In some sports, when you get to learn the basics, your learning curve becomes unclear. Imagine for example, that you are learning to play basketball, football or tennis. You will learn to shoot the ball, control it, be more precise, etc. Nevertheless, your progress indicators will usually be fuzzy, you can win another player or another team, you can feel in better or worse shape, but there is no clear way to tell whether you are doing better than 6 months ago.
In order to know whether you are progressing, you need metrics, you need something measurable. Some sports require one or many opponents: In the previous examples, you need to play against a number of opponents. Depending on how many matches you win and on your score, you are able to measure your skills, as an individual or as a team. Nevertheless, this indicator is linked to factors that might vary, e.g. the current shape of the opponent(s).
When running a marathon, doing long jump in athletics, or swimming the 400m, you fight against time or distance. Those are better indicators, cause they are absolute. You don't need any opponents to measure yourself against, you can compete with yourself.
In sport climbing you don't need any opponents either, your metrics are the routes you manage to do. I'm not even talking about the grades. The grades might vary upon the style of climbing, the place or the person that bolted the route. I think the grades are just a reference to know whether a route might be too hard for you or not. But succeeding in a route that you were not able to do last year? That is a very clear indicator.
Last year, during summer, I would have never imagined myself doing a 7a. But in rock climbing the learning curve is quite rewarding. If you put effort into it, you get to improve, and you have metrics to measure that progress. This year, we are starting sending our first 7a routes, and we are already looking forward to bigger challenges!
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