UKC

Hi everyone.

Back in August I posted the below re. my ambition to reach 7a despite plateauing for years. I was asking if anyone had any stories of realworld improvement when approaching 40:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/climbing_improvement_when_...

It had a load of incredible, supremely helpful, replies (thanks everyone so much, you're a friendly bunch!).

I can't reply to the original post as it's been archived, but thought I'd quickly report back.

The variety of replies basically convinced me that there was no physical (or mental) reason why I couldn't achieve way more than the grade I was aiming for (which was great).
There were a variety of suggestions about training regimes and plans, however there was an overall thread of "if you want to climb 7a's, climb 7a's".

It's so obvious, but I'd never really appreciated this.
I paid attention to what I was actually doing at my sessions and in reality I warmed up on some 5s and 6a's, did lots of 6b's, tried a couple of 6c's and then finished with bouldering, assuming I'd magically get stronger, eventually consistently be able to do 6c's and then move onto 7as. 

In reality (as a number of the replies pointed out), strength wasn't the issue, it was a mental game. By never actually climbing 7as, I wasn't building the mental game to climb at that level.

Long story short, I returned to the gym and didn't change anything, other than trying to climb 7as for a majority of my sessions (after warming up), as opposed to 6bs and 6cs.

For over a month I couldn't do more than the first few moves of each route and spent almost all of the sessions taking falls (which I wasn't used to) but for the first time in years (I've been climbing around 20 years), I started to experience real world improvements again (which felt amazing!!). It was also fun to re-discover working a problem week after week again.

Whilst I wouldn't describe myself as a 7a climber, I managed my first one last week and completed another this week!!!

So, in summary, for me the secret was not to assume climbing lower grades would magically be able to make me strong enough for harder grades, but to climb the ones I wanted to achieve instead. It was a bit of a mental reset accepting I'd spend most of the session not sending/falling, but it was amazing to feel improvements again.

Thanks everyone for your kind help, your inspiration convinced me to give it a go and am amazed it happened so quickly

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belayatron 16 Aug 2019

Hi,

I've been climbing for almost 20 years mainly indoor with occasional outdoor and am now approaching 40.

For a number of years I've been climbing at least twice a week indoors for about 3 hours each with a mixture of bouldering and sport and no specific training.

I love it, but have plateaued at around v3 (occasional v4) and 6b (occasional 6c) for years.

I've always fancied starting a training regime to see if I could make 7a, although opinion seems to be mixed/debated on whether I should be achieving this anyway purely through the amount of climbing I do and whether I've reached my natural limit.

I was wondering if anyone has any stories of people in my age range who've plateaued and then actually successfully significantly improved through a training regime?

Great news fella, you must be feeling pretty psyched.

One thing I've gleaned with the discussions on here about oldies and improvement, is no one is mentioning the ability to try hard. There's a Mountain Equipment short of Dave Mac doing 'New Base Line' in Swizz (called 'Dave'), where he discusses exactly this. It took me a while to cultivate that attitude.

I call it 'flipping the switch'. It's made a big difference. I think many climbers cultivate an attitude of feeling good or comfortable which only gets you so far.

I'm sure many on here know what I'm talking about but for those that don't it really offers a step up with training and outdoor performance.

Here's to more 7's for you!

Thankyou I am!

I completely agree. It’s quite difficult to describe in text, but my theory that by climbing 6bs continuously would somehow make them “easy” and then I can move up didn’t really work for me.

When I climbed hard 6bs it felt as if it was at my “absolute limit” and now when I climb 7as it feels at my “absolute limit”.

I think as you climb harder routes your “absolute limit” just develops the ability to reach a little further and hold on a little longer and unless you test and push this (ie try hard) you possibly don’t improve this limit?

Indoors, I think milking everything you do for what it's worth pays dividends. So once you tick the 7a, keep returning and refining your beta and movement. This in turn should inspire your ability to commit and try hard. Again, this prepares us for the next level of difficulty.

Edit: I should have added, apply this to your outdoor experience. A tick is a tick but a good tick prepares us for further endeavours.

Check the RoadRamble channel on YT. Sam and Amber rarely stop at just the tick. They stop when there is little left to learn. When you see 7th and 8th grade problems climbed so well this makes sense.

that's great, well done on achieving your target grade.

I went through a similar plateau throughout my 30s. I realised eventually that change is the most important thing. Doing the same thing over and over will just result in the same results. I stopped cycling to work first and got an immediate grade boost which i attributed to higher energy levels. I changed to concentrated efforts on short routes having previously got really fit climbing hundreds of multipitch routes at swanage. And eventually changed to bouldering. My grade rose and rose, and I can now climb harder routes outside than I ever had before. I've been able to restart cycling again in my late 40's without suffering grade loss probably because i'm climbing on routes that suit my body shape, and not trying to be ethically pure anymore.

Bottom line then is Change  and perhaps as importantly a realisation of where my strengths are and targetting those types of disciplines/routes removed my barriers.

Think I was doing my first 7a when I was 40 ish. First 7c+ at 59.

Dont grow old before your time. You are young. Just get on with it.  

Awesome. Well done!

Brilliant!

Thanks for sharing.

This is a really great post.  As a man of 38 who tops out at around 6c, this is exactly the advice I need.  

Planning to jump on a 7a and see how it feels, gotta break a few eggs to make an omlette!

Hi there - great news, really pleased to hear you did that.  I think many of us under-estimate our true abilities and sometimes it just needs a different way of looking at things, yourself that gives the key to unlocking innate abilities you hadn't recognized in yourself.  Particularly when like me, you have been doing the same thing at the same level for a long time.

What if you matched your new found mental confidence/approach and some structured training as well and see how much harder you could climb still, 7b?

Let us know how you progress.

Mark

Cheers for getting back to us about this and I'm sure a lot of readers can sympathise with you (as already seen above). I was in the same boat at 38, thinking "if only I could climb just one 7a I'd be happy". Long story short; learnt how to properly red-point a route and recently went on to lead my first 7a+ in just two short sessions. This year I'm just going to see where I can go with some actual climbing training (rather than just resisting overdoses of chocolate and pizza). I've got a (soft) 7c in mind, and if that works out, perhaps 8a? Who knows...