skill/technique oriented drills to do at the gym?

Do you do any movement-oriented drills at the gym to improve their technique, on-sight ability, footwork etc? Could you share some? Do you know any interesting resources/books for this sort of training? Is there a good "encyclopedia of climbing skills/techniques" so I can see what my weaknesses are?

Few ones that I've seen/done:

"Laps" of foot and hand techniques. On a wall with a lot of holds, I would go up using only drop-knees for foot-work, then go up using only inside flags, then only using outside flags, then only using heel hooks, then only using toe hooks etc.

A few people together, one does a few moves, next person repeats and adds another. The aim is to be the last one to fail.

Take a random not-too-hard problem, do it and then start eliminating foot holds (not hand-holds) or replacing good footholds with crappy ones.

A few that I've come across, on the lead wall

- For dynamic climbing, pick a route that you find pretty easy and do laps, eliminating a hand each time (thus forcing you to make bigger moves). You can make it competitive with your partner.

- For static climbing, have your belayer to shout "stop" or something periodically. You have to freeze, in exactly the same position (could be mid-move) for e.g. 5s

Not really technique, but falling "practice" is often mentioned too. A few ways to do this, my favourite is just to never clip the chains when leading indoors. Take the whipper instead.

^careful with that, a lot of gyms don't appreciate victory whips.

I like running laps without coming off the wall, since it's only bouldering at my local gym. I try and do 3-4 routes without a rest with an easy down climb in between.

Me and my buddy call out "piece"and you have to go through the motions of placing a piece where you are, it looks kooky but who cares.

If you are interested in "movement training" in the gym, a copy of The Self Coached Climber would be a worthwhile investment. The authors of that book heavily emphasize indoor technique work.

That said, I think that those sorts of quirky little drills are generally a complete waste of time. Does mimicking the action of placing a cam while in the gym really make you a better trad climber? Do you really learn anything that will be useful in real climbing by doing endless drop-knees on big footholds? I generally think that your time is better served simply by trying to climb well, and to climb hard. On easy milage, try to climb with perfectly, silently, and efficiently. On harder routes and boulder problems, find ones that are difficult for you, and exploit your weaknesses.

Dave MacLeod's "9 out of 10 climbers ..." has some suggestions IIRC.

Couple things I do and think about:

Find an overhanging area and hang from two good jugs. Without using any momentum or swing, lift up one leg and place it on a foothold and try to toe in and pull your hips in. (with straight arms still). Then repeat with other foot. I usually do several reps of these. Helps build good coordination and core strength. Its like doing alternating hanging leg raises with the addition of engaging the foot and your core.

When doing routes I use a 3 count for every time I foot.
1. Spot the foot
2. Place the foot
3. Weight the foot.

I don't take my eyes off the foot until its in its best position.

Silent feet is a common practice.
Avoid sliding your shoe down the wall to land on a foothold. Place it precisely and accurately.
Learn to pull your hips closer to the wall with your feet and adjust your center of gravity accordingly. Preferably over that foot if possible.

+1 on "Self Coached Climber" and "9 out 10 Climber..."

JCM wrote:If you are interested in "movement training" in the gym, a copy of The Self Coached Climber would be a worthwhile investment. The authors of that book heavily emphasize indoor technique work.

Yeah, thank you. Will check it out.

JCM wrote: That said, I think that those sorts of quirky little drills are generally a complete waste of time. Does mimicking the action of placing a cam while in the gym really make you a better trad climber? Do you really learn anything that will be useful in real climbing by doing endless drop-knees on big footholds?

I am trying to work out a structured pre-climbing routine for myself that would be similar to ballet barre. It is not a replacement for climbing (bouldering or routes), but more of a structured warm up that covers a body of the climbing movement so it helps me find my balance and "switch me on" for the actual performance climbing.

Would I learn something from doing these drills? Probably not, it's simply a reinforcement of the engrams. Just like a ballet dancer does not really learn/train anything while doing barre and yet it's done before every class and rehearsals.

PS. I think climbing is closer to dance or wrestling then to weight lifting. A lot of my personal training notions are based on this perception - it's hard to get strong, so technique is the main target for improvement if I want to get back to mid-8s again.

The ones I do regularly, during my warmup:

Silent feet/glue hands

Repeating a problem or route with different movement initiation methods/centers

"Through the whole move" body tension drill (basically just consciously engaging your core and getting as much weight on the feet as possible the entire time you're on the wall)

Repeating a bouldering problem statically and dynamically, comparing and contrasting how it felt

Hanging from a jug and high stepping, then finding and using high steps in actual problems (personal weakness of mine)

Another +1 for self-coached climber. It has many good movement exercises that I continue to use during warmups, including:

Silent feet/Glue hands
Blind climbing
No hands climbing
Straight arm climbing
Same side in traversing

It also has several other drills for flagging, drop-knees, different sources of movement initiation, and movement paths. I don't use these as much but still valuable.

Anyway, to make a short story long, get a copy of Self Coached Climber. You will be glad you did.

sanz wrote: get a copy of Self Coached Climber. You will be glad you did.

It's a good book for some people, but I think Marek can get everything he needs from it in 15 minutes of browsing at Barnes and Noble. His profile suggests he already knows something about climbing movement.

Two drills I've heard of but haven't tried yet:
1. Jibs and jugs. Pretty much just like it sounds. Climb with hands on jugs and feet on the smallest pieces you can find. It's supposed to make you focus always getting good pressure on your feet.

2. Pick a route below your level. Climb it once completely static, then repeat it dynamically. Supposedly you can learn some interesting things about momentum.

John Wooden, UCLA basketball coach, the "best coach of all time" apparently trained fundamentals extensively, and in every practice, right through the season. Basics like dribbling, rebounds, passing. As the season progressed he made the drills more complex, including multiple fundamental skills in one workout.

I've been thinking about what the 'fundamental' climbing movements would be, if you were going to try to train them every session? High step, back step, drop knee? Or something more basic, like place foot on exact spot, breathe, soft focus eyes to look at hold options, quiet eye on target….

If you were to try to specifically train these things, seems like a system board could work well, but would be different from the way most people use it, which is as a strength training tool, with failure at muscular failure, even if technique deteriorates as the exercise progresses.

Another aspect would be that set of these drills should be very low intensity from physical perspective and thus can be done on no-load days. E.g. you could be working on power or endurance at high load and next day do technique drills. Or, as an alternative, done with slightly higher load, could serve as a good warm-up (which is what I am aiming for).

I am thinking that the complexity of drills as well as range of motion should increase within the set. Maybe start with simple basics (foot/hand placements and switches on different type holds), then to body positioning drills (e.g. high foot/back steps/flags etc) to directional movements (e.g dead-points/dynos, rock-overs etc).

For the progression you're talking about, I'd say that the standout exercises from SCC, the glued hands/quiet feet drill (maybe modified so that you're taking more time to put your hand/foot on each hold, the point of either is to carefully watch your appendage all the way to the hold, not just commit to what you bumbled into), then same-side in traversing, then a bit of passing the furthest point, probably on a traverse.

A drill that I enjoy in the gym a lockoff drill. Before I grab a new hold, I keep my hand about 2 inches above it for about 5 seconds. This forces static movement and awareness about balance and body position.

As for working on onsighting, I'll take a look at a route at my onsight limit and try to figure out every move from the ground. If any move differs from what I thought from the ground, I train my eye to see that move differently.

Conversely, there are many times when preinspection is impossible, especially with multipitch routes, so I will try to onsight routes about 2 letter grades under my onsight ability without even looking at the route, keeping myself in a bubble of only a couple holds above me. This forces problem solving on the wall.

My 2 cents

Similar to what Sys Ex said, watch each limb as you make a move all the way to completion, don't look up until the foot is 100% on and weighted same with hands, I find it helps precision. (from Espresso Lessons/Warriors Way)

Also from warriors way, look at the route and divide it into sections from rest to rest, climb decisively from one stance to the next, then recover and plan for the next section.

Breath deeply and continuously

+1 on self coached climber

Also a killer workout (at least for me) is what we call a pyramid. Start are 5.7 or wherever and climb a 7,8,9,10,11,12,11,10,9,8,7 You can double up the top route (the 12 in this case) and/or divide the upper end more (7,8,9,10a,10c,11a,11c,12 then back down) but the point is to get well warmed up, accomplish some "hard climbing" as you build up to your project level difficulty, take a burn on a project, (and if you fall try to get right back on don't hang, rest, chalk... it's supposed to hurt/burn) then slowly back back off and cool down. It is the back half (all of it) that really kills, I have seriously fallen of a 7 at the end after being strong enough to send a route that was equal to my indoor personal best at the time. Really good with a partner when you have limited time as there is no discussion of what route should I try etc... you just tie in and go, tie in and go, tie in and go. easy to each get 10-12 pitches in during a 1h session. Also good when you are dealing with tendonosis/tendonitis as you get a proper warm up and cool down. (although it may be better to do a mesa not a pyramid in that case)

Reading through the responses, it seems to me there are three types of drills proposed.

1) True technique drills, where the aim of the drill is to perfect a specific technique. Examples would be silent feet, to perfect foot placement and attention; hold elimination drills to perfect sequencing skills; maybe the on-sighting drill where you predict each move from the ground (but isn't that what you always do anyway on every route?)

2) Movement learning drills, where the goal is to learn something about how to move, even though the actual movement pattern practiced isn't the same as used in climbing. I would include glue hands and the various movement initiation center drills from SCC in this category.

3) Strength training drills masquerading as technique drills. Sometimes these can be performed in a fashion so as to improve movement, but sometimes not. The lock-off drill, for example, seems to explicitly train a movement pattern which is the opposite of good climbing movement. I wonder if simply doing one arm lock-offs on a pull-up bar wouldn't be a better plan. Same with static climbing drills, except when done specifically to contrast with better technique. The pyramid drill described in a post above could be a good technique drill, IF it was designed to stress proof climbing technique at a certain level of fatigue, while maintaining that level by gradually reducing the difficulty of the routes. But usually it's just practiced as a strength builder with little attention to refining technique.

i think the movement center initiation drills are probably the most useful ones that i found in the book. in particular initiating from the lower foot (instead of rocking over and trying to press it out off of the upper foot), and initiating from the hips and lower back.

i use these techniques quite a bit. initiating from the lower foot has a lot of useful scenarios. one example is "popping" up the lower foot to its next foot holds, instead of trying to stand in a static position on the upper foot and lift the lower foot.

the same side in, glue hands, pivot foot, etc drills really have no value for me.

Initiating by throwing your hips towards the wall is money on steep ground. Esp. when you're squared up with the wall.

Downclimb everything.

I have found random drills give random results.

I keep a running of list of limiters (aka, why I didn't send). Then design specific, progressable drills that improve the limiting aspect of my climbing. I have objective skill-based benchmarks to assess if those drills are making things "better, same, or worse."

For example, I relatively good at keeping my feet "on" when they are far from center of gravity. However when they "cut," I'm relatively bad at placing them back on. So I do a cycle of Foot Flyaways:
youtube.com/watch?v=fDfgoTV…

Each session I make them slightly harder. At the end of a cycle I retest.