UKC

I was wondering the other day, at my local climbing wall...

I'd say that I can onsight F6b+ around 90% of the time, that falls around to 50% at F6c and around 20% for F6c+ (likely those routes that aren't really F6c+).

For redpoint I can usually get around 50% on F6c+ but likely less than 20% on F7a, however I'm lazy when it comes to Redpointing routes.

So basically my Redpoint grade is around half to one grade above my onsight grade.

Is there a general relationship between onsight and redpoint grade, e.g. can someone who can onsight F7a normally redpoint F7b or does it generally just get much harder to onsight as the grades go up?

I'm not sure I've ever tried them both indoors at a similar enough time to know, nor am I really sure whether indoor and outdoor would differ, but outdoors if I had to pick a single number for the most common difference it would be either 3 or 4 (counting each + as a grade, so 7b/+ onsight to 8a redpoint as an example); albeit a wide range is possible depending on where and how you spend your time.

The standard rule of thumb seems to be add 3 grades to your onsight grade (including +s).

6b-->6c+

7a-->7b+

It would be interesting to know how accurate this is in the general population. It holds true for me depending on how you define the onsight grade. If we said a grade you onsighted more often than not mine is probably 7a+ OS and 7c RP.

This seems to be true across the board I think. I remember Steve mac saying something similar in an article many years ago.

Even at the top ondra has flashed 9a+ and redpointed 3 grades harder with his 9c creation.

It may well be 3 grades but I can rarely be bothered to put the time in so 1-2 grades for me! 

My sport climbing is quite odd in that I have yet to do a 7a indoors but Ive onsighted nearly 10 6cs at the same gym over a 3/4 month period. Short ones/longer ones but generally on nothing more than 20 degrees overhang iirc 

Perhaps this is also because those are more often than not on climbs where I can bridge in wild ways. 

My friends also say I just dont try hard enough :I 

Im looking forward to outside this year as I only got into sport last april and never really projected outside as I wanted to climb as much as I could in any given day (say 4 new 6a/6bs instead of hanging off 1 6C) to just get millage and well enjoying new climbs tbh.

Bouldering I would say a similar number to OP but If there is a corner problem, the odds go up quite dramatically for a flash (flexibility i suppose)

6c os (multiple, 50% onsight rate), 7a flash (once) 7b rp (twice) in my case.

Unlike Wil, my difference is from a best effort not a ~50% success rate, but about half a dozen 7bs (a guidebook 7b+, but I'm not sure about it, plus a couple of near misses on 7b+s) and an 8a, so 4...

I have redpointed 8a. I have never onsighted harder than 7a. I'm probably an extreme case because most of my sport climbing has been in the peak district where routes tend to be technical and hard as opposed to long,  and because I very rarely try to onsight things. 

That has held true for me throughout my climbing. Currently 7c OS and 8a+ redpoint - have been knocking on the door of 8b/+ish redpoint recently and in the same time got very close to onsighting 8a so I think there is something in it. Odd how these things can be quantified, but there you go! 

So it seems 3 half grades (counting +) is the standard, good answer.

I can normally onsight F6b+ indoors so I should be able to Redpoint F7a - this sounds about right to me.

And outdoors I can normally onsight F6a+ and I should be able to Redpoint F6c which again sounds about right.