transitional climbing seasons

Hello! I hope you had a great weekend and your week if off to a good start. I got back to the gym for some training at the end of last week, then enjoyed some sport climbing yesterday.

So far we've talked about peaking performance for in-season climbing and building during training for the offseason. But what do you call it when you're doing a bit of both climbing and training (like what I'm doing now)?

Today we are going to talk about the first transitional season: preseason. For the preseason, rather than giving 100% priority to either performance or training there is instead a 50/50 split.

About half of the time/energy in the preseason is given to sport practice and the other half is given to training. The preseason can last anywhere from a quick 2 week transition, to a full 8 week period.

The preseason can be used to transition from training to performance, or the other way around from performance to training. Let's look at each.

Transitioning from training to performance

This is the more common direction of transition. After a training block where strength building is the priority and sport practice is on the back burner, it's beneficial to reintroduce climbing-specific training and skill practice into the schedule. This can look like:

• increasing frequency and duration of climbing sessions

• focusing on climbing adaptations specific to your goals, for example increasing capacity for longer projecting sessions, working power endurance, or endurance

• combining general strength sessions with skill practice sessions

You would use the preseason in the weeks leading up to the desired performance peak (a climbing trip, good weather conditions season, competition season).
 

Transitioning from performance to training

This is the less common direction of transition, but is still a great use of a preseason structure (and also currently what I'm doing)!  After a performance block where climbing is the priority and strength building is on the backburner, more strength building is reintroduced. This can look like:
 

• decreasing the frequency and duration of climbing sessions to make room for more strength sessions

• focusing on more foundational, less specific adaptations, for example general strength & conditioning, base-building hangboarding, etc.

You would use the preseason to push back a full training block or take a break from projecting.

The preseason is a useful tool when the time isn't quite right to prioritize either performance or training and helps ease into the in- or offseason.

Later this week I'll be back to talk about the last season: the postseason, as well as answer some questions I've gotten!