100 hours of practice: What bouldering grade?

After spending 100 hours at the climbing wall on roped climbs, I thought it'd be interesting to see what level I'd be at the bouldering gym. I'm going to make a full bouldering video so please comment below what grade I should aim for.

Thanks to Block10 in Dundee for allowing me to film. Pay them a visit if you are in the area and want a challenge.

Thumbnail, camera work, emotional support: @Kim_Norrie

[MikeBoyd]

What bouldering grade should I aim for? My plan is to do an additional 50 hours of practice at the bouldering gym. V4? V5? V6?!

[Nerdforge]

This is awesome Mike! Do I smell a Magnus Midtbø collab coming? 👀 H.

[kagithkagith]

Mike, you've got a lot of strengths as a boulderer. Your grip strength is solid, body positioning is solid, endurance is solid, and you're doing very challenging climbs. Your main weakness is footwork. Climbing shoes are designed to get you to move on the toes, sometimes just the TIPS of your toes. Getting good at that will make a world of difference with time.

Edit: I've been watching your videos for the longest time, so I'm super glad you're into climbing. Hope you continue to progress and have fun!!!

[TheFlippeen]

I think a good goal would be to aim for "all V4s" instead of like one V5 or V6 that really suits your body and style. Way more impressive to master all styles of climbing and being able to climb all boulders on a certain grade than it is to have done one V7 but still struggling with a lot of V5s.

[amairivas]

As a fellow boulderer here, my fingers cry when seeing your foot placement hahaha, hope you enjoyed! Looking forward to your improvments :)

[lightsdarkness]

Mike, in addition to aiming for a higher grade, you should also definitely look at aiming to complete lower grades that focus on styles and walls you are uncomfortable with. I noticed in the video you climbed almost no steep/overhanging terrain, in addition to shooting for ~V5 on the routes that suite you, you should also shoot for ~V3 on routes that you look at and think ‘there’s no damn way I can climb that overhanging wall!’. This will help so much with becoming a more well rounded climber, your technique, and with eventually moving into lead climbing. Most top rope focuses on mainly vertical walls so it makes sense that this translates to you being comfortable and quite good at vertical boulders.

[namenamename]

I have a weird experience with bouldering. When I was in the equivalent of middle school, we had a yearly "project week" where lessons stop and we could choose to do various activities spread over those five days instead. One year, there was the option to go bouldering with my chemistry teacher as the supervisor.
Now, it seems incredibly obvious in hindsight, but it didn't occour to anyone that my chemistry teacher would participate, we just expected him to play babysitter, so we were all quite surprised when he flew up several walls. He was actually really skilled, he was probably better at bouldering than at teaching chemistry.
Though to be clear, most of us thought he wasn't a very good teacher. He also once made us watch some random documentary and _fell asleep_ while it was playing.

[InspectorGofret]

Mike should now do 100 hours of jumping from high places😂❤

[ianmaclure]

The biggest limiting factor here is footwork to me. I'm only climbing at V4 after half a year, and what everyone hammers home to you is TOES. Planting the side of your shoe feels "safe", but it locks you into a bad placement, while using your toe allows your to pivot into an ideal position that supports the rest of your movement.

I'm sure you're well on your way to boosting past V5 or V6 with some research, and beyond with some coaching. So I really look forward to seeing your success :)

[disgruntledwookie]

If you find yourself scrolling through the comments looking for climbing tips, here's a few:
1. Don't be afraid to cross your arms! You will find very often that a "cross" makes the problem much easier. There were a few examples in this video.
2. Don't always try to go up the wall as directly as possible. Sometimes you need to stay low and move horizontally (traverse) to get to an easier way up.
3. Don't leave your feet behind. If you get too stretched out its much harder to generate leverage and pull your feet up.
4. As you know - feet are really important. You should honestly fuss MORE over foot placement than hand placement. Use your toes rather than your whole foot, so you can pivot side to side as you move across the wall. And drop your heels low so that your forefoot gets as much surface area in contact with the hold as possible.
5. Flag like your life depends on it. Use your free leg (if you have one) to stabalise yourself against the wall when you reach out for a hold. You should be thinking about doing this for almost every single move. In my experience this single technique is the biggest thing that separates beginners from intermediates.

Happy climbing! :D

[cadenquiring]

Hey Mike, don't often leave comments but I just wanted to say your last climbing video had really inspired me to get back in shape by using bouldering as a medium (yes I know the last video was not bouldering). I have tried other methods to get in shape, but with bouldering I have really been having a blast these past couple weeks and ever so slowly getting a little more fit each day. Now I feel motivated to work out just so that I can do harder bouldering problems, it's an exciting cycle that I'm eager to continue, and I have you and Magnus to thank for that completely. Thanks for inspiring me to pick up this amazing sport!

[ThePumpkinBasher]

I think you could make some really easy gains by using more of your toes rather than the whole foot, as particularly in bouldering, having good foot placement can make or break a route.

[adamosman]

Honestly you are so lucky to have Kim, she is so supportive with every video you make! And always there!!!

[grzegorzolszewski]

I love the fact that you've transitioned from this project-based skill acquiring to showing the journey of learning more advanced skills. I kinda liked your previous style but was rather entertaining for me than educational. I'll be here more often ; )

[oinSquares]

This is amazing, can't wait to see a collab with Magnus some day.
I would say V5-V6 would be definitely very impressive

[chareg]

This was awesome! As a boulderer, this was great to see! I was one of those commenting on the last video to push for bouldering, so to see you actually going ahead and doing it is great!

In terms of any advice, in the off chance you're reading through these and looking for any tips, I'd say to practice some of the easier stuff, before pushing on. If you start climbing as a boulderer, rather than as a toprope climber, there are a different initial set of skills you learn, while still on walls that are easy enough to stop things from going too badly wrong. Things like being confident without a rope, landing on the mats (especially from a height), jumping down, downclimbing, and also a lot of different movement skills. Being a competent (ish :P) climber already means you can skip a lot of the easier climbs which help teach these things safely, and if you push it too hard, too fast, could result in you landing badly or something like that, or otherwise injuring yourself, and that's the last thing we want to see!

And in terms of actual climbing, honestly the advice I'd give is fairly similar - spend more time on the wall. Which seems to be your plan anyway! A lot of things, from general confidence on the wall (one of the biggest things that holds new climbers, especially physically capable ones, back is this, as a former coach and long time boulderer), to learning to move your body in the more dynamic and complex ways that a bouldering wall often requires at a lower grade than its toprope equivalent. You do also seem to still be a bit... tight, and close-in on some climbs, but not on all of them, and that can be a bit problematic, especially when it causes you to feel off balance, or to rush moves. Remember to relax, and move comfortably, and not to completely lock up on yourself (most of the time, anyway, sometimes it IS needed! haha).

Anyway, wish I was nearby to come in and check out that centre, it looks awesome! And I absolutely can't wait to see your bouldering journey! I hope it goes amazing, and I hope you have a great time doing it! It's always amazing to see new people get started in the sport, and to see them come to love it as much as we all do! Good luck mate! :D

Edit: And I completely forgot about bouldering grade. V5 is definitely doable, I'd say, in 50 hours from where you are. But, if I were you, and wanting to set a proper goal, I'd set either a number of V5's as a goal (say, five), so that you can confidently climb that grade (and not just, for example, one super easy/your style climb of that grade), or maybe trying to push onto V6 if you hit V5 earlier than you expect! Hope it goes well!

[flatulentpaul]

Well done getting to V3 so quickly. In my opinion you should do a video every time you get comfortable at a grade. It could take 50 hours to get to the point where you are comfortable with the V4 grade and can do maybe one or two V5s.

It would also be very interesting and you would learn a lot about footwork if you started seeing how well indoor grades translate to outdoor (plenty of amazing outdoor bouldering in Scotland)

[carazy_]

5:28 now let’s play the “is this audio from bouldering or their first time” game

[tyroberts]

You are an icon. You push yourself to do the best you can in everything you try and I appreciate it so much. What an inspiration!

[zahven]

I’ve been getting into climbing a ton recently and I’m so happy I can watch you as well, I’ve always loved your videos and your learning process so it’s always cool to watch you do something I love as well