Plateau at 9 months — what helped me push through

Around the 9-month mark in Rock Climbing I hit a wall. My progress with heel hooks wasn't improving and I felt like I was spinning wheels. It's apparently common but that didn't make it less frustrating.

What helped: going back to fundamentals with my coach, spending more time drilling V-grades slowly rather than at full speed, and watching Alex Honnold breakdowns to understand what I was missing. how it builds problem-solving under pressure eventually returned once I let go of trying to advance too fast. fear of heights even indoors at first was actually the underlying cause of the plateau — once I addressed it, things moved again. If you hit that wall, stick with it. It passes.