Bouldering is a puzzle you climb
I picked up bouldering recently, and I’m bad at it in the specific way that keeps me coming back.
What surprised me is how much of it is in your head. Lifting weights is a physical problem: add reps, add load. A boulder problem is a problem in the older sense of the word. You stand under the same few holds and simply can’t do the move, and no amount of strength fixes it until you work out where your hips go, which foot to trust, how to shift your weight before you reach. Then something clicks, and a wall you couldn’t touch yesterday just goes.
The other half is falling. You try a move, you come off, you get back on the mat, you try it again, for a session and sometimes for a week. I fall a lot right now. That’s the part I like.