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

Key

     
    The symbols applied to this photo indicate that the climber uses both of his hands—as well as his right foot—to apply minimal force (note the small arrows, or vectors) to the hold. Meanwhile his left foot carries the bulk of his weight, applying maximal force (indicated by the large arrow, or vector). This positioning is achieved by shifting the center of gravity near—or better yet, over—the left foot.
     

     
    This climber is using her hands and feet to apply nearly equal force (note the medium vectors). She twists her body (a movement represented by a dotted line) to position her left hip and center of gravity close to the overhanging wall. This shifts the line of gravity closer to her feet, putting more of her body weight onto her feet.
     

 
    Sarah Marvez on My 15 Minutes, Hueco Tanks, Texas KEITH LADZINSKI
     

    CHAPTER ONE
     
    An Overview of Training for Climbing
     
    A man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for?
    —Robert Browning
     
     
    Many words can describe the wonderful activity of rock climbing— elegant, powerful, rewarding, and, sometimes, frustrating. While there may be nothing more natural and intuitive than climbing (just watch how children climb around on everything in sight!), rock climbing is indeed a complex activity with demands unique from those of living and playing in the everyday, horizontal world.
    Performing in the vertical plane requires physical capabilities such as strength, power, and endurance. It also demands the development of technical skills such as balance and economic movement while gripping and stepping in an infinite variety of ways, positions, and angles. Most important, the inherent stress of climbing away from the safety of the ground requires acute control of your thoughts, focus, anxiety, and fears. In aggregate, the above factors dovetail into what may be one of the more complex sporting activities on this third rock from the sun.
    The goal of this book is to explore all the topics relevant to increasing the effectiveness of your training and the quality of your climbing. As a climber of more than thirty years (who’s been fortunate enough to meet and climb with many brilliant individuals), I feel the journey should begin with a primer on the history of training for rock climbing. Clearly, the advancements we make today are possible only because we are standing on the shoulders of the giants who preceded us. Next, we’ll explore the interesting subject of genetics and the possible genetic limitations to climbing performance. This leads us into an overview of training for climbing and the things you should consider in your quest for the biggest gains in performance in the shortest possible time.

Training for Climbing: A Brief History
     
    Compared with many other sports, the science of performance rock climbing is still quite young. Well over a hundred years of literature exists on technical aspects of the golf swing, and Olympic sports have been the subject of performance analysis for centuries. Far removed from the mainstream of organized sports and an almost countercultural pursuit just a generation ago, rock climbing was completely off the map in the emergence of sports sciences. What little information did exist on the technical aspects of climbing was mainly passed on by word of mouth in the form of tips on technique and equipment.
    Nevertheless, some climbers used basic gymnastics, weight training, elementary bouldering, and buildering to either emulate actual climbing moves or gain the strength to perform at higher levels of the sport. Oscar Eckenstein, a Brit of Teutonic heritage and possibly the first documented boulderer, climbed ropes in the gym, did one-arm pull-ups, and pushed himself on small rocks during the 1890s; George Leigh Mallory was a high-bar enthusiast and one of the first to do giant swings; E. A. Baker in Moors, Caves, and Crags (1903) tells of a colleague who “ascends the outside of an iron staircase on his fingers . . . and crosses in a sitting posture the tie-bars of a lofty roof”; Claude E. Benson in British Mountaineering (1909) talks of being “blessed with a basement staircase of stone . . . I am to be found hanging by my fingertips to the outside thereof.” And a gymnastic exercise of the nineteenth century involved climbing the underside of an oblique ladder using arms only—a precursor of the Bachar Ladder.

     
    John Gill’s amazing one-arm front lever. Don’t try this at