|
stoicheian posted:Hey team, how should I train my pinch strength? I've got two problems where I'm stumped by a long reach off of a left handed pinch and poor feet... My hands just off the hold. what type of training do you do currently? i think your most likely options will be: 1) hangboarding. i'm a big advocate, but if you're not already interested in hangboarding i'm not sure it's worth it just for pinch training. if you are interested, try to avoid hangboards where the pinch grips are designed such that you can 'cheat' by using compression to hold onto them, as this doesn't really isolate your thumb which is the key target for pinch training. i think the trango RPTC is the best board for this, look at how the pinches are oriented compared to most other boards to see what i'm talking about 2) pinch blocks. same idea as hangboarding, but instead you attach weights to blocks that you pinch for a workout. see video here for example http://www.stevemaischtraining.com/fingerboarding-for-maximum-strength.html 3) if you're not interested in using specialized apparatus, then just try to incorporate more pinchy climbs into your regular sessions. are the problems that are stumping you in the gym or outdoors? if they're in the gym, try using slightly better feet or go for a better hold with your non-pinching hand. if they're outdoors, try simulating them in the gym
|
#
?
Sep 20, 2016 21:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 07:58 |
|
|
stoicheian posted:I love my scarpa origin shoes. They are quite cheap, comfortable and good quality. I have a pair of more aggressive shoes for tough overhung routes, but the origins get the most gym use by far. I don't have any pinch specific advice, but these are the tricks I use to figure out a hard move: - pull on to the wall in position immediately before the hard move. Figure out how to unweight the point you're going to move (it sounds like you are trying to move your right hand). - pull on the wall in the position immediately after the hard move. Figure out how to unweight the point you just moved (right hand, again). Pay attention to how your remaining points (left arm, legs) are working to lift your weight off of the target hold. These two exercises let you plan the move and helps you come up with cues to say to yourself while you try it. For example, if the route trends right, your 'before' position might have the left hand pinch in front of your face, and in the 'after' position it's 3 inches down and left of your shoulder. So while you're trying the move, think "move the pinch outside of your shoulder". - if the feet are bad, put all of your weight on the primary foot (usually the right foot, paired with your left hand) and flag the other leg. Generally, the worse a foothold is, the more weight you need to put on it to make it good. In the gym, chances are that the route setter picked out that horrible foot on purpose and designed the route around making you use it. - look at the 'before' position and ask yourself "what do I *wish* was here for me to use?" This gets you thinking tactically about that pinch hold and what could pair well with it to make the move easy. It doesn't always lead to a breakthrough but going through the exercise should give you one or two beta ideas to try out. - push with your hands, pull with your feet: if there is an opportunity, push down on the top of a hold/sloper/volume with your moving hand to help get your body towards the target hold. If you're on a slab or in a corner you can even push off of the wall itself. And look for opportunities for heel hooks and toe hooks to hold your weight or pull your body in a certain direction. And the most useful trick of all: - watch how other people try the move. The gorilla teenager will show you how to huck from the jug before the pinch to the good hold after it and skip the crux altogether. The 5'2 100lb spider will show you how if you perch carefully on this high foot and toe hook behind the previous hand and crimp right here on the edge of the pinch then you can reach the next hold statically. The total newbie falling off of it will show you how keeping your weight on your left foot pushes your butt away from the wall (so flag that leg and stay in close). Almost all climbers LOVE spraying about how they figured something out and will be really happy to help you out / tell you how cool they are, don't be afraid to ask someone for advice.
|
|
#
?
Sep 20, 2016 22:03
|
|
|
Kachoong!
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2016 02:16
|
|
|
Waiting for a friend at the Garden of the Gods today when a UK tourist strikes up a convo with me about grades. "So what is it here, Severe; Very Severe?" Was pretty embarrassed that I had no way to convey grades in adjectival grading. Only thing I could manage was, "It's a pile of poo poo."
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2016 02:21
|
|
|
You are killing it. I just climbed this last weekend: Royal Flush My girl crashed pretty hard on the headwall and I sat at the top of the 7th pitch freezing my rear end off until she was able to struggle her way up to me. But we made it and had a great time. Unfortunately 9 hours car to car, I think I could do it in under 4 with the right partner. For really the first time I climbed in approach shoes all the way up to the headwall. I think it taught me a lot about just going for it. I was really able to fly for sure. Weekend before I got to lead Zanzibar Dihedral which was maybe the best 5.8 I have ever done. I still dream about this line. Off to North Carolina this weekend, going to get to climb in linville gorge for a day or two.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2016 03:16
|
|
|
spwrozek posted:You are killing it. Did you do the Aces High variation? I thought that was much better than normal Flush. Aslo, 4 hours car to car is easily doable. I did it in 5, waiting behind a two groups. YMMV.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2016 15:44
|
|
|
TheDon01 posted:Thought I'd share this too. A chalk bag I sewed up for her birthday next week. She had this cool galaxy jacket she loved but it got ruined, I dug it out of the trash and hid it away. I used heavy nylon from an old duffel bag and lined it with the fleece lining from her jacket. that's awesome, and a really sweet idea. do you have a link to the pattern you used?
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2016 17:04
|
|
|
gamera009 posted:Did you do the Aces High variation? I thought that was much better than normal Flush. No. Just the normal route. Totally doable in under 4 hours There were 2 groups way below us doing it in probably 12-13 though...
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2016 23:31
|
|
|
Fatkraken posted:that's awesome, and a really sweet idea. do you have a link to the pattern you used? Thanks! I just kinda freehanded it. Roughly followed these instructions. http://www.climbing.com/skills/how-to-make-chalk-bag
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2016 00:07
|
|
|
TheDon01 posted:Thanks! I just kinda freehanded it. Roughly followed these instructions. That chalk bag is fantastic. Thanks for the link, I might have to get some awesome fabrics and learn to use a sewing machine.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2016 12:49
|
|
|
WhoNeedsAName posted:That chalk bag is fantastic. This was the hard part for me. I've sewn a bunch back in HomeEc and Boyscouts, but I had inherited my current sewing machine from a neighbor and I had never used this kind before. Embroidery type, does all these crazy stitch patterns and has extra things I've never seen before. Took me about an hour and a half and 3 youtube tutorials before I had the machine setup and sewing a regular straight line. Once I got that figured out, I knocked out the bag in about 20 min. Trip Report:  Wife LOVED the bag. Turns out she has a pair of yoga pants with the same galaxy print so she was stoked that she could match in the gym. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2016 02:42
|
|
|
TheDon01 posted:Trip Report: Matching in the gym is critical for showing extraordinary levels of gym rat. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2016 05:18
|
|
|
As someone who is not a super good climber, but wants to do bouldering, I run into trouble where even the most basic of bouldering problems are super difficult for me. Am I better off improving my regular indoor climbing to improve at bouldering, or to just keep pushing at the bouldering?
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2016 07:00
|
|
|
.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2016 11:16
|
|
|
The fastest way to improve at bouldering is to fail at bouldering a lot.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2016 13:50
|
|
|
Patrovsky posted:As someone who is not a super good climber, but wants to do bouldering, I run into trouble where even the most basic of bouldering problems are super difficult for me. Am I better off improving my regular indoor climbing to improve at bouldering, or to just keep pushing at the bouldering? What grade of problems are you working on?
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2016 17:34
|
|
|
Save me jeebus posted:Waiting for a friend at the Garden of the Gods today when a UK tourist strikes up a convo with me about grades. "So what is it here, Severe; Very Severe?" We have an adjectival grade for that. Extreme Severe. It's sort of a coded warning grade that sits outside the normal hierarchy. The French alpine grade system claims the Beaufort prize for blase vagueness though. I think it came from a conversation like this "How difficult is this 1200m long route featuring rock, snow, ice, abseiling, routefinding and a variety objective dangers?" "Well, monsieur, it's definitely not easy (Facile), and far more than a bit difficult (Peu Difficile). Quite difficult (Assez Difficile) doesn't even begin to describe it, and difficult (Difficile) still falls a way short of the mark. Even very difficult (Tres Difficile) is somehow insufficient. Extremely difficult (Extremement Difficile) is getting closer, but still lacks a certain... je ne sais quois." "Would you say then, that it is Abominably Difficult?" "Oui, c'est abominablement difficile!"
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2016 18:27
|
|
|
Patrovsky posted:As someone who is not a super good climber, but wants to do bouldering, I run into trouble where even the most basic of bouldering problems are super difficult for me. Am I better off improving my regular indoor climbing to improve at bouldering, or to just keep pushing at the bouldering? I've found that a V1 outside roughly corresponds to a V7-V8 at the gym. Sometimes up to V12.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2016 21:24
|
|
|
Skrill.exe posted:I've found that a V1 outside roughly corresponds to a V7-V8 at the gym. Sometimes up to V12. I can't wait to go to my gym and smugly tell that that internet poster Skrill.exe said that none of their problems are hard enough for me because I sent a couple V1s outside. It only took me three weeks to be better than their setters. Baronash fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Sep 25, 2016 |
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2016 21:35
|
|
|
Patrovsky posted:As someone who is not a super good climber, but wants to do bouldering, I run into trouble where even the most basic of bouldering problems are super difficult for me. Am I better off improving my regular indoor climbing to improve at bouldering, or to just keep pushing at the bouldering? v0 is 5.9, V2 is around 5.11 a/b, if that makes you feel any better. The difference is that you will almost never see a 5.9 indoors which is as hyper-positive as a bouldering wall. Boulder to improve your outdoor climbing stamina and technique, but climbing is only marginally going to improve your bouldering.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2016 07:01
|
|
|
Rime posted:Boulder to improve your outdoor climbing stamina and technique, but climbing is only marginally going to improve your bouldering. Maybe I'm wrong, but I always assumed sport climbing improved technique and stamina. Bouldering trained up raw power - possibly stamina depending on arc training.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2016 12:24
|
|
|
As others have mentioned, bouldering is the best way to improve at bouldering. Bouldering outdoors is awesome, but there's also a lot of training value for bouldering indoors where you (generally) don't have to worry about uneven landings, insufficient padding, scary top-outs, etc. Route climbing (particularly at low/moderate grades) probably won't help your bouldering very much, but bouldering will help your route climbing. Bouldering trains strength (being able to hang from crappy holds), power (being able to move between these crappy holds) and technique (positioning your body to make the holds feel less crappy). Indirectly, this can help with endurance as well -- as you get stronger, more powerful and climb with better technique, the threshold for what makes you tired gets higher and higher -- though I wouldn't classify normal bouldering as an endurance workout. In my opinion, there's no better way to train strength, power and (especially) technique through climbing than bouldering, and it should be a priority for new and experienced climbers alike. As to the poster who said that simple bouldering problems are extremely difficult -- can you describe the problems, and why you think you're failing? A lot of times, moderate/easy gym routes will be mostly vertical climbing on big jugs -- not too different than climbing a ladder, and won't get your fingers strong no matter how many times you climb them. Boulders are often more overhanging, which can require a lot more finger strength even at the easy grades. The good news is that you can build a solid base of finger strength pretty quickly through bouldering -- your first few weeks may feel pretty discouraging, but if you keep at it you'll start to notice gains sooner than later. I think in most gyms you can probably get to climbing V3 within a few months if you do it relatively often and are in decent shape overall.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2016 20:17
|
|
|
Bouldering is like top rope climbing, except final destination, crux only. If it feels too hard, just do the easiest stuff there is until you can do it. When you see people climb problems you're working on but can't do, watch how they do it, and ask them for advice. Keep going a few times a week and you will get strong and send hard.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2016 23:47
|
|
|
Patrovsky posted:As someone who is not a super good climber, but wants to do bouldering, I run into trouble where even the most basic of bouldering problems are super difficult for me. Am I better off improving my regular indoor climbing to improve at bouldering, or to just keep pushing at the bouldering? Sharks Eat Bear made a great post. Beyond more bouldering, look at where you are strength or flexibility deficient. If you can tell your core isn't in great shape, for example, planking seriously helps. Forearm planks, straight arm planks, side planks, etc. You'll get a sense for how weak your core is by how long it takes you to bail. I had been stuck in a bouldering plateau for a long time, but ended up taking barre-style classes with a strong focus on bodyweight training (pushups, planks, thigh work, glute work, and more core stuff) and am climbing at a higher level at my bouldering gym. The main difference is I can really keep my body stable transitioning between moves, and underhangs don't murder me the same way. This won't mean much to anyone outside of Boulder/The Spot, but I went from 3's being my bread and butter/projecting 3+'s at the Spot to normally flashing 3+'s, getting maybe 70% of 4-s in a few tries and projecting soft 4s, whatever that means for you Boulderites. Maybe the grading has gotten easier, but I've noticed a marked difference in my stability and explosive power. e: I'm a casual boulderer these days- I'm doing maybe 2x a week during lunch for an hour so it's been surprising to me how big of a difference the barre workouts have made. I can't climb with much more frequency because I get middle finger joint pain after too much volume... this is something I need to work on. Frown Town fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Sep 29, 2016 |
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2016 00:50
|
|
|
Frown Town posted:Sharks Eat Bear made a great post. Beyond more bouldering, look at where you are strength or flexibility deficient. If you can tell your core isn't in great shape, for example, planking seriously helps. Forearm planks, straight arm planks, side planks, etc. You'll get a sense for how weak your core is by how long it takes you to bail. You're over clutching I bet. Or relying too much on hard crimping rather than a focus on good open hand technique. Remember that the Spot has some of the most ridiculous grade ranges calibrated to their internal grading system. 4 => V5-ish 4+ => V6 5- => V7-9 What the Christ. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2016 04:02
|
|
|
gamera009 posted:You're over clutching I bet. Or relying too much on hard crimping rather than a focus on good open hand technique. I am absolutely over clutching and I know it. I'm trying to get better at open hand crimping, but it's hard for me not to hang on tightly for dear life.. Do you have any resources you'd recommend, or babby steps for how I can stop being so terrible at it? And yeah, I completely gave up trying to convert the dots to a proper V-scale. The grading feels particularly subjective at the Spot, so I only roughly use that as a benchmark for my progress. I just know that I'm improving on some types of moves I just really sucked at before.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2016 05:28
|
|
|
Frown Town posted:I am absolutely over clutching and I know it. I'm trying to get better at open hand crimping, but it's hard for me not to hang on tightly for dear life.. Do you have any resources you'd recommend, or babby steps for how I can stop being so terrible at it? hang from the lowest rung on the campus board. 7 seconds on, 3 seconds off. 1.5 minutes of this, and then rest for 1.5 minutes. Repeat until you want to kill yourself. Generally, 4 sets is enough. Start with generous space on the rail, then move to 1-pad edges.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2016 20:36
|
|
|
I started doing supplementary lower back exercises and back and hip stretches as part of rehab after an injury and the difference it has made to my bouldering (and to a lesser degree climbing in general, though more obvious on overhangs) is extremely noticable - which I was particularly surprised about as I never felt like I was lacking in core strength but looking back insufficient lower back strength must be why I got injured in the first place.gamera009 posted:Remember that the Spot has some A place I boulder at occasionally here in the UK has colour grading for their routes and once you get past V3 the ranges are so huge that the colouring is totally worthless and you have to just judge every problem on its own merits (which is fine but why have set colours in the first place?). There's also a ton of overlap on gradings so that a V4 might be one of 3 or 4 different colours. IIRC the hardest colours (yellow) cover something like V6-V10
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2016 21:59
|
|
|
RabidWeasel posted:A place I boulder at occasionally here in the UK has colour grading for their routes and once you get past V3 the ranges are so huge that the colouring is totally worthless and you have to just judge every problem on its own merits (which is fine but why have set colours in the first place?). There's also a ton of overlap on gradings so that a V4 might be one of 3 or 4 different colours. IIRC the hardest colours (yellow) cover something like V6-V10 It's because Fontainebleau is the best and if they organize their problems in some giant range by color, the rest of the world must follow suit. Never mind that Font is outdoors and you're a gym. Circuits by color or death. 3 of the 4 gyms I can climb at with my membership use the range of difficulty for specific colors method of setting and it's generally kind of annoying to climb at them since I can't just target "practice flashing this difficulty" even though having 4 gyms that regularly change their routes should let me practice flashing all the time, it doesn't because the ranges are huge and dumb. I end up wearing myself out trying to flash problems outside my range and don't really get the kind of workout I wanted. In the end I assume I how difficult problems are in a particular set and I can project interesting things but you can do that with consensus grading so I don't get the advantage at all beyond "Oh there's a blue problem across this tiny gym, now I don't need to look at the consensus grade, 15 seconds of my life saved." It's a neat idea if you want the Font style circuits I guess, but you could just as easily do it with problems graded by consensus and just circuiting on v3s, or v3-4s or whatever you want instead of greens or blues. TBH I think at this point a lot of gyms have committed a huge amount of money to setting this way and just aren't going to back down. The setting community is kind of tiny online and prone to groupthink and shouting down people who don't think setting by color is the greatest thing ever from what I've seen of it (I'm not a setter.) I suppose having huge ranges does save you from people accusing your grading of being soft/sandbagged but man what a cop out. I probably care too much about grading in gyms but I live in Dallas and have an infant so I'm not climbing outside anytime soon.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2016 23:16
|
|
|
My gyms color circuit ranges are sets of three: 2-4 (green), 3-5 (red), 4-6 (blue), etc. The intention is so that people will try things outside their comfort zone. Unfortunately what ends up happening is everyone just thinks all the greens are 3s, all the reds are 4s, so the colors are simply proxies for specific grades. I hate colors.
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2016 02:44
|
|
|
Nifty posted:My gyms color circuit ranges are sets of three: 2-4 (green), 3-5 (red), 4-6 (blue), etc. The intention is so that people will try things outside their comfort zone. Unfortunately what ends up happening is everyone just thinks all the greens are 3s, all the reds are 4s, so the colors are simply proxies for specific grades. I hate colors. My gym has the exact rating that you described and I got used to it. At Seattle Bouldering Project they have this: 2-4 (green) 3-5 (red) 4-6 (blue) 5-7 (orange) 6-8 (purple) 7-? (black) There are some greens that give me problems and some oranges I can flash. I think that considering the grade as a really basic descriptor to the problem and then reading the route to get a genuine idea of how challenging it's going to be for you is what really works.
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2016 04:49
|
|
|
Cheers for the bouldering tips, guys. I will implement them during my next session. Not sure what level the routes are at, since they aren't labeled. Yellows and blues at Urban Climb, so I'd say VB - V0. Difficult, because I'm still pulling a lot of body weight. Core work should hopefully help with that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2016 07:37
|
|
|
Is there any reason not to buy your own pair of climbing shoes? Renting them for £3 a go doesn't seem wise in the long run.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2016 15:33
|
|
|
Lazerbeam posted:Is there any reason not to buy your own pair of climbing shoes? Renting them for £3 a go doesn't seem wise in the long run. Buy a cheap pair as a gym rat shoe if that's what you're doing for now. I recommend Scarpa Helix, or cheap Tarantulaces. Coyotes from 5.10 are also a common beginner shoe. Anything $60 or less is good. Break them in and look for something comfortable at first (snug but comfy). Once you've been doing it long enough that you want something more aggressive, you can start looking at other shoes.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2016 17:14
|
|
|
These are photos of me trying to make it part way up the nose on el cap to see if we can do it next week but go to the top. Trip report: We'll probably get benighted on a less than ideal spot but we're gonna try anyways!  
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2016 23:46
|
|
|
gamera009 posted:hang from the lowest rung on the campus board. 7 seconds on, 3 seconds off. 1.5 minutes of this, and then rest for 1.5 minutes. Repeat until you want to kill yourself. Generally, 4 sets is enough. Thank you! This is going to be a slow process for me - I can't even hang from the bottom rung holy poo poo
|
|
#
?
Oct 4, 2016 00:58
|
|
|
Frown Town posted:Thank you! This is going to be a slow process for me - I can't even hang from the bottom rung holy poo poo Put your feet on the edges below to take weight off.
|
|
#
?
Oct 4, 2016 05:38
|
|
|
Is anyone on here from Italy? I will be heading there in 3 days and was hoping to head out to the Dolomites to do a little climbing. Unfortunately the people I'm going with do not climb. So I guess i'm looking to see if I can meet up with anyone anytime Oct 8-21
|
|
#
?
Oct 4, 2016 06:28
|
|
|
SplitDestiny posted:These are photos of me trying to make it part way up the nose on el cap to see if we can do it next week but go to the top. whoa awesome.
|
|
#
?
Oct 4, 2016 20:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 07:58 |
|
|
Troysfalling posted:Is anyone on here from Italy? I will be heading there in 3 days and was hoping to head out to the Dolomites to do a little climbing. Unfortunately the people I'm going with do not climb. So I guess i'm looking to see if I can meet up with anyone anytime Oct 8-21 You can hire a guide if you can't find anyone. It's a little pricy, I think I paid around $250 per day, but well worth it if you don't have another option.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2016 17:04
|
|