Becoming a good climber requires one thing more than anything else... before you learn how to spin in smooth circles, maintain a pace where you can stay in your aerobic range and not over stress your muscles and joints, develop a higher lactic threshold, and know when to stand or sit you need this.
Mindset... you need to learn to love to hate climbing as it is hard work and it will punish you and push you to your limits and it never gets easier although you will get better at it.
You only get good at something if you do it a lot.
I used to be a monster climber... at 140 pounds I was pretty light and if the hill was short and steep I would make like Marco Pantani and get into the drops, stand on the pedals, and hammer my way to the top and could do this over some very steep grades for a kilometre and climb 1000 feet at a stretch. And then I would ride back down and do it again... and again... and again.
People asked me how I could hit the bottom of a climb and seem to pick up speed on the way up... it was that love and hate moving me along and all they had was hate which is nearly not as strong.
But we don't sty young forever and after fragging my back and doing some nerve damage I can't stand up and hammer those hills into submission anymore but I can still climb fairly well and I have yet to find a climb where I have to get off and walk and we have some short climbs here that top out at 22 %.
My friend is a great hill climber and she never gets out of the saddle and makes her way up hills with fluid grace by spinning away at a comfortable cadence in a proper gear and one can take lessons from her on this.
On long climbs you will be sitting and spinning most of the time and on really steep grades you can try pushing down with your heel just a little on the down stroke to engage the calf muscles a little more and this will take some stress of your upper leg muscles.
Don't look at the road right in front of you... look up and to where you are going.
My youngest daughter is 11 and weighs all of 45 pounds... she can climb some long steep grades faster than most adults and she either sings her way up or adopts the mantra "I don't see no stinking hill" and explains that if she can't see it, it's not there.
She has the mind set down pat.
