About a month ago we were asked by two climbers in Salt Lake if, since we’d be there anyway for the official release of Redpoint at the Outdoor Retailer show, we’d be willing to sit down and provide some climbing improvement guidance. Apparently our travel schedules are becoming known. Anyway Brendan and Brendan (no, we haven’t changed the names to protect the innocent) were willing to work around our hectic show schedules and a date was set.

Redpoint book signing at Outdoor Retailer

Background

The Brendans are seasoned climbers with many fine ascents to their credit. Both are working their way into 14a sport; Brendan 1 is on his way back to the grade having sent 14a in 2002 and 2003, and Brendan 2 is making his first foray into the 14 world. As it turns out, Brendan 1 had been a member of the youth climbing team inSaltLakeunderDouglasso he is well versed in our methods. Both are in their mid- to late 20s and live in theSalt Lake Cityarea.

Available resources

As far as physical resources go it’s hard to imagine a richer environment. There are multiple crags to choose from consisting of a variety of rock types, and outdoor climbing is available year round within just a few hours drive.SaltLakealso boasts one of the best indoor training environments as well with many fine gyms within easy commuting distance.

Brendan 1 has a full time career, a wife, and a young child so time for training and climbing is at a premium. He feels like three to four training sessions a week are doable, but the time he can spend away from home to climb outdoors is limited. Brendan 2 has fewer time constraints so we tailored our recommendations more to Brendan 1 since the two enjoy training together.

Goals

The Brendans were very clear about this: move up to the 14b or c level within the next year. Their current project is Horse Latitudes at the Virgin River Gorge, a 110 foot slightly overhanging limestone 14a. The climb is broken at the half way point by an undercling shake, the first half consisting of 12c. The second half contains the V7 crux, an offset balance deadpoint from a small crimp to a pocket. Both Brendans would like to send Horse Latitudes by the end of February, the close of the 2012 VRG season.

Current training regimen

The Brendans have been involved in a periodized training schedule with heavy emphasis on strength training by using a campus board, finger board, and system wall. Both have felt like a lack of strength is the main issue holding them back from higher grades, and they’ve worked hard to try and overcome this perceived deficit.

Assessment process

We asked the Brendans to provide us baseline information about their current condition. The two are fairly well matched in all categories, and here is what they told us:

Local aerobic endurance (20 minutes continuous climbing): 11c

Local anaerobic endurance (4X4): V5

Max bouldering grade: V9 or V10

Stamina (12 – 15 pitches in a session): 12c

We visited with the Brendans at a Salt Lake gym in order to perform an abbreviated movement diagnostics session. We watched and videoed the two as they worked on several boulder problems observing their process and movement. In addition we created a very specific two move problem to see how they would approach a common movement issue for climbers at their level.

Assessment conclusions

Movement: Video analysis showed that both Brendans have some very positive attributes in their movement. Brendan 1 showed very good trunk extension on vertical moves and on some steeper moves as well. We also saw that in a number of dynamic situations he was able to initiate movement from the hips.  Brendan 2 demonstrated good body tension and the ability to make small yet critical adjustments that allowed him to change a move of off-set balance into a move of more stable balance. Finally both showed very good active range of motion in the hip joints. Neither of them struck us as a “thug” and most people watching them would say they move very well.

We felt that their current movement skills form a good base for further refinement, but we didn’t see as much well controlled movement initiation as we would have liked. We felt that they still have more to learn about balance and how to distribute the effort of movement in the body relying less on the upper body for initation. The Brendans, like most climbers, rely on feel and an intuitive sense of how to approach a particular problem type, and this tends to favor those skills which are well learned and that the climber is particularly good at and disfavors weaker, less used skills.

Physical: The Brendans spend a lot of time bouldering and doing the strength training explained above. This type of work tends to be of a high intensity, short duration, and low volume nature and helps explain their relatively low level of aerobic and anaerobic endurance. At V9/10, maximum strength is adequate for the climbing anticipated.

Recommendations

Movement: We believe the Brendans have spent plenty of time with hangboards, etc. and instead should place more emphasis on sport specific training methods. By sport specific we mean activities that closely resemble the requirements of the ultimate objective, i.e. climbing! Hang and campus boards increase isolated muscle strength but do little to help in the application of that strength. Think about a skier that complains of leg fatigue. Would weighted leg presses be the solution? Probably not since a leg press does little to help the skier’s overall performance which is dependent on efficiently using balance and body position to best advantage, and to achieve this he needs to do what? Ski, of course!

We’d like to see the Brendans spend more time climbing, and in the case of learning movement, work boulder problems at just beyond their redpoint grade. In addition we’d like them to analyze easier problems in the V6 to V8 range in which the objective is to experiment with balance and movement initiation until the most efficient sequence is discovered.

Physical: We feel like the Brendans have spent sufficient time with intensive, short duration strength building exercises and should instead concentrate on less intensity and longer durations. We have three objectives in mind…

1. Improve aerobic endurance. Increase the grade at which they can climb continuously from 11c to 12a or b. Raising the anaerobic threshold will provide two benefits. First, the Brendans will be able to climb to the rest on Horse Latitudes using mostly efficient aerobic energy and will therefore be fresher at the beginning of the shake. Second, the recovery at the rest will be faster and deeper so that when they cast off for the second half they’ll be more rested. Keep in mind that on 5.14s there is often no climbing easier than 5.12. This means that if a climber’s aerobic endurance level is under 5.12 then all the climbing will be above their anaerobic threshold.

2. Increase anaerobic endurance: Increase 4X4 grade to V6. The Brendans currently have anaerobic endurance levels consistent with solid 5.13 climbing, but since they want to move into the mid 14s they will need to be able to climb longer sections with sustained movement intensity of V5 and higher. They will also need to be able to do harder cruxes while pumped. Raising their anaerobic endurance level will help with these issues. We also suggested that they use longer form interval training such as 6X8 as these will help them deal with the long lower intensity sections of climbing on a route like Horse Latitudes.

3. Increase stamina: The Brendans don’t get much outdoor climbing in due to their schedules, and their daily volume of climbing and training is lower than solid 5.14 climbers should have. The goal of improving stamina is to increase the amount of productive time they have during each day of outdoor climbing. We want them to be able to quickly redpoint 5.14a in a few tries and to be able to put a number of solid working burns in on a 5.14b/c in a day. To this end their stamina level needs to be raised. We suggest that they start doing Continuous Intensity Repetitions at a bouldering grade of V7 and work up from there. On routes they should start withCIR/VIRat the 5.12d level and work up to 5.13b.

We agreed to monitor the Brendans’ progress so stay tuned for future entries.

by Douglas Hunter

Efficiency can be thought of as addressing the question of what is the minimum amount of work an athlete needs to do in order to achieve the desired performance goals. Efficiency also means how well structured your climbing / training time is, in the short, medium and long term.

Efficiency begins with our ability to make and execute a plan for a single day of climbing or training. Without efficiency at this level medium and long term efficiency won’t be achievable. So the making of daily plans and executing them well is the foundation of efficiency. Most climbers already know that the most basic daily plan consists of a warm-up, a main activity and a cool down. What we are concerned with is the quality of each of these phases and how successful we are in each of them.

For the warm-up, the considerations are how quickly it prepares your body and your mind for the climbing to come. Does your warm-up help you move well, does it help you feel energized and ready to work? Does it need to last two hours, or thirty minutes? Faster isn’t necessarily better, the point is to make sure that the time is used wisely, and that activities in the warm-up contribute to your readiness for the main activity.

In the main activity the goal is for the climbing to be well structured and well executed. The overall time the activity takes will depend on what it is. Some activities such as high intensity intervals can be done in thirty minutes. Other activities such as on-sight practice may take several hours. In either case its important to assess how well you did in the activity and why. If for example, your goal was to do a CIR at the V2 level but you could only do seven V2s before you needed to drop down to V1s. You want to figure out why this happened. Was V2 too high of a level for you? Were you unmotivated? Did your skin wear out too quickly? On the other hand what if the CIR went well and you succeeded in doing twelve V2s in the session. What factors contributed to that success, and do you think you are ready to increase the intensity?

Finally, for the cool down, the goal is to aid recovery from the climbing. The cool down is the time to prevent cramping and stiffness that often follows climbing workouts. So we need to consider how well our cool down is working, this can usually be done by examining how you feel the day after a climbing / training session. How well do you perform the basic movement patterns of daily life? How does your body feel as you get out of bed the morning after a climbing / training session? Muscle soreness is a natural part of the training process, but how sore you are and how often your muscles feel extremely sore is influenced by your cool down.

. . .

After taking a couple of hours away from this post I re-read it and thought that maybe it’s too simple, too basic. But that’s actually the point. Training efficiency begins with the structure of each day, and it’s the ability to put together days, weeks and months of efficient training that we hope to foster in ourselves as we learn how to train.

By Douglas Hunter

The 4 X 4 has been the staple form of interval training for about seventeen years now but its popularity does not mean it can’t be manipulated.  Here are five suggestions for making interval training more challenging.

1)    Down Climb the Problems: Its standard procedure to jump from the top of one boulder problem and then run to the start of the next one. If you up climb and then down climb each boulder problem in a 4 X 4 it will double the amount of climbing in each set, which lengthens the set time and has the added bonus of forcing you to remember how to efficiently climb challenging sequences backwards. You can down climb some or all of the problems, its up to you. Since down climbing dramatically increases the duration of each set, it’s likely that you will need to use easier problems than you do when jumping down.

2)    Change the Order of the Problems: Frequently climbers use the same problems in the same order for each set. You can make each set more or less challenging by where you place the most difficult problem in the climbing order. Usually putting the hardest problem last makes for the most challenging set, but you can also put the most difficult problem first or in the middle. Changing the order of the problems is a good way to customize the difficulty of each set and create a more precise workout.

3)    Use a Pool of Problems: Rather than using the same problems in each set, you can have a pool of problems of the proper difficulty to choose from. Select different problems for each set. This has the advantage of significantly broadening the types of moves used in the workout. It also requires a lot of focus because you will need to remember more sequences, which can be hard to do when you are pumped.

4)    Add Another Set: There is nothing particularly special about using 4 sets of 4 boulder problems. When I first developed the 4X4 in 1992 I used that structure because it seemed like a good fit for the length and difficulty of the routes in areas such as American Fork Canyon. You should feel free to change the number of problems in a set, or the number of sets in a workout depending on the characteristics of the routes you are training for. For example, long lower intensity sets may be better for the very long routes found in the Red River Gorge.

5)    Change the Length of the Rest Interval: It can be easy to get in the habit of having set times and rest intervals be about the same. You can make a 4 X 4 significantly more difficult by shortening the rest interval by as little as 15 – 30 seconds.

On our first day together, Climber X and I went over his 2011 route pyramid, reviewed his likes and dislikes, and evaluated his performance for key physical attributes. X’s homework assignment was to find an inspiring 13a near his home to use as a long term goal and pick a number of low end 12s to be added to a progressive pyramid for 2012. On our second day together I took a look at X’s roped climbing skills with special emphasis on the process he uses to learn and then send a redpoint project. In fact, I wanted to evaluate several things including X’s ability to sustain work over a period of time (stamina) and a number of movement skills.

We began by warming up slowing doing double laps on an easy 5.7, then a sustained 5.9, and finally at 10b. After warming up I pointed X to a 10d for on-sight so that I could have a look at his process before, during, and after the attempt. Before the attempt X took his time locating the holds. He successfully located the crux from the ground and took some time evaluating that section of the climb. I asked about potential rests and he was quickly able to point out the possibilities. As he made his way up the climb, X showed he could decipher sequences and adjust to nuance as it arose, but the crux he pointed out turned out to be too much for him and he came off . Our post-climb discussion centered on alternative crux sequences and what he remembered about the first part of the route. X has difficulty committing sequences to memory so he couldn’t really recall much detail about the first part of the climb so here was any area to work on – remember that a failed on-sight then becomes a redpoint project and we want to send in as few attempts as possible. Being able to remember sequences while you’re climbing is a valuable asset to be cultivated.

We then moved on to a redpoint project at 11b. Again X showed good insight as we stood before the climb evaluating its sequences, rests, and other important details. Here I wanted to see X’s process for learning a route and then attempting to send. Unfortunately within feet of leaving the ground he tore the skin adjacent to a fingernail and had to retreat. So instead of giving up and heading for the nearest bar, I gave X a demonstration of my process. I tied in and began climbing and at each sequence I’d stop, try several sequences and locate any possible rests, pick the easiest way through, and then practice it so it was committed to memory. When I returned to the ground we went over all the sequences from start to finish. I had X repeat the sequences to me and then, having taped his finger, he gave it a go. I was pleased to see him execute sequences just as we had discussed, and he made it high on the climb before misjudging a hold and coming off.

So, what did we learn? The process of discovering, learning, and then executing efficient sequences is a skill to be learned, and that skill can save you many hours of effort and numerous failed attempts over the course of a single season. There are several movement skills that X will need to refine such as foot precision and his maximum bouldering strength will need to be increased, but the biggest short term improvement X can make is to perfect his route learning process. We’ll incorporate these elements into the improvement plan I expect to work on with him later today. Stay tuned for the results!

Additional Thoughts on Getting Better Without “Training”

In my previous post on improving without training I included the idea that intensity needs to be controlled, not necessarily increased, but controlled in a way that helps the climber meet his or her goals. The other night I had the pleasure of working with an enthusiastic young boulderer who is a good case in point for this idea.

This climber described his typical day of climbing as consisting of a couple V2s to warm-ups and then projecting a few problems in the V6 to V8 range. He may not send the problems he works on; but he enjoys his climbing time a lot as it satisfies his desire to get on cool boulder problems, and to climb with his friends. Thus he is climbing in a way that he finds rewarding and that fact alone means that climbing is adding to his quality of life.

That being said, there are two questions I think about regarding such a climber. Since his climbing habits are fairly consistent what kind of climber have they made him, and what should he do if he decided that he would like to increase his consistency at higher grades or break into a new grade level such as V9?

On the first question, observation revealed that the climber’s local aerobic endurance level was pretty low, about 5.8. His stamina level was also pretty low in that the number of problems he can do at any grade was pretty small. Even when backing down to V3 /V4 he tires out pretty fast. We noted that the basics of his movement skills such as hand and foot placement start to decline at the V3 level.

In all fairness the climber in question had already been climbing before I saw him, so that needs to be taken into account, when fresh I assume that his basic movement skills would hold up better and his stamina would also be a little better. But what we saw was not surprising for a climber with his habits. No endurance, Low stamina, and a well-established maximum level, are all what we would expect to see in this situation.

If this climber were to become interested in raising his maximum level what should he do? The answer may be counter-intuitive. Since he already spends most of his time projecting, increasing the difficulty of the projects he works on, or the volume of problems he projects on will not be helpful. Instead this climber should get his climbing back in balance by controlling the intensity during his climbing sessions. Rather that working 90% of his time near his limit he should spend 80% of his time working below his limit and only 20% of his time near his limit. Base building is far more important that many boulderers realize. If he wanted to improve he would need to develop his base, by getting a high volume of high quality practice at the V4 – V5 level. If he could do 40 boulder problems in that range in a short period of time such as 14 – 20 days he would see an increase in his stamina level, build the base that he currently lacks, and be far more consistent at the V6 – V7 level. That would be the first step in reaching higher grades.

Thanks to our friends at The Climbing Lab for their kind review of Redpoint. You can read what they thought HERE. And while you’re there be sure to check out the rest of their blog.

by Douglas Hunter

Many climbers want to improve their performance level. 5.9 climbers desire the prestige of reaching double digits. Young sport climbers know that climbing 5.14 is the new status quo. Boulderers want to join the race for V12, V13, and beyond. Nonetheless, launching into a full training program with cycles and long term planning can be daunting and sounds like a lot of work, even to highly motivated climbers. Short of creating a full training program, what can climbers do to keep improving?

 Improvement within a structured training program, or outside of one, comes from placing some kind of control (knowingly or not) on the following:

-       Intensity: how hard you climb each day.

-       Volume: how much climbing you do each day.

-       Quality: The effectiveness of your movement, and how well developed your movement skills are.

-       Diversity: How many different climbing activities do you do each day, and what terrain do you do them on.

Placing controls on one or more of the above variables will foster improvement. An important question is, how well do you know your own climbing? Do you know what your consistent on-sight, and redpoint levels are? Do you have a good grasp of what your intensity, and volume, are like from day to day? The following suggestion will help you know yourself better as a climber, and help foster better climbing habits.

1) Keep a Climbing Journal: You want to document how much climbing you are doing each day, how hard that climbing is and how well you are climbing.  Write down what you do during each day for four weeks and then review your journal. By doing this you will know for sure how many routes or boulder problems you are doing in a typical day, and at what level your are typically working. The patterns in your climbing will become clear.

2) Increase Volume: Most climbers actually do very little climbing during any given day of outdoor or indoor climbing. So the first thing you can do is work on becoming more efficient with your time in order to get more climbing in each day. For instance, if you do fewer than 10 boulder problems in a gym session, then lower the difficulty of the problems you are doing, do less chatting, and try to do 15 – 20 problems in a session.

3) Control Intensity: Experience suggests that working at what is called a sub maximal level is often best for making improvements. Spend most of your time working at the sub maximal Level and very little time working at or near your current limit. For experienced climbers the sub maximal level is the level at which you can complete a route or boulder problem in 1 – 3 tries. If you are spending more than about 20% of your time working at or near your limit, you should be dropping the intensity and increasing the volume.

4) Increase Quality: How well you move, how well you have learned the fundamental sport-specific skills involved in climbing plays a significant role in how quickly you improve, and how far you can go. Moving well and understanding the basic skills involved in turning, flagging, wall contact, and balance among others is vital. Don’t spend a lot of time climbing at grades above which you can move with a high quality.

5) Increase Diversity: A well-known quote says, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.” If you go to the crag and gym and don’t make a point of doing different things each day, then you are most likely always doing the same thing over and over again so you need to break out of old patterns and create new ones.

a) Do a variety of activities that ask different things of your body.

Maximum strength: Hard Bouldering.

Local Anaerobic Endurance: Laps on route, laps on long traverses, bouldering circuits.

Local Aerobic Endurance: Continuous climbing for 10- 30 minutes without getting pumped.

b) Don’t always climb on the same type of problems or routes. If you love steep climbing, be sure to add vertical and slab climbing to your daily mix. If you don’t like slopers, then get on them!

c) If you typically project routes or boulder problems, take several weeks to only do on-sights and flashes. If you typically on-sight then spend time projecting.

Nothing can compare to a well-designed long-term training program for making significant improvement, but by using these guidelines you can improve your daily climbing habits and should see results over the course of weeks to months.

Our latest book Redpoint: The Self-Coached Climber’s Guide to Redpoint and On-Sight Climbing has been released and is available for purchase. What’s is about, you ask?

We help climbers learn routes faster and with less effort so they can send in less time.

We lay out the process of learning and memorizing sequences, rests, and movement nuance faster so you can send harder routes in less time using less effort. There’s also an on-sight performance section in which we help climbers read routes from afar and tips on applying the process to bouldering. Plus the physical conditioning and emotional response elements pertinent to each type of climbing.

Visit our store to get your copy!

What trickery awaits you?

To the novice holds may appear randomly placed to be used in more or less the same manner: hands pull straight down and feet stand on the big toe. More advanced climbers know that route setters are devious creatures bent on forcing certain movements and tricking the climber into dead ends. Unraveling these puzzles can be either one of the most satisfying of climbing activities or one of the most frustrating.

So, how do skilled route setters go about setting a route? Step 1 is usually to determine a grade target and, less commonly, a specific movement goal provided by the gym owner or manager. The setter’s job is to establish a new route of that grade that may also include a certain movement sequence on a specific section of climbing wall utilizing holds on hand.

Step 2 is developing a general idea of the route’s character. For example, the setter may decide on a continuous route with no real crux (the section of the route that is obviously most difficult) or a route with all slopers or sequences designed to force heel hooks. He may opt for a crux section high on the route or low, or he might attempt to mimic an outdoor climb with which he’s familiar.

Step 3 is hold selection in which your setter picks hand and foot holds that will help him set a route according to all the criteria determined above. This takes some practice and experience to predict whether the holds selected will produce said route; in other words will the holds be appropriate for the angle of wall, type of movement, and grade.  There are no hard and fast rules here, the setter’s experience and skill determines whether a good set of holds is selected.

Step 4 is the actual setting. Contrary to what some may believe, setters don’t plan every move on paper or even in their minds before beginning to place holds on the wall. With the movement and grade in mind, a setter may begin by placing a number of  hand holds in a sequence followed by the foot holds. Some setters even set an entire route of hand holds only and then go back over the route placing foot holds, although this is a less efficient method than placing them at more or less the same time.

Step 5 is forerunning. For most commercial, non-competition routes setters “forerun”, or climb the route  for the purpose of making refinements, while they’re placing the holds. For competition routes several experienced setters may climb each route, make comments, assess grade, and help refine the movement.

Route setters have a suitcase full of trickery to challenge your mental and physical abilities.  Some of those setting tricks include:

1. Forced cross: For a pair of hand holds it might at first appear that your right hand, for instance, should be placed on the far right of two holds leading right when in fact the setter intends for you to use the near hold with your right hand and then cross your left the next hold. If you are suckered into placing your right hand on the far hold you  may not be able to progress beyond this point.
2. Hand foot match: To maintain a stable balance, the setter may force you to place a foot on a hold before you remove a hand from it.
3. Involve your heels: Hooking your heel like a third hand is a favorite route setter ploy. The heel might be necessary to keep you from swinging off the wall or help maintain balance or prevent a dynamic balance barn door.
4. Gastons: A gaston is a sidepull used across the body instead of pulling to the side. Gastons may sometimes appear to be a sidepull for, say, your right hand when in fact the setter intended a gaston for the left.
5. Underclings: A large hold turned good side down is almost always a dead giveaway for an undercling. The setter will usually provide high foot holds to allow you to use the undercling to make a long reach.
6. Use of wall features: Many climbing walls have features either in the design of the wall itself or embedded in the texture. For example, an arete can be used as a long sidepull for hands or heels.  Or many walls have small protrusions and indentations in the texture that can be used as additional holds.
7. Stems: Using hands and/or feet in opposition in an inside corner is a very powerful movement skill. Attempting to ascend holds set for stemming in a straight on manner can make a climb much more difficult than it would otherwise be.
8. Dynos: Having difficulty making a really long reach? Chances are the setter included a dyno into the climb.

Skilled route setters are constantly coming up with new and varied movement they hope will entertain and challenge you of which the above eight are just a small sampling.  We hope you’ll challenge your setters to improve their art and keep you motivated to improve.