Objective : Climbing Strength
Warm-up : Circuit #1
Mobility Drills
Circuit #2
Training : 7-10 moves (no more, no less)
rest 5 minutes
repeat for 1.5 hours
Notes : I climbed okay but felt horrible. This workout is not fun. I starting get pumped after move 8. The longish rest enabled me to physical crank hard if my psych kept up. The workout might have been more targeted on system wall, but I think bouldering was better for engarm practice. It is the eternal debate between strength and technique. Here is my opinion right now : Strength always wins over technique. However, most people have very bad technique. I don’t think training one works against the other. If you have been climbing for a little while (more than 3 years), focus on getting stronger and keep polishing up technique. If you haven’t been climbing for very long, you will get stronger through technique practice.
I’m a huge fan of Self-Coached Climber. I have done all the drills in the book and try to focus on the better technique all the time. I feel that my technique is okay. Lately, I have been developing one aspect of my technique, feet cutting. I avoid feet cutting as much as possible through planning and maintaining tension. Sometimes, you have to cut your feet. Instead of controlling the swing by stopping it, I have become better at redirecting the swing towards the next foot. I call it the “Judo Kick.” As my feet start whipping around, I direct the proper foot to the next hold to check the swing. I’m far from mastering the technique. It has helped during redpoint attempts on boulder problems, but I have not mastered it enough to apply it during flash attempts. I wish my camera was working to better explain it.
