The Technique Error Holding Sport Climbers Back
After working with thousands of sport climbers, I’ve noticed a pattern of climbers getting stuck at around 11c, then 12b, and again at 13a.
One of the hallmarks of routes at these grade bottlenecks is that it gets harder to find stable positions. The climber who hopes to move further will need to be comfortable in that instability.
Think about it. Below about 11c, nearly every move is stable and there are rarely more than two moves in a row before you can find a good stance to chalk from, if not a full rest stance. Challenging clips are rare. In fact, clipping often happens from very stable positions. Clip, chalk, shake, chalk again. Shake some more.
Stable.
Of course, if you’re new to that grade, it may not feel that way to you, but I’d be willing to bet that if you take a look at those climbs, there’s a lot of time spent hesitating, hanging on unnecessarily long without moving, chalking up and shaking out nearly every other move. That’s because even though it might feel hard to you, the positions themselves are stable, and that stability lures you into not wanting to leave it.
As you move into mid to upper 5.12, those great stances get fewer and farther between, you’ll find more moves in a row that don’t feel stable enough to stop and chalk, and some of the clips will be from less than stable positions.
And sure, these positions can be made more stable by exerting more strength over them, but you’ll get fewer positions that you can just relax into, particularly if that’s the upper level of your current ability.
And even here, at the mid 5.12 level, the ratio is still on the side of more stability than instability. Probably still by quite a bit.
But when you’ve climbed through the upper 12’s and have done a handful of 13a’s, and you’re trying to break into 8a, or 13b, it’s not uncommon for the ratio to have shifted so that it seems there are more unstable positions than stable ones, requiring more continuous movement with fewer chances to shake or chalk. Or at the very least, fewer chances to shake and chalk efficiently.
Furthermore, at this grade, even if you get more opportunities for stable positions, it’s likely that you’re going to find either a long stretch of instability, or just more difficult unstable moves. That’s literally how these climbs get the grade.
It might be that the holds are worse, or the feet are smaller, or the moves are bigger or more strenuous… ultimately, that means that there is more instability. That’s what it all comes down to.
And while it's tempting to think that getting stronger is always the answer, in reality it’s only part of the equation. And to be honest, if you’ve bumped up against a grade that you’re having a hard time breaking into, it’s a pretty sure bet that someone weaker than you has already climbed that route. And probably a lot more of that grade. Especially in today’s physical training first climate, I can almost guarantee that you’re stronger than the threshold required to do that next grade. Don’t get me wrong…
Getting stronger can help, but it’s going to help only as much as you can efficiently apply it to the climb. And for a lot of people, translating strength and power to the wall often means embracing the instability required.
In fact, if we look at the science around transfer of training or practice to sport performance, it’s nearly always the training activities that are representative of the performance – with the right constraints in place – that transfer the best. In climbing, one of those representative components that can’t be stripped away when we’re talking about embracing instability is decision-making.
You have to make the decision that you’re going to allow the instability.
The seeming loss of control.
What this means is that if you’re someone who can’t release that control outside on sport climbs, then just bouldering on the boards that already reward you for jumping in almost every problem probably isn’t going to help that much. Because you rarely have to decide whether to jump or stay in control. Staying in control just isn’t an option, or even when it is, board climbers often just default to jumping. The holds and positions are usually good enough for that.
I’m not just bagging on boards; they can be incredible if you don’t have this hangup about moving that way outside. And if you can willingly release that control when it’s best to, boards are a great way to hone that skill. For a while at least. But they aren’t the place to learn it and hope for transfer. And we can’t just wait for the setters to set the perfect learning tool.
Instead, we want to do that on relatively easy terrain that lets you put your focus on the decision-making, and reflection after a move is completed. And we want to constrain your climbing in such a way that you’ll be regularly put into these situations that require you to move through a less stable space.
In the video, I’ll show you a few different ways you can do this on your own, and talk a little about how to progress the methods and make sure they transfer. So if you’re finding yourself plateaued at one of these common grades, give this some thought and maybe give these drills a try for a while.
You can also check out The Atomic Elements of Climbing Movement course and our Proven Plans, which are training plans built around the patterns we’ve noticed at specific grade plateaus.
And if you want to avoid those dreaded plateaus to begin with, watch this video next.
EXPLORE FURTHER
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
Adapt: Lessons Learned Climbing 100 5.13’s
Climb Your Project Sooner | The Art of Execution
Lee Cujes | Is It Really a Plateau?
The Most Important Skill for Climbing 5.13
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Despite being constantly present and often the reason we fail, Rhythm is the most underrated of the Atomic Elements of Climbing Movement.