Redpointing and Projecting: Picking a Route, Working It in Sections, Resting, and Knowing When to Move On

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Last month you tried to onsight a 5.11b and fell at the crux after the fifth quickdraw. Today you're back. Hanging on the rope, you break the crux down, try each of its three moves twice, and finally find where your left foot goes. You lower, rest ten minutes and go again. You pump out at the third quickdraw, lower than last time.

This is post 5 of the Climbing Mental Game and Tactics series. The previous post covered climbing a route for the first time. This one starts after a failed onsight: the route has become your project (a route that takes several goes to climb), and you have to decide whether it's worth working, how to work it, how many tries to give it in a day, and when to let go. For the definition of a redpoint (climbing a route bottom to top without falling after rehearsing it) and how grades work, see grades and protection ratings.

Why a rehearsed route costs less effort

On a route they had climbed once before, climbers were about 30 seconds faster on average (148.7 s vs 179.5 s), with fewer exploratory moves and less time stopped (research). That's the result from Limonta et al. (2020) at the University of Milan: 18 advanced male climbers onsighted a route, then redpointed the same route in the next session.

Speed wasn't the only change. On the redpoint, peak heart rate and blood lactate were lower, perceived effort was lower, cognitive and somatic anxiety were both lower, and self-confidence was higher. Once you've rehearsed a route, the physical and mental load drop together. The authors concluded that route-finding ability can be trained.

So what are you actually training when you work a route? In France, Hacques et al. (2021) had 7 people practise the same route over 10 sessions. By the end, both exploratory hand movements and gaze fixations had dropped, and their looking became more purposeful. On new routes, they were more likely to explore from a distance with their eyes than to reach up and test holds (research, very small sample).

Try this next session: pick a route you didn't send last time. After climbing it, write down three moves that last time you only figured out by trying on the wall, but this time knew as soon as you got there. That's what you've trained.

Picking a project: how hard, and how long to siege it

Start with difficulty. Hörst's first tip in "Projecting 101" is to pick the right route: somewhere between two letter grades below and one letter grade above your hardest redpoint of the past six months (coaching consensus). If your hardest recent send is 5.11b, look at 5.10d to 5.11c. Skip anything harder unless you come across a route that feels like the perfect one for a personal best. His reason is to avoid getting bogged down in a long-term fight.

Then decide how long to siege it. This is where people disagree most. There are three common views. All are coaching opinions; no controlled study has compared them:

Hörst's 10-4 rule. In "The 10-4 Rule" he gives weekend climbers a guideline: 10 redpoint attempts over 4 days (coaching consensus; he himself uses fewer, about 5 over 2 days). He gives three reasons. Climbing is a technical sport, so you learn more by sending many routes. Repeated failure wears down confidence. And if you've refined the moves and still can't send, you usually need to get stronger first. He adds that "a couple of research projects" suggest the payoff from attempts levels off after a certain number (he puts it at three to ten), but gives no citation and we couldn't find a matching study, so treat it as his experience.

In the same article he lists five situations where you can break the rule:

• The route is unusually complex, or the crux is a low-percentage dynamic move
• The trip is nearly over and the send feels close
• The project is close to home
• On the ninth go you find a key rest or an easier sequence
• You're a professional climber

Long-term sieging. Lattice's article on short projects for trips is about "quick local hits that don't take months to get done", which treats short and long projects as separate things. Their viewer Q&A (2020) splits them at 5–14 sessions versus 15 or more. In the intro to "5 ways to send your project", MacLeod says he has spent a long time perfecting how to send hard projects above his level (coaching consensus). In this camp's way of working, a route that takes months is a normal option, not a failure (inference).

Bechtel's redpoint pyramid. TrainingBeta's write-up of Bechtel's approach says (coaching consensus) the pyramid stops long-term projectors from climbing only one route and losing fitness, and pushes onsight-only climbers to try harder routes. It sits between the other two views.

What can research tell us? A 2022 study by Hacques's team compared practising one route throughout with being assigned different routes. On the practice route, the constant-practice group climbed best. On a new transfer route, the groups were equally fluent: practising one route didn't leave anyone worse off. A 2024 study found that letting learners choose when to switch routes may build more flexibility, and that forcing them to switch was no better than constant practice (research: the participants were near-total novices practising on top-rope).

Put together: these studies can't directly answer whether projecting makes you a better climber overall, because the participants were beginners on routes far below their limit. For the disagreement between Hörst and the long-term camp, coaching experience is all we have. In practice, decide whether this season's goal is "send this route" or "get better overall", then lean towards the matching side (series suggestion).

Try this next session: roughly split this season's climbing time into two piles: routes you can send, and projects. If the project pile is more than half, start your next day out with two routes you can onsight.

How to work it: sections, crux first, link from the top down

Hörst's "Projecting 101" (TrainingBeta also has a summary) includes some concrete tips (coaching consensus):

1. Split the route into 3 to 5 sections, separated by the best rests, and solve them one at a time. Wire the last section hardest, so you know you can climb it tired.
2. Spend the most time on the crux, finding the best beta (move sequence) and drilling it until it's automatic. His benchmark: climb the crux section two or three times off the hang without falling.
3. Rest 30 to 60 minutes before a redpoint go, then set off calm and expecting to succeed.

In Podcast episode 68 (2021) he walks through three sessions on a 7c+ of his own (a personal case):

• Session 1: just getting to know the route.
• Session 2: working the route in 4 sections, dealing first with the parts that scared him, taking "mental snapshots" of key spots, and finishing with 2 redpoint goes.
• The days in between: going over the route in his head and visualising it.
• Session 3: send attempts on the last day of the trip.

Once the sections are dialled, link them. Lattice's projecting strategies for beginners and intermediates lists top-down links: join the route from the top down. The page is only a topic list (the content is in the audio), and it files this method under choking under pressure, so all we can say is that it's one of Lattice's recommended methods (coaching consensus). One way to do it is to climb from the last two quickdraws to the top, then from the fourth-to-last. The logic: you're most likely to fail high on the route, when your forearms are already pumped, so drilling the top section hardest means you're less likely to fall apart there on the redpoint (the example and the logic are inference, but they point the same way as Hörst's advice to wire the last section).

The same list includes a few tools: a clipstick (a pole for clipping from the ground, often used to pre-clip the first bolts), brushing holds so you learn them, memorising every rest, and a recap at the end of each day.

Warm up differently too. In Climbing magazine, Neil Gresham suggests (coaching consensus) doing links of three or four clips at a time on the project itself as a warm-up, so your forearms get 60 to 80 percent pumped. In his account this primes your body to clear lactate, so you're less likely to flash-pump on the send go.

Try this next session: in your phone's notes, split your project into 3 to 5 sections, one line of beta each. Next time, work the crux section first, then try climbing from the second-to-last section to the top.

Progress often comes suddenly

When projecting, it's easy to feel "five sessions and no progress". Orth et al. (2018) had 8 beginners climb the same route 42 times over 7 weeks and saw three patterns:

• Steady progress: a little smoother each time.
• Sudden progress: little change for a while, then suddenly much smoother. These climbers had found a new body orientation, for example turning side-on where they used to climb face-on.
• No gain in fluency: movement didn't get smoother, but the distance climbed improved (only 1 person fit this pattern).

Eight beginners can't tell you this will happen to everyone (research, very small sample). But it's a reminder that the goes where you're stuck aren't necessarily wasted; you may just not have found the new move yet. It's also why Hörst lists "finding a new sequence on the ninth go" as a reason to keep trying.

Try this next session: when you're stuck at the crux, deliberately try a completely different body orientation, such as turning side-on instead of face-on, or leading with the other hand. Write it down even if it fails.

Between goes: rest longer, and keep moving

No study has directly compared rest lengths. The numbers coaches give are experience:

• In Training Café episode 38, Hörst suggests resting about 20 minutes after a low fall on a sport route, about 40 minutes after falling midway, and about 60 minutes after falling high on a long route. For bouldering, rest about 1 minute per hard move (coaching consensus).
• Boulderers on a UKClimbing forum thread share their own practice: about 2 minutes per hard move, 20–30 minutes between full goes on hard problems, and sometimes as much as 45 minutes (personal experience, not coaching advice).

What research can answer is what to do while you rest. Heyman et al. (2009) had 13 well-trained women climb a prepractised 6b overhang to exhaustion twice, with 20 minutes' rest between. Easy cycling during the rest, or cooling the forearms and arms in 15 °C water three times for 5 minutes each, kept performance up on the second climb. Sitting still meant the second climb was worse (research).

Valenzuela et al. (2015) used a short 2-minute rest and found easy climbing beat walking: lower blood lactate and more metres climbed (research). Draper et al. (2006) also found lower lactate and perceived effort with active recovery in recreational climbers (research).

Taken together: rest longer, and keep moving. Use the coaches' numbers for minutes, but don't sit on the floor scrolling your phone for 20 minutes and then go. This also explains the opening scene: ten minutes' rest, then pumped at the third quickdraw, most likely means you didn't rest long enough. For shaking out on the wall, see resting, route reading and setting your own routes.

Try this next session: between goes, set a timer for at least 20 minutes. Spend the first half walking around and shaking out, then the last 5 minutes traversing gently on an easy wall before you tie in.

A four-session attempt plan

This plan combines Hörst's three-session case with the 10-4 rule. It's an example, not a research-tested prescription (series suggestion). Adjust the number of sessions and goes to your skin, energy and time.

That adds up to about 5 to 7 goes from the ground. That's still within the 10-4 rule, but if it hasn't gone by the end of session 4, it's time to think about moving on.

Try this next session: copy this table into your climbing log. After each session, write one line: which section you worked, where you fell, what you'll change next time. Lattice also lists the end-of-day recap as a projecting strategy.

Taking turns and sharing beta with a partner

Projecting usually means two people taking turns: you climb, they belay, then you swap. The rotation itself works as a rest clock, but watch two things.

Borrow beta from someone your size. Watching someone else shows you how they use a hold; as the previous post noted, watching someone climb first or watching a video both clearly raised send rates compared with not watching (research). In his article on training partners, Hörst also says partners can help you find better sequences and body positions when projecting and route climbing (coaching consensus). But in "Projecting 101" he warns against automatically taking someone else's beta as the best way through the crux; try a few sequences of your own. Your partner's reach and height differ from yours, and in the end you need your own version.

Agree on the order and don't hog the route. Post 2 described an interview study of 6 top German sport climbers (research): every one of them could give examples of hogging a route or sulking after failing, by themselves or others, and said it affects a partner's performance all day. When you're both working the same route, agree up front who goes first and how many goes each. How to ask your belayer to encourage you is also in post 2.

General psychology's social facilitation research found that being watched makes simple tasks faster and complex tasks slower and worse, with small effects (research). Applied to climbing, a dialled redpoint might be less affected by an audience than an unfamiliar onsight; that's inference, and there's no direct climbing study.

Try this next session: before working the same route with a partner, agree on "two goes each, taking turns", and each time you lower, give the other person exactly one specific piece of beta.

When to move on

No study tells you which attempt is the one to give up on. Signals you can use:

• You're past the limit you set, such as Hörst's 10 goes over 4 days or your own session count, and the last few goes brought nothing new.
• You can do every section but can't link them: Hörst thinks this usually means you need to get stronger first, and a few weeks of training may do more than ten more goes. To tell whether you're stuck on technique, mindset or fitness, see should you start training when you plateau.
• You fail at the same spot every time, and get more scared each time: that looks more like the performance anxiety in post 2. Switching routes and rebuilding confidence may work better than grinding it out.
• Your fingers or skin start protesting: stop if your fingers hurt, and see finger pulley injuries; for skin, see the next section.

The other way round, Hörst's five exceptions help you decide whether to extend: you've just found a new rest or a new sequence, the route is close to home, or it's the last day of a trip and you're very close.

Moving on isn't giving up. Write down the beta and where you fell, and come back next season when you're stronger. That's what the 10-4 rule actually means: put it down for now, not forever.

Try this next session: write a "let-go condition" for your project, such as "if it hasn't gone in 3 more sessions, switch and come back next season", at the top of your beta notes.

Send day: pick your conditions, look after your skin

By the end, often all that's left is the day's conditions. On the same route, some days the holds feel sticky and some days slick; try to schedule your send goes on good-condition days. Why this happens, and how to catch the few dry days in Taiwan, is the subject of post 6: timing and conditions.

The other limit is skin. How many goes you get in a day is often decided not by your forearms but by your fingertips: once the skin wears thin or tears off in a flapper, the day is over. How to care for your skin and plan goes around it is in post 7: skin care.

Try this next session: the day before a send attempt, check the next day's relative humidity near the crag and look at your fingertip skin, then decide whether to go.

Practice: four scenarios

1. You fall on your project, lower, rest ten minutes and go again, and fall even lower than before.

2. It's your sixth weekend on the same route. You can do every section but have never linked it. A friend says "keep trying and it'll go".

3. You know the bottom half of your project well, but you pump out on the last two quickdraws every time.

4. Your partner is working the same route. They're 15 cm taller, and however you try, you can't reach their crux beta.

Next

When the project is close to going, the next question is which day to go for it. Post 6: timing and conditions explains why the same route feels sticky some days and slick on others, and how to check the weather and humidity to judge whether this weekend is worth a trip to Longdong.

References

• Limonta E, et al. On-Sight and Red-Point Climbing: Changes in Performance and Route-Finding Ability in Male Advanced Climbers (Front Psychol, 2020)
• Hacques G, Komar J, Seifert L. Learning and transfer of perceptual-motor skill: Relationship with gaze and behavioral exploration (Atten Percept Psychophys, 2021)
• Hacques G, et al. Visual control during climbing: Variability in practice fosters a proactive gaze pattern (PLoS One, 2022)
• Hacques G, et al. Promoting Exploration During Learning: Effect of Imposed and Self-Controlled Practice Schedules (Res Q Exerc Sport, 2024)
• Orth D, et al. Behavioral Repertoire Influences the Rate and Nature of Learning in Climbing (Front Psychol, 2018)
• Heyman E, et al. Effects of four recovery methods on repeated maximal rock climbing performance (Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2009)
• Valenzuela PL, et al. Effect of Two Types of Active Recovery on Fatigue and Climbing Performance (J Sports Sci Med, 2015)
• Draper N, et al. Effects of active recovery on lactate concentration, heart rate and RPE in climbing (J Sports Sci Med, 2006)
• Bond CF, Titus LJ. Social facilitation: A meta-analysis of 241 studies (Psychol Bull, 1983)
• Eric Hörst: Projecting 101 – Six Tips for Sending Your Sport Climb Project! (Training for Climbing, 2024 version)
• Eric Hörst: The "10-4 Rule" – A Guideline for Projecting (Nicros, 2015)
• Projecting 101: 6 Tips from Eric Hörst (TrainingBeta, 2016)
• Eric Hörst: Podcast #68, Anatomy of a Redpoint Project (Training for Climbing, 2021)
• Eric Hörst: Training Café #38, Optimal Rest Interval Between Climbing Attempts (Training for Climbing, 2021)
• Eric Hörst: Training Partners: Performance Booster or Hidden Distraction? (Training for Climbing, 2026)
• Steve Bechtel: Organizing Your Cragging Program with Redpoint Pyramids (TrainingBeta, 2016)
• Lattice Training: Sport Climbing Top 10 Projecting Strategies for Beginners & Intermediate (2022)
• Lattice Training: Short Projects: Tactics for Trips (2021)
• Lattice Training: Live Q&A with Tom & Ollie, July 27th 2020 (2020)
• Dave MacLeod: 5 ways to send your project
• Neil Gresham: Expert Tips For Improving Your Climbing Grades (Climbing, 2023)
• UKClimbing forum thread: Does projecting make you a better climber? (2020)
• Grades and protection ratings
• Resting, route reading and setting your own routes
• Should you start training when you plateau?