Does anybody have tips for artificial wall climbing?

Question

I really want to get better at climbing, and I can climb all the walls at our the climbing gym. the instructor put me in the adult beginniner class, but I really want to get into adult intermediate, so if you have any tips, that would be great.

thanks!

Answer 1

It sounds like you are healthy, pretty strong, and know the basics, so what you really need to focus on is beta or technique. This means you know the physics of climbing, like how to balance, flag the wall, smear, or turn your hip to the wall so you can reacha hold.

In order to learn this, you can ask your instructor if there is a better way to do a move or work a route. Also, what would really help is to go to the intermediate class and watch how they climb. Everyone has a distinct style, like one person may climb gracefully and fluidly and someone else might be daring and dynamic. Work a route, then asks an intermediate to work the same route, and really focus on what they do differently. Try to incorporate all the highlights of a climbers style.

You also need to train like a climber. Climbing and swimming are the only sports that give you a whole body work out. That means you should go running or bike-riding to strengthen your legs. Try running stadiums are jogging up and down stairs. To get your arms toned, planks, pull-ups, and push-ups are fine. 6-inch killers and sit-ups will help you sculpt a six-pack. You also need good finger strength, so use a GripMaster. If you don't have one, just sqeeze a firm stress ball a LOT.

Try eating healthier. This means no more fast food, soda, McDonalds, or chips and candy. Instead, try lean meat like a skinless chicken breast or grilled fish. Try to stay away from anything fried. Fruits and veggies are good, and look for things with protein in them, like peanut butter or egg whites. For recipes, check out hungrygirl.com

Lastly, ask your coach what you need to do to improve, and really listen to him/her. Bring a pen and paper to help you remember. Ask about exercises and activities to do. Also make sure you know how often and how long you should do them. Know the foods you should eat, and how much of them is a serving. Also make sure you know what foods to stay away from. Ask him/her to watch you climb, then ask how you can improve. This'll show your instructor that you're serious about training.

It sound hard, but take small steps and you can do it. Good Luck!

Answer 2

I have beem climbing indoors for a while and the thing that got me where I am today was challenging myself.  When you say that you have climbed all of the walls, do you mean all of the routes?  If you havent climbed routes yet that's probabbly why they wont move you up.  A route is shown by either a certain tape color or by certain hold colors.  At the bottom there is normally a triangle or arrow that shows the start and at the top the same thing shows the end.  In order to do the route you have to follow all of the same color tape with both your hands and feet without touching other holds with different colors.

Also ask the people who work at the gym for some pointers.  They can easily show you how to do different moves and how to get stronger.

Answer 3

Work on your forearm strength by doing dead-hangs on a training board and practice your foot work by traversing in the gym - traversing will remove the need for safety gear and you can focus on your feet.

Work on your climbing technique with other climbers - stemning in a corner, keeping your body close to the wall, keeping your feet on holds when on overhangs, etc.

Good Luck

Answer 4

The only way to get better is to challenge yourself with a harder route.

I would say keep you butt in and Climb with your legs more than your hand. But like i said before challenge yourself...it will take time but you'll get it!

:)

Answer 5

You can climb all the walls? Then what is there to do in adult intermediate??

But yeah to get better at climbing, one key is practice. This will help your technique and your strength.

Key areas to focus on with technique are

Balance - for instance, when you reach up to a hold with your left hand, be pushing up with your right foot and vice versa (or whenever possible anyway). Also keep your weight either central or over the pushing leg, and as close to the wall as possible (on vertical walls. on overhanging walls, you want to have your arms straight at all times, locked off, so you don't use any muscular strength in your arms and shoulders to hold on).

Stepping up techniques - things like rocking over, where you put one of your feet really high, and then use that as a pivot to get up high, or mantelling where your feet have to get the same point as your hands

Efficient use of holds - you don't want to tire yourself out by often having to swap feet and hands, so think about what you're doing as you go along.

With strength there are a few exercises you can do. if you have a campus board, fingerboard, or just chin up bar, one good exercise I've found (especially for leading) is pull up completely so your chin is level with your hands, hold for five seconds then lower slowly, then pull up so your arms are at ninety degrees and hold for five seconds, then lower, then pull up so your arms are slightly bent and hold for five seconds, then gently lower, and repeat.

Another one that may be good is dead hanging, just see how long you can hold on for.

You can do this with increasingly smaller holds to improve your finger strength, but don't rush in cos you don't want to damage your joints and ligaments.

One word on fingers, try not to crimp as much as possible. Crimping is when the top joint of your finger is hyperextended, and the joint goes up (and then down at the next joint). Try and keep your fingers as open as possible (i.e. nice and curved round, like a gentle C, i.e. try not to have your knuckles at the same height as your fingertips). This greatly increases your finger strength, and means when you do have to crimp you have even greater strength (crimping gives you good grip because of the mechanical advantage it gives you, but is bad for the joints). Also when you're slapping for holds just out of reach you always use open fingers so crimp strength is useless there.

Hope a bit of this helps!