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A specificity problem
A sport climber who wants to redpoint 8a next year spends the winter
bouldering indoors as he/she feels finger strength is the biggest
barrier to success. The climber is also aware that endurance is
needed as well as strength and thus does one session per week of
circuits with the same number of moves as the 8a he/she was close
to recently.
What's the problem? On the 8a, the moves have to be worked on the
end of a rope, limiting the time available to get it wired. Lots
of clips also need to be done and this all means the climbing is
always slower and the average time on each hold is ten seconds rather
than four on the bouldering wall circuit. For complex physiological
reasons, this causes adaptations to occur in the wrong direction.
Had the circuit time been spent on the leading wall this problem
would have been avoided and gains increased, not to mention learning
crucial skills like hanging in there to calmly pull off a scary
clip while barely hanging on. Training must be specific to the goals
being trained for in every way possible. Keep an open mind and think,
"is my training really like the real thing?"
An overload problem
A common theme for lots of climbers is just not pulling hard enough
to create a sufficiently large stimulus. Must try harder! In order
for your body to change you have to shock it. This is a particular
concern if your climbing style is very conservative and hesitant.
Watch a video of Chris Sharma climbing; it's not hard to see why
his body was forced to get stronger! The risk of injury can always
be kept low if the overload is slow and progressive. Give the body
some time to get comfortable with the new level and then you can
safely shock it all over again.
A reversibility problem
If you want to climb your first E4 this July but also have one
eye on doing E5 next July, then you have to think about how to apply
training principles now, not just at the start of next winter. In
a summer like this one, is the volume of climbing you do (number
and difficulty of the moves) actually going down? If it is you could
be making months of work for yourself come next winter.
Fortunately, it takes much less training to maintain a fitness
level than it does to attain it. Make sure you do a little work
at the wall during the weeks of summer rain so you don't have to
start from scratch again next November. Otherwise you might get
that "going nowhere" feeling as you struggle up the same old E3/4s
next summer.
An individuality problem
Think of ten top climbers and their approach to both climbing
and to training. All are quite different from each other with some
common themes, yes? What I'm trying to get at is choose other climbers
to copy from carefully and mix and match from different people's
approaches to make up your own ideas about climbing and training,
in order to help you exploit your strengths and tighten up weaknesses.
Being actively analytical of others and yourself is a difficult
skill to master but one that is especially important in a sport
like climbing (with no objective and experienced coach around to
tell it like it is!) and one which is massively underrated in my
opinion. I rate this as my most important climbing skill by far.
Don't be scared to differ from others even if they are climbing
a better grade but listen carefully to rare and precious objective
perspectives on your approach.
Finally, a perceptual problem
Climbing to a sports scientist appears slightly stuck in its ways
and inward looking. This cultural inertia within the sport shows
itself in an unwillingness to fully adopt the philosophy of athleticism
and training among a large proportion of climbers from all corners.
If climbers can shift the perception of what this uncomfortable
word "training" means to become synonymous with learning, many of
us will experience progress in both enjoyment as a whole and in
grade.
The word training may be holding some of us back as it conjures
up ideas of a necessary chore performed when the crags are dripping
wet in the dark months between November and May. Learning is a better
word to adopt as it fits better with the principles described above.
It should be lifelong and continuous in order to reap the full potential
afforded by our genes and environment.
So it seems you don't need to wait until next November, or even
until the next time you hit the campus board to do some training.
Just switch on and open your mind and you are already on the path
to 8a onsight.
Dave MacLeod
25/7/2002
Some terminology in brief
Overload… The activity must be more intense than the body is
accustomed to in order to produce change.
Progression… an overload is only an overload if rising ability
is matched by rising training load.
More information
Books, magazines and friends in the pub or at the wall are bursting
with so much information about training and performance you could
spend the rest of your life getting confused and frustrated. Unless
you have at least one degree in sports science and can weed out
the dubious information and differentiate between that which is
relevant to you and that which is for others, it is best to stick
to general writing on training principles coming from scientific
sources. You can then build up your own details from a solid, safe
base.
Here are a couple of very reliable sources:
Marius Morstad's excellent series of articles in OTE 92 - 110.
These really challenge you to look more carefully and objectively
at yourself and your climbing.
Training for Rock Climbing, Steve Bollen, Pelham Books 1994. Written
by an acknowledged expert in the field, this book gives a readable
and comprehensive overview of the important points.
For the very keen:
Basic and Applied Sciences for Sports Medicine, R. J. Maughan,
Butterworth Heineman, 1999. Don't bother with this unless you already
know your way round basic biology/physiology. This gives expert
level understanding of the mechanisms and details involved in applying
the principles carefully.
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