Reddit mentions of Self-Coached Climber: The Guide to Movement, Training, Performance

"I just need to get stronger" literally every new climber ever.

EDIT: Since this is a popular comment, I feel like I should elaborate. 1) Yes, strength to weight ratio matters. But the point of this video - and the fundamental point that beginning climbers should emphasize technique - is that you can make instant gains with the right technique. Getting stronger/lighter takes time. Technique is something you can focus on right then and there. 2) The techniques in this video will improve your functional strength and efficiency at every level of climbing, forever. You can get out of shape, but you will never lose these techniques. Training technique is never lost time! 3) Properly applying these techniques will make the difference at EVERY level of climbing. They will let you do harder moves and climb longer, whether you're trying to break into V2 or 5.12. 4) Beginners blame this on strength because they feel weak. We all feel weak climbing at our limit! But they have not yet discovered how technical skills allow you to do more with less strength.

These are not my ideas. They are stolen mostly from 2 great books, How to Climb 5.12 and The Self-Coached Climber.

Thanks OP for an awesome video!

I'm currently working on a similar thing, trying to instil more oof a 'practice' mindset in my gym sessions where I work on executing moves and sequences well and deprioritising clean ascents when I'd have to climb 'dirty' to get them. Right now it's detrimental to my imaginary score for any given climbing session, but the payoff comes later. One of the biggest things I've noticed is that there's a very clear line of fatigue, past which my technique goes to shit even when I'm trying to focus on it, and it sounds like you have a similar issue.

First step is to ignore your max grade. This is exactly why we're told to work technique on easy stuff. Drill good technique on easier stuff until that is the only way you climb. No shortcuts, no chicken-winging, no brute-force cranking through a move unless that's literally the only way. Keep the thought in the back of your mind that there are people climbing harder than you who literally cannot do a pull-up.

Once you know exactly how hard you can climb well, push the grades up incrementally until you find the borderline difficulty level where your technique just starts to get a bit wobbly, and work at or just below that difficulty to dial in your movement style under stress. Be brutally honest with yourself about mistakes, and re-climb the same stuff until you've corrected each of them.

Keep filming yourself, it's an excellent way to objectively gauge your movement. Use it as a rehearsal. Watch yourself, pick a few key things to correct, then climb it again and compare the two attempts. Repeat until you look/feel like a pro. If there are better climbers with a similar build to you, ask if you can watch or film them demonstrating the same problem.

Apart from various technique drills, Self-Coached Climber has a bunch of climbing and traversing exercises specifically to train proprioception and body awareness, which may help you more accurately gauge how well you're climbing while you're still in the middle of it.

This book is absolutely fantastic. Don't buy the ebook, you need the pictures. It's filled with exercises that help you train both technique and fitness.

Some good exercises:

• Play "silent feet". In this game, once you place a foot, you aren't allowed to adjust or shift it, until you're ready to move to the next rock. You'll find yourself stuck in impossible situations, at which point you'll need to backtrack to find where you made your mistake. This game helps immensely, since for beginners like 50% of their time on the wall is spent adjusting.
  
• Do easy bouldering problems with your arms totally straight the whole time. Exaggerate your flagging and cross stepping.
  
• Find a slab and climb is as far as you can with no hands (except for leaning against the wall). This will work your balance like nothing else.
  
  And honestly, don't dyno at all. Way too easy to hurt yourself as a beginner.

Lots of people will say 'climb more'', which is good.

I'd recommend helping yourself out by learning the techniques which typically come along with 'climb more' - especially if you don't have a load of more experienced climbers to copy regularly.

You'll want learn how and when to backstep, flag, drop knee etc. in order to climb more efficiently and effectively.

Go to some intermediate classes of you can afford it, or buy a book like 'Self-Coached Climber: The Guide to Movement, Training, Performance'

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004BJ1MPS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

I picked up a copy of The Self Coached Climber and believe it is a great learning resource for the newer climber.

It is a little bit older, and I wouldn't say I learned anything ground breaking, but it gets you to think about technique in different ways and gives you some different drills to help you practice your fundamentals.

"The self coached climber"
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Coached-Climber-Movement-Training-Performance-ebook/dp/B004BJ1MPS?ie=UTF8&btkr=1&redirect=true&ref_=dp-kindle-redirect

This is an excellent read that will get you started on improving your technique. And if, like me, you benefit more from seeing stuff in action as opposed to text and diagrams, this is something you will find very helpful. There are some excerpts from those DVD's on YouTube if you want to check it out before buying. Those are both excellent resources, but you really will need to climb more if you want to get better. Knowing the technique, and knowing when to apply it aren't quite the same. It gets said a lot, but the best way to get better at climbing is to climb.