1 February 2010

Potential problems with blobby climbing

Recent days coaching in big bouldering walls reminded me of a potential specificity problem of using these for training for outdoor hard problems and routes. I think a good proportion of those training indoors with a view to climbing harder outdoors get that grabbing big rounded sloper blobs the whole time creates a problem with missing out on gains on the fingery holds you find outdoors. But I’m finding that even the small holds that are about right now, tend to be quite big! I don’t mean big in the sense that they are easy to hold onto. I mean that even the really poor holds have quite a pronounced profile and are fairly pinchable. 
There are even more effects at play when it comes to the feet. Indoor holds are often very rounded and sloping on top. Using them develops a good skill for maintaining contact with the feet, using continuous and carefully directed force application to the foothold. But the technique required to use tiny but positive footholds (like you commonly find outdoors) is subtly different in the way strength is applied using the lower body, foot and toes. The pattern of foot movements outdoors is different too, and habitual indoor climbers often lack ability in foot swaps, matches etc..
All of this means that if you are using big modern climbing centres to train for outdoor climbing, make sure you get enough diet of positive but really quite small fingery holds by seeking them out diligently at the wall.

4 comments:

Peter Beal said...

Good observation Dave and indicative of a growing split between indoor climbing and outdoor climbing. I built my own wall in part to compensate for this change in setting and hold style. I like crimpers anyway but it's very hard to find good crimp problems at local gyms. I set an easy but very crimpy V9 at the Spot and received a number of comments on how desperate it was.

Neal said...

Nice post, I've noticed it myself regularly also at the local wall - I have to pick specific routes to isolate what I really need for outdoors (since that's what I'm trying to focus on...)

Anonymous said...

Good post. I was afraid you would stop posting here after your book.

What if you're training for a Font trip wanting to do the most slopy problems there? Would you then train on blobby sloping holds in the gym?

Steve said...

I agree fully. We have the same problem in Los Angeles. Too many blobs on the dancefloor. Best training gains come from steep crimps and small footholds, not jumgle gym routines...