Training for Climbing, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Performance (How To Climb Series)

again use climbing a ladder as our model. Ascending a ladder with opposing hand-foot combinations (say, the left hand pulling and right foot pushing at the same time) is so intuitive that it’s almost impossible to climb a ladder any other way. Suppose you tried to climb a ladder with nonopposing hand-foot combinations, such as a right hand and right foot working together; you’d immediately begin to barndoor or rotate sideways off the ladder. Thus, the Left-Right Rule is a fundamental for balanced, stable movement.
    While you don’t need to even consider the Left- Right Rule in ascending a ladder, formulating movement up a climbing wall is much more complex: The position and shape of the hand- and footholds wreak havoc with your intuitive sense of movement. Thus, in seeking to reposition your hands and feet on the wall, it’s helpful to ponder which holds will provide the best opportunity for a left-right combination. Easy climbs will often provide a pulling right hand that can combine with a pushing left foot (or vice versa). More difficult climbs tend to be more devious because the holds are smaller, farther apart, or displaced off to the side of the route line. Advanced climbers will often be able to intuit the best way to proceed; however, beginners must be willing to try difficult sequences multiple ways to discover and learn the best solution.

Move with Perfect Economy
     
    The technical paramount is to climb with perfect economy. Make those two words, perfect economy, your mantra every time you touch the rock. Perfect economy means discovering the way to do each move—an entire route, for that matter—with minimal energy expenditure. If you have a cat, you can observe highly economic movement firsthand. Most of the time a cat moves in a slow, smooth, deliberate way; sometimes, however, a situation demands a powerful, dynamic leap to maintain perfect economy. Catlike movement should be your technical model for efficient climbing: smooth, quiet, leg-driven movements, but with an unhesitating shift to an arm-pulling, dynamic movement when it is required to most efficiently execute a difficult move. Here are five attributes of economic movement that you should aspire to.
QUIET FEET
     
    Quiet foot movements are one of the hallmarks of a climber with great technique. Conversely, feet that regularly pop off footholds or skid on the wall surface are typical of an individual possessing lackluster footwork and poor economy. For many climbers, noisy footwork is just the way they climb—it’s a habit that developed over a long period of time, as well as a flaw in their technique that will prevent them from ever reaching their true potential. Your goal, of course, is to learn to climb with good foot technique even in the toughest times. This means concentrating on each foot placement, keeping your foot steady and firm to the hold, and standing up on the foot with confidence as you proceed smoothly to the next hand- or foothold.
RHYTHM AND MOMENTUM
     
    Like any dance, climbing should have a natural rhythm that utilizes momentum and inertia. Climbing in a ladderlike motion yields the rhythm step, reach, step, reach. However, a better rhythm for effective movement is often step, step, reach, reach, since it allows the legs to direct and drive the movement. There are obviously many other rhythms, and every unique sequence possesses a best rhythm of movement and, more important, a best use of forward momentum to help propel successive moves. This is especially important on difficult climbs with large spacing between holds. Consider how you use momentum in moving hand-over-hand across monkey bars at a playground, with each movement blending into the next in a perfect continuity of motion. Make this “monkey bar” model of smooth, continuous motion your goal when climbing through strenuous sequences. (Ironically, many climbers do just the opposite, engaging crux sequences in a slow, hesitant way.)
SMOOTH MOVES AND RELAXED BODY
     
    Smooth, fluid movement is another hallmark of high economy, while stiff, mechanical movement is a sign of poor technique and a high burn rate of energy. One of the keys to smooth, efficient climbing movement is learning to contract only the muscles necessary for engaging the rock and directing movement (usually these will be the muscles of your forearms, shoulders, abdomen, thighs, and calves). The easiest way to achieve this is to periodically switch your focus to the antagonist muscles