
Hi, new climber – first of all, welcome! I’m glad you’re here. My name is Brittney, and I'm a climbing coach who specializes in working with beginner & intermediate climbers.
If you’re here, that probably means you’ve had a taste of climbing, and are ready to dive in head-first and learn what it takes to improve. I’m psyched for you, and I want to help you start your journey off on the best foot possible! I’ve gathered this list of my top five tips for new climbers, based on my experience over the last couple years of coaching climbers through their first year.
1. Explore as much as possible
The one thing that will give you the most benefit as a new climber is just to explore as much as possible. Try as large a variety of climbs as possible, on different walls, at different angles, on different holds, at different grades. Because you’re new, pretty much any climbing will help you learn and grow, because it’s all unfamiliar to your body!
Seek out as many of these learning opportunities as you can by leaning into variety. A common pitfall that climbers fall into as they reach the intermediate stage is, usually unknowingly, putting themselves into a box. They start to see themselves as “a _____ climber” or “not a _____ climber”. Fill in the blank with a grade, a style, a hold type, a wall angle, etc.
For myself, the first few years of my climbing career I knew myself as a “static crimp climber”, as I excelled on climbs with small edges (crimps) that I could move slowly on (known as moving statically). I also knew myself as “NOT a sloper climber”, and “NOT a dynamic climber”.
You can probably guess where this went – I spent those years leaning into those static crimp climbs, because that’s just what I did; and avoiding those slopey or dynamic climbs, because that’s just stuff I didn’t do. The more I told myself this narrative, the more it came true, and I never really approached those weaknesses.
Every climber will naturally develop strengths and weaknesses as they progress. The key is to not let those become your identity as a climber and stop you from moving beyond them. Do everything you can to avoid putting yourself into a box early on; be intentional about exploring and it will benefit your progression long-term!
2. Think about your legs as often as your arms – or more
The key to good climbing, contrary to popular belief, is actually in your lower body. Many people think of climbing as insanely strong upper bodies with bulging biceps. While not necessarily wrong... proficient climbers have strong lower bodies that they know how to use to manipulate their center of mass to actually reduce the strain on their upper body.
What I’ve observed in most new climbers is that their focus is pretty much entirely on their upper body and using their arms to pull them up the wall. And if you’ve already tried climbing, you’ve probably realized that your arms and forearms get quite tired, quite fast. This is a direct result of climbing in an upper-body-focused way; when all you’re thinking about is pull-grab-pull-grab, your pull and grab muscles are going to get really tired.
What most climbers don’t consider is that the lower body actually has more strength potential than the upper body does; many of the largest muscle groups in your body are in your lower half. When you neglect to think about using it, you’re not only losing half or more of your strength – you’re trying to drag it along with you!
There are a lot of technical details about how to use your lower body to your advantage in climbing. But if you are completely new to climbing, I want to keep it as simple as possible for you. Just try to think about your lower body as often, or more, as you think about your upper body. When you get stuck on a climb, look down as often as you look up. Often, when you feel stuck and the next hold feels one hundred miles away… it’s because your feet are one hundred miles below you, forgotten and left behind. Bring them up with you; you’ll be able to reach so much higher when your feet are higher.
3. Learn to fall properly, and practice it
Falling is a non-negotiable in climbing. If you climb, you’re gonna fall. So it’s incredibly important that you know how to fall properly. After all, it’s quite an obstacle to your progression if you get injured from falling and can’t climb!
Most gyms have some sort of orientation for new climbers that shows you how to fall properly. I also have a blog on bouldering fall practice that includes proper bouldering falling technique, as well as how to practice it safely.
Why practice falling? It might seem silly – don’t I practice falling every time I fall? Not really. Practice has to be targeted and intentional to be effective, so just falling off boulders as you’re trying them doesn’t really count.
Fall practice involves taking deliberate falls and focusing on the falling and landing technique. By practicing the proper technique with intention, you train your body to react correctly when you let go of the wall so that you can land safely. With repeated practice, your body will learn to do this subconsciously so that it instinctively does the right thing without needing to focus on it. This significantly decreases your odds of taking bad falls when you fall unexpectedly!
Also importantly, it trains your brain to feel in control of falls, versus them just being something that happens to you that is out of your control. This is especially important for anyone who feels fear around falling.
If you’re starting out on top-rope instead of bouldering, this is equally important for you, especially if being on a rope scares you in any capacity. Learning to trust the systems and fall on top-rope will open up your world of what you’re willing to try, and help you accomplish the other things outlined in this post.
4. Return to climbs over multiple sessions
Another common pitfall I see newer climbers fall into (and often carry into their intermediate years) is giving up on a climb after only one or two sessions. (Or worse, only one or two attempts!) Usually, the move or the climb feels really hard, so the climber says “this is too hard, I can’t do it” and gives up.
Okay, fair enough, it’s probably hard. But here’s my question to you: in a sport like climbing where problem solving is such a significant factor, do you really think you’ll be able to solve every problem on your first try? Or even your second, third, fifth, tenth try?
When you write off a climb as being “too hard” for you after only a few tries, you’re operating under that assumption. That you’ve already figured out the right way to do it, it’s just too hard for you. The reality is, when the climb is hard, it’s going to take you much more than a couple tries to unlock the answers. You just have to give yourself that chance! Yes, it will feel hard, maybe even impossible at first. Imagine how cool it will feel, then, when eventually you unlock the move and do it! Lean into the difficulty and challenge. Give yourself a chance to get confused, problem solve, and find a way.
This doesn’t mean you have to only try things you’ve tried before, and you can’t ever try the shiny new set. Far from it! There is a balance between this, and our number one tip – explore. An easy way to find this balance is alternating between a session where you explore and try new things, and a session where you pick 2-3 climbs you’ve already tried before to go back to.
5. Record videos of yourself climbing
It’s interesting to think about – if you’ve never taken a video of yourself climbing, you’ve literally never seen yourself climb! You have no idea what you look like on the wall, or if the things you’re experiencing are an accurate reflection of what’s happening.
I’ve heard a lot of newer climbers express that they think recording yourself climbing is only for more experienced climbers. They say that they don’t know what to look for, so what’s the point – and also feel some embarrassment about recording a “low grade” climb.
To the first point: for the new climber, I don’t expect you to know what to look for. I want you to just try to notice things about your climbing, not with the intent of picking out problems or finding answers, but just to make observations. Look at your hands, your feet, your hips, your shoulders. What do you notice? Watch other people climb (of all abilities – not just really strong people) and look for similarities and differences between how their climbing looks and yours. Come at it with a curious, not critical, mind.
To the second point: isn’t progression for everybody, regardless of grade? Why do you need to “earn” the desire to analyze your climbing and improve it? The best thing I can tell you is that the benefit you’ll experience from being able to analyze your own climbing is just on the other side of that embarrassment.
Having a small tripod makes this easy, but if you don’t have one, I’ve always been a fan of the shoe tripod or chalk bag tripod. Or, if you climb with friends, ask them to record for you! This can feel less awkward than setting up your phone.
An additional benefit that I think is so important and so underrated is being able to look back on your videos in a few months, a year, or more. So many climbers I talk to say they wish they had taken videos early on in their climbing career so they could look back on their progress! It’s easy to get caught up in the things you’re stuck on now and how slow progress can feel; having a concrete reminder of how far you’ve come puts things in perspective and supports your own optimism of your journey.
If you're looking for support in beginning your climbing journey, I specialize in helping new climbers establish a good foundation and learn how to improve sustainably through their first few years of climbing. You can reach out about remote or in-person coaching opportunities on the Coaching page.
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