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2. Getting Started

One of the most important things about training is to define what your goals are. This manual was written with competing in mind but can be adapted to suit your own training needs. Once a goal is established it is easier to build a training program as well as to stay motivated.

There are several factors that must go into preparing a training program with a goal in mind:

This is in no way a complete list but highlights some of the key areas that climbers tend to use as excuses when training.

2.1 Time

The amount of time you have to prepare for a competition is one of the largest factors that will affect your training schedule. If you have two weeks to train, well, there isn't a lot a good training schedule will give you. If you have a year until a big competition then there is a lot of flexibility in the training that you can do. This manual will introduce theories and concepts that can be adapted to different time frames.

The biggest thing to remember when creating a schedule is that you want to be comfortable doing competition style routes by the time the competition rolls around. A typical competition route starts out easier and progressively gets harder. This means that you must be able to climb very difficult moves after doing numerous slightly easier moves. In order to do this you must be strong, fit, and willing to fight for each and every move. The following chapters will highlight the different types of training but it comes down to you to decide when to train the specific areas of climbing.

A general approach is to start with a period of time training power, then moving to redpointing longer routes and then running laps on routes or doing very long routes. As you cycle through the various training stages it is important to understand the differences in how your muscles are used on long routes and on boulder problems, and how to maximize the gains in both types. See the summary chapter for a sample training cycle.

Something to think about; if you only train power then you will get pumped 20 moves into a difficult route, if you only train endurance then you won't be pumped but you may be unable to pull a hard move, and if you only train power endurance then you won't get much stronger or much more endurance. You will plateau much quicker.

Generally climbing four days a week during training season is not too much. Bouldering four days a week or training endurance four days a week will be too much. If you are in the strength building part of your schedule then try and do strength three days a week and bouldering once. As you move to your power endurance cycle try to increase the number of bouldering days and decrease the number of strength days. Then increase the number of redpointing days (routes) and decrease the number of strength and boulder days. When moving to the endurance part of your workout start by bouldering one day, redpointing two days, and doing endurance one day. Eventually you could go to endurance three days and bouldering one. In the summary chapter there is an outline of different workouts that will use the drills presented in this manual to be used during each cycle of training. Feel free to adapt and experiment with these workouts and see what works for you.

2.2 Strengths and Weaknesses

Every climber has both strengths and weaknesses. The better the cilmber the more specific the weaknesses and the more diverse the strengths. When trying to setup a training program it is important to know your own strengths and weaknesses and how to use them. If you are a powerful climber then you may not need to train strength as much as endurance, if you have a really good base for endurance then you must focus more time on strength.

One way to determine your strengths and weaknesses is to try and remember why you have fallen in the last couple of competitions. Were you too pumped? Was the move too hard? Did you make a mistake in the sequence? The answers to these questions may help you, and yes reading routes is as important as physical strength and fitness.

While it is important to try and improve your weaknesses it is just as important to know how to manipulate your strengths in a competition. If you know you are more powerful, but do not have much endurance even on large holds, then you will want to move quickly through the bottom of a route to get to the hard moves as quick as possible. If you are more of an endurance climber then you may want to climb slower to minimize the chance of making a mistake and trying to relax as much as possible so when you do start to hit the harder moves you are flowing on the route.

2.3 Make the most of what you have

It is not necessary to have the largest climbing gym, or the best coaches, or the most variety in routes in order to train well and become a very good climber. As long as you know what you are trying to train then you should be able to modify your local facilities to be able to train what you need. Granted it is easier to stay motivated when you have the large variety in routes, and when a coach is coming up with your training program but you can train almost anywhere. In order to train endurance you can run laps on short boulder problems. To train power you can set the shorter harder problems that force you to be powerful.

2.4 Choose Your Training Partners

A large part of climbing and the competition scene is the relationships developed between climbers. A day of climbing can be great or horrible depending on who you choose to climb with. The same thing applies to training. If you are always climbing with someone who is lazy and won't push themselves, then chances are you won't push yourself as hard as you should, and your climbing will suffer.

Try and climb with people who have the same goals you do. This does not mean having to do the same routes or the exact same routine but it does help to have someone who is pushing themselves and willing to climb the extra route, and give the extra belay. Also if you enjoy the training part of climbing then you will train more and train harder.

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