Surprisingly, there's a bit of a bell curve, maxing out at 5'9" being the ideal height. But it only makes about a single grade of difference.
Short folk have incredible strength to weight ratios and fine motor control from short levers. Tall people can reach farther, but can't apply the necessary force or use tiny holds as well. It all evens out in the long run, though you'll see big differences for individual lines that target a single style.
My wife and I climb at the same level despite a foot of height difference. She stays away from my long throws and compression problems. I try not to feel the tiny crimps on her projects, and it all works out in the end.
Agreed with tiny holds causing problems. But I presumed it was a grip strength problem, which still doesn't take away from my advantage as a tall-leaner. Though it could also be because I must've not done challenging routes.
It is. But again, with longer fingers you need more strength to produce the same force at the fingertip (because you're applying muscle force to the short end of the lever). Combined with the extra weight from the rest of a longer body, it makes pulling on small holds a lot harder for tall folk.
But then we can often simply reach past those small holds to the big jug beyond, so it tends to work itself out.
I can confirm this - as 188cm tall guy, even if I can reach further, the strain i get on my fingers from my relatively heavy body is taking its toll on the fingers. I can't climb few days in a row, would end up with tendinitis.
It doesn't help that I have a 'flexible type' of the body (can bend like crazy, but tendons/ligament injuries across whole body are much more common). And I started with climbing when I was 30, unlike many in their teens who seem to climb much harder without big effort.
If I would be a competitive person, I would be very frustrated with my little climbing progress. But instead I enjoy the constant challenge, the uneasiness of hard routes, the mental push through in cruxes. As they say, life begins where comfort zone ends. Overall, best sport for me for the warm days (rock experience is vastly superior to gym one), and ski touring/alpinism for the cold ones.
Short folk have incredible strength to weight ratios and fine motor control from short levers. Tall people can reach farther, but can't apply the necessary force or use tiny holds as well. It all evens out in the long run, though you'll see big differences for individual lines that target a single style.
My wife and I climb at the same level despite a foot of height difference. She stays away from my long throws and compression problems. I try not to feel the tiny crimps on her projects, and it all works out in the end.