Technique Tricks that made a big difference in your climbing

I worked my way through Neil Gresham's climbing technique videos, and while I certainly haven't mastered all of the content there, I think I've reached a point where the videos aren't detailed enough that I can recognize what I'm doing wrong from the video on my own. So I've been looking around for more tips on technique in preparation for the spring, asking stronger climbers for pointers, and also trying new things to see what I can figure out on my own.

Here are a few things I've learned in the past few weeks which I haven't seen mentioned online:

1. Feet stick better the more weight you put on them, I knew this before. But I what I didn't know is that actually putting less weight on your hands can be helpful. On a very thin route, I was barely able to hold the crimpy hands so I was overgripping, but this would take weight off my feet so my feet would slip. It wasn't until I stopped putting any weight on my hands at all, and just used them to hold me into the wall, that my feet finally stuck because they had enough weight on them. The route wasn't slab either, it was fairly vertical.
2. Traversing, my tendency is to move upward because I'm used to moving upward, but that's not the goal when traversing. It's actually better to have my weight low. Once I lowered my weight until my arms were almost straight, balance was removed as an obstacle because my center of gravity was much lower, and I was able to carefree-ly bounce through a few difficult traverses that had seemed delicate before.

Let's get that technique dialed for spring! What are some technique tricks that have helped you get through difficult cruxes lately?

Both of those ideas are helpful.

David Kerkeslager wrote:

actually putting less weight on your hands can be helpful. 

Or taking this a little further, hanging outward on the handholds (instead of down on them) can make slopy / thin feet work.

Ken

climbing friend,

as stated many times, this "technique" it is waste of time mmmmyah? more experience climber they sabotage on you your improvement by preaching "technique" and thusly preventing the competition and the nasty lines on their route you will never be able to flash.

you must cut your feet whenever possible, cut them, feel them so fancy, so fine and so free, dangling in the air as you are thrusting up your route campusing for maximum strength, maximum crushing, glorification before the gods and the lesser climber looking on in amazement at your holy work.

Aleks Zebastian wrote:

climbing friend,

as stated many times, this "technique" it is waste of time mmmmyah? more experience climber they sabotage on you your improvement by preaching "technique" and thusly preventing the competition and the nasty lines on their route you will never be able to flash.

you must cut your feet whenever possible, cut them, feel them so fancy, so fine and so free, dangling in the air as you are thrusting up your route campusing for maximum strength, maximum crushing, glorification before the gods and the lesser climber looking on in amazement at your holy work.

Am I the only one who read this in a Russian accent?

Def agree though on the more weight on the feet.  That is absolutely key when climbing on granite slab.  Stick your ass out and drive more weight into your feet and keep your feet high.  Seems totally counterintuitive at first but once you figure it out you crush the slab climbs.

Tianyu Yao wrote:

I have a rule where I try things at least 7 more times from the moment where I first question my ability to do it. Mostly only applicable for bouldering but it's given me a lot of mental confidence in believing in what I'm capable of.

In all seriousness, 7 might be too low a number. I finally hit a move today that I've been beating on for two weeks, I probably tried it 30 times before getting it, and was too exhausted to finish the problem. But I got the move and I've linked the rest of the problem before, so it will definitely go. :)

Of course, there might be something to be said for not focusing too much on one problem.

I try to divide my attention into percentages, pretty helpful when you need to maintain body tension. If my foot blows because I’m tryjng to stick the small deadpoint, on my next go I’ll think ok, need to keep 30% focused on my foot, 10% right hand, 60% hand going to the small hold. Sometimes I forget about my foot if I’m focused on a difficult hand hold, ect. 

The classic, silent feet. 

Smile and breathe- helps keep your fear down, and the less focused you are on being scared the better your technique will be.

If your technique is good, you’ll love slab, and if you love slab you’ll never wait in line at the crag (except maybe down here in nc). 

one of best tricks is to have Girl friend who is stronger rock climber than yourself.  very much helps get the rope up there ;)

BREATHE 

Get your feet where your hands are. 

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

one of best tricks is to have Girl friend who is stronger rock climber than yourself.  very much helps get the rope up there ;)

And they say I have no technique. 

A few things on footwork.
1) It's not always the best option to have both feet on the rock.  On rare occasions if you're focusing on staying into the wall tight and having 2 high feet on the rock, it's beneficial to drop one foot, especially when trying to stay low on slopers. Some people will try to frog out on high feet when you can keep your hips in closer with only one foot.
2) Experiment with how often you can get away with only placing one of your feet on a hold and countering your balance with a back-flag or sometimes even a front  (inside) flag

3) backstepping and turning your hips in almost always allows a greater reach on steeper (an sometimes not so steep) terrain

4) Steep terrain with two footholds and you're squared up getting ready to make a powerful thrutchy move? Many times you can drop knee to make the move more static.  You'll always drop the knee on the same side as the hand you're moving.  Right hand move, right drop knee

Best technique: follow the lead of your body in relationship to gravity and the current holds - it will never steer you wrong!

Footwork isn't just about standing on a foothold, but often actively pulling with your toes (assisted by a heavy dose of core tension). 

I'm experimenting with these things on the system board these days. At 20 or maybe 25 degree angle (so significant, but not crazy steep) overhang, I try to do long reaches to a specific hold from a given starting position (with 1 foot on, varying where on the board and comparing). I do the same move in a few different ways and then I try to understand the dynamic of the move. So it's not really strength or physical training, it's more about understand nuances in common climbing moves. 

I'm interested in long reaches at the moment - not dynos, with foot staying on the wall. A move you cannot really do statically, but not yet a dyno.

• Trying to go from a good hold to a bad hold more than shoulder-wide apart. I think I prefer to have my foot (inner edge) closer to the hand that will be reaching on the wall. Because my static hand is good, I don't need a foot underneath to be able to hold on. However having the foot already on a hold somewhere below the bad hold I will have to latch may give me a bit more time or allow for small error in timing.
• If my static hand is on a bad hold but I am latching to a good hold, then I prefer to flag directly under the static hand, because it will take weight off it and make it less likely that I will fall off when I commit to the sequence and make it less likely I fall off.
• Reach also matters - I get more reach if I flag than if I face the wall, so the farther the target hold, the more I am likely to flag for the move.
• Higher foot give more reach, but up to a point. Also if reach isn't an issue, too high a foot actually may make it a harder move.
• All these observations consider a single foot on the wall. It's important to pay close attention to the other (flagging) foot as well - it determines the balance of the move. Often it amounts to anticipating what its "natural" position would be once I latch the target hold to expand a minimal amount of energy holding there statically, and guide it there during the move. I feel the more accurate this is done, the easier it is to latch the hold.

David Kerkeslager wrote:

In all seriousness, 7 might be too low a number. I finally hit a move today that I've been beating on for two weeks, I probably tried it 30 times before getting it, and was too exhausted to finish the problem. But I got the move and I've linked the rest of the problem before, so it will definitely go. :)

Of course, there might be something to be said for not focusing too much on one problem.

Be careful with that though.

It's a fine line between trying out a move out of perserverence, and being stubburn and getting injured because you've over-stressed a muscle/tendon. Obviously over 2 weeks that would mean multiple session, just beware that repeated attempts at the same thing can be dangerous. Bouldering is bad for that, because it makes it easy (and somewhat obsessive I find) to work endlessly on the same thing....

-Hips over your feet as much as possible.  This is obvious, but I've encountered a lot of cruxes that I was just failing on, until I consciously remembered to move my hips to the point they were directly over the top of one foot or the other.  

-Whenever you're confronted with a highstep or high heelhook, make the conscious decision to FIRST put your lower foot as high as possible.

-learn how to use crack technique in non-splitter crack situations.  A ringlock in a horizontal can turn an insecure undercling deadpoint into a secure static move.

-hangboard.  The true key to perfect technique is really fricking strong fingers.  You lock off on nothing, and fool your crew into thinking you've got Bachar-Jedi footwork.

Holy campus board. No excuse.

Walter Galli wrote:

Holy campus board. No excuse.

What do you mean?

You may gain a little bit of coordination and latch holds faster, but I wouldn't say the campus board is that great of a technic improving tool?

Franck Vee wrote:

I'm interested in long reaches at the moment - not dynos, with foot staying on the wall. A move you cannot really do statically, but not yet a dyno.

You mean a deadpoint?

aikibujin wrote:

You mean a deadpoint?

That's right - why didn't I just write that I can't really tell. But yeah, deadpoints.

Franck Vee wrote:

That's right - why didn't I just write that I can't really tell. But yeah, deadpoints.

Haha, we all have brain farts like that.

Coincidentally, recently I've been working on climbing more dynamically by using small deadpoints.