A Beginners Guide to Improving at Rock Climbing

What is the most common advice given to beginner climbers? From what we have seen ‘just climb a lot’ takes the top spot, this is not terrible advice but I would suggest it is overly simplified and even a bit uninformed.

Using our many years of coaching experience and diving into some of the research around sports performance, we wanted to do a better job than ‘just climb a lot’.... So we set about to share with you the best advice for beginner climbers looking to improve their climbing skills!

Climbing is very skill-driven, and you need lots of practice time to develop good movement and climbing techniques. However, my first criticism here is; that quality of practice is more important than quantity. In this video will define what we mean by quality and how you can implement it into your sessions.

Another assumption is that doing anything more than ‘just climbing’ is time wasted and that any physical development you need can be made while ‘just climbing’. I challenge these assumptions by pointing out how supplementary training can be minimal, time-efficient and can help you increase the quality of your practice time and mitigate injury risk. If supplementary training can keep you healthy and act as a catalyst for skill practice, why do we reserve it for intermediate to elite climbers only?

The third and perhaps most powerful tactic for improving fast in rock climbing is all about the social and cultural dynamic. If you are young and passionate about rock climbing, you may have the power to influence this one heavily.

Finally, to help guide your practice sessions. We give you three climbing games to try at the gym. Keep it fun, keep it mindful!

00:00 Intro
00:49 Quality vs Quantity
04:25 Physical Preparedness
10:26 No.1 Tip
11:50 Climbing Games

DISCLAIMER: The contents of this video are for informational purposes only. By watching this video, you agree that any actions you take as a result of the information or content provided are entirely at your own risk and Lattice Training Limited shall not be responsible for the loss, or damage, of or to any property or to any person arising from the same.

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[LemonLimeFlavoured]

I understand the intention of the video, but I think it's quite idealistic, and in practice this is more likely advice for intermediate climbers (depending on how you even define that). Beginners will be primarily motivated by the novelty and simple enjoyment of climbing and will make heaps of progress without thinking about it at all. Until someone is somewhat committed to the sport, I find it very hard to imagine them keeping up a regular resistance training / hang boarding / flexibility etc. routine specifically for climbing when they could just go climbing instead. Whenever I've told someone "just climb lots" the intention behind it is more like: "Don't over complicate it. Have as much fun and experiment as much as possible, and once you start plateauing and want to get better, then you can think about training."

[KyleJHagel]

Climb with people better and stronger than you. That's my advice after 24+ years of climbing a lot.

[MSchon-qffl]

If you’re truly a beginner, I think it’s the best advice. Of course quality counts, but in the beginning you’re going to rapidly improve no matter what you do.

[nilsp]

For like 50% of the people I meet in the climbing gym, "climb a lot" is great advise, because for them, 2x90 minutes in the gym per week would be much more than they do. You cannot start any type of training if you are going once a week and skip lots of weeks anyways. The first thing people fail at is getting their ass into the gym. Ofc. I understand that for those people who are already there regularly, "climb a lot" tells them literally nothing about what they should look for in their training.

[CaseyFackreClimbing]

This was great! Not a beginner climber but I still found the video very comprehensive and useful. Interesting point about how climbing progression is often more of a social / cultural phenomenon rather than a physical one. I feel like most climbers see their sport as an individual pursuit, but perhaps switching this mindset could be the key to progression long term. Awesome video :)

[Pennervomland]

I would love to see a video that focuses on increasing endurance on the wall quickly. I (a beginner) moved on from the easier holds with nice jugs into holds that need the fingers instead of the entire hand. I noticed that for me and a lot of my friends, after having to actually use our fingers on small holds we are done for a session after only 2 or 3 of those routes. The routes are probably only V2 but ANYTHING that forces us to pull with our fingers instead of our hands (which is pretty much any hold that is not a jug) kills our fingers in less than a few tries. A video about how to increase endurance in the fingers would be absolutely amazing. Of course, just climbing would do the trick but things to focus on and maybe clear up questions like "would soft hangboarding help finger endurance?" would be incredible because the finger endurance is holding me and my friends and most likely quite a lot of beginners back.

[robertwhite]

This advice is nice for those who might find this video, but the reality is that those people likely aren't "beginners" in a real sense. They're hooked already, probably have climbed quite a few times or for some time already, and are actively seeking resources to improve at an above average rate. By definition, they probably have additional time to spend outside of their climbing sessions to invest in improvement.

A genuine beginner needs the following advice when they inevitably ask about supplementary training:
1. Have fun, play, do whatever is engaging
2. Read the routes before you start
3. Look at your feet, and stand on your toes
4. Try to straighten your arms, and push with your legs
5. Engage with other people, get advice, and watch others climb

By no means an exhaustive list!

I'd never recommend a genuine beginner to hang on a fingerboard, as they really won't understand how it should feel to them or what the goal is. Totally appreciate that in theory it's a safe tool at any level if used right...

Ultimately if a genuine *beginner* climber has a choice to make between going climbing, and doing anything that's doesn't directly engage with specific climbing movements, they absolutely will improve their climbing more quickly by going climbing. Adding some games and drills is great advice, but choosing to do anything off the wall instead is advice for intermediate to advanced climbers.

[kaspermaaa]

I think the question is wrong, and therefore is the answer. The video explains that using the brain in a structured way where information extraction is optimised by reiteration, adds to performance gains significantly enough that it shouldn't be ignored. But not everyone wants to be extremely focused while climbing.

[harrybo]

For a beginner i first would strongly recommend booking a course in your gym with the best climber you can get. Just at the beginning its very important to learn the basics in the right way. Then go climbing a lot and let the learned skills become your habit. Observe good climbers, learn just from observation. Take always one Aspekt of interest und go as deep as you can. Than take the next. For example, focus first on your footwork, then grip, body position on the wall and so on. But,
most of all, have fun with your body movement. I'm 68 years old and climb over 50 years now and still learning every day.
It makes me happy.

[Fallenangel_]

Well, the simple truth is that "climb a lot" will get you father then doing quality training but only every two weeks.

The reality of the situation is ofc that you need both if you want to advance fast.
But climbing a lot is a very good beginners advice for most, since the biggest early hurdle is overcoming fear and getting used to things. Especially if you climb with others that are much better, you'll absorb most skills quite naturally by imitation.

More deliberate training is for mid-high lvl improvements.

Also remember that for supplemental training, that only helps if it's done right. Which means learning that type of training correctly too. And it's not easy to learn right without assistance.
So yeah, as a beginner you'll be perfectly fine without it, since the lvls you climb at aren't that physical anyhow.
There is even an argument to be made about being "too strong", since that allows you to power through without thinking about how to do it efficiently.

A Hangboard is clearly more risky then a Bar bell because you can full crimp on it, which has lots of potential for injury for beginners.

[joechapman]

Such an excellent video, really good job with this one! I'll be pointing anyone who asks me how to get going with climbing in this direction for sure :)

[Zhiloreznik]

Strength training would really help my numerous tendons and muscles not getting injured. Especially for someone who has only sat in the office for ten years

[jinbas]

Practice makes permanent - Explore and play is the way

[guypanton]

Yeah, I get it, but I think “just climb a lot” is supposed to be lazy. A beginner climber really doesn’t even have the experience that would provide them with an adequate frame of reference for understanding a lot of advice. So, when a beginner comes to me and asks, for example, about strength-training for fingers, I’m gonna stick to “just climb a lot”. That’s because, in almost all cases, climbing a lot is the best strength-training for a beginner’s fingers. And the same can be said about physical conditioning in general, about improving technique, about learning to read routes, and so on. But what’s most important in my mind is that I’m in no way qualified to give serious advice—I’m just some muppet who has climbed for a long time.

[alensiljak]

A honorable mention to Peak: How to Master Almost Anything, by Anders Ericsson.
Some balance between strength training and climbing advised. Working the same (weak) muscles on the opposite days may be looking for trouble, as rightfully suggested in the injury prevention section.

[chloeb]

I appreciate this! I'm just getting back into climbing after 9 years and 2 babies. I'm crazy weak, so there is a lot to be said for "Just climb a lot." On the other hand, I can only get to the gym so often because I have a baby, and I'd like to train at home in a way that will compliment. I also don't want to injure myself at the gym, which is why I'd like more information on what is a good work out plan.

Plus, I can onsite most 5.6s at my gym, but the 5.7s are really hard, and I can do some but not all V0s. I'm 5'2" and the route setters at my gym are 6 feet, which probably plays a role, but I also need more strength. I've basically plateaued and it's getting boring because I'm so limited in the number of routes I can climb.

[locien]

Train inbetween days at home. weighted pull ups/situps. weighted squats, hand from your door frame to practise finger strength. these can be done on off days i climb mon and wednesdays and do these sun tues thurs and have fri sat off due to working nights and cant be bothered tiering my self out before work, literally 15mins a day doing like 3min core 3min hang/pull ups 3 mins weights repeat again and its a good way to make you stronger with little to no interruption to daily life and the addition of weights makes a huge difference to when you go back to climbing after a few weeks of doing it. not talking about huge amounts at first like 10kg's max but when you do it with out the body's used to being able to do it heavier so the power you gain from doing it unweighted is alot.

[johnmarc]

For absolute beginners, climbing a lot is the best advice. There's nothing that compares to actually feeling the body positions on the wall and practicing moving between them. I would add that you need to challenge yourself too. Try difficult climbs and not just the ones you can do.

[lb]

10, 000 hour rule simply cannot work for non-professional adult athletes. Even if you climbed 10 hours a week, it would take 1000 weeks or almost 20 years to get to 10000 hours.

[Brikid]

"Just climb alot" is kinda like when my instructors tell me "Just put the right answer, and if you're putting the wong one, erase it and put the right one." Thanks for the advice, I picked up my first pair of climbing shoes this month and have been hitting the gym like crazy, but sometimes I feel discouraged by progress on easier routes, but lack of progress on routes which I should be able to do, but require different techniques which are hard to practice when im fatiged. I will defently use the research approach and elimination method today when I hit the gym. Thanks!