Training for Climbing, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Performance (How To Climb Series)

improvements per decade have been approximately: sprinting—1 percent; distance running—1.5 percent; jumping—3 percent; pole vaulting—5 percent; swimming—5 percent; skiing—10 percent (Seiler 2000). Improved equipment surely contributed to the higher values for pole vaulting (fiberglass poles), swimming (“frictionless” speed suits), and skiing (ski technology seems to be constantly improving). Unfortunately, performance-enhancing drugs are also a very real factor in the improvements in many Olympic events.

     
    Wolfgang Güllich on his breakthrough route Action Directe, the world’s first 5.14d.
    THOMAS BALLENBERGER
     

    Assuming no technological breakthroughs and no drugs, a good bet would be that the top climbing level would increase by just a few percent per decade. I believe these gains will result from identification of more extreme outliers as participation in climbing increases and from better matching of appropriate training on a more individual basis.
    Ultimately, it appears that the achievement curve, which rose rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, is not linear (y = kt), but more like a logarithmic curve [y = aLog(1 + bt)]: increasing, but less so as time goes on. Furthermore, our current method of rating routes may be on the verge of breaking down—the difference between 5.15a and 5.15b (or V15 and V16) may be purely a function of anatomical variation in the context of a single move or sequence. This argues for an entirely different system of assessing difficulty at the top levels, such as a scale that counts the number of climbers able to do a given move or problem. Interestingly, this is the essence of John Gill’s B-scale for grading bouldering problems, developed back in the late 1950s.
    Gill says, “My idea was to develop a personal system that allowed basic differentiation for difficulty, but simultaneously imposed constraints on such differentiation so that an endless, open-ended stream of numbers with plusses and minuses would not result. Usually such fine differentiation would reflect merely the anatomical attributes of various climbers. B1 was to represent the highest levels of normal traditional roped climbing, and B2 was to represent a broad class of bouldering difficulty greater than B1. B3 was a (usually temporary) rating signifying a most severe route that had been done by only one person, but tried by a number of climbers. When a second climber succeeded, the route would downgrade to B2 or B1. I thought this would appeal to the competitive spirit, but avoid overcomplicating the whole process and turning it into a number-chasing game” (Escalade 2001).

Training for Climbing
     
    As discussed earlier, there are many trainable variables to work on as part of your training for climbing program. In chapter 2 you will perform a self-assessment test to determine which of these trainable variables is most holding you back. The best training program (for you) will concentrate on the areas that can produce the greatest gain in performance output for a given training input. Of course, the goal is to train most effectively, not maximally.

A Definition of Training for Climbing
     
    I define training for climbing as any practice, exercise, or discipline that increases absolute climbing performance. Clearly, this represents a broad spectrum of subjects—hence the wide range of topics covered in this book.
    Through this paradigm you should recognize that training includes a wide range of activities and practices such as bouldering (to learn problem solving and develop power); climbing on a home wall or at a climbing gym (to improve technique and strength); on-sighting, hangdogging, or for that matter any climbing (to enhance your mental and physical skill sets); and traveling to experience many different types of climbing (to gain experience and a broad range of technical skills). Training also includes efforts made in ancillary areas such as stretching and antagonist-muscle training (for flexibility and injury prevention), eating properly (to enhance recovery and maintain optimal body composition), visualization and targeted thinking (to maximize mind programming and disconnect from bad habits), resting sufficiently and listening to your body (to optimize training results and to avoid injury), and evaluating yourself regularly (to determine your current strengths and weaknesses). Finally, training of course includes proper execution of various general and sport-specific exercises (to