Bouldering vs routes

Do you climb for grades? Or do you (i hope) climb for fun? As long as you have fun doing it, do it...

i most certainly do climb for fun and im not overly concerned about grades, but i do use them a little to judge my improvements and weak areas for example climbing 6b constatntly but then falling off every 5a i try because its overhanging lets me see i need to work on my overhanging techniques. other than that i dont care but im wondering what points i should work on for a more rounded ability

When you fall off, is it because you have a lack of power or is it, that the move is too complicated and you have no solution for the problem?

most of the time i can hardly even get on the things. i reckon in general i am strong enough and have enough technical skills to manage it but the application of the two together seems to be the problem. i can hold myself on any variety of holds on a given problem, and i know how i should be moving to the next one, its the transition that gets me every time. does that make sense?

yes it does. what you need is alot of climbing meters. Lets say you climb easely 5c, you have enough spare strenght to organise your next move. Stay at this difficulty level and climb as many routes as possible. You will see that your moving patterns (engram) are getting better. This means, that actually in harder routes you can applie those move patterns more easely. There is no use of trying hard routes all the time because you won't get the flow, which is really important when climbing. Like this your body learns new moves which you can use again when bouldering, when you allways climb on your limit you are never going to learn new moves. Otherwise, now and then you have to do hard routes to get your body used to the effort. And of course your maximal strenght will improve when doing hard routes. But when beginning stick to routes you can climb, and climb a lot...

so i should be looking at climbing easier routes with style in a manner of speaking? i now wonder why my route achievments arent on par with the boulder grade of similar difficulty. thanks very much for the advice, it greatly appreciated. very knowledgeable and not condescending, thanks again

also, there is the fact that boulder grades are harder than route grades. lets say a boulder rated 6a is at least a route grade 6b...

another thought on this is that boulder and climbing grades tend to differ more in the lower part of the scale. so a 6A boulder could definitly feel like the crux on a 6c route or even a 7a limestone stamina route. it's hard to compare the two. don't stay on the easy ones to long, getin on hard ones are where you get to know your weaknesses. working that impossible move over and over will make you send it. atleast ones in a week i try to get on stuff thats way beond me. good luck!