DMM Offsets are like magic

I am a 54 year-old, US-based, mostly-trad climber who climbs 5.10-5.11 routes (E2-E4?). I would say that training and keeping my weight down are of course helpful but the most important factor by far is mental confidence, with careful footwork coming in second.

Always good info and an entertaining style. Good on you!

At my level (Easy grades) I find training makes a huge difference, that extra strength to feel comfortable placing a bit of gear makes all the difference.

Just did my first HVS lead recently after climbing VS steadily for a few months. The main thing that helped me was climbing more. I was lucky and could second my partners on routes I wouldn’t have done and did a handful of HVS and a few E1s. It’s been ace but I think as I start to consolidate HVS and move on I don’t know how repeatable this will be.

It was interesting to see that you put in quite a lot of gear in the crack. I'm still overcoming my fear of leading trad on easy routes, but definitely putting in more good gear placements seems to be the smart way, particularly at the start of the route.

Thanks JB. 🥰 I hope to get outside and do a training course this year for sport, trad. Dunno, 4-5 days up in those mountains looks good! Gonna try the Skwamas today if i got the right size. Be well!

For me, the training all flows down into making me a better climber across the board. Bouldering gives me strength to push harder on indoor lead, which in turn improves my indoor/sport lead confidence and endurance, which in turn improves my trad confidence and ability. It's not that I'm pushing as hard on gear as I am bouldering in the gym, but IMO it all helps.

In a year I went from leading 6a to 7a indoors and am now almost leading 7a outdoors. In about 6 months went from 0 experience on trad to lead HVS and already have a couple E1's to try. All this with just climbing once sometimes twice a week. Only two months ago bought a pull up bar (about 20 a day) and that's it. Trying to put a bit more training so can improve a little bit and climb harder stuff

Training helps for some aspects, particularly if with our busy lives you can't always get to the crag as often as one would like. I think climbing a lot helps more, as you get a physical workout but also climbing becomes more familiar and your brain can see solutions to problems so you don't have to figure them out so much. More than that, I think climbing on different types of rock helps a lot - the way different rock types and area's climb builds a big library in your head of ways to move. So get out and climb, as much as you can, keep it fun, don't feel bad if you're having off days etc.

Training is for a recognized imbalance, a weakness, and bad weather. You can't train intuition other than by doing.

If your training is really different than what your projects are then yes of course training is pointless. You should train for what your planning to climb. A lot of training recommendations and programs are stated like they are generally for climbing but in reality they are sort of specific ti bouldering and maybe sport climbing.

I think I've been there, iirc there's an old rusty peg of some sort on the right and a slot right next to it that takes a big silver nut or similar cam? Did a couple of days with an instructor a couple of years ago but struggling to get my mate out climbing, especially if it takes more than an hour from Birmingham 😂 (basically there is no climbing within an hour of Birmingham) hoping to get a good few low grades ticked this year but it's not looking likely as it stands 😢

Nice crack! So from the topic i think that my main motivation for training is that i feel good, just so i cant say things like: i dont feel strong enough or im not used to this kind of load on my body So im aware that really it doesn’t do much for my climbing, but i just feel more solid. Of course i do have some more strength and technique but having this thought of „i didi this before i can do this“ is a big help. Big fan of your videos, keep it up!

training is nice, but is more the endurance. I climb lots years, then stop almost 7 y , come back and be able to onsight 6c, after a year training 1day indor , random 20min hang b, al 7a are on sight, never climb harder than b (onsight is the only that counts for me) never really red point,

People that train a lot have to be real cognizant of injury prevention as well, overuse injury is common, and sometimes permanent.

Can I ask where you got that cap from/brand please?

Onsight or death

Are you climbing in Solutions? Feet must have been bad!

There is a trad crag near me that are commonly top roped and i'd like to too (no trad gear or experience) - but routes start at E4 6a - if i can climb 6a sport, can i (probably) top rope an E4 6a route?

9:35 def helps, says colin haley. He started as a 5.11 climber doing stuff on patagonia, now is at 5.13 sport. Climbing is climbing, after all.

Was down there few days ago. Soloed the routes on Tryfan Bach in trainers. Good head training!