I love Lattice training as they use data to back up their facts and training plans. The past month they came with a very interesting research showing how much time it takes to reach a specific level of climbing. For this research they used their dataset of 65000 climbers.
V13/ 8b in 3 years?
Some boulderers might invite you to believe you can climb V13/8b in three years. Mat Wright explains in his videos how he progressed with his training from beginner to elite climbing skills. Yet these stories can be considered as statistical outliers.
Getting to V12/ 8a+
So lattice explains in this article that you need almost 6 years of climbing and 2,4 years of training to achieve a V4/ 6b+ level. To get to V12/ 8a+ you need to double that to 12 years of climbing and 6,5 years of training.
Just climb the first three years?
If we trust the report of Lattice we can conclude that climbers climbing for 6 years only did about 2,4 years of structural training and just climbing the first 3,6 years of their career. This would confirm what most people would advise: just climb the first three years.
But what would happen if people started training earlier? Would they increase faster? And if so, how much faster than the average climber?
Lets for now repeat the advice from lattice start training structurally the moment you start climbing. Maybe not the 55% of the time that some professionals do, but to start with a finger training protocol will hurt nobody according to science.
Age?
Yes that too influences the amount of years you will need to reach the magical grade of V12/ 8a+. The older you are the longer you need, with the massive 17,7 years if you are between 35 and 39 years old. This means you had to start climbing between the ages 18 and 22.
Yes, this confirms the observations of Steve McClure: your progress is slower when you are older. But the good news: there is progress even then.
What I learn from this
Enjoy climbing, forget about grades, but make sure to train structurally, and be patient. Don’t let media misguide you that try to get you to buy their training plans to keep your hopes up to get to V12/ 8a+ within three years. Becoming a better climber takes time.
Source
https://latticetraining.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-climb-v12