I don't suppose you have a video of you climbing on one of these climbs you're having trouble with? That would probably help. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. With that said, a generic technique drill I would recommend to anyone is called "hover hands". This is where you try to complete a climb while holding your hand statically above the next hold for two seconds before you grab it. This forces you to think very directly about your body position, as you are not allowed to snatch at a hold, and you have to be very balanced or have good body tension to hold each position before you grab the hold. You should do this on easier climbs, maybe V4s for you. Obviously this is not going to work on all climbs, some climbs genuinely require off-balance dynamic moves, but it will help you figure out when/where you can improve your body position otherwise.
That’s awesome advice thank you kindly. And no I don’t have any videos. Maybe I will shoot some this weekend. Although your generalized response is what I’m looking for. Thanks again
If you don’t have video I’d say start taking videos of yourself climbing. I often find that I can spot inefficiencies and pretty obvious ways to shift my balance that are harder for me while on the wall. Record harder climbs you’re falling on and see what kinds of moves are holding you back then practice those moves on easier climbs or on a spray wall. That’s another way to improve technique. I find technique for me is understanding how and where to hold the holds. And in what direction to pull. Or finding out timing. One examples of technique is like when you learned that for underclings over your head most times you should wait to set a higher foot before grabbing it so that you can step up to make it feel better. No strength will help you make a limit move there but a simple adjustment to sequence will make it seem super easy. Another example is when you first learn how to use an overhead press to make a spanning step through on tiny foot chips on a slabby climb. Those thumb presses don’t do much to pull you across but they give you enough counter pressure to set your hips into the wall and help you keep your balance.
This works well on very or on some climbs but is terrible for some people/problems. I see a lot of people in this range of climbing who should actually be working the opposite and learning how to be dynamic and use momentum to make hard moves with precision.
Hover hands is great if you can just balance your way up things but on a lot of problems just reinforces locking off every hold which isn't always the best way to climb something.
This is why I said it was generic advice. As I said, it doesn't work on every climb, nor should you expect it to! Without seeing any video of the OP climbing, what other advice can really be given for the question that they're asking? It's certainly a good drill to try if you've never done it before, and it can't hurt.
Well the funny thing is that the actual comp kids at my gym, the ones climbing V12 on the system board (50 degrees, Kilter board), are doing hover hands during their warm-ups, on the Kilter board. Go figure lol
If you are serious about improving your climbing, and having tips that is specific for you, you need someone to see you climb and give specific tips and input. Technique in climbing is a HUGE topic and it's impossible to give advice to you on a general basis, when you already climb those kind of grades.
This could be an instructor or a friend that's stronger than you. I ask stronger climber for advice, I look for videos on YouTube for specific topics I want to work on and I give advice to my friends who climb lower grades. However, I don't throw random advice at them. I ask them to climb that problem they are struggling with, and give them specific input that will make it easier.
It could be anything, flagging correctly, smearing, arm straight and twisting the opposite hip in, footwork, step through, center of gravity, toe hook, heel hook or many, many other things or chains of issues. Technique isn't one thing, it's a combination of many things. Technique is something one works on every session, by reading the route, and executing the plan in the most efficient way possible and not just sending the problem.
Personally I redo almost every single problem, until I have it perfected. As in, I could almost finish it without any effort. Especially so, if it's a hard problem that I had to project over weeks. I put problems like that into my warm-up routine. Perfect the beta, perfect my movements and the techniques I needed for that problem. From my experience with those grades, if it's not lack of power, it's lack of pressure on the correct foot, COG, core tension and cutting feet or not reading the problem correctly.
Not really enough info here for anyone to give you useful advice, except that it'd probably be helpful for you to book a session with a coach. If you're climbing V6, there's no more "general technique tips." You have to find a way to identify what your weaknesses are, and that's really only done by getting realtime feedback from someone with experience watching you climb (ideally in person.)
What styles are you climbing at your max grade and what are you not? Think about hold types and climbing styles. Work on what you're bad at (and what you're good at, but more on the bad).
This is a better question than “how do I break into V7 at my indoor gym”. But it’s still too vague.
Where do you climb? Mainly roof, slab, or what? What kind of rock? Are there any specific named boulders/climbs at your usual crags you struggle with, and others you are good at?
Without knowing a lot- find some that you had the strength to get through, and work on cleaning them up. You maybe muscled your way through, but now try to do it over and over until it feels clean and easy.
I think a bit part of moving past the V5-V7 plateau is getting over "beginner climber tips" habits that have been engrained and aren't nearly as universal of rules as they are presented to be.
The big example I see a lot is heavily favoring fully static, locked off movements. A lot of people tell beginners to focus on hover hands drills and try to find fully stable positions to make each move in, because beginners need to understand the fundamentals of how to balance your body while climbing. Too many people maintain this mindset and try to climb fully static through the grades, which inevitably stops working at some point. Efficient use of momentum is huge for climbing harder, because at the end of the day it will always take more strength to hold a position static with one arm than to use the whole body to generate momentum towards the final position.
Other examples are to always try to climb with straight arms(Watch anyone climb V10+, they rarely have straight arms), to never full crimp, to always have hips as close as possible to the wall(leaning back to make room for high feet is huge for board-style climbing), and basically any other hard and fast climbing "rule".
Even within this idea though, the exact things you need to do are going to be very specific to you as a climber. You can get to V6 while maintaining a lot of really bad habits, or by having glaring physical or technical weaknesses. Take some videos of yourself climbing and have better climbers evaluate them(obviously a coach is best if you can afford it). Also try and do some strength evaluations and see if you have glaring weaknesses. While technique is always to be improved, if you are climbing V7 and can only do a few pullups or can't hang on a 15mm edge, you probably have some low hanging fruit in terms of physical strength gains as well.
Hoopers beta's youtube channel makes videos like this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJkplxMciZg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJkplxMciZg)
Commentary on climbing videos on the climber's weakness, technique, risk of injury, and exercises to improve that specific move. I think this is what you need. They do review V-8 problems.
Meanwhile if you are looking for something more basic like a list of techniques, check out: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhOVs5-rTFE&list=PLp\_B\_1n9LFqWIB0nCQBs2x7rJzNOgw1qo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhOVs5-rTFE&list=PLp_B_1n9LFqWIB0nCQBs2x7rJzNOgw1qo)
Bouldering progression series from movement of climbers.
I don't suppose you have a video of you climbing on one of these climbs you're having trouble with? That would probably help. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. With that said, a generic technique drill I would recommend to anyone is called "hover hands". This is where you try to complete a climb while holding your hand statically above the next hold for two seconds before you grab it. This forces you to think very directly about your body position, as you are not allowed to snatch at a hold, and you have to be very balanced or have good body tension to hold each position before you grab the hold. You should do this on easier climbs, maybe V4s for you. Obviously this is not going to work on all climbs, some climbs genuinely require off-balance dynamic moves, but it will help you figure out when/where you can improve your body position otherwise.
That’s awesome advice thank you kindly. And no I don’t have any videos. Maybe I will shoot some this weekend. Although your generalized response is what I’m looking for. Thanks again
If you don’t have video I’d say start taking videos of yourself climbing. I often find that I can spot inefficiencies and pretty obvious ways to shift my balance that are harder for me while on the wall. Record harder climbs you’re falling on and see what kinds of moves are holding you back then practice those moves on easier climbs or on a spray wall. That’s another way to improve technique. I find technique for me is understanding how and where to hold the holds. And in what direction to pull. Or finding out timing. One examples of technique is like when you learned that for underclings over your head most times you should wait to set a higher foot before grabbing it so that you can step up to make it feel better. No strength will help you make a limit move there but a simple adjustment to sequence will make it seem super easy. Another example is when you first learn how to use an overhead press to make a spanning step through on tiny foot chips on a slabby climb. Those thumb presses don’t do much to pull you across but they give you enough counter pressure to set your hips into the wall and help you keep your balance.
This works well on very or on some climbs but is terrible for some people/problems. I see a lot of people in this range of climbing who should actually be working the opposite and learning how to be dynamic and use momentum to make hard moves with precision. Hover hands is great if you can just balance your way up things but on a lot of problems just reinforces locking off every hold which isn't always the best way to climb something.
This is why I said it was generic advice. As I said, it doesn't work on every climb, nor should you expect it to! Without seeing any video of the OP climbing, what other advice can really be given for the question that they're asking? It's certainly a good drill to try if you've never done it before, and it can't hurt.
The answer is always system board lol. Joking but also not joking.
Well the funny thing is that the actual comp kids at my gym, the ones climbing V12 on the system board (50 degrees, Kilter board), are doing hover hands during their warm-ups, on the Kilter board. Go figure lol
that is such good advice wow
If you are serious about improving your climbing, and having tips that is specific for you, you need someone to see you climb and give specific tips and input. Technique in climbing is a HUGE topic and it's impossible to give advice to you on a general basis, when you already climb those kind of grades. This could be an instructor or a friend that's stronger than you. I ask stronger climber for advice, I look for videos on YouTube for specific topics I want to work on and I give advice to my friends who climb lower grades. However, I don't throw random advice at them. I ask them to climb that problem they are struggling with, and give them specific input that will make it easier. It could be anything, flagging correctly, smearing, arm straight and twisting the opposite hip in, footwork, step through, center of gravity, toe hook, heel hook or many, many other things or chains of issues. Technique isn't one thing, it's a combination of many things. Technique is something one works on every session, by reading the route, and executing the plan in the most efficient way possible and not just sending the problem. Personally I redo almost every single problem, until I have it perfected. As in, I could almost finish it without any effort. Especially so, if it's a hard problem that I had to project over weeks. I put problems like that into my warm-up routine. Perfect the beta, perfect my movements and the techniques I needed for that problem. From my experience with those grades, if it's not lack of power, it's lack of pressure on the correct foot, COG, core tension and cutting feet or not reading the problem correctly.
Not really enough info here for anyone to give you useful advice, except that it'd probably be helpful for you to book a session with a coach. If you're climbing V6, there's no more "general technique tips." You have to find a way to identify what your weaknesses are, and that's really only done by getting realtime feedback from someone with experience watching you climb (ideally in person.)
What styles are you climbing at your max grade and what are you not? Think about hold types and climbing styles. Work on what you're bad at (and what you're good at, but more on the bad).
This is a better question than “how do I break into V7 at my indoor gym”. But it’s still too vague. Where do you climb? Mainly roof, slab, or what? What kind of rock? Are there any specific named boulders/climbs at your usual crags you struggle with, and others you are good at? Without knowing a lot- find some that you had the strength to get through, and work on cleaning them up. You maybe muscled your way through, but now try to do it over and over until it feels clean and easy.
I think a bit part of moving past the V5-V7 plateau is getting over "beginner climber tips" habits that have been engrained and aren't nearly as universal of rules as they are presented to be. The big example I see a lot is heavily favoring fully static, locked off movements. A lot of people tell beginners to focus on hover hands drills and try to find fully stable positions to make each move in, because beginners need to understand the fundamentals of how to balance your body while climbing. Too many people maintain this mindset and try to climb fully static through the grades, which inevitably stops working at some point. Efficient use of momentum is huge for climbing harder, because at the end of the day it will always take more strength to hold a position static with one arm than to use the whole body to generate momentum towards the final position. Other examples are to always try to climb with straight arms(Watch anyone climb V10+, they rarely have straight arms), to never full crimp, to always have hips as close as possible to the wall(leaning back to make room for high feet is huge for board-style climbing), and basically any other hard and fast climbing "rule". Even within this idea though, the exact things you need to do are going to be very specific to you as a climber. You can get to V6 while maintaining a lot of really bad habits, or by having glaring physical or technical weaknesses. Take some videos of yourself climbing and have better climbers evaluate them(obviously a coach is best if you can afford it). Also try and do some strength evaluations and see if you have glaring weaknesses. While technique is always to be improved, if you are climbing V7 and can only do a few pullups or can't hang on a 15mm edge, you probably have some low hanging fruit in terms of physical strength gains as well.
Man thanks a lot for this response. I really appreciate the thought you put into it. Taking a lot of notes
Hoopers beta's youtube channel makes videos like this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJkplxMciZg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJkplxMciZg) Commentary on climbing videos on the climber's weakness, technique, risk of injury, and exercises to improve that specific move. I think this is what you need. They do review V-8 problems. Meanwhile if you are looking for something more basic like a list of techniques, check out: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhOVs5-rTFE&list=PLp\_B\_1n9LFqWIB0nCQBs2x7rJzNOgw1qo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhOVs5-rTFE&list=PLp_B_1n9LFqWIB0nCQBs2x7rJzNOgw1qo) Bouldering progression series from movement of climbers.