[Cretin]

Hi all- I have come to seek your infinite wisdom on a training matter.

I've been climbing for about 18 months, mostly indoors. I seem to have been at a massive plateau in my performance for the past 3/4 months. I usually climb 2-3 times a week

 The highest grade I've climbed outdoors is a v5, I think. I generally climb whatever various indoor walls deem to be v3 fairly easily, and then get shut down on anything v4 and above. I transferred to climbing from the gym so I have a reasonable (I think) amount of muscular strength.  I've tried just working on my technique on routes i can do, and I've tried getting stronger by climbing a lot (4-5x a week) - all to no avail.

Does anybody have any tips for me as It's quite frustrating now! I'm thinking fingerboard?

Cheers!

[shark]

I just think you are being a bit impatient. Getting to V5 in just over a year is good going.

If you keep at it climbing 4/5 times a week the gains will come. Just remember to to take an easier week once a month and even take a week off entirely every three months. Given your gym background you should know about cycles/periodisation. The same applies to climbing.

It is probable that your finger strength needs to catch up with the rest of your strengths too so some fingerboarding is a good idea but keep the volume of actual climbing/bouldering up.   

[Cretin]

Thanks for the advice Shark. I am an impatient person so I guess that's likely enough, lol.  I usually do make sure I cycle my climbing and get a decent amount of rest once in a while- I'm just keen to up the ante as quick as possible!

[iwasmexican]

i would try to get outside when you can, be careful with your fingers though the holds outside arent always as friendly indoor ones.

fingerboarding wouldn't hurt as well.

[r-man]

1. Go steep or go home.

2. 7 days of footwork makes one weak.

3. What would Jerry do?

[SA Chris]

This seems to be a common plateau level, might be time to start learning some technique? Are you just thugging your way up overhanging stuff indoors, or climbing on a variety of surfaces? You might benefit from a bit of coaching as it's hard to see where your weakness are (weakness might not be the weakness if that makes sense) and what you should be concentrating on.

[Pitcairn]

You should try to analyse what it is specifically that is letting you down:

If you predominantly fail on fingery problems then work on your finger strength
If you predominantly fail on steep problems then work on your core strength
If you mainly fail on technical stuff and so on then get some help working on techniques - ask other climbers who can do the problems your struggling on
If you can do lots of pullups then your arm strength is fine but you finger/core/technique probably needs more focus

In people who havent climbed for long its almost always fingers that need work.  Be careful fingerboarding though as its easy to get injuries..
Once you start to narrow it down then you become more detailed in your analysis - which grip types are you poor at etc.

[Cretin]

Thanks for the advice guys. Have been thinking about a cheeky coaching session or two to help pinpoint my weaknesses. I think the main areas i struggle with are flexibility (people seem to be able to get their feet up a lot higher than me!) and as has been mentioned, finger strength, definitely gonna get myself a fingerboard too. 

It does seem like a common plateau level, doesn't it? wonder why that is.

[ducko]

Not always the case but people's technique  often is not good enough at this level you may not use you feet to there fullest (I know I don't) so maybe coaching or watching videos may help, finger board training if you can be bothered is always handy

[Jack.G]

You are going well only having climbed for 18months, 3/4 months is not a massive plateau, you have just hit your natural ceiling. Now you are going to have to put in some thought and effort in to progress.

Climbing more, especially outdoors, in the meantime will pay far more than specifically training any weaknesses your think you might have.

Get your hand on the Self Coached Climber which will help breakdown the structure of performance and the more experience you gain will help assess what your weakness may be. This will help you develop a training and session/projects plan. I personally abide by "Pyramids" which really works for me.

Aim for a grade increase per year and your on the right track, and by that I mean fully into a grade not just a one-off problem that suits your strengths. If you progress quicker than this then that is great and adjust you goals and training accordingly.

For yourself, you could concerntrate on breaking into V4 at your wall for starters, but guarenteed whatever you do in order to achieve that will not translate to outdoors.

Get out there, find problems that inspire you and make it happen.

[SA Chris]

. I think the main areas i struggle with are flexibility (people seem to be able to get their feet up a lot higher than me!)

It could be weak core stopping you getting your feet high, but I bet it's a combination of the two

[tomtom]

As a reason flexibility is a bit like height IMHO... In that theres often other ways to get around it...

[Cretin]

Cheers for the tips everyone! I have had a couple of good indoor sessions since posting this, and hoping it carries on. Also hoping to get outdoors a bit more too.

And Tomtom, i see what you mean about the ways around flexibility always better to have it than not though!

[Sasquatch]

I'll toss a bit of a random one in - no idea if it applies to you, but seems to apply to most people plateaued at that level.  Particularly if you've mainly climbed on plastic(wood).

Engage your brain and pay attention to the details.

When are getting into that v6+ range, the holds have gotten smaller so just a subtle small change in where you grab the hold makes a difference.  A minor foot change of a mm can mean your foot stays vs. pops off.  Learn to read every dimple and use them.  Oftentimes, people will train to get strong enough to ignore these things, but then you're just cheating yourself on an easy way to get better and will hit a plateau later as well.  There is a reason you see some weak-A$$ guys climbing hard-a$$ shit.  They've learned to make use of every single thing the rock gives you. 

Make sure you know the basics of physics so that you understand how the forces you apply to holds interact with each other to make you stay on the wall.  Once again, this is key as often times a big hold in the wrong direction or location is worse to use than a bad hold in the right place.

Cheers

[tom_greenwich]

Have similar advice to Sasquatch. I hit a similar plateau, what got me through it was changing my mentality to problems. Rather than just having a go and getting frustrated when I couldn't finish I problem I changed approach and now do the following:

Take time to stand and look at a problem and mentally climb it (ideally watch someone else do it too)
Work each move until I could do all of them
Link up the moves until I can do the problem in two halves
Work on the whole problem.

This has really helped me move from a plateau I was stuck at for 6months+