Hi All

I am a beginner climber doing mostly sport.
I have been climbing indoors for a few months.
I am looking for any general tips for climbing.
Like strength? foot work? anything really!!!!

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I'm not crazy, just a little unwell

Hi Kush, welcome to the forums...

You've asked a pretty broad question and you can expect a lot of (sometimes contradicting) answers. My first bit of advice in terms of strength training, is go through the article archives on this site. There are a number of good pieces of info. Find out what works for you and stick to it.

Secondly, as far as technique goes. It'd do you some good to hit a bouldering spot and ask some of the regulars to set you some bouldering problems. Nothing like it to force your body to learn a technique...

Good luck

P.S. Might also be a good idea to post the area you're from. People might come out and offer their services...

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I'm not a complete idiot... There're some parts missing!

Check out Stuart Brown's articles:

http://www.climb.co.za/article.asp?id=313
http://www.climb.co.za/article.asp?id=316
http://www.climb.co.za/article.asp?id=321
http://www.climb.co.za/article.asp?id=332
http://www.climb.co.za/article.asp?id=343
http://www.climb.co.za/article.asp?id=371

I recommend "The self-coached climber" by Dan Hague, Douglas Hunter

One aspect often overlooked or neglected is balance, especially in the beginner climber. Balance can make a hard move easy, whereas a beginner climber might conclude a lack of strength. Since balance is the key to climbing, you should focus on it from the beginning.

And get yourself a hangdog and a good, effective routine which couples pull-ups and hangs.

Ja, ' The Self Coached Climber' is excellent, a little technical. Comes with a DVD too with the drills and explanations.

Also try 'Training for Climbing' & 'Conditioning for Climbing' by Eric Horst. In my opinion the best, easiest to read and covers everything from basic / beginners to elite training.

I recomment trying to get out onto real rock some time.

To do this you will need to tag along with some more experienced climbers and have a go.

Climbing on rock is quite differant to climbing in a gym and will introduce you to lots of new and inspiring grips and body positions.
I firmly believe that the best way to improve your climbing is to climb with people who are better climbers than you and learn from them.
This should give you lots of new skills and vastly improve your gym climbing abalities.

and in the words of Tod Skinner:
"Get a tan"

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Feel the Qui

Yeah, I would say, go out to the mountain and start doing some sport routes. Find what you can do and start pushing yourself to do better. Find a friend who is at your level and bet bears to the one who can climb the route the other can't.
Do lots of bouldering
Watch other people and see how they climb and how they do a problem that you find difficult, make friends

Basically, just do lots of climbing and the rest will follow...

get on real rock!
and remember to have fun

I have to strongly, strongly disagree! When starting out, hang-boarding is more likely to injure you than make you climb better. If you want to climb better, get out on rock at every opportunity with people stronger than yourself. And just climb lots!

the best bit of advice i can give: do NOT focus on pushing grades; focus on improving technique and endurance. you will hit a natural "cap" in your 1st year (for most people around 20/21/22) and from thereon pushing each grade will take a lot of climbing at the previous grades.

and go climb outdoors as much as you can. nothing beats the real deal

ok, that's a little weird...

Agreed. I would think tahr is far more acceptable tender in CT

HAHAHAHA! Good one Emile! heeheehee, ok I'm outa here

follow the bolts and climb up!

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Climbing Off route doesn't exist; it's called a first ascent!