TECHNIQUE

So, you have to come to this page because you wish to climb better ? harder ? this is not a page dedicated to the hard core dare devils who wish to push the limits of trad climbing or soloist. This is not even a page for those who have great ideas about training. In fact, I must first point out I am much less than qualified to describe any form of technique to anyone who is serious to train and learn, perhaps a professional climber could help you better.

What I can share with you however is an idea. An idea about training that could make the difference in your climbing. Its all up to your own efforts.

Ever noticed how good climbers and professionals spend HOURS on the wall training and doing stuff that they CAN EASILY do and yet they bother doing them over and over again ? This brings me to the explanation of Technique and Strength.

Strength TRAINING
The topic of strength training is more adequate for those who are already weak in the arms but have extreme technique. Usually the main concerns in climbing is finger strength and core strength, and not in the ability to crank 25 one arm chin ups. Though it does help in many ways, its usually not the weakness as you will only be as strong as your weakest link.

ATTITUDE
SURE it is fun to burn your friends off, and it is even more fun to be able to campus effortlessly in the gym, with your shirt off and impress the hell out of the girls, and as for the females, its nice to be able to pull out a perfect figure and blow of the other women and become the focus of attention. Don't we all crave this secretly ?

How does this affect our climbing ? Simply because by burning off your friends, you will naturally be doing what you are best at in order to impress. This means if your strength is at thin bouldering, then you will be doing really thin crimpy bouldering to prove yourself strong, and stand your grounds.

Real training is about respecting and doing what you are weak at, and hence working your weaknesses is a consequence. This is the secret to climbing better, faster. After all, who wants to climb with someone who ONLY wishes to burn others off.

In Masters of Stone III, Jim Karn mentions that if you dedicate your entire lifestyle to climbing, then how to train and what to eat and all these will become obvious to you.

Technique
This is probably the second most important thing in climbing. The proper execution of technique, of efficiency and also choosing the right movements in execution. The reason for working easy problems is simply being able to practice using different techniques to accomplish a move. This may seem stupid when the most efficient technique is most important. It is however difficult to use a single technique when it uses only one small muscle group such as your fingers. You cannot execute efficient movement when you are completely pumped, even when your singular-technique is flawless.

Hence the gym is probably the best place to learn technique. It is not ideal because it is different to rock, it is great though because it allows you to concentrate on your training.

Ask yourself, when working on a redpoint project, what spat you off the climb ? Was it strength, was it concentration ? was it anaerobic endurance ? Was it power ? Remember, be honest to yourself and work your weaknesses.

Some Techniques to train
I had some reluctance against putting this on the internet because it seems to be printed endlessly in textbooks in detail and of course by professionals. I am simply just not qualified enough so I will try to interpret what many professionals teach.

Climbing in different styles is the key here. Working things such as your speed, power, flexibility, breathing, all comes down to giving you a more potentious climbing machine.

Here is a list of climbing specific technique training regimes...

All these techniques, as you can probably see comes from climbing on much easier terrain that in your maximum limit. It also means no more burning everyone else off. It does mean doing what you hate doing most. Only when you feel unmotivated and it is the final straw, that burning your mates off becomes helpful, otherwise it will ONLY work AGAINST you.

Good luck. And remember this idea works for some people but not everyone, and of course there are those who get better by burning others off, It is beyond my understanding.

Contributions and Feedback

From - ANONYMOUS
Training weaknesses is vital if you want to be able to climb a variety of stuff, and especially if you want to onsight routes. If you are proficient at more types of moves, or styles of climbing, the more options you have for getting through hard sequences. Practicing stuff you can already do is likely to give you a narrow repetoire of moves. I think its also important to have something that you know you're pretty good at (going on the theory that nobody has enough time to be good at everything) so that when you get in a tight spot you've got something you can fall back on and be confident you're likely to pull it off.