Do you care about climbing better?

Just curious who actually takes it seriously enough to try to improve.

Poll Here

I recently decided I've been taking improvement and performance too seriously. I've been a slave to training and sending for a while. I was always trying to optimize everything. I climbed some hard routes and boulders that I'm proud of, but now it's time to have more fun.

Kevin DeWeese wrote:

I reinterpreted "improve" as "desperately maintain" for my answer to the second question.

Still counts as trying I think

I care about having fun when I climb, and do whatever it takes to make that happen.

So I care about how hard I climb, but the reason why is that I'm a mega punter and I'd have a lot more fun if I could onsight at least 5.10. Being a 5.8 leader really limits your options and really blows. 

I'm with Kevin above. When younger I was more into trying to improve, but 'training' then was very different!!!!

Anyway, absolutely nothing wrong with 'just having fun'---and different people have different levels of what they find to be fun.

I climb for fun.  

But overcoming challenges is fun.  Improving skills is fun.  Achieving goals is fun.  Gaining ability is fun.  Being self disciplined is even fun.  Hell yes, I care about getting better.

Having strong partnerships is fun too.  Being in exotic locations is fun too.  There’s more to it than just getting better.  

Although it's just a hobby, I treat it like a part time job because I'm so determined to keep improving. Most of the time it's fun, but plenty of the time it's not fun and it's just hard work, training, and doing things I don't love for the purpose of improving my climbing. There is something to be said about putting in the work year after year with no immediate gratification but you keep on showing up and you keep trying no matter what and eventually you get to see the results of all that hard work finally happen. And that applies to everything in life, not just climbing.

It was a massive door opener when I broke into the 5.10s and my current goal I'm working on is getting into the 5.11s. The more things that are accessible to me = the bigger the adventures I can do = the more fun I can have.

Post the results when you're done, curious what they are. 

Improvement is slow, but it's there. I think where it gets complex is mental vs. physical training etc., as it's hard to train trad lead head outside of trad leading. 

Matt Dwrote:

Post the results when you're done, curious what they are. 

Will do. Gonna wait till the thread drifts or dies

Ricky Harlinewrote:

So I care about how hard I climb, but the reason why is that I'm a mega punter and I'd have a lot more fun if I could onsight at least 5.10. Being a 5.8 leader really limits your options and really blows. 

Agree with this for sure. I view getting better as giving myself access to more experiences, largely because I’m still a beginner (3ish years of mostly gym experience)

I don’t care how hard I climb but I still train and try to overcome some of my weaknesses. Over 60 now and probably will never climb what I did at my peak. Most of the time it’s more of a social outlet for me. 

I'm less interested in the difficulty rating of what I climb and more interested in pushing my own limits. I train intently to enable myself to do this, but the biggest improvement in my climbing has been learning to set myself free from difficulty grades and get on whatever line feels inspiring in a way that it will reveal something about myself to me. 

So I think the answer is yes, but I do it not to intently climb the ladder of arbitrary difficulty grades, but more to open up the possibilities for more experiences. 

Training and working hard to get better is my definition of fun. I love suffering alone in the gym.

But also I noticed all the highly rated routes at most crags are 5.12 and up. Like the 3.9/4 stars on MP type of routes. You don’t find many 5.8s with that rating. I want to unlock those routes one day, they seem even more fun than the routes I’m working on now.

Try to find the flow. It doesn't come easily if you are addicted to the difficulty scale.

Chris Wernettewrote:

Training and working hard to get better is my definition of fun. I love suffering alone in the gym.

But also I noticed all the highly rated routes at most crags are 5.12 and up. Like the 3.9/4 stars on MP type of routes. You don’t find many 5.8s with that rating. I want to unlock those routes one day, they seem even more fun than the routes I’m working on now.

This is one of the only real reasons I can think of to chase improvement beyond empty ego stoking. I want to be able to do the sweetest line at every crag I show up to

I'd love to have more route options available that I'm not afraid I'll die on. I like heights, playing with the gear, the community, the nature. I don't want to train. That seems job-like and I don't want to have to work to have fun in this hobby. But I did get into top rope solo to try harder things and get better. I try to watch my movement now and then, focus on soft steps and such. Do things I'd be afraid to on lead.

There are limits though. I'm not getting a hangboard. I'm not hiring a coach. I dont see the fun in crimps, which harder climbs seem to love. I'd rather not throw my body weight onto my pinky, thank you. The rocks are my inner childs playground, and inner child me isn't training to send the monkey bars. If there were bountiful 5.3, 20 pitch multis I wouldn't even think about improvement. Shout out to my dearly beloved gunks for abundant easy multis.

No, I play real sports, not trying to be the best at exercise

Penis measuring. There goes the thread. Results time

What I like to climb is too tough for me to do with just natural ability so I kinda need to train. Not much more to it than that