How to practice clipping

Anyone have any input on useful ways to practice clipping away from the crag/gym?

I would hang a draw on a door frame using a nail then clip it 1000 times, probably not the best so ymmv

There two directions the gate can face and you (probably) have two hands, so that's four different ways/directions to clip. Hang a draw someplace, grab a rope and get after it.

I put an eye bolt in some woodwork in the garage, attached a quickdraw, and clipped it 1000x as mentioned before.

Dylan B wrote:I hung a draw from my rear-view mirror and another from the handle over the window. I kept a 10' scrap of rope in the car so I could clip, and mthen just pull it through and reclip. Two weeks of that on my commute and I had mad clipping skills.

And mad driving skills too.

I used to do that with my drum sticks.

Just set up a state of the art system of two draws hanging from a pull-up bar and a loop of rope with a weight clipped on. Going to force myself to clip it every day when I walk into my closet. Thanks guys.

Dylan B wrote:I hung a draw from my rear-view mirror and another from the handle over the window. I kept a 10' scrap of rope in the car so I could clip, and mthen just pull it through and reclip. Two weeks of that on my commute and I had mad clipping skills.

I've heard of people using their rearview mirror. The tricky part comes when you're trying to clip with a MEAN pump! In that case, the only way to practice to be confident with pumpy clipping is to clip while you're climbing and pumped!

mc813 wrote:Just set up a state of the art system of two draws hanging from a pull-up bar and a loop of rope with a weight clipped on. Going to force myself to clip it every day when I walk into my closet. Thanks guys.

I can see that being excellent practice for situations when you're high off the deck, got a bunch of line below you that stays tight when you pull it up to clip. Overhangs and ceilings can have those really long quickdraws/permadraws that swing when bumped into, making it difficult to clip if you can't get it stabilized. I notice the serious athletes take a length of rope to clip, grab these draws above the bottom carabiners, and slide their hand down and rap the rope around the gate, the weight of the rope keeping tension to allow for the rope to push through the gate. Some athletes, like Chris Sharma, always stick with the finger-in-the-carabiner-method for stabilizaion. Pumped pro athletes on steep, difficult routes impress me with their ability to demonstrate exceptional clipping ability! They inspire me to hang by fingertips and clip that rope, believing I'll succeed in getting that rope through the gate every time, without a fumble!