Think about your goal the night before and visualize what it might take to make that little step forward, then set the intention before you pull onto the stone of doing everything it takes to achieve that goal. The goal doesn’t always have to be sending but should involve striving for progress on your project, even if that progress is small. Setting goals every day on rock is the first step to overcoming the tendency to give up. If you are the type who tends to stop when the going gets tough or maybe skip that last burn of the day because it feels inconvenient, you have a lot to gain here. The bottom line is that climbing your best and pushing yourself are sometimes uncomfortable. I have seen many seemingly “underqualified” climbers do next-level things simply by giving it their absolute-freaking-best, and similarly I have seen elite-level climbers let go way too early because everything wasn’t going exactly as planned-because they weren’t climbing perfectly. Seems like a simple one, but the character trait of grit is getting tougher to come by. If you’re training alone, try this by intentionally not using the lights on the Moon, Kilter, or Tension board-look up the problem on the app, then climb it from memory alone. You then try to climb it without having your friend repeat the beta, only calling out for help once or twice if you forget the sequence. It may also help to take video or voice memos of your route’s beta if you find you’re having trouble visualizing the route from memory alone.Īnother great exercise is to have a friend point out a 20- to 30-move traverse at the gym or your local bouldering area. One of the best exercises to improve beta memory is to visualize your route or boulder problem as often as you can-especially on rest days. The good news is, if you can’t do this now, it’s a skill you can work to improve.Ħ Weeks to Stronger Fingers: The Importance of Rest A climber with very solid beta memory can recite every single foot- and handhold on an 80-foot route after just one burn. In climbing, we are aiming to remove as much hesitation as we can, and when you waste time and energy searching for a foothold or fumbling at a clipping stance, you’re decreasing your chances of success. Beta MemoryĮffectively remembering and recalling beta cuts down dramatically on the number of tries it takes to do your project. Here, Jonathan Siegrist gets after it at the Boulder Rock Club, Boulder, Colorado. 4, committing to routes and styles that feel hard for you will make you a stronger, better, more well-rounded climber.
If pinches and slopers make you cringe, then it’s time to address your aversion head-on: As per Tip No. Here are four key ways to lean into your weaknesses to become a better climber. For example, if you’ve spent a season working hard but still feel stagnant, perhaps a fresh focus on strategy or attention to detail with technique could be your key to moving your climbing forward. It also means that no matter how strong or dialed you might be in one facet of climbing, there is almost always some other area of weakness where you can improve. I find this revelation to be incredibly encouraging, because it means that no matter who you are, there will always be some unique way to achieve your goals. This diversity of weaknesses and strengths does not just appear at 5.13a, of course, but applies to climbers of all levels, pointing to the fact that an untold number of variables account for climbing ability. Furthermore, I know some with a paralyzing fear of heights-and so, while they might be strong enough to send harder, are held back by their mental game-and others who, while perhaps physically weaker, seemingly have no fear and scamper easily through long runouts. Others I know have never trained a day in their lives and crush off the couch, while their peers might train for multiple seasons to achieve the same goal. I know 5.13a climbers who can barely do a few pull-ups and others who can do several one-arm pull-ups. A quintessential example would be climbers who’ve sent 5.13a, a benchmark grade at which you begin to enter elite territory. There are few other athletic pursuits in which you can find individuals with wildly different strengths and weaknesses all achieving the same results. This article originally appeared in our print magazine in 2019.Ĭlimbing is a complex activity.