Busting The More Time = More Results Myth

Over the first few years of climbing the process can be pretty simple, spend more time climbing and eventually you will progress, there comes a point where this curve flattens and we reach a plateau, a breaking point or a shortage of available time to continue to increase time at the wall. So what now?

Up until this point progress has been a mixture of luck, variety and hard work.

Luck

Luck seems a strange thing to include but it’s there, it has to be, to blindly throw yourself at the wall and slowly unlock more and more problems over time, you have been lucky to avoid injury, lucky to get so far without spending the time learning certain aspects of the basics, lucky that your current physical capabilities are adaptable enough to build the strength to perform.

Variety

this one only comes along when you have a good team of setters working in a gym who constantly feed you just enough stimulus to continue to grow and adapt and yet not so much stimulus that your or your ego gets shut down enough that you are no longer willing to throw yourself at a certain climb.

Hard work

Hard work has come from week in week out of the sweat equity and skin you have donated to the pursuit of progress.

But now you’re stuck, you are either fighting off injury or you cannot put in any more hours either because you don’t have any more spare to give or you body can’t handle much more.

So now what?

It can be summarised by one word “specificity”, theres 2 times to get specific with what you are practicing, either from the beginning which means you would avoid your current plateau or once you hit a plateau, that climb or move that feels ‘harder than it should” has nothing to do with the actual move but it is a gap in your skillset. Now is the time to get specific in the systematic elimination of these skillset gaps.

The quickest way to move this hurdle is to get a subject point of view from someone who has seen this issue from more angles, get a coach.

But here are some tips for working through these challenges on your own.

1. Measurement

For the measurable side of climbing like finger-boarding or strength work identify your weakness, not what you think your weakness is but actually test things and identify what is really going on.

2. Movement

For the movement side of climbing, try out some contrasting skills, climbing styles that will challenge you to move differently, here’s a few options: