I have avoided top roping climbs this year and try to lead everything I climb. I find top-roping sort of messes with my head a bit for leading.

My climbing partners all tend to climb in the low 5.10s as well, so seconding harder routes is not really an option.

you dont get to be an .11 climber by leading .9s and .10s- you have to push yourself.

Upper body strength is good, but the way you climb 45 degree ovehangs is usually by not pulling with your arms, but driving with your feet and rocking around your arms.

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I am wondering if anyone has any advice as to how they progressed from climbing 5.10s to 5.11s.

I currently lead sport routes in the 5.10a/b range and trad climb up to 5.8/5.9. ...

I have a fairly stong upper body for a girl my size. When I was training on our bouldering wall and hang board I could do sets of 15 pull-ups and do most problems we had made up on our wall. I have sort of lost interest in training specifically though because I think my limitations in climbing are not in strength but in technique, experience and my head.

Listen to overlord and gunkiemike, ignore the rest of the crap.


Now hear this:

YOu talk about pullups as if they were a good thing, well, they don't have much to do with climbing.

You eant to seriously improve, as in, from finding a particular climb impossible to seeing it as trivial?

THen learn to use your FEET.

Learn every efficieny technique you can.

Upper body strength is good, but the way you climb 45 degree ovehangs is usually by not pulling with your arms, but driving with your feet and rocking around your arms.

You hold on with your hands and push with your feet, and you torque your body and reach across it, and always have good balance.

I remember when I could do all kinds of stupid strenght tricks with pullups, like pullup with 60 pounds in a back pack. but I didn't get up an ovehang till somone showed me how to use my feet, and even hook them into holds and hang on with hands and feet, as well as push with feet while holding on with hands.

I also wil ladvise yo uto forget about grade, and concentrate on the kind of climb instead.

OU will find that aa 5.10 offwidth is going to shut you down cold, while a 5.10 face is probably somethign you can do right now. YOU might be a 5.11 slab climber and a 5.8 crack climber, LOL.

The sort of climb that suits you or not is more important than the abstract grade in terms of telling you if you will get up it or not.

Just another note. I met this girl Carrie from Canada. She was working in the 10's much as you are today. Her partner, Kevin, and boyfriend, well, he went to Red Rocks and onsited every 13 they had, so he is strong. Well, climbing with him, she broke into the 12's before she ever sent an 11. Reason was, Kev was working at walls that had no 11's, so if she wanted to climb with him, that was all she could work on. So stronger partners can be key. Work on things you think are way too hard, but within reach.
I still think it is sick that she skipped the 11's.

There is some good advice in this post. The only other thing I'll add is when sport climbers are pushing their grade. They tend to climb from bolt to bolt. This chops climbs into smaller sections. Instead of climbing from one bolt to the next try to look at the climb as a whole and simply clip the bolts when you arrive at them.

YOU might be a 5.11 slab climber and a 5.8 crack climber, LOL.

I currently lead sport routes in the 5.10a/b range and trad climb up to 5.8/5.9. I have avoided top roping climbs this year and try to lead everything I climb. I find top-roping sort of messes with my head a bit for leading. I have a bouldering wall in my garage but not a local climbing gym in my town.

... I've redopointed 5.12d.

Boulder.

However, don't solely boulder. You'll lose your endurance.

Nice. It strikes me that "redopointing" is probably a more self-evident and descriptive name for ascents using rehearsal and hangdog tactics than what you meant to type. :D

top rope or sport climb(which are the same thing) 5.12

Somebody having hard day? Need a little attention, huh? I know, I know, it feels that way sometimes Awwwww... :cry:

Thus, you will progress much faster if you work on your weakness rather than your strengths. The most important thing to do is correctly identify your weakness.

I have identified my weakness as back, bicep, and tricep strength.

Nice. It strikes me that "redopointing" is probably a more self-evident and descriptive name for ascents using rehearsal and hangdog tactics than what you meant to type. :D

Ah, a chance to spew about what caughtinside calls my troll-that-is-not-a-troll. :lol:

Heh.

And how did you "correctly" identify those weaknesses? Jay

Pick up a copy of "How to Climb 5.12" by Eric Horst. I don't recall ever endorsing any book, but its actually got a lot of valueable information in it that I found extremely useful. Its formatted for anyone who is not yet climbing at the "elite" levels, but even a couple friends who are doing 12's now have found the book useful.

You correctly identify weaknesses through observing yourself and seeing in what situations you can't keep up with your buddies. I onsight close to my redpoint limit, thus I can determine that my ability to "read" routes is good. I rarely pump off of climbs, and thus I've determined that my forearms are strong. I can usually climb strong on vertical and less than vertical routes. The one place where I seem to have trouble keeping up with climbers of my ability level is on powerful overhangs. I have thus determined that my back, bicep and tricep muscles are my weakness. This makes since because when I used to lift weights in college, I never worked my back muscles. Thus they may be especially weak for my size (170 pounds).

Isolated muscle groups are not likely why you have trouble on overhangs. More likely, you lack experience on overhangs, and thus have not learned how to climb them with efficient and effective movement. If so, then bouldering would likely be better training for you than doing biceps curls, pull-ups, and the like.

Jay

Fracture, I like you. I'm sorry I bailed on you, like, 3 years ago. Please come back to Tucson and I promise we shall talk the s--- and climb the rocks, or at least the latter.

Nope. I have 6 years of overhanging bouldering experience. 2 months of pullups has increased my climbing ability drastically more than 2 years of focusing on bouldering.

Well, I guess that would work if your idea of climbing overhangs is to do pullups up them. Out of curiosity, how many pullups can you do and what's your redpoint level on steep routes? Jay

That is correct. I do have to pull up when climbing overhanging routes. Please let me and Rock & Ice know if you find a way to climb overhangs without pulling.

I'm sure Rock and Ice already knows. The technique is to climb with your body sideways to the wall, using the lower body to initiate the moves, minimzing the effort required from the upper body. This is why it is possible to climb overhanging routes without being able to do many (maybe even any) pullups. What pull there is is primary across the body, not straight down, making pullups a poor exercise. Maybe you could get some benefit from mimicking the move using a cable machine, but nothing beats learning good technique and practicing it on the bouldering wall or the boulders themselves.
Jay

Hey Everyone! Jay has figured out how to climb overhangs without pulling!! This is amazing. I can't believe this! This marks a new era in the world of climbing... Note June 23rd, 2006 as the day that climbing was changed forever. We will soon see a "no hands" accent of Dreamtime, as well as a "no hands" 1 day free accent of the Shield. Ha, ha, ha!!

Dude, technique is way more important for climbing overhangs than sheer pull up power. I don't care if you can do 30 pull ups, if your ass is dangling and your hips aren't turned in, you're not going anywhere but down.

... I have a better understanding of my climbing strengths and weaknesses than some random person on the internet.

This whole thing started because I posted that my biggest weakness is strength and not technique.

This whole thing started because I posted that my biggest weakness is strength and not technique.

No. It started because you said your biggest weaknesses were your biceps and triceps. If that were true, then you would be able to make great gains in your climbing simply by doing biceps curls and triceps extensions as training, which is patently ridiculous. Your whole focus on "pulling" to climb overhanging routes suggests that you seriously misunderstand the mechanics of climbing.

Jay

Hmmm.
I quit lifting weights and dropped 8 pounds of mostly upper body mass in muscle and concentrated on my technique a lot more.
This resulted in no apparent lack of power that I can detect but did allow me to begin breaking into the 11's (trad and sport).
In fact I feel like I have more power/strength than previously.
My technique on the other hand is still in need of constant improvement.