what is a climbing benchmark?

Last week we talked about how "it's not a benchmark if you've never climbed it before" and you can't know how a climb "should" feel if you've never been on it.

But what is a benchmark anyway and what does it mean for your climbing?

By definition, a benchmark is “a standard or point of reference against which things may be compared or assessed.” - Oxford dictionary

Benchmarks come up in sport all the time. In professional sports, there are often benchmark lifting numbers (ex: a football lineman should be able to bench x). In CrossFit there are benchmark workouts where performance is recorded periodically (for example, FRAN). Or in running, there are benchmark times to hit on certain distances.

While we won’t get too into this today, it’s important to note that we don’t have solid strength benchmarks for climbers yet and their usefulness as a tool in such a variable skill sport may be limited.

But what is a climbing benchmark?

In theory, an outdoor benchmark is a climb that is has a strong consensus on the grade, with very infrequent, or no, upgrades or downgrades. It would be "standard for the grade". Riddles in the Dark below is a good example of this.

Indoors, benchmarks really only exist on climbing boards and are defined quite loosely.

Ideally, benchmarks indoors would be similar to our outdoor definition but ultimately comes to be closer to “a fun, good climb at the grade” as benchmarks on boards can also vary widely in difficulty.

So rather than a standard, a climbing benchmark is going to be a point of reference for yourself and will be personal to you.
 

This means you have a lot of autonomy here and you get to choose your own benchmarks!

Select a climb that you can periodically check in on. The measurement on this is going to be mostly qualitative and by feel, i.e. “how does this climb feel now versus when I first did it 6 weeks ago”.

I’ve begun to incorporate benchmark climbing workouts into the ADAPT programming. Clients chose 4 different climbs of varying difficulties and styles to get a big picture idea of their climbing that they will repeat periodically.

ADAPT members have been given a system for qualitatively rating their performance on the climbs so that they can track their progress.

While benchmarks are another tool to attempt to measure progress, just remember that climbing progress is rarely linear and challenging to objectively measure.

Use benchmarks as a way to gather more information about your climbing, but as with grades try not to put too much weight on them alone.

Have you used climbing benchmarks in your training? If so, how did it go? If not, is it something you think you'd like to incorporate? Reply to this email and let me know!