How to become a good rock climber
by John LaGue
Posted on September 25th, 2019 at 3:45pm EST PM
There are plenty of articles, books, and classes out there about how to get good at climbing. I'll leave the extensive training details to them. However, I do want to share the three general principles that have helped me become an above average climber.
Summary:
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I started climbing my junior year of high school (late 2012). My two friends had recently gotten into the sport. After a few times of tagging along with them they convinced me to purchase a harness/ATC set. That was a big moment. $65 + a $40 membership was a lot of money at the time. So once I made the purchase I wasn't going back, I was in all the way.
Fast forward a couple months and I started to notice my biceps growing a little bit and I could climb a little bit longer and a little bit harder. While I was already financially committed to climbing, it wasn't until this first awareness of improvement that I began to find myself in pockets of flow, that feeling of complete immersion - defined by psychologist Csikszentmihalyi. That's when fell in love with the sport.
Climb a lot (specifically bouldering)
The best way to get better at climbing? Climb! This is common advice for anything you want to get good at though. For the first year or two years (or ever), don't worry about hang boards, workout routines, or anything like that. Go out and climb as much as you can! Do stuff you find fun and challenging, keep pushing your boundaries.
However, I suggest focusing your climbing on bouldering. I believe it is what accelerated my growth. Bouldering will force you to learn advanced movements, but primarily it is conducive to building much needed strength. If you focus on ropes, you simply will not get the same strength training.
While I do suggest climbing ropes for a couple months if you are just starting, once you have a base for technique, I would weight your gym sessions towards bouldering. This is valuable advice for any climber who finds they are in a plateau. If the majority of your climbing is on ropes I can't recommend enough the benefits of focusing on bouldering.
As I will mention below, rest is also important. When starting out I would avoid climbing two days in a row. Start with no more than twice a week for the first 2 months. Then if you really want you can bump it up to 3 times a week. I would stick to 3x/week for at least the next year. Make sure each of those sessions truly count though.
Climb with other humans
Benefits of climbing with others: tend to climb for longer, tend to enjoy it more, tend to try harder with friendly competition/ showing off , you'll learn the lingo & movements faster, and make friends.
Climbers are some of the friendliest people in the world. Climbing with other humans is always more fun. I remember one of the first times I went out climbing on real rock. I only had a crash pad and needed my dad to drive me to the spot in Arkansas (I was from Wisconsin). We found this boulder that had a few fun problems. There was a group of guys already climbing there. I immediately started climbing with them, we shared crash pads, gave each other beta, and hung out for about an hour. Once they had left my dad looked baffled and asked me "did you know them?" I simply said "nope". That's just how climbers are, always welcoming to other respectful climbers.
In general, climbing with others makes it easy to 1) climb for long periods of time without noticing 2) climb more often. I often find myself spending more time at the gym, more time working my project, and more time climbing when I'm with others. We play games, we share beta, and it is generally more fun - thus I do more of it.
While climbing with others is generally beneficial it is doubly true when climbing with people that are better than you. This was my secret sauce.
While climbing with others is generally beneficial it is doubly true when climbing with people that are better than you. This was my secret sauce. Remember how I started climbing with my friends. Well, even though they started climbing before me, I quickly surpassed them in ability. First, I started bouldering more while they would be doing top ropes. Then I started coming to the gym more often because I could boulder alone. More importantly, I started going when all the best climbers would be there. I would train with the best. Not only would I naturally push myself harder- to avoid looking like an idiot in front of good climbers - but I also watched their technique. By watching them I learned how to mantel, drop knee, bicycle, and all the more advanced techniques I know.
Climb with others, but also find when the best climbers climb and go with them.
That being said, there are times when you'll definitely want to train alone (belaying can be time consuming).
Don't get injured
I debated for a long time about putting this one first, because it is THE MOST IMPORTANT!
Always warm up and always give yourself rest days.
Soon after I climbed my first V10 boulder I f**ked up a finger. It was due to continually cutting my warm up time short - I wanted to get straight into my project! That cost me more than I could imagine. One day, my ring finger's A2 pully tendon tore in one quick pop. Almost 3 years later and it still has not fully healed. Be careful of side ways dynos to slopey crimps!
I didn't climb more than a V2 for 6 months after. And, ever since, my climbing has been interspersed with long gaps of inactivity.
I'm pretty confident I would be climbing at least V12 right now if I had just warmed up a bit more that day. Instead, I am back down to about V7-V8. Although, I'm still stoked/thankful I get to climb at all :).
Warm up is mandatory.
Rest is also crucial. When I would compete I would climb several days in a row and then give myself at least 3-4 days of pure rest before going to a competition. I often broke through plateaus by just giving myself those few days of adequate rest. This is particularly important for strength heavy climbing. Resting longer than 4 days though can start negatively impacting endurance.
Even after periods of not climbing for 1-2 months I would come back and still feel strong (but have zero endurance). Rest is necessary!
So, how did I become a decent rock climber?
I started climbing a LOT, focused on bouldering, and went to the gym when the best boulderers were the.
Happy climbing!