boulder as technique training

Hi,
I´ve read in quite a few books (TFC,Eric Horst & Licence to climb,Udo Neumann) that bouldering is a great way to improve technique for beginners. However,many of the people I climb with (experienced people) recommended me rather not to do it,because of finger injury! They say beginners should just climb lots of easy routes,in order to work on technique.
What´s your opinnion on this matter? I´m currently onsighting 5.10a,maybe even 5.10b on a good day,and I thought about focusing on improving my technique rather than training raw power (at least for a year or two from now on).
I´m actually asking because I´m thinking about buying a boulder pad (the mondo) but that costs quite a lot,so i`d like to be sure about the utility of boulder in order to improve my technique before buying it.
Thanks a lot!
Alex

There's no reason for you not to boulder no matter what your level. Sure, I would warn a beginner about finger injury from bouldering, but if you're leading 5.10a outside then I wouldn't worry too much about it. As always, listen to your body. If you feel some strain in your fingers then it's up to you to fight the urge to keep climbing. And yes, bouldering is good training for technique.

Eric Horst has a quiz in a couple of his books that'll give you a good general idea of where you're at with you climbing abilities.

So go boulder. Start with V1 and V2. After a few of those, then turn up the crank. Be forewarned: you will be tempted to work that V10 your friends are working on which could potentially lead to injury.

Bouldering is great strength and technique training, it will make you stronger due to the fact that most bouldering is more overhanging, which will also lead to a stronger core, which will improve your technique greatly. The reason that many boulderers get frequent injuries is that they are pulling hard on bad holds or problems that are too hard for them. Muscle develops way faster than tendons and without the proper training regiment, you may be prone to tendon injuries because the tendon isn't strong enough to support the muscle. Many of the tendon injuries that I have had are a result of not being strong enough to pull off the moves I was attempting. I would recommend easing your way into bouldering on V0-V2, and once you are crushing these with very controlled movement, then move on to higher grades and gradually work your way up. Just my experience tho... take from it what you will.

Pretty much repeating what's been said, but I'm a strong advocate of mixing routes with bouldering... They really go hand in hand. I find routes give me the endurance for bouldering, and bouldering helps you on those power moves on some routes.
Personally I can felt a big difference when I was bouldering one evening, and doing routes the other... much better than when I was solely bouldering or doing routes.

You'll be doing moves on moderate boulder problems that you probably wouldn't encounter on your moderate sport routes... so you'll certainly learn a lot about body position, footwork etc.

And as was said earlier, don't over do it.. Ive only been injured bouldering... its just too easy to get on something too hard for you and work it to death.. or to injury!
Make sure you pick yourself up a good spotter in addition to the pad :D