Tips on improving with a small boulder wall

I’m at university and although the route setting is very unique and creative, I seem to struggle to see much improvement in my climbing. I started only in March this year and I was projecting soft v7’s at my gym back home during the summer, progressing relatively fast with my noobie gains. Here in college, the wall is pretty short and a lot of the boulder problems seem to me like I can either do them or I cant do it because of particular body positioning I just can never get right. There is a higher top rope/lead climb section of the wall that has more routes, but if my goal is get better technique on the wall, is it worth try harding the same move on the boulder or am I better off focusing on climbing more relatively pumpy but easy top rope/lead routes?

invent your own routes from the holds already on the wall. Contrive moves that push you and make them progressively harder. Use little chalk tick marks to keep track of the holds but brush them off when you’re done.

Melanie Shea wrote:

invent your own routes from the holds already on the wall. Contrive moves that push you and make them progressively harder. Use little chalk tick marks to keep track of the holds but brush them off when you’re done.

Ah yes that’s smart i’m gonna try that thanks! I was also thinking of introducing some strength or hangboard training into my routine, but i’m not sure if the risk of injury is worth it?

Wrong Mass wrote:

Ah yes that’s smart i’m gonna try that thanks! I was also thinking of introducing some strength or hangboard training into my routine, but i’m not sure if the risk of injury is worth it?

Make sure to do your homework before starting any kind of high stress finger training. But, as a rule of thumb, you should wait until the easiest holds of the hang board actually feel easy. I’m not sure where you are in your progression, just not worth getting hurt to gain strength you could otherwise easily gain through just climbing and getting better at your movement at the same time.

but I am weak, consult your local strong person.

Keep trying the problems you can’t do on the bouldering wall. Measure improvement by how much closer you got to sticking the move you can’t do. Are you an inch closer to it? Are your fingertips touching it? Do you feel like you are making the move from a better body position? Do the moves up to that move feeling better? All of those are improvements. You may not send the problem before it comes down, and it is demoralizing, but you are improving.

You can do this, AND other things that have been suggested. There’s only so many times you can try the same move in a session. The Power Company approach was mentally helpful to me: on a move you can’t do, commit to 7 good tries in a session. Just 7 full-value attempts at that move, with good rests in between. And if you see some progress, even if it is tiny, but if you had made an inch of an improvement from the first time you tried it, you commit to trying it again next session. 

You can try 2-3 problems like that, and then move on to the rope wall. Or add feet/make your own problems.