Online Manual of Rock Climbing Skills and Techniques
Tactical parts of climbing performance
Bridgeable features often provide ways to rest the pulling muscles in our arms and make upward progress. Another trick for ascending corners and grooves is ‘back and footing’, see Chimney Rest. Climb a corner with as many hands off rest as possible, by bridging and back and footing. Climb aagin but your hands can … Read moreCorners and Chimneys
The use of these drills boards has help many climbers start to develop a better understanding of climbing on steep rock. Although you can develop one for the rock over it is the tricky techniques of the drop knee, inner flag and outer flag that this drill boards really helps. For most climbers the … Read moreDrill Boards: Drop Knee and Flagging
It’s time to combine and develop your techniques – to work your way up between places of rest and conserve as much energy as possible on the way. This section includes further exercises on technique, with the idea to hone your skills and increase efficiency. There are also sections of the Tactic and Mental Approach to … Read moreAdvance Climbing Technique
Learning to climb with efficiency is all about saving energy. So finding a hands off rests or a little respite is a key component of good climbing technique. A hands of rest is a place where we can recover from a tricky section and shake out the lactic acid from our arms and even legs, … Read moreHands Off Rests
Warming up will get the heart, lungs, muscles, joints and tendons ready for action. Whilst some people will do a full aerobics style warm-up, some will opt for easy bouldering or climbing. Some climbers will choose to do none. Although this might feel like you will be able to get more climbing in because you have … Read moreWarming Up Overview
As you are warming ups, doing some pulse raising exercise you can add in some co-ordination exercises. These will focus your concentration on kinesthesia (your sense of movement), proprio- ception (sense of space) and balance. We can effectively turn on the part of the brain that we use for learning and acquiring new skills. In the long … Read moreCoordination: Mind to Body Warm Up
Whether you climb indoor or outdoors on routes or boulders you need to do some form of warming up. Failure to do so will often lead to poorer performance and/or injury. We cover some of the basics of warming up for indoor and outdoor climbers. Warming up for the Indoor Climber At an indoor climbing … Read moreWarming Up