Sure. There are many paths to Babylon, and if your goal is to improve your climbing grade, and what you are doing is improving your climbing grade and is convenient and enjoyable for you, then there is no reason to change anything.
I suppose my main point is that climbers who are new to trying to push their grade often try to push their grade too early, and end up plateauing and becoming discouraged. If, for example, you are stuck at the V3 grade in the gym, you may be very motivated to climb V4. You will then wail on whatever V4 in the gym seems most doable for you for weeks, hoping that one of these times you actually stick the moves and send it. However, this pattern leads to slow progress, frustration (as you fail to send before they take the problem down), and possibly injury (due to repeating the same moves many times while tired).
So my point is that climbers seeking to push their grade for the first time should realize that movement - not strength or endurance - is the master skill, and the main way to improve is therefore to climb more mileage to improve their intuitive movement patterns. And if your goal is to rack up mileage, then you should track that mileage. If you want to send V4, but have only sent 5 V3s, you have no right to be dissappointed in your inability to send the harder grade, and the fastest way to send the harder grade is to climb a lot more at the easier grade.
So we start by increasing volume at a very easy grade, just to increase the number of routes/problems climbs in a typical session. Often this is enough to spur improvement, simply because it teaches the climber better time management. And as they increase the total amount of climbing they are doing, they are also spurring the necessary physiological adaptations to support long climbing sessions so they can accumulate more volume faster.
Then once they are regularly cranking out a sufficient amount of mileage, we start increasing difficulty. We say “how many climbs can you do at your onsight grade in a session?” We want them to be cranking out onsight or second-go sends, because this is usually the sweet spot for climbing improvement - just hard enough that you have to try, but not so hard that you get bogged down and turn it into a mega-proj. Then we simply say “okay, I know you are eager to get to X grade - but send 100 of X-1 first”. This gives them a tangible, measureable goal to work towards. And with a high volume of X-1 climbing per session, hitting that mark feels acheiveable. Eg, if your goal is to send V4, but your onsight grade is V2, we say “Log 100 unique V2 sends before you start working on V3”. If they are only sending 2 V2s per session and only climbing 2 days per week, then it will take them 25 weeks - nearly half a year minimum - to send 100! But if they are sending 10 V2s each session 4 days per week, then they will tick 100 in under a month with time to spare for additional rest days plus a 1 week vacation.
(An important aside - volume should be increased only as recovery allows. If the climber is showing up to every session with sore shoulders, achey elbows, and raw skin, they need more rest or less volume until they can handle the physiological demand. This is also where adding in a minimalist lifting routine or yoga practice can be helpful. As a lifting program for a new climber, I recommend 2 days per week, 3 sets of 3 or 2 sets of 5, adding weight to each set. one lift each for push pull and legs - switch up lifts every couple months to keep from getting bored. Keep the weights quite light - maybe 70% effort on the last rep of the last set, so that movement quality stays high. The whole workout should only take around 10 or 15 minutes, and you should walk out of the gym feeling limber and energized - I often like to use this style of workout as a warm up before pulling on to climb.)
Then, when the climber has racked up sufficient mileage at the lower grade but is still not progressing in the higher grade, we add in a more intense style of climbing - limit bouldering - since trying really hard will spur neurological and physiological adaptations in the muscles, teaching the climber to pull harder and maintain maximum body tension.
And then if this still does not spur improvement, we could talk about fingerboarding, technique drills, periodization, targeted lifting programs, or any number of other specialized techiques for spurring improvement. But the point is that we aren’t going to add unnecessary complexity to our training until it is actually needed; and we are mostly going to improve at climbing by improving our movement via direct experience by doing (1) a lot of climbing and (2) very hard moves.
Contrast this with some more typical climbing routines -
The gym bouldering newbie. Shows up to the gym twice per week, and immediately walks over to the new set. After a short warm up, they work on 2 or 3 problems at their project grade until they are smoked, then maybe try a problem at their project grade +1, finding it utterly impossible. They progress very slowly, because they rack up mileage very slowly, and never actually try really hard moves when they are feeling fresh.
The weekend warrior large group climber. They show up to the crag with their crew of 20 people. They climb 1 warm up, then shakily lead up something at their onsight grade (praying they don’t die as they make every clip, despite being completely safe), and finally wail on a toprope that was put up by the “strong” climber of the group before declaring that they are gassed and heading to the bar with everyone else. Again, they progress very slowly because they never actually climb that much.
The frustrated go-getter. They used to be in group 1 or 2, but are tired of climbing at a low grade, so they begin a highly structured 12 week climbing program with words like “mesocycle” and “anaerobic work capacity”. Depending on how well the program was designed, they may progress quite reasonably… but now they’ve turned rock climbing from a fun activity with friends into another grinding chore.
Contrast with what I outlined above - each step is a simple, clear goal that can be applied to any given session. It is simple and intuitive to explain to a climbing partner “I want to climb 20 pitches today, no matter what” or “I want to climb 10 V5s today”. You can have days when you just work on the new set with your friends or try to send the mega-proj (you just recognize that these days aren’t moving you towards climbing harder as fast as possible). Climbing stays fun - it just now has different metrics for success depending on the day.
Sure. There are many paths to Babylon, and if your goal is to improve your climbing grade, and what you are doing is improving your climbing grade and is convenient and enjoyable for you, then there is no reason to change anything.
I suppose my main point is that climbers who are new to trying to push their grade often try to push their grade too early, and end up plateauing and becoming discouraged. If, for example, you are stuck at the V3 grade in the gym, you may be very motivated to climb V4. You will then wail on whatever V4 in the gym seems most doable for you for weeks, hoping that one of these times you actually stick the moves and send it. However, this pattern leads to slow progress, frustration (as you fail to send before they take the problem down), and possibly injury (due to repeating the same moves many times while tired).
So my point is that climbers seeking to push their grade for the first time should realize that movement - not strength or endurance - is the master skill, and the main way to improve is therefore to climb more mileage to improve their intuitive movement patterns. And if your goal is to rack up mileage, then you should track that mileage. If you want to send V4, but have only sent 5 V3s, you have no right to be dissappointed in your inability to send the harder grade, and the fastest way to send the harder grade is to climb a lot more at the easier grade.
So we start by increasing volume at a very easy grade, just to increase the number of routes/problems climbs in a typical session. Often this is enough to spur improvement, simply because it teaches the climber better time management. And as they increase the total amount of climbing they are doing, they are also spurring the necessary physiological adaptations to support long climbing sessions so they can accumulate more volume faster.
Then once they are regularly cranking out a sufficient amount of mileage, we start increasing difficulty. We say “how many climbs can you do at your onsight grade in a session?” We want them to be cranking out onsight or second-go sends, because this is usually the sweet spot for climbing improvement - just hard enough that you have to try, but not so hard that you get bogged down and turn it into a mega-proj. Then we simply say “okay, I know you are eager to get to X grade - but send 100 of X-1 first”. This gives them a tangible, measureable goal to work towards. And with a high volume of X-1 climbing per session, hitting that mark feels acheiveable. Eg, if your goal is to send V4, but your onsight grade is V2, we say “Log 100 unique V2 sends before you start working on V3”. If they are only sending 2 V2s per session and only climbing 2 days per week, then it will take them 25 weeks - nearly half a year minimum - to send 100! But if they are sending 10 V2s each session 4 days per week, then they will tick 100 in under a month with time to spare for additional rest days plus a 1 week vacation.
(An important aside - volume should be increased only as recovery allows. If the climber is showing up to every session with sore shoulders, achey elbows, and raw skin, they need more rest or less volume until they can handle the physiological demand. This is also where adding in a minimalist lifting routine or yoga practice can be helpful. As a lifting program for a new climber, I recommend 2 days per week, 3 sets of 3 or 2 sets of 5, adding weight to each set. one lift each for push pull and legs - switch up lifts every couple months to keep from getting bored. Keep the weights quite light - maybe 70% effort on the last rep of the last set, so that movement quality stays high. The whole workout should only take around 10 or 15 minutes, and you should walk out of the gym feeling limber and energized - I often like to use this style of workout as a warm up before pulling on to climb.)
Then, when the climber has racked up sufficient mileage at the lower grade but is still not progressing in the higher grade, we add in a more intense style of climbing - limit bouldering - since trying really hard will spur neurological and physiological adaptations in the muscles, teaching the climber to pull harder and maintain maximum body tension.
And then if this still does not spur improvement, we could talk about fingerboarding, technique drills, periodization, targeted lifting programs, or any number of other specialized techiques for spurring improvement. But the point is that we aren’t going to add unnecessary complexity to our training until it is actually needed; and we are mostly going to improve at climbing by improving our movement via direct experience by doing (1) a lot of climbing and (2) very hard moves.
Contrast this with some more typical climbing routines -
The gym bouldering newbie. Shows up to the gym twice per week, and immediately walks over to the new set. After a short warm up, they work on 2 or 3 problems at their project grade until they are smoked, then maybe try a problem at their project grade +1, finding it utterly impossible. They progress very slowly, because they rack up mileage very slowly, and never actually try really hard moves when they are feeling fresh.
The weekend warrior large group climber. They show up to the crag with their crew of 20 people. They climb 1 warm up, then shakily lead up something at their onsight grade (praying they don’t die as they make every clip, despite being completely safe), and finally wail on a toprope that was put up by the “strong” climber of the group before declaring that they are gassed and heading to the bar with everyone else. Again, they progress very slowly because they never actually climb that much.
The frustrated go-getter. They used to be in group 1 or 2, but are tired of climbing at a low grade, so they begin a highly structured 12 week climbing program with words like “mesocycle” and “anaerobic work capacity”. Depending on how well the program was designed, they may progress quite reasonably… but now they’ve turned rock climbing from a fun activity with friends into another grinding chore.
Contrast with what I outlined above - each step is a simple, clear goal that can be applied to any given session. It is simple and intuitive to explain to a climbing partner “I want to climb 20 pitches today, no matter what” or “I want to climb 10 V5s today”. You can have days when you just work on the new set with your friends or try to send the mega-proj (you just recognize that these days aren’t moving you towards climbing harder as fast as possible). Climbing stays fun - it just now has different metrics for success depending on the day.