How to learn climbing technique

A compilation of practical activities, tactics and exercises to learn climbing technique at the fastest possible rate.

00:00 - Is your technique consistent enough to trust your life to it?
02:02 - 1 Do onsight climbing
04:35 - 2 Do multi-attempt climbing
06:50 - 3 Avoid extremes (in this case)
07:31 - 4 Climb lots of moves
08:32 - 5 Do both routes and bouldering
09:19 - Think about technical breath and depth
10:29 - Learn from success and failure
10:55 - 8 Tune in to level of effort
11:49 - 9 Learn from others
15:07 - 10 Sharpen your observation saw
16:35 - Value technical expertise (without devaluing strength)
19:25 - 12 Try to understand climbing
21:56 - 13 Don’t get comfortable
22:47 - 14 The crux: lifestyle factors
25:09 - Concluding thoughts

[MrJonasPK]

The real question here is: How does improving your climbing technique and especially free soloing effect your hangboard performance?

[jamesstrain]

It strikes me that much of this information generalises really well to other parts of life. Some real wisdom here Dave. Thanks for sharing!

[brendanacord]

There are lots of climbing tips and tricks videos out there, I find them mostly interchangeable, but with Dave you know you're always getting the best! So well thought out and insightful, and as is usually the case lessons not just for climbing but for life in general, thanks so much for sharing with us!

[lasombreo]

Amazing Dave, such in depth analysis. These days there is a lot of "information" around us but very little wisdom, and I feel like you are the last person out there that gives an evidence based analysis without an underlying intended of selling Nord VPN, finger board, pinch block, a rod to hold weights or a piece of rubber to heal your fingers

[charmetroldendk]

Minor detail: Chapter 6, 7 and 11 need numbering, in the description and on the timeline. Good information!

[aesellers]

Thank you to The Boss for another insightful, articulate and thought-provoking talk. I will be implementing many of these ideas. Since you didn't do it yourself Dave I will give a shameless plug for the book "9 out of 10 climbers" which is full of advice everyone can benefit from.

[ibex]

Always a treat when a new Dave video drops!

[alienfish]

Why some climbers are 'passive'? Learning anything requires more work than not learning. That's why the first rule of learning is you have to want to.Good video Dave, insightful and thoughtful. Thanks.

[satanaz]

For me, getting stronger or better technique on climbing just means I have more boulders to choose to climb on, when I get to a crag, I never care about grades, I just look at them in the guide book to check if it is something that I might be able to climb or not. Some highball V0 might feel as rewarding as a nice V6.
The downside of getting better is that some amazing lines/boulders might start feeling too easy and not as rewarding when you complete them haha
.
Great video! Dave should be knighted for this video alone, even if you let aside all of his other work towards the climbing community
The amount of effort and thinking put into this video, to arrive in such ideas and conclusions, and to be able to express them in a concise line of thought, is beyond me. The "Try to understand climbing" part was my favorite!

[Tobsen]

Always very interesting listening to your thoughts...
I'm climbing about 20years and have been much stronger 10years ago. I'm currently climbing 2 grades under my best grade but still noticing that there are aspect of climbing I'm currently much better then I used to be. That's the beauty about climbing. I can progress on many different levels.
And one day, when my children are older and I have more time, I might bring everything together and will be better than ever before.

[claus]

Dave is s very nice and humble person. It's a pleasure having this kind of tips from such a master

[Biceps_Mou]

Thanks so much Dave - that is really DEEP content (but what else would we expect from you;) and not the usual YouTube stuff of "do this 2 mins a day and get great without any further effort" .
Can relate to most of the tips from own (multi-decade:) experience and will happily explore the ones which are newer to me. Never to old to learn and improve - it's a never ending journey. Cheers!

[TheTdZt]

So much wisdom and research condensed in a few minutes, this is great 🙌

[cachecaver]

Something else that might be helpful. Is when projecting, don't let it end after one red point, but do it multiple times trying to refine the technique.

[AndrewWCarson]

I really enjoyed your final remarks on the acquired taste of discomfort in technical learning. I’m going to try keeping that in mind when I climb.

[evocardopearclimbing]

I think the value of rock climbing especially important for developing technique. If you look at bouldering indoors vs Outdoors for instance you will realize that the "features" and "depths" of the rock can force climbers to increase their technical depth. A great example would be climbing an overhanging boulder prow on rock that has holds in different depths, angles. You might need to learn new heel or toe hook variations to climb the line. Even then the complexity of the movements might baffle you and you realize that nature didn't necessarily design this rock to be climbed. Its really up to you to be creative enough and have enough vision to perhaps do something you haven't done before (New technique). In doing this you expand your technical depth and sometimes even your technical breath! The rock itself is often the best technical coach ;)

[LNR]

I just bought both of your books recently. I'm on chapter 2 of '9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes' right now and been reading exactly some of these points. One thing I personally definitely need to explore is being more conscious of every individual movement, not just doing it (or not being able it) but then remembering what it was, what it felt like and how it felt while performing it as well. It definitely is a hard thing to do when you're in the early days of a new physical activity/sport (only been bouldering again about 4 months now and had a couple outdoor roped/boulder sessions with a few friends). But exploring the movement, learning new movement and being conscious of all of that is definitely a key thing I'm finding personally.

So I want to say thank you so far Dave. I need to finish the book, make notes and then refer back to it as I think it seems like a great resource so far. Cant wait to get into the injuries book as well (as I even minorly pulled two fingers recently and strained my back a few weeks before that!), just to be more mindful in these early days and not to make unnecessary mistakes or unwise decisions. Keep the videos coming, great content and educational resources for improvement!

[gregfinlayson]

David, Thanks for putting in the extraordinary effort it must take to put out something that seems so One point that you make in 9/10 that you don't make here that has been super important to me is this.. being able to access 'good' technique when under pressure, and not reverting to poor technique. I found a very simple method to improve this.. focus on indoor boulder problems with insecure finishes up high... getting used to that made a world of difference to outdoor trad climbing.... hope that helps someone else.

[TrizzyToasted]

I found the best way to learn techniques for me is to try new but above my grade problems generally bouldering, once I find that new movement or something I've never done before I try to replicate the movement and feel onto a kilter/tension board. And add that to my practice/test playlist. (List of climbs I've done before, but with relatively unique movements or oddly difficult.)

[brothersoulshine]

Wow, there's a lot of distilled wisdom in this video.