In the last week or so, I became comfortable climbing V5 boulders. Since I started climbing in October 2018, I had only climbed a handful of V5 but without much confidence or consistency. After sending a single V6 in December 2018, I initially decided to try to climb V8 in 2019. I backed off on that goal after a couple months and instead focused on climbing comfortably and consistently and developing good technique.

Since then I started flashing most V4 boulders and now I’ve almost flashed a number of V5. With proper beta, many of the V5 boulders I’ve climbed felt quite easy. I’ve made a lot of progress on the whole range of V4 boulder styles though I’m still a bit weak on stemming type boulders, i.e. those in a corner using a lot of opposing forces.

I attribute much of my improved performance to three things. The first is doing regular technical drilling. The drills I have practiced are from the book Rock Climbing Technique by John Kettle. Mostly I practiced what he calls The Big Three:

For the duration of every hand move, the same hip must be against the wall as the moving hand, both feet must remain on holds, and the other arm must remain straight.

This has improved my body positioning and movement efficiency because it forces you to find good footholds and then use your legs and core to twist around a lot, reducing the work you do with your arms. This is a big deal on tougher boulders since any amount of finger strength can be overcome by bad positioning.

The second is sticking to a regular climbing schedule. For the most part, I climb Monday Wednesday Friday and sometimes Saturday. Occasionally I do a second session during the week at night near the office. I’ve also made measurable progress in my antagonist training as well as some modest gains in flexibility. For antagonists I do kettlebell clean-and-press and ring pushups, and occasionally ring dips.

The third, and perhaps most important, is that I stopped focusing on grades. Even though they are impossible to completely ignore in the climbing gym, I’m not in any hurry to climb a particular grade. At the end of last year I was a bit obsessed with sending a V6 by the end of the year even though I really couldn’t even climb V4/V5.

In the last week or so, I backed off the drilling a bit and simply tried to send some routes, and I ended up sending a good number of V5 without much effort. Several I almost flashed and sent on my second go. However I’m far from true comfort at V5 because many of these problems have been of a specific type: “classic” overhanging boulders. They aren’t the most technical or creative problems. This likely means my fundamentals have improved as well as my strength.

I believe that the range of boulders at V5 and higher starts to open up, and it will take longer to be able to climb most V5 comfortably than it did to get to this point. For instance, my footwork game is still quite weak with it comes to heel and toe hooks. That’s an area I can make huge gains. I look forward to exploring the rest of the range of V5, particularly technical routes with crimps and anything that requires the next level of footwork.

I ought to go back to Rock Climbing Technique to find some new drills, e.g. something with heel hooks, and as well as Eric Hörst’s Training For Climbing to check out some other cool exercises. I find my overall strength to be totally sufficient so I should try some new antagonist training as well as stretches.

In conclusion, I think I’ve leveled up by slowing down, focusing on technique and movement, and maintaining a good volume of climbing.