Planning a climbing season around one main event
Whether it is a championship, a redpoint project or a climbing trip, here is how to work backwards from one date and arrive ready.
Coach Lucian · · updated · 3 min read
Most climbers have one moment in the year that matters more than the rest. It might be a national championship, a long-awaited trip to a famous crag, or the season you finally try your dream project. Planning around a single main event is the clearest use of periodisation, and you can do it without a sports science degree.
Step 1: Name the event and what it demands
Write down the date and describe what success requires. Be specific:
- A bouldering trip to granite in autumn: finger strength on crimps, skin resilience, power for short hard sequences, ability to try many times a day.
- A sport project of 30 metres: power endurance, recovery on rests, efficient clipping, mental composure when pumped.
- A youth bouldering competition: varied movement, quick reading, power, coordination, managing nerves.
This list drives everything. If the event does not demand it, it should not dominate your plan.
Step 2: Count backwards
Take a calendar and work from the event towards today. A common structure, borrowing from the traditional model of Matveyev and Bompa, looks like this for a 16 to 20 week build:
| Weeks before event | Phase | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 20 to 15 | Base | Volume, technique, general strength, antagonists |
| 14 to 10 | Strength and fingers | Max hangs, limit bouldering, pulling strength |
| 9 and 8 | Deload | Lighter week, consolidation |
| 7 to 4 | Power / power endurance | Event-specific intensity |
| 3 to 1 | Performance and taper | Rehearsal, freshness, confidence |
If you have less time, shorten the base first. If you have more, add a second strength or power block, in the spirit of Issurin's block approach.
Step 3: Plan the taper
The last one to three weeks matter a lot. A taper usually means reducing volume while keeping some intensity, so you arrive fresh without losing sharpness. Cutting everything to zero often leaves people feeling sluggish. How long and how steep a taper should be varies between individuals, and the evidence in climbing specifically is thin, so learn from your own experience and notes.
A simple approach:
- Two weeks out: reduce total volume noticeably, keep one or two quality sessions.
- Final week: short, crisp sessions, plenty of rest, nothing new.
- Last two days: rest or very light movement.
Step 4: Build in checkpoints
Every four weeks, ask: is this working? Signs a plan needs adjusting include stalled progress on key exercises, persistent finger soreness, poor sleep, or missing sessions. A plan should change when the evidence changes.
Step 5: Protect the plan from life
Exams, work deadlines, illness and holidays will happen. Mark known disruptions on the calendar from the start, and place deloads there if you can. A deload during a stressful work week is far better than a hard block you cannot recover from.
Work backwards from the date, protect the taper, and let the plan bend rather than break.
A note on secondary events
You may have smaller competitions or trips before the main one. Treat them as training: do not taper fully, use them to practise routines, and accept that you will not be at your best. This keeps the main event as the real priority.
In Train Climb
- Coaches can add the main event as a calendar event with a reminder, then build a season plan backwards from it with phases and a target load per week.
- Week templates make it quick to fill each block with sessions.
- Athletes can follow the weekly load on the Progress page and see it drop as the taper begins.
- Use messages to flag disruptions early so the plan can be adjusted. See planning a season with your coach for the app side, and competition preparation if your event is a contest.
