Aggressive climbing shoes are shoes with a downward curve, many times also with a twist towards the big toe.
This downward curve allows the climber to exert maximum power through their toes, allowing them to have more force and stability, and to be able to stand easier on bad foot holds.
Aggressive climbing shoes are also the popular choice for bouldering, since they tend to be less comfortable than neutral or flat shoes, which mean that climbing in them for a longer period of time could be quite painful, which makes them less popular for sport climbing. They are also a great choice for overhanging climbing as they tend to excel at gripping holds, allowing the climber to keep their body closer to the wall and to keep their feet on the holds.
Eventually, as the shoe is used more and more, the curve loses its shape, and the shoe become straighter.
Climbing shoes are meant to be as tight around the feet as possible. This insures that the feet will not slip inside the climbing shoes, giving the climbers a much better grip and control while climbing and standing on difficult foot holds, and while performing difficult moves such as pulling their body weight with their heels.
Wearing socks can hinder this tightness around the foot by creating an extra layer between the foot and the shoe. This can cause the foot to move slightly inside the shoe, which can reduce the climbers performance by reducing the efficiency of the shoe. The efficiency is reduced because climbing shoes must be as stable as possible on the climbers feet, meaning, if the feet move around inside the shoe, the climber may not be able to exert the required force they need, such as when pulling your weight on your heel. If the climbing shoes are not tight enough, the heel could move inside the shoe, and even come out.
While the climbing shoe should be as tight as possible, this does not mean that they must be painful. There is a limit to how tight a climbing shoe can be without it causing pain. It is important for everyone to try out different climbing shoes and different sizes to find the shoe and size that fits their feet the best.
Your toes should be slightly curled in climbing shoes. This gives you extra power and accuracy when standing on your toes on small edges. It also allows you to be more precise with your footwork by being able to stably place your foot on holds and in positions that would normally be much more difficult.
Having curled toes also helps you feel the holds better so that you are better able to trust your feet on poor foot holds.
The amount at which your toes should be curled though depends on the climbing shoe, and on your comfort/pain level. Just like the climbing shoes themselves, your toes should not be in pain and should not be painfully curled down. For many shoes, the curl will be a very slight curl where the tips of your toes are slightly pointed downwards instead of straight forward. In other shoes, the curl may be more aggressive, with the tips of your toes pointing directly down.
Climbing shoes are important because they give you the much-needed friction on the wall and on the climbing holds. Their main benefit is the performance boost they can give you.
Climbing requires a lot of precise footwork. This precise footwork cannot be done with regular sneakers or sport shoes. Climbing shoes are designed specifically for climbing, whether it's the material the shoe is made of, or the shape of the shoe, it is all calculated and designed to give the climber the best performance possible while climbing.
While shoes are not a substitute for proper technique, body positioning, and the understanding of your body on the wall, climbing shoes give you that extra stability and variety when it comes to moving on the wall that cannot be replicated with any other shoe. This comes into play with toe hooks and catches, heel hooks and general heel usage such as pulling on the heel, standing on tiny edges, and slopers.
As you scale up the climbing grades, progressing from one grade to the next will be more difficult for each new grade. It makes sense that reaching and climbing v9s consistently will be harder and take longer than it did for you to reach the v8s. The same will be for when you want to go from v9 to v10.
If there is a certain project you are working on, try to understand what you are not succeeding in. If it's a specific move, try to practice and train for that specific move until you can do it on the actual route. If it's a difficult hold or body position, train specifically for that.
The point is to break up the route into smaller pieces and to work those out until you can do them on the route itself.
If you can do all of the moves, but have difficulty putting them all together and doing the whole route, try to do it in sections. Try doing half of the route from the start, and the second half from the middle till the end. Or, if there is a specific point that is difficult, try doing the route until that point from the beginning, and then from that point until the end.
Another option is to work a small section with that just point in the middle, so that you are working on that difficult point specifically.
The point with this is to try and improve the moves that you are currently able to do, and to figure out different options for the moves that are difficult.
Squats are a great overall leg exercise. The exercise really hits the major muscles in your legs that can help with climbing.
You don't even really need to add any weight to this exercise. Depending on your goals, if you just want to improve your leg strength for dynamic movements in climbing, even squatting with body weight can be enough.
If you want to go that extra mile, you can do a jump squat.
A jump squat is when you do a regular squat, but as you rise up, instead of just standing up, you jump as high as you can. This can help give you that extra strength training to get better at those dynamic climbing moves where you have to jump and reach a far away hold.
Other than squats, calf raises is another great exercise. All you need to do is to find a step or an edge to stand on with your toes, and you just raise yourself as high as you can while staying on your toes, and then you just lower yourself until your heel touches the ground. The higher the surface you are standing on, the lower you will have to go to touch the ground, which means it will be harder to complete the exercise.
If you feel that it gets too easy, you can hold a dumbbell or any other weight in one of your hands for extra difficulty.
Rock climbing is a great full body workout, especially if you are a beginner, or you have never done it before.
Rock climbing heavily targets your back, arms, and core. In addition to these muscles, which are the most worked muscles while climbing, you will also use your feet, triceps, and occasionally, your chest for certain moves. Most likely all parts of your body will be used while climbing at times, it depends on the level of climbing, the difficulty of the route, and the route itself.
It's not uncommon for new climbers to be sore in places they have never been sore before. This is because climbing uses many smaller muscles that people normally do not use, even if they are coming from a history of other sports or weight training.
In addition to the smaller, mostly unused muscles, it also uses your main muscles in ways that you may normally not use. This is because in order to stay close to the wall, you have to sometimes put your body in positions that may be quite awkward to your muscles since they are positions your body just isn't used to, which means you will use your muscles to get in and out of those positions in ways they are not used to.
Beta spraying is when one climber tells another how a route is supposed to be climbed, or what they need to do, without them asking for the help.
This annoys many climbers for a few reasons.
First, a big part of climbing is the mental challenge of figuring out the puzzle.
Figuring out the beta on your own helps you progress as a climber by being able to understand the problems and coming up with solutions on your own. Being able to correctly read a route and to apply your own climbing style to it in order to complete that route is what can make the difference between you being a beginner climber to being a more advanced climber that can flash routes.
Without learning how to problem-solve and to read routes without being told the beta, you will find it extremely difficult to progress to a high level in climbing and to be able to flash routes without being told what to do. And those who beta spray sometimes take this opportunity away from others by giving them the answers and not giving them a chance to think about it and solve it on their own.
Second, the beta they give to others may just be wrong.
From my experience, those who beta spray are usually either beginner climbers, or, climbers that are slightly above the beginner level that feel comfortable enough to tell others how they should climb a route, either because they were able to do it, or because someone else told them what the beta is. Either way, the beta they give could just be wrong, and in many occasions, when this has happened to me, they were wrong.
Third, the beta could be correct, but for them.
Everyone has their own climbing style, so the solution that works for one climber, in this case, the beta sprayer, may not work for you. This is something that many climbers don't understand. When they are persistent in saying that you need to do it in a specific way, a way that maybe worked for them, sometimes, it just doesn't work like that for others.
Climbers don't wear gloves while bouldering, sport climbing, or any other type of rock climbing, with the exception of crack climbing in which the climber may wear a special kind of glove that covers the back part of the hand, leaving the palm uncovered.
Climbers don't usually wear gloves because gloves reduce the friction between the climbing holds and the climbers hands. In very easy and beginner level climbing, this may not be so important, but for later on it will be crucial and could prevent climbers from holding certain holds.
Some holds require a large amount of friction, otherwise you can just slip right off. Wearing gloves, even those that cover only the palm and leave the fingers exposed, reduces that much-needed friction way too much. This is also why crack climbing gloves cover only the back side of the hand, and not the palm. Crack climbers still use their fingers and palms for climbing, so they must be exposed and not covered. The back side of their hands are covered up to help reduce pain and injuries from the pressure of their hands against the cracks.
There is no one correct way of climbing since every climber can have their own climbing style, and strengths. Though, there are a few general concepts that can help you climb better:
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Use your feet - Climbing is not just an arm and back sport, contrary to what many believe. It also heavily relies on other things, such as proper footwork. If you rely on just your arms and back muscles for climbing, you will soon find out that you cannot progress as quickly as you would like. Having proper footwork is key to better climbing, as most of your weight should be on your feet, and not held by your arms.
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Keep your arms straight - This is an important part of reserving strength while climbing. If you consistently lock off (holding your body weight with bent arms), you will very quickly lose strength and stamina, and will end up just falling and not completing the route. Allowing your arms to straighten out helps transfer your body weight to your skeleton, which reduces the tension and load on your muscles, allowing you to climb longer and reserve the much required power for later moves.
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Technique - Sure, you can climb some routes by just pulling yourself up with your arms, but at some point, the routes will require you to have increasingly better technique. Good technique is better learned from the beginning, rather than later on after you have gotten use to relying on your strength alone. With proper technique, you are able to climb longer by reserving stamina and strength.
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Read the route - Another key element in being able to climb hard routes and to preserve energy and power is to learn how to read the climbing routes rather than just getting on them and trying to figure it out on the wall. Trying to figure out a route while on the wall and where the next holds are and how to reach them just takes a lot of precious time that will cost you a lot of energy and strength. Reading the route and understanding it before getting on it allows you to see the holds, understand how to get to them and hold them, and gives you a general map of the route for you to follow. This helps reserve energy and strength and can be the difference between reaching the top and falling.
