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Recognizing one's limitations
Kyougu
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
After another frustrating night at the climbing gym, the thoughts of my limitations have been on my mind. Basically is there a point where I should realize I hit my own limitations?
The background: I been rock climbing with friends for about 3 years now, and for the past year or so (maybe more) I feel like I just hit a wall and can't improve past my current level. In my gym routes are graded from 5.6 to 5.12, and I just can't get past the 5.10 point. Some of the tougher 5.10 I can't even do.
For the past month or so I actually been climbing more, with the hopes that some extra time at the gym would improve my situation, but to no avail. What's worse (and which I hate to admit) is that not only is it frustrating being "stuck" at this level, but also feeling like I'm dragging behind all my other friends. I'm noticing I'm feeling self conscious about my climbing around them andfeel frustrated when I see them climbing better than me (specially those that are doing it less). I'm genuinely afraid that all these feelings are going to ruin what's usually been one of my favorite nights.
So how can I deal with this in a healthy manner? Should I just recognize that maybe I'm not going to get better, and just enjoy these moments with friends and an activity that I shouldn't take so seriously?
The background: I been rock climbing with friends for about 3 years now, and for the past year or so (maybe more) I feel like I just hit a wall and can't improve past my current level. In my gym routes are graded from 5.6 to 5.12, and I just can't get past the 5.10 point. Some of the tougher 5.10 I can't even do.
For the past month or so I actually been climbing more, with the hopes that some extra time at the gym would improve my situation, but to no avail. What's worse (and which I hate to admit) is that not only is it frustrating being "stuck" at this level, but also feeling like I'm dragging behind all my other friends. I'm noticing I'm feeling self conscious about my climbing around them andfeel frustrated when I see them climbing better than me (specially those that are doing it less). I'm genuinely afraid that all these feelings are going to ruin what's usually been one of my favorite nights.
So how can I deal with this in a healthy manner? Should I just recognize that maybe I'm not going to get better, and just enjoy these moments with friends and an activity that I shouldn't take so seriously?
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*and I bet you could get there, but it would likely require a lot of non-climbing physical training
That person who climbs better but only does it once or twice compared to your 10 times? That isn't telling you that you can't be that good, it's just saying that person is a talented mofo and you need to work harder to be at his level. Does it suck? Abso-fucking-lutely but there is nothing you can do about it except accept that it happens and move on.
For your particular situation, are you doing any exercise or extra work outs that are supposed to help make you better at climbing? Articles like this seem like a good place to start, but I don't know anything about rock climbing so it could be garbage.
My suggestion would be to look at the 5.10's that are giving you trouble. Find which specific parts of these climbs are giving you trouble, and figure out what it is that is different about that part, than other parts. It may be obvious, it may not. I don't know, I haven't been in a climbing gym in almost 15 years and when I did go it was just for fun, and I didn't really get into it, so I've only done the easy "look at me I made it to the top.. right next to this 7 year old kid" stuff.
Once you figure out the points that are taking you down, try and come up with solutions to those problems. What is failing? Is it your fingers/grip? Do you exercise those by themselves? I know that my friends who are really into disc golf, buy those finger exercisers, and report great luck with them for better grips on the discs. And so on, take it as both a physical and mental problem, try and find a solution to these new climbs that you can't get past. Are you just getting too tired to finish them? Work on general exercises to work on your stamina some. Maybe hit the gym one day and do easier walls, and just try to do them as fast and as many times up/down as you can. Kind of like general cardio training, but still using climbing instead of just jogging.
Also just ask people who can do it, to watch you, and see if they see that you are doing something inherently wrong.
If after exhausting all other options, it may be time to realize you can't go any further. At that point, I would give those walls a break, try and enjoy the walls you can do. Try and make new fun on the walls you can do; after awhile try the harder stuff again. Sometimes in the biggest problem is all the crap going on between your ears, and taking a break from that can help. And if you still can't get past 5.10.. I don't have suggestions for how to handle it, other than try not to worry about what your friends can do, and learn to enjoy what you can do. And I understand how difficult that can be. And I understand how hard that can be, I feel like a real shit bag anytime I go play disc golf with a certain group of friends. So much so that I usually have an excuse why I can't go when they invite me (unless there are other bads going too).
Good luck man! And just try to remember to keep on having fun!
How much do you study technique? Are you studying grips when not climbing? Reading about different approaches? There's an awful lot to learn that just throwing yourself at the wall won't teach you.
That said, if you're just less flexible or less strong than your friends, there may be a major wall that you'll never cross without changing your lifestyle.
Break down the impossible 5.10 into the problem parts, and only climb those 1-2 problem parts.
The rest of the climb? Skip it by rainbowing up to the problem holds.
If you can find similar problem holds on a boulder, all the better, as you can boulder without a partner.
While that's how to practice the actual climbing problems, you probably lack flexibility or strength too.
If flexibility limits your technique, start taking yoga.
If grip strength limits your technique, double overhand deadlifts increase your grip and forearm strength.
If arm strength limits your technique, weighted pull ups increase strength in your biceps, shoulders, and lats.
Part of the reason why it's been so frustrating it's because I have taken steps to try to improve. I took up yoga (which I enjoy and has improved my flexibility and strenght) and on the days when I go by myself I do boulder which in theory should help my technique. My biggest weakness is definately my finger strenght/grip. Some holds I just can't grip at all it seems.
I really need to learn to deal with this frustration. I don't want to give up trying to improve but it's definately been a couple of demoralizing weeks.
There are a ton of guides for increasing finger strength out there, just google a bit.
5.11 is where a LOT of technique and time come into play, and depending on the gym it's where there's a huge jump in difficulty as they take the gloves off in terms of "helper holds" or avoiding awkward body position problems.
As a general rule for climbing though: Accept that you will have good days and bad days, it just happens. Plateaus also happen due to the time it takes to properly develop tendon strength and body positioning. The best thing you can do on a bad day is to just find a few boulder problems with the movements you're having issues with and just repeat them, refining the movements each time.
Also - if you're generally a "sprinter" and move up the wall fast, try to slow down your movements and be as smooth as possible on 5.9's, ideally to the point where you never even scuff or grunt on your way up.
Other good exercises include doing a 5.7 or 5.8 up, then down, then up, then down smoothly (no lowering). Then do the next grade, then the next, until failure, then back up one.
Getting better takes time and effort, much of which differs considerably from what you've done in the past.
More importantly, practice feels like work, so you need a new attitude towards practice, one where you seek enjoyment in the practice, in the small gains, rather than an overall enjoyment, because practice mainly consists of failure after failure, interspersed with the rare successes.
Climbing related, that means spending 90% of your time working on problem holds, ignoring everything easy.
And as you overcome one problem hold, move on to another problem hold.
Do the easy stuff only at the end of the day, as a cool down exercise.
I mention weight lifting for strength, because yoga ain't gonna get you strong quickly.
Double overhand deadlifts, Captains of Crush grippers (T/0.5/1/1.5 makes a good set), and a pinch grip (attached to free weights with a web loop and carabiner) will produce the fastest strength gains for your grip.
And I highly recommend weighted pullups too, striving for muscle ups and one handed pullups as goals.
I cannot do either yet, but having the strength to do pullups at body weight + 40lbs still helps your climbing.
Are you extremely shorter/taller/larger than your friends? Have you tried comparable grades at different gyms (sometimes it's the setters who forget how to set properly)?
Are you trying to break from a 5.10d to 5.11a? Or are you struggling at 5.10a to 5.10b? From 5.10a to d is 4 level grades of difference, that's huge.
If you're shooting for 5.10d, a month of extra work is not going to get you there from a .10a level. Your mileage may vary, but I imagine it will take 6-12 months of 2-3 visits a week for 2-4 hours a visit to see continued progress through those grades.
I've been snowboarding for 10 years.
I can pretty much bomb down the hardest trail of any mountain, even in bad conditions.
But to get better, I spent all of last winter riding switch (backwards), flailing around like a rank beginner.
And I'm still not where I want to be, which means I'll be spending yet another winter riding switch.
Thus I'll be sacrificing at least two ski seasons to learn a single snowboarding trick.
To deal with it, instead of subjecting my expert skiing friends to my ineptitude, I spent last winter riding with beginners.
That's the attitude you need to adopt when trying to improve.
So, here's a couple of grip exercises I've picked up from martial arts training.
Get a large flower pot and some sand. Pour the sand into the pot. Thrust your fingers into the sand as far as they can go extended. Repeat 30-50 times.
Get two food service size mayo containers that have a defined lip. Fill with sand, then lift with your fingertips by the lip. Hold until your grip fails.
I will probably never get my 500m time back down to 7:30 (swimming.) It's possible that I could if I worked with a trainer on technique, practiced more, adjusted my diet etc., but that's not a commitment I can see myself making. I'm (probably) never going to race again and I just swim for general fitness, so my current PR being my lifetime mark is something I'll just have to get comfortable with.
If you're going to a gym to climb they probably have trainers; if this is really important to you, see if you can work with one of them for a couple weeks and suss out a fitness/training plan to get yourself into position to improve.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
There are two elements at work here.
First, most people don't practice most things correctly and so they cannot surmount plateaus. A lot of people have already touched on this so I won't comment on it one way or another.
The second is your frustration with the plateau itself. I'm the sort of person who is good at most things I try, and I'm also a quick learner, when I find something I'm either not good at or when I plateau out on something I used to get pretty frustrated at it, I know precisely how you feel. This is even true for some things I spend (or have spent) a lot of time doing.
Like, for instance, I've played competitive League of Legends a bit, and I think that I am just squarely between 88th percentile and 92nd percentile. Now, being essentially in the top 10% of all players in the region ain't bad, but it's definitely not as good as some of the other members of my team were, and I've been there for quite awhile now.
I feel like I could probably get better if I wanted to, but do I really want to? At some point I learned to come to terms with these plateaus by just recognizing that perhaps I could get better (or perhaps not), but the key thing is that I am not willing to spend the incredible time and effort it would take to do so. Learning curves are x^2 curves while gains are logarithmic: you're spending exponentially more effort for exponentially less gain a lot of the time. The mindset I have is that I'm supposed to be wherever I end up. Gold in LoL is not just the stepping stone between Silver and Platinum leagues, it's just genuinely how good some people are, and I think it's likely that I'm one of them. Likewise, 5.10 isn't just a stepping stone from 5.9 to 5.11, it's just where you're at.
You might get better over a long period of time, or you might not- who knows, but honestly who cares? The whole idea of having these levels is that people can enjoy themselves at various levels. At some point it's the activity that is the fun, not the progression and/or bar filling.
If you're still (capable of) enjoying yourself at climbing night, then that's all you need! Challenge yourself where appropriate, according to how you feel about it, and you are enjoying yourself. People put a LOT of emphasis on progression, improvement, and things like that (hell, I'm one of them) but you have to pick your battles.
It's okay to just be pretty damned good at things, it's even okay to be just okay, or even bad. You don't have to master everything you set out to do.
Agreed.
The point of climbing grades is not the feel bad for not doing some of them, but to allow you to find the hundreds of thousands of indoor and outdoor routes that are within your capability and go have fun (also not die) doing them.
Put another way: You will never do the 5.15c (I assume). Would that stop you from climbing because progress will stop eventually?
Showed up a bit early and went over to the bouldering area. Found a bunch of holds that normally gave me trouble and just worked on grasping them and staying on the wall with them as long as I could.
Then when friends arrived I tried to just concentrate on how I was doing, and not compare myself to them (still tough when they were getting routes I couldn't finish). Tried to concentrate on small successes (Got farther along on a route towards the end of the night than at the start, etc)and just be more positive. Also definately cut down to zero on a lot of self deprecating comments I had found myself making the nights before.
Truth be told it was still a somewhat frustrating night but waaaaay better than previous nights.
So thanks! It's not going to be easy but I'll keep everything that was mentioned in mind.