[mctrials23]

This might seem like a bit of a strange question but how much does your performance vary from session to session. I know that if you try and do maximal sessions without enough rest you will suffer but I find that my performance differs hugely even after 3 or more days rest.

One day I will easily pull through on a hard problem and the next time I will not get anywhere near it. Everything just doesn't engage properly. I watch others who are not as strong as me make stuff look easy while I punter about like a muppet. Is this something you all experience? I am talking maybe 3 V grades difference if not more in my climbing ability.

[as646]

I wouldn't go as far as to say there is 3 V grades difference, but certainly it seems like my climbing ability sometimes varies depending on what I can only presume to be the alignment of the stars.

It doesn't necessarily seem to correlate with how much rest I've had. Climbing consists of complex movements, and as such there are a variety of factors that determine performance. Hydration, concentration, how warmed up you are, even stress.

Does it seem to be a certain type of problem? E.g. slabs/overhanging, crimpy/balancy? Perhaps if you figure out where the main variance occurs and specifically target that area you might be able to climb more consistently.

[mctrials23]

Its basically on anything that requires effort and exertion. Its not necessarily on stuff that is near my limit that I can do one week and not the next. It might be something well within my capabilities but it will just feel way way harder than it should do. A route that I can warm up on or do laps will feel near my limit the next session.

[Ti_pin_man]

 :spank:insane in the membrain!
The biggest blocker in climbing is yer brain.  I have moments the same. Days I climb like a monkey and days I am a mouse.  There's little correlation other than my head!

[M.R.]

 :agree:I've found massive differences with even something as simple as fingerboarding when the brain is/ isn't properly engaged, whether from poor sleep, tough day at work, stress - anything that can stop you being properly focussed.

Also getting food and drink right/ wrong I've found important, it could mean the difference between feeling light and having the energy to go at it 100%, to feeling heavy, weak, sluggish etc.

[SA Chris]

I thought this thread was going to be about beastmaker Dan.

[mctrials23]

I thought this thread was going to be about beastmaker Dan.

Hes pretty good at the moment isn't he. I bet he doesn't have punter days. Bastard.

[andymarshll]

I (often) find how well i do depends on what I've done the day before, more than one days complete rest and i'm a badly coordinated sack of shit, and when i really try and dig deep i can't find my shovel. If i do some sit ups press ups and pull ups the day before it makes a world of difference, i vaguely remember hearing/reading somewhere that Olympic gymnasts will train for days on end but the first day or so is just warming up for the next day. But that might be bullshit.

[webbo]

Riders in the Tour always do some riding on the rest day, so as to stop the body going into shut down/rest.
As a triathlete I always did a short swim, bike and run the day before a race and as a racing cyclist I did a ride which included a few sprints. The idea is that it keeps your body and mind sharp.
I guess this is why you often go better second day on rather than after a rest day.

[Rocksteady]

I definitely notice quite a variance. I've tried to track it over the year by recording sessions etc.

For me timing of and what I eat, how well I've slept, what time of day it is, how stressed I am at work all make quite a big difference, along with the more obvious stuff like last training session. Useful to note what order you should train different sessions - they say start with the highest intensity first in any cycle. Definitely notice if I've trained power endurance the day before.

How well I've warmed up makes a huge difference. Getting a flash pump will ruin a whole session for example.

I find it's helpful to have different aims in different sessions, and not to expect peak performance all the time.

[krymson]

I used to but not nearly as much anymore.

What affects it negatively - not climbing regularly reduces my coordination, so i make sure to get in at least 30 minutes of climbing in 5 or 6 days a week.

Pulling hard is difficult if i havent pulled hard that day, so I include some hard moves in my warmup

Climbing angle X(roof, slab, overhang) is difficult if i havent done that in a while, so I make sure to do some of that before I have to perform on that angle. (tomorrow I'm climbing vert outdoors. Today i'll do some vertical climbing at the gym etc.)

Doing these things has gotten me pretty consistent performance.  I haven't found diet or sleep or other mumbo jumbo affecting performance nearly as much as the above.

As a disclaimer, I'm far from a wad. but in terms of achieving high personal performance consistently-- I'm pretty good at that.

[SEDur]

I find that my body doesn't like instantaneous change.
Further more, it seems to prefer consistent variety (doing plenty of different stuff, but fairly regularly).

I find fairly big differences (quite often negative) in my performance, when i don't stick with a fairly consistent pattern.
This includes all aspects from food timing and quality, amount/quality of rest, where/style/what/what grade I am climbing, the change in intensity from warm up to working in my session; and arguably the biggest effecting factor is my mental state.

Racing weight among other good bits of literature, suggests (among other things), that dietary consistency and eating regular sensible amounts and when you are hungry, will help your body naturally attain/maintain a close to ideal weight and body composition. I have been using the formula the book suggests, and it seems to be working fairly well. I tend to have a coffee and a bunch of carbs shortly before i start warming up. This way, the carbs will hopefully be used to replace lost glycogen during the session. This works fairly well in my experience. I also tend to eat a small meal an hour or two before i go climbing if i can.
If i tend to stray from eating regular amounts at regular intervals, i tend to see a dip in performance. That said, if its the day before a comp, i will eat fairly heartily and that seems to work well.

If you have better plans for eating before comps, please let me know. I haven't got anything more then hear-say to base that on.
Also, get the book and try its method out.

Climbing in a consistent and regular pattern is also pretty important. Last year/the year before i climbed 3/4 times a week, in a very regular pattern, and saw really good gains. This year, my timetable has lowered the number of days i can climb, and it has made a real difference. If i take a couple more days of then usual for a deadline, i tend to lose accuracy/focus/technique.

On the smaller scale, i think there is a lot to be said for maintaining focus between climbing/training days and between attempts. I would be interested to see a related study into this.
I think that keeping the mind sharp and your subconscious working effectively has a big part to play with good performance. If i get in that 'razor sharp' mindset and can stick with it, my performance is considerably improved. There is also that old Macleod argument of 'how often do we actually try out hardest'. I think how focused and confident we are has a big effect on our ability to try hard. That is quite obvious, but it often gets ignored in any case.

What it is you are actually climbing on may also have a huge effect. But all this stuff is quite obvious and has been covered before.

I think it all has a big effect on your mental faculties. Your ability to get your body into the correct position, applying the correct forces at the right time. I also think warming up the mind by doing loads of increasingly harder moves is important for improving performance on a session to session basis.
I would like to see the results of a study into how your brains adapts, to performing harder and harder moves as you change intensity over a session.
I think there is a big link between how you consciously climb, how that effects the work of your subconscious and how that in turn triggers your nervous system to behave and respond in certain ways under certain conditions. I suppose there is a certain element of 'the power of belief' involved. If you think 'i am accurate, i can hit these holds precisely with the correct amount of force', how effective is that on making yourself perform better. If you believe enough in the G, will you gain a tiny proportion of his body tension/crimp strength? More realistically, if you 'know' you can do something even if you have never tried it and have the physical ability to do it, will that over-come all the other effecting factors (skin, conditions, energy, pump etc) to enable your success?

Call it bollocks... but it worked for Jerry.

For any budding sports psychologists, there is a thesis topic in itself.

[Pebblespanker]

From a fat old punters perspective I always noticed a significant difference when doing stamina type training (usually long traverses with repeated laps) where I was consistently definitely better if I had a rest day. In terms of boulder problems I have a definite good days and bad days but hard to put a finger on why but always had a suspicion that it was a mental thing - on good days I seem to climb with 'brain unplugged' i.e. not really thinking just pulling on and doing, enjoying it and things feel comparatively easy. Overthinking always seems to be tied to a lesser performance day... as to reasons the ones quoted by M.R. certainly are a factor for me, work, stressful teenage kids, etc.- depressing thing is that I can never tell if I'm going to have a good day or a bad day until I get to the crag...

[mctrials23]

Sounds like its not all that uncommon and there can be a huge number of factors. I have been lethargic and tired for a long time but it seems to be getting better. I think it was just a combination of a number of factors.

Stress at work
Not eating as well as I could
Not sleeping that well
Persuading myself I had a medical reason for this
Climbing poorly so convincing myself I was going to climb poorly
Watching weaker climbers do things I was struggling on

As others have touched on, when you really concentrate you suddenly find that something you were not doing very well on is within your reach suddenly. Last session right near the end when I was quite tired I managed a good route in spite of my lack of energy. I just tried a bit harder and focussed on getting the best part of each hold.

[Ti_pin_man]

yep, agreeing with the comments after my original posting above.  This week I have taken the pressure off achieving my goal before xmas and completed two / three wall routes I'd failed on.  My mind was at peace, I was still solely focused on these climbs but chilled at the same time... I'm outta here, I'm beginning to sound like a Prana advert