problems for endurance if you want to do any routes later on throughout the season.

Good luck!

In reply to French Erick:


Snigger.

In reply to AlexSmurthwaite:

It sounds to me like you're targets are too ambitious for the short term. If I was you I'd find some smaller goals that will be like stepping stones to your big long-term project.

Say your project is a 7A boulder and you currently climb 6B, there's no point training on a 7A because you'll just get shut down and demoralised. Instead focus most of your training on 6Bish problems, you'll get stronger faster doing routes you can do/are close to doing than routes you're miles off.

I'd then set some stepping-stone projects at 6B+, 6C and 6C+ that are in a similar style to your project. (Don't forget to work on weaknesses as well though). It's really good seeing yourself progressing through these mini targets.

Hope that helps.

In reply to AlexSmurthwaite:

Sounds tough and good effort for sticking with it. It's definitely easier when other people are around, even if you're not climbing with them.

First thing I would say is 3 months is a fairly long time to be doing the same thing. It might be beneficial for both training gains and motivation to change what you're doing. How you do this depends on where you think your weaknesses are and what options are available to you. You could introduce weights or body weight training, pull up bar, rings, fingerboard etc. You could change the hold configuration on your board. You might want to change the length of problems. Go from say 5 move problems to 20 move problems for instance. Maybe you change the angle of your board, or add something like volumes etc.?

Another good thing for motivation is taking some time off. Take a week off, or having a light week cutting down a lot on how much you're doing will let your body fully recover from the last 3 months, and you might find you're raring to go, especially if you've come up with a different training plan, after the rest.

I find one of the biggest motivators is seeing yourself improve. You can often see this more obviously on basic exercises (pull ups, push ups, weights etc.) than in climbing which can often be down to having certain problems dialled.

Do you have any goals for this year and beyond? Setting and attaining goals, both short and longer term, is again great motivation.

Finally trying to find others to climb with is essential at some point. Commercial walls are expensive but can work out much better if you've got a pass for a month or 3 or even an annual pass. Aside from increased motivation, a change of walls will do wonders for improving your climbing generally. Different angles, holds and setting push you to use different techniques which is vital for continued improvement.

In reply to AlexSmurthwaite:


If you're open to having other people come and train on your board, UKBouldering.com has got a Board Share Directory:

http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,7530.0.html

(Obviously, observe all appropriate caution when inviting strange people off the intrawebs into your home, etc. etc..)


Have you got any outside projects or goals? I find that getting outside generally helps shake things up and renew my motivation, and having something inspiring to dream about reminds me why I'm training.

Then if you find a dream project or several, don't be afraid to be a sad geek about it. *g* Get beautiful photos of it/them and stick them up next to your board.

In the meantime, have you got any measurements of things you're trying to train? For example, have you got some tests of your finger strength you can do and then re-do at a later date, to see if you're actually getting stronger?

(This is something I personally am totally failing to do but ought to be doing.)


This is probably super-effective training (working on lots and lots of hard moves at the very limit of your ability), but unfortunately it's also soul-destroying. In my personal experience, loud music and caffeine can only take you so far ...

I think it's vital to find some way to balance it out, to make sure you find opportunities to experience climbing as inspiring and rewarding and *fun*, so you remember what you're training *for* and what makes the grind worthwhile.

In reply to AlexSmurthwaite:

In terms of getting out to different places without money have you considered hitchhiking and dossing out?

If you've got a like minded partner you can get anywhere with enough time - travel and accommodation are free - so all you need spend money on is food. Just add a sleeping bag and camping mat to your climbing gear.

In reply to AlexSmurthwaite:

Have you tried local clubs? I train mostly on my own but keep my club night at a local wall sacrosanct. Clubs often get discount entry at walls and lift share to save travel costs. There is a myth that local clubs have few serious climbers. Even our club of around 60 members has at least a pretty decent group of people training hard - we don't train together but we do communicate about what we are doing - keeps us psyched. When it comes to getting on our projects we will be supporting each other all the way.

In reply to AlexSmurthwaite:


What are you training for?

It's a lot easier when you are training for a nice juicy objective.

If you haven't got anything big planned then maybe training is a bit futile?

In reply to AlexSmurthwaite:

Post a list of the problems/routes you are training for on here and see if anyone else also has the same goals. Meet up at the crag to have a joint session on the project and share beta. Make a woodie training plan together afterwards and arrange to meet up at the problem again. They might even give you a lift if they are close by!

In reply to slab_happy:

Also, on a pragmatic level, if you can get to know people through board-sharing (or through looking for outdoor partners on UKC or UKB), you can split transport costs. I suspect quite a few people would be happy to offer you a lift to the crag if they could train on your board in return.

In reply to timjones:

Training specifically for outdoor projects

In reply to AlexSmurthwaite:

This is a very very good thread with great responses from everyone. Hope you got some psyche from it cause I did!

In reply to Vector686:

Yeah definitely. Had a week off in Italy with family. So keen to start training again.