Many new climbers often watch other climbers as they climb their routes, which is a very good practice because you can learn new moves, and techniques but you will also see how fast they are, which can have a bad impact on your progress, but why is that? If you want to know why you are climbing so slowly then stay with us because we are going to explain it all to you and give you some tips to improve.
Climbing speed is mostly related to your experience, and if you do all of the necessary things that beginner climbers should do you will, unfortunately, be climbing slowly, but there is nothing wrong with it unless you do those things correctly then climbing slowly is fine, but what are those things and how can you improve we will tell you in the next paragraph.
What are the necessary steps for beginner climbers?
Many climbers at first are taking basic lessons with more advanced climbers, to get a grasp of the basic climbing techniques and those climbers are most likely going to teach them 2 basic rules, to climb a route:
- Always at least 3 limbs on the wall – It is the most basic rule which over time starts to disappear whenever you will get more experience, but it doesn’t mean that this rule is wrong. The rule is great for a beginner because they don’t have enough strength to hold onto a wall with only two limbs for example one leg and one arm won’t be enough for them to not fall from the wall. After a few climbing sessions, they will be able to do a bit more risky moves without that much support, and that rule will start to disappear as they develop more strength.
- Watch closely your next hold before executing the move – Second and from our perspective more important rule. When you want to do the next move while you are on a wall you need to watch closely your next hold. For example, if your right hand is near your shoulder then you have a lot of range left to try and grab the higher handhold with your right hand, but before you move you should watch closely how that hold looks, and think about how you should grab it because there is a lot of different types of handholds and you will have to approach them differently. If you want to learn more about different types of holds make sure to check out this article “What Are The Easiest Holds In Bouldering? – (For Beginners)“.
As we said before the first rule is not as important as the second, the rule about watching your next move. That rule will stay with you for almost your entire climbing career until you will do this subconsciously without thinking about it, and that they will come after a few months of climbing.
That rule is also a very important factor for your climbing speed because most of your climbing time you will spend on looking rather than moving, but you should not skip that part, because that rule will let you improve as a climber way faster and also it will prevent you from many early injuries.
Why do we want to climb faster?
Climbing fast looks great almost like those heroes from movies or games, and everyone wants to look like them, but climbing fast has a lot of advantages for example the amount of stamina output for every move.
If you will climb faster then that means that you can use more of your strength on every single move because your overall climbing time will decrease. That’s a big advantage because everyone has a stamina limit, which can be improved, but it takes time, and if we don’t have that time, or our stamina is just low due to fatigue, then climbing faster can be a great solution.
Note that if you climb faster that it is more likely to end up in an injury at some point, that’s why you should aim to slowly increase your climbing speed.
How to be faster at climbing?
As we promised before we will give you some tips to improve your climbing speed. The important thing is to not forget about those rules we have mentioned before as you improve your speed because that’s a common tendency.
If you will try to focus and think about your whole route before you approach it then you will have an overall idea of what to expect, and that will let you lose less time while thinking about every move.
You can also try to learn more about different climbing holds because that knowledge will let your body move freely and save time that was meant to think.
In conclusion – Why you are climbing so slow?
In most cases, slow climbing is related to a low level of climbing expertise and experience. Unfortunately, everything comes after some time, and you can’t be a master of climbing in a matter of weeks. So practice and more practice should be your goal. Your body will start to move on its own, with the muscle memory that it already has.
Don’t try to rush and just jump on holds without any plan, because that will end up in an injury. If you want to learn more and increase your climbing speed then make sure to check out this article “What Do You Hate Seeing In New Climbers? – (7 Hated Things)“.
