One of the more basic climbing movements (which you will have worked out for yourself no doubt) – how to transfer your weight from one foot to the next. Be awarene of your centre of gravity (usually around your belly button). The key is to rock your weight from one foot to the other fairly quickly and hit the next point of balance before moving on.
An everyday action like getting out of a seat requires rocking our weight from one point of balance to the next – a ‘rock-over’.
Rock-over exercises
Standing on the floor, raise your foot onto a bench and bounce up onto this foot. You have just performed a rock-over. This can be done with your hands at rst, but eventually you should be able to manage it without by gauging the amount of force needed to just arrive in balance. Too much and you fall over the foot you are rocking onto, too little and you end up back on the foot you started from.
Move onto a higher bench or a table, remembering to use both feet.
Try the move on a slabby wall, rocking up onto a foothold. Emphasise a dynamic and speedy movement to a point of balance. Visualise the next point of balance as your belly button or head moving to directly over the foot you are about to rock-over onto.
Now link a series of moves from foot to foot, each time concentrating on that point of balance.
Rocking over from standing on the floor,
a quick movement to re-establish yourself on a balanced position stood on the next hold, with the climbers belly button directly
in line with the foot.
You can demonstrate the shift of you centre of gravity from one foot to the other with a water bottle or weight hung from a belt in the small of your back (roughly where your centre of gravity normally is). The plumbline will hang directly over the foot you are balanced on.
The plumbline helps you visualise when you have reach a point of balance, when the weight is directly over the foot.
Try all this blindfolded (or just close your eyes) .You will need to rely on your sense of balance, rather than vision.
Advanced rock-over exercises
With well developed exibility you can attempt to place your foot beside your hand into a rock-over. This high stepping rock-over is particularly useful for the short, as well as on hard slabs. This will place strain on your groin, so build up slowly.
A high stepping rock over, where you match hand and foot before rocking over.
Stand side on when making the move and you will be able to step through onto the outside edge of your foot. Alternate stepping though with both your left and right foot to zig-zag upward.
Rock over tips
- Move uidly, carried by momentum, between one foot and the other.
- Hands can help you initiate and stop movement.
- Concentrate on coming to rest on on one foot in balance.
- Stand side on.
- Pivot from facing one way to the other as you alternate the in which direction you headed.
