[Buoux 8C]

So what do people think the optimun age for starting climbing is, if your goal was to become the best possible climber and climb the hardest things.

I personally think for sport climbing and bouldering it is best to start clmibing around 14/15 years old, as the quickest improvements from training in the first three or four years combined with a growing body that will quickly adapt to hard training and overload, and you will see great improvements and better benefits from training whilst you body is in puberty.

The downside is if you started climbing when you where barely out of nappies, you probably will have a much better technique and be a better climber on the rocks which will help no doubt on the trad cliffs, but not as important whilst sport and bouldering.

Theirs alot more to be said in this issue, but i must do some climbing, so this is alright for a starter

[dave]

don't most people who start young end up just getting injured to fuck? for example didn't dewhurst disapear due to terminal injury?

[webbo]

my daughter started climbing when she was4,she's now 11.all she appears to have learnt is after 3 routes she can have some money for sweets and if she hides in the shop with the staff.dad will become so involved with his latest project he won't ask her to do any more climbing.

[Bonjoy]

My dad was a climber but refused to take me out till I was 15 which really pissed me off, I think my climbing would have benefited from the earlier start, I think about 11 or 12 would have been ideal.

[Fingers of a Martyr]

don't most people who start young end up just getting injured to fuck? for example didn't dewhurst disapear due to terminal injury

malc and moon started seriously around the 15-17 age group. i started seriously the day i turned 15 when i started to go bouldering every other day. prior to that i'd been doing indoor routes once a week for about 2 months so that doesn't really count. i learnt more about how to climb (technique, movement etc) in one week of bouldering than in 2 months on a rope.

I personally think for sport climbing and bouldering it is best to start clmibing around 14/15 years old, as the quickest improvements from training in the first three or four years combined with a growing body that will quickly adapt to hard training and overload, and you will see great improvements and better benefits from training whilst you body is in puberty

i agree with buox that 15 is probably the best place to start training seriously. any younger and you'll probably fuck yourself up. hell, you'll probably fuck yourself starting at 15 but the rewards outweigh the risks in my opinion.
also at 15 its harder to build muscle as you're still growing so u'll get the neural strength gains but not as much long term hypertrophy in the muscles as say a 24 year old would. so more strength but less weight. :wink:

how old were u buox? i thought i read summit on planetfear that u were a late starter? doesn't seem to have hurt u at all. :wink:

[Bubba]

I'd say as young as possible. Obviously hard training is a no-no, but if you've been introduced to say, technical slab climbing when you're about six, then it would surely have a benefit later on?

[squeek]

I agree with Bubba, early as possible, but no training until you're older.  If you start so young, your flexibility and technique is going to be really good,  didn't Mr Vickers start really early just doing trad and stuff, then started training later on?

[Jim]

early as possible, get use to moving on rock. no strength training till late teens tho. (where's the picture of that 12 year old muscle bound yank kid, very funny)

[BoulderHog]

I think it's more important to have a foundation of between 2 and 5 years before starting proper hard training, just seems like common sense to me, you fully prepare your body for hard training that way. So if you start climbing at 17, don't start hard training till you're 20 or 21, should only take 2 or 3 years to reach quite near your overall potential this way, plus you will have had a life and friends before isolating yourself from the world for training purposes.

Didn't Jacky Godoffe start at 30 and is ticking Font 8B+ at 50? And Si O'Conner isn't exactly young at 36 ish, and just look at the grades he says he climbs! Proves that your imagination stays intact past 35 if nothing else  

[john starlight]

dewhurst stopped climbin cos its easier to get wasted and prance around on is bike.

[a dense loner]

godoffe 50?

[dave]

i think boulderhog means jo moustache, not godoffe.

[BoulderHog]

Oh yeah, that might be the guy. Some French bloke anyway. How olds Jackey? It was in the back of an ote or climber last year i think, about how it was his 50th birthday and he'd just repeated a dead hard problem.

[Doylo]

think i read somewhere that Malc reckoned it was starting young that allowed him to get such strong fingers. I reckon its easier to get strong when your still developing.