Week of 1/29/2022 - How I Became a Better Climber

Goals of the Practice - Moonboarding

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1. Attack you weaknesses
2. Divorce yourself from V grades

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This week I had two very intentional goals, I'm seeing a ton of moonboarding content lately and my local community is making good progress on it. I've avoided it for 6 years and I'm ready to finally set it as a weekly staple to train contact strength. I've also found myself really annoyed with the grading lately, I destroy some V6s like they're a joke and then I fall off V3s like a gumby and my ego can't take it.

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I've decided it's not worth the amount of mental gymnastics I do to try and rationalize an indoor grade, climb it and learn from it without being obsessed with the number next to it is a primary mental objective for 2022.

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The Session Details

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Moonboarding went significantly better than expected, as a taller person my grasshopper legs don't often do well with low starts, but I found hip positioning and smearing to be vital in getting them out of the way and also maximizing what muscles I can activate on low overhanging starts. I sent 3 V4s in one session which I've never been able to do, I would send 1 and then walk away unable to take repetitive failure. The most important thing I learned is how rarely I actively pull as a climber. I always teach my students to handle climbing like a staircase, we don't climb stairs by doing tricep dips on the banister, we hold on but the majority of the force should be generated through the legs.

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It works great for V0-V2 and sets a good base for distributing weight and learning to trust your feet, but in situations where feet aren't able to take even 50% of the load it starts to breakdown. When I climb, I grab a hold just enough to not fall off, reposition my feet and then use toes and hips to push myself to the next hold. I've somehow become an indoor V6 climber with almost never actively pulling. I can hang, but generating force through my fingers is something I have not trained/engaged adequately. It took the moonboard to teach me this, ideally with at least 1 active moonboard session, max hangs, and hangboarding I should be able to rectify this weakness.

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Why V Grades Hold Athletes Back From Progress

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Why I find it necessary to divorce yourself from V grades, specifically indoor. As a coach my students constantly ask "when will I get my next V_?". as soon as 1 V2 has been sent they are thinking about V3, and then once they achieve that 1 V3 it's time to go for V4s. While I don't want to crush the spirit of seeking higher accomplishments I find it way more important to master the V3 than go get a V4. If you've been climbing for any length of time you have probably noticed not all V3s are created equal.

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Some you will flash and others will tear you off the wall like scar and mufasa(too soon). And if we are fixated on this thought process of "I sent 1 V3 I should send them all" we are setting our ego up for an anger induced failure. I've had students steam, and curse, and punch the wall in anger cause that "V3 didn't feel like a V3". This is where is it desperate that we give up what the tag says and just climb. If it feels hard, awkward, or baffling it's a problem worth solving whether that tag says V3 or V7.

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I've been so guilty of this my entire climbing career, instead of working overhang V4s that I need to train I walk away and go send Slab V6s to build my Slag Goblin ego and it has led me down a path of destruction. I take my grievances up with the setters, I blame them for being strong that week, or setting too soft the next, I find any excuse I can to say "that's not a V5". Instead of growing and learning from every route put up no matter what that little number is. It's not worth my time or effort and it's holding me back.

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In some instances a V grade can help you track growth however, V grades have been subjective since the dawn of climbing, Stefano just proved that in the fall by downgrading Bibliographe. I would much rather you find a solid metric of numbers that don't have changing conditions to track your progress than whatever V grade you sent this week in the gym. For me it's a hanging scale that I will use every 2-4 weeks to check my crimp power. It's raw numbers with unchanging situations, the only thing that changes is me and me is what I'm trying to grow.

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The desperate need to divorce ourselves from indoor V grades is this outward focus. If the gym grades fluctuate then you fluctuate with it and that leads to even more spiking and falling in our personal perspective. We want to smooth out those radical lines and help get a more accurate picture of how we are climbing.

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The two biggest things we need to track:

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Power, how much can you pull with X fingers, use a hanging scale or weighted block to measure force. Can also add in weighted pull ups here, less grip focused and more full back engagement.

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Endurance, How long can you stay on a hangboard with X weight, use multiple sized edges and track weight to edge hangs. How long can you stay on a spray wall or lattice board, ideally lattice board since spray walls are subjective (don't just use the good holds) but you gotta work with what you have so adjust as needed.

If we're tracking these two things and seeing solid progress but no new ascents of V grades in the gym then it may be time to get a few session with a coach. At this point you've potentially trained yourself to only be good at one style of wall and you might need some technique critique. But please, please, don't only give yourself credit for climbs that meet a certain V grade. It's gonna lead you down a sad road unable to celebrate victories because that tag isn't the number you want.

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Learnings

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1. Don't avoid your weaknesses, train them
2. Divorce your ego from V grades
3. Pick a staggered plan and stick to it

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Train, Have fun, Track raw numbers, grow

-Much Love

Seth

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