[DannyBoy]

I have been bouldering for a while, but irregularly and with no real aim other than to spend a little time in solitude.  I am not au fait with climbing terminology, or with the particulars of the grading system so the only indication I have as to my level of climbing is a recent visit to a wall where I climbed a couple of 6a's on a top rope without falling off.  The boulder route I have been working on at the moment when I go is 'Alternative Three' on Wrights Rock Churnet, which I believe is a 6b, I can do it all but the last few inches of the last move (I need bigger balls to reach round the desperate roof, im sure I could do it if I just tucked my fucking shirt in and got on with it).

Unfortunately for my solitude, I am moving to London.  I plan on paying on a yearly basis for the castle climbing wall.  I want to introduce some sort of regimen to my climbing, in order so that when I get chance to climb on real rock, I am a behemoth.

I am currently only interested in improving my bouldering, but that is probably because its all I have access too.  I am pretty sure that just randomly bouldering on plastic will give me increased performance, but I would prefer to have a point to what I am doing.  What should I read, what should I do, what shouldnt I do etc.

Thanks for any advice.

[slackline]

Grab this, its a set of training articles with info on structuring your time at the wall and associated weight and aerobic exercises.

I'd say you're on the right track though, spend as much time as you can enjoying your climbing, its easy to become to focused on training (although I seem to have avoided that obsession, but it probably explains why I'm not very good!). 

In my (limited) experience I've noticed I've only really improved (albeit in small increments and not very far) by just climbing more, so I'd say aim to go at least two or three times a week minimum.  Watch others climb, you can learn a lot about technique that way, and if you're not sure how someone is doing something ask them, most climbers are quite friendly and more than happy to share beta (== information about how to climb something).  Also whilst you say you enjoy the solitude having someone to train with who's at a similar level with similar aims for improving can be a great motivator.

Others no doubt have more specific training advice.

[DannyBoy]

Thats fantastic mate, thankyou.  Have just had a look through all the stuff and it seems to give a concise and pratical introduction without the science of it all, exactly what I needed to get me started.  I was expecting to have to digest some heavy book hence why I asked so long before I intend to train.

I'm excited to start training, but as I am currently a vagrant headed North, it will have to wait.  I hope to end up in london early september at which point I will start my training at the castle.  Now all I need is a scientific diet and a yoga class full of fertile wenches in lycra.

[tommytwotone]

Being down the smoke didn't do my climbing any harm - in fact I got stronger than I ever was (albeit at the expense of a bit of technique).

I'd recommend making sure you cross train / do some antagonist training / yoga if you're going to train indoors a lot - it's a lot harder on the joints and the last thing anyone needs is a bout of cod shoulder or elbow.

[adam_NE5]

I found that the best way to improve through the grades was just to climb, alot of things will come naturally over time and having a project to work at a particular area definitely gives motivation and helps track improvement. In my opinion the best way to train initially is to do alot of traversing it makes your footwork a shit-load better and as a result helps you reach the grades you are aiming for! Its is far too easy when training to get caught up with building loads of power, and whilst this is important, power is nothing without control, think of a mini with a 7 litre engine, all the power in the world wont help if you cant use it!
my advice would be to scope out a nice section of your local wall where you can traverse and then make the traverse longer or do more laps as your stamina increases or start limiting the holds as you feel it is getting easier. The more you do it the more you will notice certain foot and leg movements work better than others and what situation calls for what move etc etc!
Hope this was helpful and not a load of old bollocks haha!
Adam

[rodma]

power is nothing without control

I think you might have that the wrong way round