"Rock Climbing Technique: The Practical Guide to Movement Mastery"

Has anyone read this book from John Kettle?  I'm intrigued by it but have been climbing for about 5 years.  So...  I know technique can always improve but is it written for a certain skill level?  I realize the premise is this is what he used to move from V7(?) to V10(?).

General thoughts?  $13 is cheap...  but thats $13 from more gear.

Unimpressed so far.
Have had the book for a month or more and haven’t finished it.
If I ever do, I’ll post up something.

To be fair, I haven’t taken advantage of the linked videos, etc. 

$13 is pretty inexpensive, I have paid more for a single carabiner.  I feel like climbing is most improved when I can climb better, and skill improvement is the quickest way to do that.  That book is in my amazon cart just waiting for the next time I order more amazon stuffs.

This is the first attempt I've seen at a practical guide to improving movement technique. A bunch of other books say that technique is usually a climber's biggest weakness, but then give you vague advice (boulder more!) or just general guidelines (identify weaknesses in your style and do lots of problems in that style) and only a few specific drills.

This book instead gives you a large collection of drills to improve different parts of your technique. Some other books have a very small collection of these drills (silent feet is pretty common) but this book has more than any other collection I know of, and the drills practice a wide variety of skills, not just footwork. So I have to applaud John Kettle for that.

That said, I haven't seen the technique from the drills transfer over into my climbing much. That could be because I haven't done them consistently enough--I'll almost always choose just climbing over drills. It could also be a problem with mindset: I am not concentrating on the same things when drilling on easy terrain as I am when climbing near my limit. It could also be that I'm skmply not seeing the improvements, even though they are happening. But it could also be a problem with the core idea of drilling technique: maybe that just isn't effective. I think we'll have to see more people's experiences to find out whether doing these drills on a regular basis will translate into better technique when climbing.

David K wrote: This is the first attempt I've seen at a practical guide to improving movement technique. A bunch of other books say that technique is usually a climber's biggest weakness, but then give you vague advice (boulder more!) or just general guidelines (identify weaknesses in your style and do lots of problems in that style) and only a few specific drills.

This book instead gives you a large collection of drills to improve different parts of your technique. Some other books have a very small collection of these drills (silent feet is pretty common) but this book has more than any other collection I know of, and the drills practice a wide variety of skills, not just footwork. So I have to applaud John Kettle for that.

That said, I haven't seen the technique from the drills transfer over into my climbing much. That could be because I haven't done them consistently enough--I'll almost always choose just climbing over drills. It could also be a problem with mindset: I am not concentrating on the same things when drilling on easy terrain as I am when climbing near my limit. It could also be that I'm skmply not seeing the improvements, even though they are happening. But it could also be a problem with the core idea of drilling technique: maybe that just isn't effective. I think we'll have to see more people's experiences to find out whether doing these drills on a regular basis will translate into better technique when climbing.

I don't think this is the first attempt at a movement guide at all. Self-Coached Climber had a chapter on movement drills, and a DVD to demonstrate them. I haven't read the Kettle's book, but I have seen the YouTube videos of some of the movement exercises, and they are very similar to what was on SCC DVD. I think it is a good thing that he has these videos, for sure, and I do think those are helpful exercises, but your claim of "first attempt" is off-base.  

And transfer from drills on easy terrain to actual use in climbing takes time. And obviously it is not meant to be binary ("Practice on easy gym climbing, then forget about it when you start actually trying harder".) You are supposed to consciously try and incorporate these skills into all your climbing, not just during drills, until it becomes natural/unconscious, and doesn't degrade much as you try harder/get more tired. If you watch good climbers climb with a sound off, you often can't tell just from seeing the movement when they are getting flamed, because they are moving smoothly and precisely, up until the very moment they fall, and that is the goal.

But it is something that is much easier to do if you have a coach who is watching you, and reminding you to do things, than it is to do on your own. Lacking a coach, your best bet is a buddy who is on the same page as you, training-wise, who can tell you these things. And also someone holding your phone to record as you climb, so you can analyze it later.

Lena chita wrote:

I don't think this is the first attempt at a movement guide at all. Self-Coached Climber had a chapter on movement drills, and a DVD to demonstrate them. I haven't read the Kettle's book, but I have seen the YouTube videos of some of the movement exercises, and they are very similar to what was on SCC DVD. I think it is a good thing that he has these videos, for sure, and I do think those are helpful exercises, but your claim of "first attempt" is off-base.

I figured my knowledge of the literature wasn't complete, which is why I said, "first attempt I've seen".

I have the SCC, and that was what I was referring to when I mentioned other books having some drills. The drills in the SCC are spread out across a bunch of chapters with a lot of explanatory text, which makes it hard to go back through them when you're trying to go through the drills--simply finding the drills in the book becomes time consuming. I didn't see how many there were in the SCC, but now skimming over it, you're right, there's probably about as many in SCC as there are in Rock Climbing Technique.

But it is something that is much easier to do if you have a coach who is watching you, and reminding you to do things, than it is to do on your own. Lacking a coach, your best bet is a buddy who is on the same page as you, training-wise, who can tell you these things. And also someone holding your phone to record as you climb, so you can analyze it later.

Agreed, I've seen much bigger improvements even from short sessions with a coach than with weeks of doing drills on a regular basis. The part I struggle with is just remembering which technique I could be applying and applying the right one while on the wall, and a coach cuts right through that.

In his trainingbeta podcast, John Kettle credits Self-coached Climber and 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistake by MacLeod.

I watched some of the YouTube videos and found most of them fairly basic movement patterns which is where you start. One practice I have is to take a boulder problem (at on sight or +1) and try to do moves with different techniques to identify the most efficient way for me. Or if I do a dropknee and my partner does the same movement with a flag, I try to repeat it with the other beta multiple times.  
Simple to replicate this on outdoor climbs esp on warmups.  As difficulty progresses there are man other skills - how much weight to apply, how to set up to pull with the toe when moving the hand, how to shift COG, etc. etc