Most Important and Least Important General Skills

JCMs thread inspired me. If you lived in Florida and hadn't ever climbed outside on a rope, what skills would you train for a trip to an undisclosed location? You simply cannot train every skill and style of climbing, I do think there are movement skills that are far more important to work on and others that are not important to train at all.

My top 3:

1. Managing pump, know when to lean in and try to recover off okay holds

2. Knowing when and how to maintain body tension

3. Good toe-in edging (being able to stand on non existent holds is helpful all the time)

Bottom 3:

1. Offwidth skills - Offwidths vary so much, I don't think keeping general fitness for them is worth it

2. Friction smearing -  (I am going to get flack for this but I routinely send v3-v6 smear boulder problems but very very frequently struggle on 5.10 or easier granite smears)

3. Knee bars (I am by far the best at knee baring of anyone I climb with but often waste a ton of time getting or using knee bar beta that doesn't make it any easier)

Other skills one could mention- hand size crack climbing, finger sized crack climbing, lock off strength, flexibility, etc.

This is also a bit of a practical question, one of my best friends just got into climbing and I am not sure what to show him all the time. When I get him in a crack, I show him the specific crack technique for the crack he is in, rather than even bothering to show him at the gym.  

Princess Puppy Lovrwrote:

2. Friction smearing -  (I am going to get flack for this but I routinely send v3-v6 smear boulder problems but very very frequently struggle on 5.10 or easier granite smears)

Hmmm. Makes you wonder if those v3 to v6 problems are maybe just vb-  ?

Most important: endurance and power endurance, your route reading skills aren't going to be developed for reading real rock, you're gonna overgrip everything,  and your beta is gonna be less than efficient so you better be able to hold on forever 

Least important: figure 4s and figure 9s

Most important: Climbing more

Least important: Making extravagant gear storage

Sad because I am not climbing more

Princess Puppy Lovrwrote:

JCMs thread inspired me. If you lived in Florida and hadn't ever climbed outside on a rope, what skills would you train for a trip to an undisclosed location? You simply cannot train every skill and style of climbing, I do think there are movement skills that are far more important to work on and others that are not important to train at all.

The most important skill is more specific trip planning so you know what to prepare for. HP40 vs. RRG vs Indian Creek...  "Failing to plan is planning to fail"

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This aside, unless planning for a very specific trip, the best thing a gym-bound climber can do is to just build as broad a climbing movement base as possible. Climb all the boulders - the slabs, the roofs, the crimps, the awkward volume climbs. Mimic the beta of you tall friend, and your short friend, and that one guy who jumps for everything, and that other guy who heels hooks everything to do it statically. If the gym has cracks, climb those. If not don't worry about it. Same is true for lead walls - use them to learn this skill if they are there. But if you are in a bouldering-only gym, no big deal; just work on becoming a great boulderer and you can figure out the sport climbing thing later.  Use the resource that is in front of you now, to its full potential, and don't worry about the resources you lack.

I think climbers get too hung up in trying to zoom in on hyper-specific skills in the gym to replicate the outdoors. This is a distraction from the much larger and more important project of learning a broad and adaptable movement base (and getting strong fingers...). If you become a skilled and well rounded climber (and have strong fingers), you can adapt to any situation fairly quickly.  So just go climb all the boulders in the gym. Even if this never teaches you how to ring lock, that is fine. You'll pick it up when you need it.

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Another good general skill is learning of to adapt to climbing in both small boxes (really bunchy) and large boxes (really spread out).

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The one specific skill I do think gym climbers should practice is using small/bad feet. Trevor mentions this as his #3. Gym climbers can be shocked when they go outside and see what constitutes a foothold. In general I think gyms should use tiny screw-on jibs more, to teach this skill. But even without this it can be practiced with a bit of creativity,

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So I guess I'm an inspiration now?

Top 3: Power, Mobility, Mileage

Bottom 2: Dynos, Slab

It’s hard to create a list for all of climbing. As noted above; how someone trains for a trip to Indian Creek should look different than a trip to the New River Gorge and should be different still than a trip to Bishop. 

slimwrote:

Hmmm. Makes you wonder if those v3 to v6 problems are maybe just vb-  ?

How does one become a princess puppy lover without being soft? But I flashed the first pitch of beetle bailey but still struggled on other slabs near that climb.

JCM wrote:

Another good general skill is learning of to adapt to climbing in both small boxes (really bunchy) and large boxes (really spread out).

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The one specific skill I do think gym climbers should practice is using small/bad feet. Trevor mentions this as his #3. Gym climbers can be shocked when they go outside and see what constitutes a foothold. In general I think gyms should use tiny screw-on jibs more, to teach this skill. But even without this it can be practiced with a bit of creativity,

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So I guess I'm an inspiration now?

Yeah you are an inspiration! 

J T wrote:

Top 3: Power, Mobility, Mileage

Bottom 3: Dynos, Slab, IDK

It’s hard to create a list for all of climbing. As noted above; how someone trains for a trip to Indian Creek should look different than a trip to the New River Gorge and should be different still than a trip to Bishop.

Yeah that is what makes it interesting to me. There are a lot of people in the gyms who have never climbed outside, so how do you prepare them for success? 

Princess Puppy Lovrwrote:

Yeah that is what makes it interesting to me. There are a lot of people in the gyms who have never climbed outside, so how do you prepare them for success? 

You don’t. 

Most Important:  Climbing

Least Important:  Falling 

Most important: How to tie a stopper knot in the end of the rope.

#1 have fun! Yes, suffering is fun.
#2 realistic objectives for team; plan
#3 head game

Most important.
1. Keeping a good partner.
2. Maintaining a reliable vehicle.
3. Making time.

Least important. 

1. Buying/having new fancy gear.
2. Traveling to popular areas.
3. Social Skills.