NICROS - Training Center

Rate of improvement is based almost entirely on your willing to fail.

-Todd Skinner

It's an old adage that "climbing is the best training for climbing," and many climbers lean on this line as an excuse for not engaging in any training activities outside of climbing itself. Let's examine this precept and determine, once and for all, if it is valid.

When I am asked the question "Is climbing the best training for climbing", my canned answer is--"it depends." This is because the best type of training for a given climber depends on his or her current strengths and weaknesses as well as current absolute climbing ability.

For instance, in terms of improving climbing technique and mental skills, no amount of strength training will produce direct improvements in these areas.

However, for developing sport-specific strength (i.e. conditioning to improve grip strength, lock-off ability, and endurance of upper body strength), simply "climbing for training" will produce limited results and only slow (or no) improvement from year to year. Sound familiar?

Identify the exact reason(s) why you fell off the climb. Avoid the simple conclusion of "I wasn't strong enough."

Remind yourself that most climbers are already strong enough to climb at the next higher grade--they are held back by mental blocks, poor technique and tactics, bad sequencing or climbing too slow, lack of creativity, or even a disbelief that they are capable of the next grade. Identifying your true constraints is tantamount to holding the keys to success in your hand!

Starting today, view failure as a necessary step in taking your game to the next level. Test yourself on (safe) routes up to a full letter grade above your ability-analyze why you fail and develop a game plan for training these weaknesses.

Exposing yourself to such difficult routes can be demoralizing, so approach these climbs from the perspective of desiring to learn, experiment, and discover, while holding no expectations about performance. Though you may not recognize it at the time, this strategy of "climbing over your head" will stretch mental boundaries, expand technical skills, and increase physical strength. In a few weeks, you'll be on a route at your "old limit" and find that the holds suddenly look and feel bigger, the reaches and moves don't seem as radical, and the climb isn't as strenuous.

One caveat to this powerful training-at-the-crags strategy is that not every climb you attempt should be at or beyond your limit. Pushing too hard, too often can get you hurt; it's also important to "win" frequently, so that you experience that joy and flow of successful redpoint or onsight ascents. Thus, I suggest investing about two-thirds of your time climbing routes at or below your top grade. Spend the remaining time--one of every three climbs or one out of three climbing days--stretching your limits on routes that you have absolutely no business being on!

Cindy Mai on Faint's Roof (5.10a), Annapolis Rock, MD. Horst Photo