Tips for moving from V5 to V6 (indoors!)

Hey all...
I had a goal to do 25 V5's this year in the gym, and I've surpassed it by a lot. Woohoo! And I had a goal to do 10 V6's, and I've only done 3.

All in all, the moves just feel too hard. Either it's too overhung and crimpy and I can't even get off the start.... or it's too shouldery. 

A bit of context -- I'm 50, been climbing for six years. I work out, I climb 3 days a week (and a bit of hangboarding). My favorite routes are crimpy and technical. I don't know if strength or technique is the issue... but most V6's just feel next level. 

Love any tips/thoughts you might have. And spare me the 'climb outside!' snark. I've got two kids, a full time job, and I'm in grad school on nights and weekends. This is what I can handle right now. 

Thanks!

This sounds wild but copy/paste your prompt into chat gpt and it will actually come up with a full training plan for you that you can tweak with whatever suggestions you like. It's not quite a paid coach but it'll be way more in depth and customizable than anything any of us internet jockeys will come up with! 

It's one of three real world uses I have found for AI, the other two being scaling complicated recipes for cooking and shitty poetry to make friends laugh. 

Eric Metzgar wrote:
All in all, the moves just feel too hard. Either it's too overhung and crimpy and I can't even get off the start.... or it's too shouldery. 

Don't let excuses and stories like these hold you back. How long are you trying problems before you decide to give up? 

My advice would be to pick a problem and get really methodical, think about exactly where on the holds each hand and foot should go. Work on holding every position, if you can do that, work on doing single moves, build up from there. Think deeply about how your body should move through each position. Be creative with beta that fits your body and strengths. If you frequent your gym, you probably know who the technically skilled climbers are, ask them to do your project and watch, notice what they are doing that you aren't. Remove can't from your vocabulary and instead focus on how to make something that feels impossible possible. Tactics like these are essential to doing hard-for-you bouldering. The process is often the best part and like any skill gets easier the more you do it.

https://youtu.be/KBN9MrzXu0U?si=hZo-O3_xtQOOu_vO

Have you tried other gyms? Humans being human, it's possible your gym's setters have blind spots for that particular grade range, especially if there's only one or two people doing all the setting. There's no guarantee the gradient will be consistent. If you've only been climbing at one venue, it could be educational to try a different place occasionally. If that's not possible, give yourself permission to try problems that are rated harder than your target range, and you might discover that they are about the same difficulty as the supposed V6 problems you're currently trying. That won't immediately help you send them, but that would at least be informative. One more thought—embrace learning as many climbing styles as you can, even if it means stuffing your ego to project a V3 in your anti-style. That is easier said than done, but that will open more doors for your progression in the long run.

Props to you for juggling grad school and a family while advancing in a relatively new and physically challenging hobby that requires consistent dedication!

Skip the 6s and move on to 7s (or bring your own V5 labels and stick them on the 6s)

What does your current training look like? I recently had my normal gym partner move out of town so I've had to be more focused on structured training rather than just hopping on whatever climbs looked fun. Some things that have really helped me (mid 40s) a lot:

1. 4x4 on the Kilter Board - Create a favorites playlist of an appropriate grade, do your normal 4x4 workout, but as I've progressed and gotten stronger, instead of finding new climbs, I keep doing the same climbs but tilting the board back an additional degree every week or so. I started at 30* and have found that when I got on the board at 40* recently, I could still send a bunch of routes that would have been impossible when I started

2. Endurance - Spend 10 minutes on the auto belay up/down climbing

3. Balance & Tension - Climb easier routes (for me: 10s on Auto Belay) but with the rule that when you move your hand you can only have 1 foot on the wall (practice balance and flagging) and you have to hover your hand above the hold for 3 seconds before you grab it (practice moving intentionally and maintaining body tension)

4. Last but not least, I haven't fully worked the concepts from this video into my workouts, but I really like the concepts they introduce around learning new techniques (heel/toe hook all the way up a climb, even where it doesn't make sense) and moving with intention ("hot hands")
https://youtu.be/AKn8lcOKHd8?si=O1JbjH_y4YHSU2jC

Identify your weaknesses and hammer them. My understanding from talking to my gyms setters is around V6 is where the indoor grades start to match the outdoor grades.

They do this intentionally to pad the lower grades, it’s a scheme to make new climbers feel like they’re making rapid progress so they get hooked and pay the gym membership.

Anyways, what this means is there can be a huge jump between V5-6, at least in our gym. This also means V0-5 often uses “bigger” holds that won’t train your finger strength as much. And then you hop on the V6 problems which require greater finger strength and you have no training/preparation for that small of holds.

So besides all the great points others brought up (trying more/harder, technique), you might also try a training plan that includes at least a once weekly fingerboard workout. So far it has helped me loads with the smaller holds found on V6 and up.

Another alternative/in addition is hopping on the moonboard more often, because those problems often use smaller holds.

I really like Steve Bechtel’s Logical Progression book and used it to write my own nonlinear training plan. But the book might not make sense without reading the Rock Climbers Training Manual beforehand, or listening to several Steve Bechtel podcasts (he has a few good ones with training beta, Neely is good at asking questions as if she’s a complete beginner).

I do finger training at least once a week, doing Bechtel’s suggestion of 3-6-9 ladders, but find 10s max hangs also work well. I’ve yet to play around with block pulls and unlevel edges but I know they’re becoming all the rage these days.

Anyways, hope this helps. It’s what’s worked for me. Good luck, check out the podcasts with Steve and see if what he says jives with you. I think he has one specifically on training beta episode 80 that goes over roughly a whole program design. He also has climbstrong.com where he puts out content along with some other coaches he employs, and a YouTube channel named climbstrong as well.

Lastly, there are many proponents of regular finger training for climbing, Dave Macleod is another one, and he has a pretty good video on his finger training thoughts. I really like the way he presents information, and I go with his recommendation of half crimp, open hand, and three finger drag grip types to train.

I think you are kinda answering your own questions... The V6's in the gym are more overhanging, and you like techy crimpy routes.

Sounds like overhanging routes are a relative weakness of yours. You haven't spent enough time on them, and you likely are missing the technique involved in more overhanging climbs. The harder climbs WILL be more overhanging. that is just the reality of gym climbs. You can only go so-small in terms of holds on the vert gym terrain, and there is relatively little vert bouldering terrain in the gyms, so techy vert V6's are going to be few and far between. If you want to expand your V6 climbing you would have to venture into the overhangs and get comfortable there.

Does your gym have training boards? (Kilter, Tension, etc?) It would be a good place to become more proficient at overhanging climbing, starting at the easier grades. it would also give you a huge library of climbs to try.

Have you done all the overhanging V5's in your gym? How often do the V4's stump you, if they are on the overhangs? How much time have you spent on a problem, before you declared that it is just impossible? Have you given them multiple tries per session, over the course of multiple gym visits?

Ultimately there isn't a magic gate and a clear line between any grades. Embrace the failure. Work on sending ANY climb that feels hard, regardless of what grade number is attached to it. Look for small signs of progress, such as getting closer to sticking a hold, or linking together two moves. Don't limit yourself to things you are good at. It's the things you are bad at that will ultimately help you progress.

Not what you asked for, but as someone older (I'm 62) who had a similar gym goal, consider changing your goal.  Instead of more V6's or V7's, drop the grade and try to do the style you're bad at.  You said you're strong at crimpy and techy climbing?  Work on a 4 or 5 that's thuggy and overhanging?  Or something with slopers/pinches and a heelhook?  

The only thing I skip are the comp-style problems in my gym (or anything else that feels injury prone).

And take care of those shoulders... even the 20 yr old warm up their shoulders before going hard! :)