[saulgilsenan]

Hey folks. Relatively new to this forum and been researching a few training ideas.
As it stands I'm 19, I climb HS/VS on a good day (by good I mean when the weather isn't soppy as fuck).
The hardest route I have done so far is Pincer VS 5a on the Roaches Lower Tier after a couple of proper tries.
I don't do any sort of finger strength training because I'm often just trying to get out on the trad in the evenings.
I'm based about 20 minutes from the Roaches generally try to get up there as often as I can, partner and weather dependent.

I've not been able to get out for a couple of weeks due to working, illness and the weather so I've been going a bit stir crazy
in the house trying to find ways to up my grade. From a psychological point of view, I know I need to overcome a fear of falling
and calm myself down as I tend to get shit scared on routes. I don't really have regular access to a high enough climbing wall to
practice falling so can anyone offer any ideas? I'm thinking of rigging up absolutely bomber top ropes on less than popular climbs
outside and falling on these as an alternative. Could also solo lots of easier climbs to keep myself feeling familiarity...

From a physical point of view though there seems to be a few things I have gathered.

Reading the CoachWise articles by Dave MacLeod has narrowed my focus a bit on what he calls the big three;

Movement Technique, Finger Strength & Body Mass

Body mass I don't think I have a particular problem with as I'm no fatty I generally have quite good control over my diet.
The other two however I realise are definitely weak areas so I plan to train these by fingerboarding and doing upper body strength work
3x a week (as I'm broke and I can't afford a pass to the bouldering wall just yet..) and aiming to get out on trad either bouldering or doing routes.


I have an old style metolius board so my 3x a week fingerboarding/upper body routine would look something like this to start with;

Pullups (as many as I can do)
50 Pressups
50 Knee raises

Fingerboard:
6x7sec Round slopers
6x7sec Middle wide open crimp
6x7sec 4 finger open hand

rest

6x7sec Round slopers
6x7sec Bottom wide open crimp
6x7sec 3 finger open hand


I'll probably stick at that for about four weeks and see where I get to. Evaluate after that which grips are weaker and adjust as necessary.
I'm going to also make a conscious effort to make sure that as a result of this I don't start over pulling when I go outdoors and keep the indoor
sessions as purely a training aid, almost separating them from my climbing (in my head).


Phew, lot of typing...

From more experienced perspectives, what are your opinions on this idea as a whole and could you offer improvement?
I'm trying to keep it idiot proof and not get too technical as I know myself well enough to realise that once things start getting too technical
and confusing, I get frustrated and give up...

Cheers folks! 

[Muenchener]

From a psychological point of view, I know I need to overcome a fear of falling ... Could also solo lots of easier climbs to keep myself feeling familiarity.

I'm no training expert, but I see something to watch out for here. I did a lot of easy soloing and runout, do-not-fall type routes early in my climbing career and - although these are worthwhile activities in their own right - they do tend to develop a very conservative, absolutely-do-not-fall mentality that can be contraproductive in the long run when it comes to progressing on to harder things.

Falling practice is valuable; building fluency and confidence by lots of mileage on easier routes is valuable. But if you're doing the latter by soloing, then the mental traits you're training are very different from the sport climbing casual lobbing mindset, and trying to push both at the same time might not be the best idea.

[andy popp]

You don't say whether you're primarily interested in improving at trad or at other styles - I strongly suspect its trad? Of course, getting stronger is not going to hurt and given your current level what you outline is probably OK for now (though I am no training expert) but I do think as much volume and variety of climbing, even at pretty easy levels, is invaluable. You breed familiarity with moving over rock, develop your repertoire of movements, and become habituated to exposure and risk. I disagree with Muenchener that this can breed a conservative mindset - I soloed and ran it out from very early on and never felt it inhibited my subsequent approach to trad. And I have never in my life taken a fall deliberately, indoors or out.  So, to sum up, climb, climb, climb.

[slackline]

Confidence in gear placements is very important when you want to push yourself on Trad, you should be able to put a piece in, know its good and then forget about it, knowing that if you fall it will hold you.  This might help you on the psychological front rather than practicing falling and only comes with experience so what andy popp said.

[tregiffian]

Once upon a time, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and Gogarth was crag X we fooled about in the university gym, shinning up thick ropes and hand traversing the ceiling girders;"The only training for climbing is climbing." was our mantra. Ah, the lost days of innocence. 

[Fiend]

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=2648

[shark]

Reading the CoachWise articles by Dave MacLeod has narrowed my focus a bit on what he calls the big three;

Movement Technique, Finger Strength & Body Mass

In his book he calls it the Big Four which includes Endurance as well; these being the primary physical attributes influencing performance which isn't to say that a individual woeful weakness in a subordinate area (like core) should be ignored. He also lists the "Other Big Four" which have a influence on climbing performance Attitude, Lifestyle, Circumstances and Tactics which have a huge impact on your climbing performance as well. 

What you have homed in on to do (whilst better than nothing) is too narrow to improve your general performance at the crag especially at the trad grades you are operating at. Primarily time on rock will make a massive difference but your lifestyle sounds like it is getting in the way. If you haven't the disposable income to afford to go to the bouldering wall then realistically how are you going to afford petrol to get to the crag? If you are committed enough to improve you can find a way with respect to your non-climbing commitments whether that's cutting down expenditure in another area of your life, change location or go the whole hog and be a climbing bum. A home board or board share is another option. I expect that is a harsh message. Sorry. Think of it as tough love 

[saulgilsenan]

Reading the CoachWise articles by Dave MacLeod has narrowed my focus a bit on what he calls the big three;

Movement Technique, Finger Strength & Body Mass

In his book he calls it the Big Four which includes Endurance as well; these being the primary physical attributes influencing performance which isn't to say that a individual woeful weakness in a subordinate area (like core) should be ignored. He also lists the "Other Big Four" which have a influence on climbing performance Attitude, Lifestyle, Circumstances and Tactics which have a huge impact on your climbing performance as well. 

What you have homed in on to do (whilst better than nothing) is too narrow to improve your general performance at the crag especially at the trad grades you are operating at. Primarily time on rock will make a massive difference but your lifestyle sounds like it is getting in the way. If you haven't the disposable income to afford to go to the bouldering wall then realistically how are you going to afford petrol to get to the crag? If you are committed enough to improve you can find a way with respect to your non-climbing commitments whether that's cutting down expenditure in another area of your life, change location or go the whole hog and be a climbing bum. A home board or board share is another option. I expect that is a harsh message. Sorry. Think of it as tough love 

I should be able to afford a pass to the bouldering wall next month, I just meant currently as I've spent my last pennies this month on some outdoor kit. £450 a month is what I currently bring in on my trainee instructor scheme. Sorry for the confusion

Yeh whilst I agree there is a lot more at play to improve, I figure that at the moment I just want to keep these 3 elements in my control if nothing else.
I'll aim to get out on trad as much as I can but like I say at the moment I can't as the weather around here has just been too shocking. I've definitely improved my grades over the last few months and over the past year I think as I've moved up from shitting my self on severes to shitting myself in a slightly less debilitating and more controlled way on VS's. My goal is definitely to improve my trad grades and I don't under estimate the importance of getting out as much as possible on real rock and shall always prioritize this naturally as that's where my enjoyment lies.

So for the time being (the rest of this month), does this sound like a good idea? I'm just thinking that if I can keep on top of these things permanently then I can start concerning myself with other factors whereas at the moment I'm doing no physical training except for the trad that I do.

I'll read more into the lifestyle, tactics and attitude more in general as I don't expect that just simply training at home like this and then going to the crag mindlessly will yield any result.

[saulgilsenan]

Oh and I'm not by any means trying to defend my first post just trying to elaborate on it and explain it a bit. Please be honest if you think it's shit as I'll never improve without honest feedback! Cheers to all of you!

[Nibile]

I'd say, for the moment, stick to the basics.
Some fingerboarding and pull ups will do for sure (boring as hell if you have a normal brain unlike me).
But as soon as you can, sack the fingerboard and boulder as much as you can, varying the types of problems, from short and fingery, to short and physical, to long problems and so on.
Fingerboarding is great, but it's also a great waste of time if not correctly placed into a training plan.
Leave the fingerboard for the moment in which you'll hit a wall, on a route or on a problem, that requires super specific addressing.
It's too soon for you to do a lot of fingerboarding, you won't be able to apply to the rock the obtained gains, and this is both useless and frustrating (I speak from my past experiences).
If you boulder, you'll progress in each field, technique, fingers, movement, endurance and so on rock you'll be stronger.
Anyway, whatever you decide stick at it, be disciplined and keep the faith!