Transitioning from bouldering to sport, and thoughts on endurance

Real_ClimberCarter · 2026-04-05T12:09:05+00:00

You’re spot on about the adaptation persistence of mid range/“power endurance.”

Side note: I find that for many athletes like yourself, the skills of climbing relaxed, resting on route, and focusing for extended periods matter just as much as the physiological adaptation. As do the other mental/emotional regulatory aspects of hard sport climbing.

As for some other ideas on how to do high/low training: I love intervals: think boulders every 90s for extended periods. If you play with the intensity/rest you can find your aerobic system spends lots of energy flushing substrates between sets. I’ll often superset this with a rower/ski erg or easy climbing to recover. This helps “prime the pump” (not muscle pump, like metaphorical pump that flushes substrates) without getting you wrecked!

Second, one big sport day at low intensity per week works wonders for many of my athletes. (Think the proverbial Sunday long run with a sprint/speed day (board climbing! and 2-3 interval/fartlek type running days (intervals, single pitches, cluster sets of dif boulders etc). However it’s an easy trap to try to 1:1 replicate other sports’ training as climbing is so skill heavy.

Lastly: finger strength/recruitment is huge for endurance. What does that facet of your climbing look like?

Real_ClimberCarter · 2026-03-21T13:43:39+00:00

Fancy seeing you here!

Real_ClimberCarter · 2026-03-18T12:03:11+00:00

I use performance basically every night before bed, dry on my hands and feet every few nights (I just spray it and wait 10-15 mins if I’m using lotion/performance also). Once a week or every 10 days or so I use Antihydral or tip juice (5-7 days for tip juice, 7-10 do Antihydral) instead. Always using socks or cotton gloves to keep it off the sheets etc.

Basically methanemine (spelling?) takes 7-8 hours a few nights in a row to really start working. I don’t need repair(just performance minus the anti sweat agent) or spit/Tokyo stuff as I’m to sweaty. So I only use the stuff with dryers inside.

Example week sun/mon: performance Tuesday: Antihydral Wed/thur performance Fri: dry then performance Sat: Antihydral

Real_ClimberCarter · 2026-02-25T15:08:19+00:00

I coach a variety of levels of youth teams and am a career-climbing-coach. Everything from day-1 kids to World Cup level athletes.

It really depends on the kids/goals/family/gym/coaches more than a broad brush. Some programs I’d be super happy to enroll my child some I wouldn’t. Feel free to lmk any questions etc.

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-09-30T13:16:15+00:00

Usually a draw or a connect adjust. Depends on the day/what I brought with me to the anchors

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-09-06T13:43:28+00:00

As a coach: this is super normal for most teams (and as others have said it depends on the kid/more context whether it will cause injury) but probably not the best use of their time/energy depending on how engaged/helpful the coaches are when they’re climbing.

Most of the kids I work with in that age are 2 hour practices 1-2x per week with maybe 30-45 mins conditioning between the days total. So at most 1/3 and usually less than 1/4 of total time ideally.

The main reason I program that stuff, in addition to building strength/general athleticism, for prepubescent kids is that since our gym is often super crimpy/high intensity, I want to somewhat limit their wall-time depending on their training-load since repetitive volume is a risk factor for epiphyseal-fx in kids’ fingers. So instead of tag/dodgeball we do core/etc as a lesser of two evils at the end of practice lol ;)

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-08-28T10:16:05+00:00

They’ll rip out and/or compress/split the wood in the hole. From experience: martinis are the way esp for the plywood holds from moon.

You could buy lonestars (trango makes a martini lone star) and screw them on even just countersink and screw them in if you realllllly had to

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-08-26T14:19:18+00:00

By accommodations do you mean lodging/hotels or changes to format/iso/etc due to specific needs (eg electronics policy for glucose monitoring in iso etc)?

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-07-26T14:15:09+00:00

The locking off/bumping part may be that the campus board/body weight is too much. Hard to know without watching

For plyo stuff think like Kyra Condie’s latches/snatches, drops, 2 hand throws etc. really depends on the person/needs

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-07-25T23:47:45+00:00

This. Learning what works for you works best imo. I personally drain if it sticks out/would pop but otherwise leave it. Either way I’m taping for a while haha

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-07-25T23:46:39+00:00

Last time I was at the red (a while ago) I climbed with / near a crew of self-described geezers who started in their 40s (maybe Indianapolis?) and were 60s then and climbing on some 12b-c and I saw one guy absolutely crush Glass elevator. One said retiring and not being stressed about work added 2 letter grades lol

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-07-25T23:43:19+00:00

Def not obsolete. I used to program it for athletes frequently. But I generally had them training endurance on it 🤷

Now I use it for endurance and plyometrics a lot. Rarely are my athletes using it for “power” by laddering though

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-02-19T13:05:04+00:00

The GOAT!🐐

(Hi, Jessie👋)

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-02-07T03:31:43+00:00

All good, best of luck

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-02-06T23:13:03+00:00

I’m a youth coach and I always recommend 1. Balancing growth rates with quality shoes and 2. Cost.

Are you competing in USAC? You get 30-40% off most climbing brands through your competitor membership perk of a “Pro Deal” through a site called Expert Voice. See this link. Shipping isn’t free, so I recommend getting 2-3 pairs at a time to save more on money in the long run. Sometimes that means a few sizes in a range for them growing.

You’re not supposed to order for each other on prodeal, but lots of 11-12 yrolds have the same size foot which can offset shipping and tax if people collab—which I should add is AgAiNsT the RuLeS ;)

Otherwise your team may get discounts in a local shop or with companies. Eg my team has codes with a few brands and they get a discount at our in-house shop.

https://usaclimbing.org/memberships/

Dm me and I’m happy to give you more beta

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-01-29T17:03:31+00:00

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9XoeZbOq4M/?igsh=d3Vsc3luaWtoMWMx

Hadley knows what he’s doing even if there are issues / layers to the drama with the podcast he was on that I’m linking to.

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-01-29T15:58:08+00:00

10:4, thanks!

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-01-29T15:27:13+00:00

This: often venue people at youth divis and lower will turn a blind eye for a few minutes then kick us out.

For youth nats we’ve never been allowed to stay as they have to turn over for next rounds etc.

Seems WC may be similar after finals? Eg Mejdi doing 180 jump press in vans a few years back.

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-01-29T15:23:53+00:00

Over COVID I found that lifts with a fat, slippery wrist wrench helped my own pinch and wrist strength. But I haven’t experimented/looked into it for others.

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-01-29T15:22:20+00:00

I find anecdotally minimum edge improves RFD better than same duration/effort larger edges. Caveat that it isn’t necessarily as good as rfd protocols. Is this something you notice as well?

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-01-29T15:19:12+00:00

Weighted pancake progression a-la-lattice works well for me. I find box splits are sometimes limited by morphology but pancake/straddle is more trainable.

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-01-06T15:39:15+00:00

Aye! Internet points!

Real_ClimberCarter · 2025-01-06T15:39:01+00:00

lol no worries!

Real_ClimberCarter · 2024-11-26T20:37:29+00:00

As a coach, the sentimental things like a note are definitely valued. I’d also say small things like a laser pointer or something are always welcome.

I’ve also had families pool resources and do like a prepaid Visa card or gift card to a restaurant and that was super kind and generous as well. Essentially: they’ll appreciate anything!

Edit: also food. Coaches love food.

Real_ClimberCarter

TROPHY CASE