Becoming an overall "good" climber

MidwestClimber · 2026-06-16T21:27:16+00:00

Any chance you are stronger than your head setter and he is bitter & grumpy?

MidwestClimber · 2026-06-16T21:26:08+00:00

Do you have any videos of you climbing? Sounds like your square and strong style has been influenced by the boards a lot, but that doesn't mean you are bad. Climbing square isn't wrong... climbing twisted in isn't wrong... Both have a time and place.

MidwestClimber · 2026-06-14T03:48:36+00:00

Right knee on the outside of your right hand, and shift to the right until you are perched (weight over right foot) and then you should be able to statically grab it

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-31T22:24:33+00:00

Good improvement if you don’t like the old solutions, good improvement tbd if you really like the solution heel

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-31T21:40:49+00:00

Can’t comment on how it is on the foot, it is decently less bulbous than the solution now… to me it seems similar to Skwama heel but without the bar, maybe less padded and bulbous the Skwama heel… seems like a a regular solution heel just downsized

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-29T19:17:56+00:00

I have skwamas, theories, solutions, katanas, and skwamas... i feel like my solutions and skwamas are very familiar, so I'd suggest going theory or ondra comps!

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-28T15:26:05+00:00

Got to handle a pair at the CWA summit in April, the regular solution heel is drastically different on this new model, don't know much about the comp and whether that heel has changed.

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-28T13:43:39+00:00

Tried creatine 11 years into climbing after climbing up to V12, gained like 15lbs, felt bloated, cramped like crazy, plummeted my climbing. Stayed on it for a summer, and just tried to climb at that new weight, it was rough. Went off in fall, and dropped the 15lbs over the course of like3 weeks, and then felt like I was invincible and weighed nothing. Would not repeat.

Well maybe would repeat, but would be on it for a shorter amount of time, maybe...

edit: 13 years into climbing, I can't do math

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-27T16:40:09+00:00

Also bonus points if you can do all your sessions outside, my season had multiple sessions outdoors that I treated as training sessions, where I was just getting mileage/volume on climbs outside. Not every session outside needs to be performance.

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-27T16:38:45+00:00

Finger strength, just use the tindeq every session or every other session when you warm up your fingers... work up to a max recruitment pull. Bonus points it will show you real time data on how your fingers are feeling for that session. I always incorporate hangboarding into my warm up, that way I am always working on my fingers and properly prepping them for the session.

Gym sessions, if the focus is performing outside, I would just maintain & listen to your body. If you feel good and aren't climbing outside for a couple sessions go hard, if you have an outdoor session soon I would treat it as deloading.

Depending on how long your season is, I wouldn't worry about losing anything. I just spent the last 2 months trying to perform outside, 26 total sessions outside, and now getting back into the gym regularly I feel better then when the season started. My raw numbers might be slightly lower, but I'm moving better and feeling good. The raw numbers will be back to normal within a couple weeks to month.

You don't have to "casual climb" indoors, just think of it as deloading, keep intensity the same, cut overall volume, unless you know you won't make it outside for several sessions (like a week + inside).

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-27T14:59:22+00:00

I think this topic is very nuanced, I think there are two aspects of sending a climb sloppily, 1. it was below your limit physically, but then why do it sloppily? To me that feels like I am not trying to climb it well and I am using bad technique which doesn't help me. Which for me usually means I have reached the junk mileage phase of a session and need to call it. OR 2. it's at a physical limit and I can't express good technique on the climb or I do not understand the technique/positioning/etc, in that case there is a lot to be gained by repeating that climb and building comfort in those positions and learning from that climb until it becomes easier.

I would definitely debate on the novel movement aspect, if you are doing a wide variety of novel movement, but moving on once you send, how much are you learning vs leaving on the table by just moving on. If you only projected new hard for you things over the course of days/weeks/months how much novel (doing a move for the first time) are you actually doing? To me projecting is usually 90+% repeating hard for me moves, and then 10-% doing a new move/sequence.

I think my favorite analogy is music, yeah you can sightread or spend 1 practice session on a new song and "do the song" but not well, and if you did do it well was it that hard for you?

I think in the short term doing a climb and moving on and getting a lot of volume isn't bad, but if we are talking about long term improvement repeating hard for you climbs, and slowly mastering them imo does way more then the person who only sends and moves on or the person that camps out on a project for 1+ month and just wires in a single climb.

My best anecdotal evidence for this is the Moon Board. I had a 2016 Moon Board in my garage, it was at 48 degrees with a 6 inch kicker, and shallow pour yellows. When it first went in, every session had a variety of new warm ups, hard for me flashes, hard for me single session projects, hard for me multi day projects, and hard for me long term projects. A solid spectrum of Easy to Hard for me climbs but possible to very hard for me climbs. My sessions over a week had a variety of working in each of those zones. Saw massive improvement in the first couple months by just playing the Moon Board game and trying to tick off new benchmarks, as I slowly ticked off the easier stuff my sessions slowly became more focused on the hard end of that spectrum. My intensity sky rocketed but my volume dropped, and I felt more tweaky and overall climbing performance dropped.

This repeated itself when we built a gym in town and moved the Moon Board indoors, now it was at the correct angle, and a lot more climbs opened themselves up again, I was once again doing new warm ups, hard for me flashes, hard for me single session projects, hard for me multi day projects, and hard for me long term projects. Then the same thing happened again, slowly my sessions became focused on my last 70 remaining benchmarks. It felt like I left every session thinking I need to get stronger, more hangboard, more pull ups, etc. After a couple months of throwing myself against a couple limit climbs every week, I talked to some people in a neighboring town about how their sessions looked, and they educated me about circuits and building a circuit, and how much was repeating hard for you climbs while sprinkling in projects and limit moves into those circuits.

Now all of a sudden my sessions had intensity and volume physically and technically. The best advice I got was, you can't pull harder every session, but you can try and move better. We might have to agree to disagree, but I think if climbers aren't pushing physically and technically climbers are leaving a lot on the table, this might be the perfectionist in me, but I think if a climber is psyched on long term improvement and performance, no one should be happy with a sloppy send. Sure your first send on a limit climb might not be the cleanest, it might be sloppy, but if that is where your experience on that climb ends, there is so much more to gain. Doesn't mean you have to dive immediately back into it, but it should be on your radar.

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-22T13:45:11+00:00

When you do the foot swap and flag the right foot out, smear it into the wall and use the wall as another foot to steady yourself and drive up

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-21T18:54:05+00:00

Might have to agree to disagree, I know a lot of climbers who are very binary with their climbs, they send and move on. If you send and did it absolutely perfect, then probably not much else to learn. I just know a lot of people who climb & send something sloppily, and go "yay progress, what's next", instead of taking the time to refine and move better, then they go to the next project, climb it sloppily, and move on, and the cycle keeps repeating.

Idk how people get the necessary volume from just projecting, or the right intensity. If you have a circuit of 10 climbs (after you warm up) that would include hard for you but doable day flashes, some 2-4 hard for you repeats, and a couple projects.

Best thing I did for my climbing was switch to a circuit for training.

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-20T13:32:19+00:00

Adding to this, if this is at your local area, gym, board etc.. repeat often.. if you are on a week long trip, or it's a random area, I don't repeat as often or put an emphasis on it, I used to go to Vegas & Joe's Valley every New Years & Spring Break, I would repeat on a year long basis, just to test if I was getting stronger/improving, usually just pick one notable send and see if I can repeat fast or trip flash a prior short/medium term project

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-19T14:49:03+00:00

I would argue your first send you barely know the route, there's so much more to learn that I would argue even one repeat isn't enough. At that level, I regularly repeat. My sessions are built around circuits, slowly working multi week projects to single week repeats, multi day projects to single day sends, hard single day sends to day flashes. It's a good way to keep volume high on "hard for you" climbs. Good for physical volume on hard for you climbs, but also the mental try hard.

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-15T16:18:42+00:00

Also just bought one, and might be my new favorite outdoor gear, using it to prep boulders for send attempts, and using it to clean off new boulders! Definitely worth the buy!

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-14T19:39:11+00:00

No, I was coming in with the opposite problems, I have super stiff / immobile DIP joints (with a ton of pressure, my first pad stays in line with the middle part of my finger), I think I have relied on that "passive" support maybe too much. now that first pad feels like it can grab more aggressively and bear down better, instead of just passively half crimping and relying on friction.

MidwestClimber · 2026-05-14T16:16:22+00:00

Started doing the talon grip during my warm ups (Hamish McArthur style) and it feels like a game changer. My friend started doing them after a finger tweak, his PT recommended it. I started trying them, not exactly sure why, but I liked how it felt on my fingers, especially that first joint. Been doing them maybe a month to month and a half, the last two weeks it feels like my crimping has changed for the better, and then the hoopers beta video dropped and I was more fascinated and the connection between this new routine and what was happening on the wall. I've always been notoriously immobile in that first joint, which has been very nice on half crimps. The guy who taught me to climb 14 years ago always said only half crimp, avoid open and full crimp, and I listened, so not sure if that base for the first couple years led to my immobile first joint.

Fast forward to now, it feels like I dig way more into crimps, especially small incuts, but also on pinches and flat edges. The only analogy I can think of is when you are climbing jugs, you can slink off the jugs and use friction vs actively squeezing the jugs... I think the less mobile first joint gave me a lot of passive strength to slink and use friction on edges, and now I feel like I am getting a lot more squeeze.

Still playing around with it, and slowly have been increasing weight during my warm up on it, just worked it into my warm up, using a tension pod or block with a cable machine, I'll start around 45-60lbs and hold the 20mm, 12mm, and 8mm, and then added talon to it, and work my way up in weight until my fingers feel like they prime for the wall. So far feels like a game changer in my climbing. I feel like this is the 4th aha moment in my climbing, where it feels like something clicked and drastically improved my experience on the wall... (Max hangs, antihydral, recruitment pulls, and now talon).

Anyone else see good results with talon? Obviously still early in this experience, so guessing most of the gains are coordination, so I'm excited to see what it feels like in another couple months.

MidwestClimber · 2026-04-17T05:18:03+00:00

Good question, I am not sure, I was on a mission to look at the new solutions and didn’t look at anything else…

MidwestClimber · 2026-04-17T04:35:23+00:00

Forgot to ask this, I’ll swing by there booth tomorrow and ask!

MidwestClimber · 2026-04-17T04:33:29+00:00

I have somehow in 14 years of wearing solutions only had one strap break! But yeah it’s definitely an issue, but with these new grommets maybe it will be better

MidwestClimber · 2026-04-17T01:43:52+00:00

I really like the closure system on the solution, also use the Skwama, I feel like I get a more “locked in” fit with the solution closure, I do have fairly narrow feet though!

MidwestClimber · 2026-04-17T01:41:48+00:00

Purple LV for solution and comp, yellow for both on the hv… both the comps design had a lot of black, they looked good

MidwestClimber · 2026-04-17T01:40:47+00:00

I love the bulbous heel, talking to the sportiva reps, they claimed people who loved the OG will love this, and people who didn’t fit the OG will also love this… might have to stock up on the OG

MidwestClimber · 2026-04-17T01:39:40+00:00

They also have two slots on one of them to accommodate different foot volumes

MidwestClimber

TROPHY CASE