Draw the boulder
Sketch 2-3 new boulders, climb each from your sketch, then mark what you got wrong.
- Slot
- On the wall
- Focus
- Reading
- Time
- 15 min
- Intensity
- Low intensity
- Injury risk
- Low injury risk
- Equipment
- Boulders, Notebook
How to do it
Look at a boulder you haven't tried and sketch it on paper: mark each hold's position, number them in the order you plan to use them, and draw arrows for the hand and foot movements. Climb it using only the sketch as your plan. Afterward, mark where it was wrong - a missed foothold, a hold used out of order, a body position you didn't predict - so you can see what your route reading tends to miss. Do 2-3 boulders.
Run it now
The same timer as the app: a five-second get-ready, then every round and rest counted down with a beep. Keep this page open while you train.
Draw the boulder
0:00 / 15:05
Ready
15:05
2 rounds
Sketch 2-3 new boulders, climb each from your sketch, then mark what you got wrong.
High risk: read the protocol, stop if anything feels wrong.
- 2
- rounds
- 15:05
- total
Done.
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Take the quizWho it's for
Visual learners, and anyone whose route reading is vague. Drawing forces you to commit: you can't sketch 'something around there' the way you can think it.
Common mistakes
- Drawing only the handholds. Number the feet too, in the order you'll use them. Feet are what your reading misses.
- Making it pretty. Boxes and arrows. Two minutes, not fifteen.
- Adjusting the sketch after climbing. Mark what was wrong instead. The errors are the point of the exercise.
- Doing it on a boulder you've already tried. New problems only, or you're drawing memory rather than reading.
How to progress
Keep the sketches in one notebook and look back after a month. Patterns show up fast: most people find they consistently miss intermediate holds, or misjudge how far apart things are on steep ground.
When it fits
The training periods this exercise fits into in Blok Sessions.
Base Lots of easy climbing, good movement and aerobic fitness.
Performance Peak for a trip or a comp: focus, reading problems, trying hard.