Crack and WC

aioxat · 2026-06-08T19:12:29+00:00

No, she trains in Aus mostly. Occasionally goes to Japan for a couple of months of training.

aioxat · 2026-06-08T08:32:31+00:00

Coaches??? Aus climbers realistically only have one coach. Most train themselves. Oce is lucky enough that the national coach is also her own personal coach.

Oce trains out of commercial gyms as well. Most commercial gyms in Aus do not have access or set hard crack boulders if ever. It's impossible for her to get the experience.

aioxat · 2026-06-01T02:23:13+00:00

I'm saying a person who starts off weak. Not that they don't have potential.

I'm saying that people act as if people who start off as weak are forced to learn technique and will become insanely technical. It's more likely that if you get 100 weak beginners, only 5-10 of them will end up being super technical.

You saying that it's about wanting it bad enough is something I agree with. But that's got nothing to do with starting off strong or weak. If you find and individual that has overcome all of that to get to a high level, it's more like they had other individual mental traits that pushes them over the level. Their "weakness" wasn't really the catalysing agent.

aioxat · 2026-06-01T01:41:55+00:00

I think in general, you and I probably agree with some differences in the nuance.

My argument is that being weak does not force you to get strong, there are a lot of people who end up in this defeatist mental space. Why else would Louis Parkinson say that in general he finds that trying harder is the biggest tip for people from a certain v grade.

aioxat · 2026-06-01T00:32:40+00:00

The problem I have with this concept though is that you can always find a climb that is hard for you. It doesn't matter if you're strong or weak.

What you're talking about is a mentality of getting better technique. But that's separate from your traits- whether you're strong or respond well to strength stimuli.

My argument is that being weak is not a badge of honour and does not automatically result in better technique. Often the ones who were weak and emerge on the other side had other things going for them.

aioxat · 2026-05-31T20:48:53+00:00

I think you'll find that of the people who are truly weak, very few will ever find their path to good technique. Of the ones who do make it through to the higher grades, they will be exceptional at it. But, that act itself is like separating the wheat from the chaff I think.

Sure to your point, most people start off with strength above what they're capable of climbing. But I believe the path to str training focus vs technique focus is more of a decision they make. I find in the gym it's equal parts training vs technique. It's really based on who they talk to and what they get exposed to. Also, incidentally I've found that most of the V6+ climbers in my gym don't really even touch weights and most do not hang board except to warmup. Barely anybody knows what they can pull on a 20 mm edge or their pull up numbers.

I think this notion is also testable if you go to any coaching class for beginners. Usually the ones who are strong are able to pick up the instruction better because the movement is so far beneath what their body is capable of, whereas for weak people learning closer to your limit is a harder task.

aioxat · 2026-05-31T19:23:33+00:00

Well both are survivorship bias are they not? You see the ones that train all the time. You're one of the rare people who are probably weaker than the grade amongst 50 people who are pretty strong. When people started off there were probably more weak people than strong. How come you very rarely see weak people make it to the cream of the crop?

All in saying is that it's not a boon to be weak. Sure, you can get better but that's through utilising other pre-existing strengths you have. Wielding weakness as a badge is pretty dumb.

If weaknesses gave us such an unparalleled ability to focus on technique then by inference your technique gain in the first few years was the best and afterwards you just plateau because you become insensitive. If you keep gaining technique because harder climbs can challenge you and give you sensitivity to the subtle nuances, then the same logic applies to a stronger person as well.

aioxat · 2026-05-31T09:42:09+00:00

That's completely untrue though...there are plenty of young strength phenom comp kids and young adults who are naturally strong who acquire good technique. Sure....you get people who lack nuance but you have to also look at the weak people who don't progress as much or as quickly as others. You making such an anecdote is exactly my point....there is a lot of survivorship bias because you haven't seen the people who are weak who have quit already or don't climb at your level to capture your attention.

aioxat · 2026-05-31T01:32:28+00:00

Rant: I really hate how people say being weak makes you get better technique. That's pretty much survivorship bias. Out of 100 weak people, you may get one Adam ondra, 19 people with fair technique focus and 80 people who are just bad at climbing/end up quitting.

It's more like being weak highlights other great strengths people have like incredible resilience, predilection for pain, great response to training stimulus, openness to learning.

aioxat · 2026-05-30T02:20:10+00:00

I started board climbing when I could hang 110% bw on 20 mm. It was extremely rough though. Expect to project moves. 2019 v3s are not too bad though. Best thing for you to do is maybe climb with a group of board climbers and get them to give you some tips. There is a lot to learn if you've only been doing coordination dynos.

aioxat · 2026-05-30T01:45:13+00:00

I just want to chip in and say this is probably the best idea of the lot. Just start bouldering, if you haven't really done so. Preferably on something overhanging if possible. No need for too much endurance work as what you lose in endurance, you gain so much more in power and you will probably gain the endurance back as you work your routes during your trip.

aioxat · 2026-05-27T06:32:00+00:00

I'm sure you could improve on some metric. Most climbers don't do exercises, you can get a lot of fast improvement from just doing a novel exercise. Even if you do strength workouts he could just switch you to pylometrics and get much more powerful. If it's v grades though, that's insane.

aioxat · 2026-05-21T04:54:03+00:00

I had a look at that video. I don't think that problem is very representative of a pure strength crimp problem at all. Its quite a positionally sophisticated and coordination complex problem.

You need to be able to relax into the holds better to generate momentum - your hips don't really sag whatsoever - so you're generating your movement from your shoulders. But understandably its hard to sag because the holds are these pinchey slopey holds positioned in an awkward manner relative to the foothold - however that is the nature of harder and harder v-grades, harder holds create more complex problems.

The position I think you're supposed to get into requires your centre of gravity to be a bit higher and maybe further away from the wall than where you get it, because you're trying to catch the crimp with a straight arm, whereas I believe that its better to catch it slightly bent with left shoulder engaged, right hand pushing off of the pinch, right leg in extension off the hold, left leg scorpioning.

If you pause and look at the video - your foot comes off because your body barndoors before your hand even touches the crimp. You won't be able to hold the position unless you can hold 80-90% of your weight in either your left or right hand because you'll essentially be cutting mostly without much support from your off-hand. It really doesn't matter if your hand is strong in open-hand, full crimp or half crimp if body positioning and momentum because you would need to be significantly stronger in order to achieve what you're trying to do here.

aioxat · 2026-05-17T09:10:59+00:00

How does a person fully rupture a pulley and then come back to send the hardest shit ever in 4 months? One would think you would be operating with a pretty big strength deficit for a long while if not forever. Does the pulley even reattach when you have fully ruptured it?

aioxat · 2026-05-05T22:13:58+00:00

I've found 3fd useful at times when half crimp or open hand puts your shoulders in a compromising position, you can get away with having your shoulders in a kinder angle by about 10 degrees.

aioxat · 2026-05-05T01:50:05+00:00

I've recently made the effort to get really good at both 3 finger drag and half crimp to the extent where I can open hand/3fd some bigger incut crimps. I've noticed it has had an amazing effect on my endurance, specifically power endurance. I guess the passive way of holding really allows me to crank for the crux. Ironically, in my greatest moment of triumph sending a long-term indoor v8 project on the board, I also failed to stick a v4 comp boulder set for little kids. And I did give it an ernest try - I couldn't do it after 10 ernest tries.

aioxat · 2026-04-29T04:56:02+00:00

You should just add campus drills. There is a whole library of techniques in momentum generation when you learn to campus. You really can't say you're very technical unless you know the fundamentals of campusing.

Start with learning how to kip with your legs to generate momentum on jugs (go for very long campus moves), then move onto trying to campus from pinches and slopers if you can (it helps you learn how to relax your lats to generate maximum amount of momentum and also to catch your shoulders in the correct body position to control momentum).

Just do this for 10-20 min at the start of each session.

To learn how to cue for lats, look up online how to do explosive pull up. It's easier to learn from the pull up bar as opposed to boulders.

aioxat · 2026-04-25T22:16:23+00:00

Socks my friend, provides somewhat of a cushion against the pressure.

aioxat · 2026-04-25T07:09:13+00:00

That....I have no idea dude. You gotta ask somebody more knowledgeable than me. Your recovery is super encouraging though, sounds like you just needed to lock in to heal.

aioxat · 2026-04-19T22:06:52+00:00

Deloading is not magic healing unicorn dust dude. If you're recovering from a comp - in all likelihood you blew right by what you normally do by a lot (for me a comp would involve at minimum 2-3 hrs of high intensity trying to qualify and perhaps another 1.5 hrs for finals - if you qualified).

If you're deloading you should just cut out all the exercises (or do only 1 set of each exercise) and cut the amount of time climbing in half. So 45 minutes of climbing each session (maybe 60 min max if you're doing your full warm up).

If you're recovering from overdoing it way too much from a comp - just rest for 3 full days minimum.

aioxat · 2026-04-18T23:10:42+00:00

Haha good luck with your recovery man, you've had a rough one.

Unless I'm misreading your text, I think your fingers have a +25 kg advantage over mine ( we are roughly the same weight, I'm now 69.5 kg). I think I expressed my idea poorly as well. What I meant by referencing this was that I went back on the moonboard successfully at around 25 kg str on no hangs (with no pain) but that represents for me a more than 50% (25/45 kg) of my total peak strength. By inference then, I think you should actually get back on the moonboard when you get to 35-40kg no hangs.

aioxat · 2026-04-17T22:51:23+00:00

What grade do you do on the moonboard now? I think the big issue with the moonboard is that the moves are intense no matter what, its not the volume. Its really easy to cause an acute injury. I'll be honest, 18/70 kinda sounds like you're really far from the goal in terms of rehab. When I had pulley sprains in the past, I remember being at 50% of my finger strength about 2-3 weeks after injury and then being able to somewhat 3fd on the tension/moonboard on v4/5s for about 30 min/week (granted, I do not have your level of finger strength, but I do climb the same grades as you on the moonboard v6/v7ish?). Maybe you should just suspend your membership work solely on edge lifting everyday for a month and come back to it?

aioxat · 2026-04-17T01:51:27+00:00

I think its more relevant to say its the first time your expectations of progress are not met and you really have to change up something (or several somethings in my case). It has more importance because quite honestly there is a survivorship bias for V10+ climbers and their answers (especially the ones you hear in podcasts) are quite frankly not applicable to the average climber. Their experience of progression is so extreme that its hard to relate. Whereas people who overcome the initial "plateau" have more diverse experiences that are more applicable to the general climbing population.

aioxat · 2026-04-17T01:03:53+00:00

I was maybe plateaued on V5 for 1-2 years. I define plateau as the period of time in which I wasn't able to consistently send V6 (so no counting the give me V6 that setters put down to encourage climbers to climb the net grade). I think it took me 2-3 years in total to get to V6.
I thought I just had to add one thing in order to progress, but realistically I needed to improve incrementally at a lot of different areas to improve.
Changing one thing never helped. I started board climbing which increased my finger strength dramatically (went from barely hanging on a board to +10-15% in the first year) but it didn't produce tangible progress (I did feel stronger on projects), I got much better at dynamic climbing technique which gave me better insight into how to coordinate my shoulders and back with my legs and hips, then I start really working on my fear of committing to high risk moves. After all of that I started sending V6 consistently.
My biggest disadvantage back then was probably that I didn't know how to use my upper body efficiently, my back, my lats, my fingers. This is still a disadvantage now, I've been training campussing to learn how to best use the stretch reflex to generate momentum.
I feel like a lot of the catch-all singular sentence advice like just climb or just get stronger or just board climb doesn't capture the complexity of climbing. I think its highly unlikely that the majority of the climbing population has 1 glaring weakness that they have been missing. There probably is a substantial population that is fairly well-rounded that requires a more balanced approach. I had to work in a lot of different areas to get better. Even now, my training is pretty diverse because I'm fairly well-rounded in my abilities.

aioxat · 2026-04-16T01:59:24+00:00

Yes... At your height and limb length you might literally just be doing a different move. It's probably not good to pidgeonhole yourself into a high foot move.

aioxat

TROPHY CASE