Bouldering Drills

3 Attempts Only

setup: 10 boulders, 3 attempts, 50 minutes

focus on boulders with some type of complexity, some aspect that you don’t understand
Athletes should work on refining beta, making significant changes between goes.
DO NOT PULL ON FOR ANOTHER GO WITHOUT A CLEAR FOCUS, that focus could just be to try harder, but you must have an idea. Make sure athletes articulate what their new focus is between attempts.
The focus here is on getting athletes to make really smart adjustments between goes. In a comp, athletes can rarely give much more than 3 good attempts on a longer boulder so learning to make smart adjustments saves them energy and is a really important comp skill.
Questions to ask:
- what part of the climb seems like the crux and why?
- What adjustment are you going to make after that attempt?

Kilterboard Foot Tension Drill (Projecting)

setup: 4-5 boulders, board at 30-45 degrees, 45 minutes

sequence the climbs well, try to look for big or dynamic moves, add feet as needed, or choose climbs with many feet so it is possible to keep feet on
The goal is to climb these boulders without cutting feet a single time
The are working on foot tension and maintaining that throughout large moves
Questions to ask?
- Were you thinking about your feet throughout the movement?
- Did you forget about your feet at any point?
- How do you want to be engaged on that type of foot? They should be toeing in differently on a foot that is sloppy vs incut.

Board Session (Projecting)

setup: 4-6 boulders, 45 minutes, no limit on attempts

Focus on launching through the legs and committing to big moves and jumps on your first attempt

If a move feels close but something is not working take a video for review with coaches
The focus for board climbing is helping athletes learn to commit and not hesitate on large moves. It is essential that they recognize large and committing moves before they pull on so they are mentally and physically ready to commit on their first go.
Questions to ask:

Flash or trash

Setup: 10 climbs, 10 attempts, 30s sequencing each boulder

Choose 10 climbs around the gym that you have not tried, (can be on the kilter board as needed). Climbs should be of moderate difficulty, can be easy grades but ideally confusing with seemingly multiple options for beta
Give each climb one attempt, focusing on executing the beta you read and giving 100% effort on the wall.
Don’t let them return to these climbs in that session, they can come back to them in future sessions but they should have some pressure to try hard since they know they only have one go.
The focus for this drill is on trying 100% on the first go and climbing with the pressure of very limited attempts.
Questions to ask:
- Have you sequenced this climb?
- What is your focus for this boulder?
- Do you know what the crux is?

Onsight round

Setup: 4 boulders, 4 min climb, 4 min rest

Choose boulders that are risky and comp style if possible
Focus on good comp strategy and being very intentional with time management
Some comp strategies to keep an eye out for:
- sequencing, and brushing to start time.
- Adequate rest between attempts, general rule, if they were on the wall for a long time they need to take at least 2x the time on the wall to rest
- Exploring different beta, the athlete does not try the same thing for the whole 4 minutes if it is not working

Dyno/coordination session

Setup: 3-5 dynamic moves/climbs, 45 minutes

work on jumping out of insecure positions as well as going to holds that are not great such as a blocked hold or a volume.
Take videos of each attempt and try to make conscious adjustments between attempts
- Older Athletes should work on more complex jumps such as skates, step-ups and paddles.
- Younger Athletes should prioritize committing, especially just jumping to a jug with both hands on his first go. The jumps for him do not need to be super hard.
Questions to ask:
- what is the landing position? How are you going to stop your momentum?
- where were your hips throughout the movement? Did they stay close to the wall?

Boulder Projecting:

setup: 4-6 boulders, 20 min per boulder,

work the individual moves, sequencing cruxes, etc
ample rest between attempts
Take videos to send to coaches!
Focus on exploring more difficult climbs with moves that are uniquely challenging and unfamiliar. Get outside of your comfort zone.
They can also project made-up climbs.

Questions to ask:

Where was your focus throughout the climb? Was it on your feet? or where you focused on a big move up ahead?
What is the crux of this climb? Does it involve a big commiting move? A hard foot move? a delicate balance move?

Blackout

Setup: Choose a v grade and complete 15 climbs in that grade, can skip 2-3 climbs, unlimited attempts, 40 minutes

Focus on sequencing well and give good first goes to save energy
This drill is for volume to get them climbing a lot but it also forces them to climb stuff they would usually avoid and helps them to work on execution and getting stuff done even when they are tired.
This is mainly a power endurance drill
If there is a climb that is far too reachy they should add a foot or bump hold to make the climb go instead of skipping it.

up/down/up

Setup: Choose 3 boulders that are next to each other, up medium, down easy, up hard, 6 total up/down/ups

for example, up v3, down v2, up v5
Complete 6 total up/down/ups, rest 2-3 min between each one
These should be hard, make modifications to climbs as needed to fit the goal of the drill
The focus here is to climb difficult stuff when tired and work on downclimbing.
Also, athletes can greatly benefit from down-climbing as it challenges them in eccentric movements which strengthens their muscles in different ways and help them develop more foot tension and trust as they must weight their feet well while down-climbing.

Made up climbs