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

and footwork necessary to do the moves most efficiently and successfully? I think the answer is obvious.
    With all the restraints of roped climbing removed, bouldering allows you to narrow your focus and partake in relaxed, repeated attempts at learning a specific skill or sequence of moves. Sports scientists call this blocked practice, because the fixed moves can be practiced over and over again until they are successfully acquired. Once a skill is perfected, however, there is little benefit to additional blocked practice of that skill. Further learning demands that you either move on to practicing a new skill via blocked practice (say, a new boulder problem with new moves and positions) or modify the original problem so that some element of it has changed (say, angle, hold size, hold position or spacing, or the like). This latter strategy is known as variable practice, and it’s the gold standard for learning a skill that must be performed in a variety of positions or settings: hitting a golf ball from an infinite variety of lies, shooting a basketball from anywhere on the court, floating a deadpoint from any one of a million different body positions.
    Indoor walls and home gyms are the ideal setting for variable practice. Supposed you want to gain skill at, say, using undercling holds and hip turns on overhanging cliffs. To begin, set a problem with a relatively easy sequence of underclings and hip turns. Practice the sequence several times until you feel it’s 100 percent wired. Now redesign the problem with slight changes in the hold positions and locations, and repeat the practice drill until this, too, is wired. Next, reduce the hand- and foothold size and repeat the drill. Keep repeating this process until you’ve exhausted the possibilities.
    Completion of this variable practice drill might take anywhere from a single evening to a couple of weeks. Regardless, the end result is comprehensive schemas surrounding this type of movement, and rapid recall and execution of the skill in some future performance setting. So, while bouldering outdoors on a wide range of move types and angles is best for building a diverse library of climbing skills, using the variable practice strategy on an artificial wall enables comprehensive learning of a new type of movement in a wide range of configurations. Clearly, there is great value in both formats, so get busy!

     

Traverse Training
     
    Like bouldering, traverse training is a no-frills activity that affords focused practice on numerous technical aspects of the climbing game. Although some people find ad-lib traversing along a cliff base or at a climbing gym boring, this drill does have some major benefits when compared with working a known, graded boulder problem. When working the graded boulder problem, it’s natural to want to succeed at any cost, even if your technique is sloppy and inefficient. As discussed earlier, it’s difficult to develop new skills in such a performance setting.
    Conversely, traversing for the sake of practicing technique and movement eliminates the pressure to perform. You can experiment with new grip positions, gentle and precise foot placements, and various body positions with no concern about whether or not you step off the wall. Maximize the benefit of this drill by carefully spotting each foot placement, concentrating on shifting your center of gravity over the leading foot, relaxing your grip as much as possible, and learning to move quickly and confidently through thin, tenuous sequences. Finally, strive to remain calm and relaxed at all times, and refocus on your feet anytime you sense you’re losing control.
    To mix things up and increase the intensity and benefit of traverse training, you can also play around with various elimination or focus drills. For example, try doing a complete traverse using only two fingers (the index and middle fingers, for example, or middle and ring fingers) of each hand. This drill forces you to maximize the weighting of your feet (a good thing); it’s also an excellent way to increase your finger strength. As another variation, challenge yourself to do a complete traverse using only open-hand finger positions. (This will be especially difficult and beneficial if you naturally favor the crimp grip.) Be creative and make up other drills, such as “side-pull only,” “undercling only,” or “cross-through only” elimination traverses. Beginner and intermediate climbers have much to gain from