5 Best YouTube Channels for Beginner Boulderers

When I first started bouldering in 2023, I immediately fell in love with the sport.  It kept me active, while working my mind. But five weeks after I began, I fell during a climbing meetup in the gym and suffered a moderate-severe ankle sprain, taking me out for a month. What kept me hooked those next four weeks was turning to YouTube channels for beginner boulderers so that I could improve my technique through tips and tricks to try out once my ankle healed.

While I could attribute a number of channels to my growth from a V0 to V4 indoor climber, there are some that helped me more significantly than others. The most helpful channels offered not only great instructional content, but enthusiasm for educating beginners like me. If you’re more of an intermediate or advanced boulderer, these channels have you covered, too. Here are my five favorite YouTube channels for beginner boulderers.

 

1. Hannah Morris Bouldering

The channel I’ve watched the most throughout this past year-and-a-half is Hannah Morris Bouldering, hosted by English climber Hannah Morris and her partner Nathan Betts.

What initially drew me to the channel was Morris’s vast library of beginner bouldering content. The videos in her playlist “Bouldering for Beginners” range from her personal tips and techniques she recommends for beginners, to professional climbers coaching Morris, Betts, and climbers of all levels. My biggest gain from watching the channel has been learning how coaches analyze movements and mistakes.

As someone with a journalism background, something I’ve liked a lot from the channel is the occasional documentary-style climbing video, like its recent feature on climbing legend Lynn Hill.

 

 

2. Catalyst Climbing

I originally found this channel—hosted by former Team Great Britain climber Louis Parkinson—while looking for drills to improve my sessions.

Some of the videos are pretty instructional and straightforward, like this one where Parkinson recommends three bouldering drills that can be done as a warm-up. In another video, he experiments with drills he’d read about with Hannah Morris and British climber Alex Waterhouse.

Outside of tips and coaching, I’ve enjoyed watching Parkinson climb with his fellow pros. I’m a strong believer in watching stronger climbers to see what they’re doing that I’m not. Parkinson does just that on his channel—all while showing how fun climbing can be.

But perhaps the best thing on his—or any—climbing channel? The videos of Parkinson setting problems for his black cat, Ink. Three videos in particular document Ink’s progression from an amateur to a professional and it’s fantastic.

 

3. Movement for Climbers

If you’re looking for more cut-and-dry tutorials on bouldering, I highly recommend beginners check out Movement for Climbers. Siawn Ou, who runs the channel (as well as a coaching program), has coached climbers on the channel, recorded climbing analysis, and dropped tutorial-style videos for various techniques like flagging and drop knees.

My favorite series of videos on his channel are what he calls the “Bouldering Progression Series.” Here, he talks about the types of techniques and skills someone might need for each skill-level of climbing, from V0-V1 novice climbers, to advanced V7 climbers. Yes, climbing grades can be pretty subjective. But this bouldering progression series has helped me keep note of which skills I might need to personally improve on to advance to higher grades.

Fun fact: I actually see Ou at my home gym, Momentum Millcreek, a lot. I’m rather introverted, especially when it comes to meeting people I’ve watched online. But I really should say hello sometime.

 

 

4. Lattice Training

Before I was a climber, I dabbled in weightlifting. I stopped once I started climbing, but always wanted to get back into it as a way to improve my climbing.

Enter Lattice Training, the channel I check out whenever I have a question about which exercises can help the muscles most commonly used in climbing. What I’ve found most useful is pretty simple. It’s their recognition that there are many ways to train for climbing. The videos they create feature the most useful exercises. I’ve also turned to this channel for more targeted workouts, like how I can train my core better.

Something cool I found out recently is that 2024 Olympic gold medalist Toby Roberts has trained with Lattice, along with women’s Olympic finalist Erin McNeice.

 

 

5. Hooper’s Beta

Lastly, I would likely not be climbing if it were not for Hooper’s Beta. One of the first things I did when I sprained my ankle was look for rehab exercises. This first channel I stumbled upon was Hooper’s Beta, which features physical therapist and climber Jason Hooper. On this channel, you’ll find tips and advice on climbing-specific injury rehab.

I’ve looked to the channel not just for my ankle rehab, but also for questions they’ve answered like whether climbers should invest in a massage gun. Recently, I’ve also been recovering from a strained A2 pulley injury, and used the channel’s video on how to treat and retrain it to rehab it nearly back to full strength.

Hooper is also a practicing physical therapist, and people can schedule appointments with him on his website.

 

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