How to get better at climbing, part 1

Ať si říkáme co chceme, chceme se zlepšovat. V následné sérii tří článků týkajících se lezecké techniky, cvičení a stravování vám trošku ukážeme, jak na to. Dnes se podíváme na tématiku “lezecká technika”, jak ji zlepšit a nejčastější chyby, které noví lezci dělají. Ve druhém článku této série řešíme lezeckou sílu a cvičení pro lezce. Třetí díl se bude zabývat plánováním cvičení do cyklů a odpočinků, jelikož se nikdo nechceme zranit.

Why is technology important?

Mnoho lidí se nás na to neptá, ale osobně se občas chytím touto otázkou. Takže proč je lezecká technika důležitá? Pokud máte dost síly, jste velcí nebo zkrátka máte nadání, začátek vašeho lezeckého života se může zdát velice krásný a lehký. Nenávratně však nastane moment, kdy mimo lezecké dispozice nebudou stačit a narazíme do momentu stagnace.

Of course, there is also a certain limit of difficulty, beyond which a climber cannot get without proper technique. It is mostly around the bouldering boundary V2 / V3 (5+/6a) and the sports boundary 4c / 5a (V/V+). Of course, there is nothing wrong with being happy at this limit, but if you want to be more capable in climbing, you need to deal with the technique.

Climbing technique: Feet

Climbing comes from the feet. They keep us on the wall, balance and push us up. Most climbing moves come from the legs and using them properly. There are four areas of leg use that climbers of all abilities use. Toenails and their correct use, putting, knees and foot balancing.

Feet: Toes

Spikes are the basis of climbing. New climbers often make the mistake of stepping on the steps with their whole foot. The goal should be to step on the steps with the toe and the edges around it. By placing the tips correctly, we can spin on the steps and move much more smoothly on the wall.

Exercises

There are two exercises you can do to improve your toe technique. 

1. "Quiet Feet" – a very simple exercise that will definitely help you. The point of this exercise is to move as quietly as possible along the wall like this. This will help you better control your feet on the wall, get your feet planted correctly, and generally improve your climbing skills. 
2. Traversing on small steps – this assumes the existence of a spraywall or a really good boulder sector on your climbing wall. Here, the climber traverses using all the handholds, but only the really small steps for the feet. This exercise will help you a lot in moving on small steps, rotating in the toe and distributing the weight.

For more inspiration, watch the following video with nine more leg technique exercises.

Legs: Balance

Balancing on small steps, in overhangs and on slabs is like daily bread for climbers. Yes, we think we have it all figured out, but only until we come across something like them Hlubočepské plates. So how do you get better at balancing (without yoga)? Practicing flagging and hip work is the answer.

1. "Back stepping" – a way to stay on the wall, be stable and reach far without the need for jumps or dynamic movements. But back stepping is also a good way to learn how to turn your knees and use them to stay on the wall. Here again, it's great if you have spray wall or boulder problems where you have a range problem. Climb as normal, but when you fall short, twist your knee (as in the illustration video below) and avoid the dynamo.
2. Slow climbing – climbing slowly and ideally quietly not only helps with leg technique, it also forces you to handle your balance better. When you force yourself to climb slowly, you will inevitably have to bypass the dynamic and power elements you would use and instead flag, spike, and otherwise balance around problems.

Bonus tip: Climb weak. There's no better way to learn to balance than on an inclined platform without good grips.

Legs: Smearing

Smearing, or rubbing the foot against a large space, is one of the basic climbing techniques (especially indoors). In theory, this is a very simple and intuitive technique that we all do almost by mistake. However, in practice it is a bit more difficult.

During smearing, the climber is not standing on any good entry. On the contrary, it stands on nothing but the structure (inside) or the rock itself (outside), which is held only by the friction between the rubber of the shoe and the surface. 

How to train this technique? This is not so much about drills or exercises as it is about climbing. Climb a lot and climb often. Weaknesses help this technique. Along with that, the inner walls as well Smíchoff or Jungle Gym they have boulders designed for smearing. So if you go there, there's a good chance you already know how to do it.

Climbing technique: Hands

Working with the hands is quite "simple" compared to the positioning of the legs. Apart from climbing on your hands, there is one thing that will help you. These are "soft fingers" or soft grips.
Jde o velice jednoduchý princip. Mnoho z nás během lezení drží chyty velice křečovitě a tvrdě. Není to však potřeba. Když už chyt držíte správně po technické stránce (alepoň trochu), více síly vám nepomůže. Ba naopak, o to dříve se vám unaví předloktí a spadnete. Proto se snažte brát chyty “jemně” a “hladce”. Tak, aby vaše ruce neduněly celou halou.

Climbing Technique: Styles

The styles are clear. The more you master them, the better and more complete climber you are. But fitness is something else. At the same time, we also mean climbing style. Whether it is dynamic, static, jerky or smooth and so on. 

Styles: Variations in techniques

The first "part" of climbing styles is solved simply. Climb more! Yes, we know you have your preferred style (my personal one is for example joint). But you have to try new things and different climbing styles, such as slab or gap, to become a better climber. At the same time, this variation will open up more space for you to perform climbing feats, and you may even like one of them. But this does not only apply to entire climbing styles, but also to types of holds. Yes, the handrails are beautiful, you have to have strong fingers on the bars and the slopers are evil (personal opinion). But that doesn't mean we can avoid them. Using and climbing everything available is the process of forming a climber.

Styles: More catches, more fun

The second "part" of the styles is a bit more complicated, as it is appropriate that someone declares you on them. Each of us has our strengths and weaknesses that we want to push through or, on the contrary, bypass, which shapes our climbing. The goal should be to create a smooth climbing style in which we just float through the holds. There are three main drills for this.

 1. Energy use: In English, "use of momentum", it is a drill (and therefore a climbing technique) where we do not waste kinetic energy. What do we mean? For example, the well-known "stuck" after a dynamic jump or flicking a catch that was out of hand. The kinetic energy from the jump has to go somewhere, and it costs us a lot of strength to maintain it, which is of course exhausting. It is much better to use it and immediately move on to the next hold. This is very well practiced on a slightly overhanging wall with handrails. In short, dive into the hold and continue straight up.

2. Clutches: It is an exercise practiced, among other things, for example Shauna Coxsey, OL representative for Great Britain. Choose a simple boulder (2-3 difficulty below your standard). Climb the route in such a way that before each hand movement you have to touch it with your foot (or vice versa, touch it with your hand before moving your leg). This drill will not only make you stronger, but also significantly improve energy saving and road reading.
3. Climbing down: Climbing is about upward journeys. However, boulders can also be climbed down, which is exactly what we recommend! Crawl your way through again, but in reverse. Aside from getting stronger, this exercise will force you to repeat the techniques you just used, which is never a bad thing!

As the last little cherry of the article, we recommend a video by Redbull and Shauna Coxsey about what happens to the human body when climbing. This is a good quick video explaining some of the body mechanics behind climbing.