Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Author

30 degree Wall at Burnley.


damon23

28-May-2006
3:55:36 PM

With no gym experience this wall is really hard to master.. I climb 15 - 16's outdoors generally without too many probs. Jumping onto this baby had me pumped in a few mins.. Anyone got any advice for climbing on an incline?
The old phylosophy of climbing a ladder seems to go out the door in this situation. Should the body be kept tense while connecting moves? Seems to be a lot more thinking involved too. - eg mapping your moves before you start.
If you fall off should you go back to the start of the climb?
Cheers.

Fish Boy

28-May-2006
4:47:30 PM

Hold the holds harder.


damon23

28-May-2006
5:06:38 PM

So unlike straight vertical where say 75% power in legs 25% in arms.
Inclined climbing is like 75% arms and 25% legs?


Phil Box

29-May-2006
8:36:08 AM

Contrary to expectations your feet become even more important as the wall steepens. Take roofs for example your feet are absolutely key to staying on. Lots of body tension is needed so that force is transferred to the feet. Your hands and feet will be in opposition. It is like an aerial ballet with movement and grace being the way you get through these difficult climbs. Take a look at the very hardest climbers around, they seem to flow with very little effort. They string together lots of moves and flow across the wall like water. They use momentum to good effect. If you look at a gumby then those climbers tend to do one move and stop, this is counterproductive.

climbingjac

29-May-2006
8:57:33 AM

Hi Damon,

Body positioning becomes more important on an overhang. Turning on your side and "locking" your elbow by your side as you execute a move can save up to 80% power. Refer to the move that the little girl in this piccie is doing. Quite often, this is the perfect body position for an overhanging move.


Peacey

29-May-2006
2:33:11 PM

Jac,
Would it be true to say that by having ones right knee aligned with ones right arm, it would be possible to save a lot of energy to continue on with the climb?
By turning onto your side does this allow for your leg to take some of the strain form your own body weight?

Cheers

Tristan


cruze

29-May-2006
2:46:30 PM

Perhaps you might mean right foot aligned with locked off left hand. Left foot "flagging" (or pushing), right hand reaching up and behind to next hold (in the case of the little girl in the photo). Then maybe you could twist (perhaps feet crossing through) and repeat opposing sequence. This way you could alternate the side of your body that is next to the wall (if you want upwards motion).


Peacey

29-May-2006
3:01:16 PM

I think I get what you mean, the flagging method you talk of would make conserving energy slightly better. I still have trouble keeping my footing on the overhangs, I hope that this is normal and will go awy with trial and error. I am used to vertical bouldering, and want to master overhangs. cheers for the tips

Tristan

dalai

29-May-2006
3:06:47 PM

Plenty of good training / technique links near the bottom of the Chockstone links page.

Also various topics such as this topic and another.

climbingjac

29-May-2006
3:07:20 PM

Ahhhhhh the age-old question. It's rather difficult to answer really, so I'll try to answer it with an "in general do this and it will probably work" type of response.

Climbing gracefully and with minimal effort is achieved by combining lots and lots of techniques. The most important thing to know however is where your centre of gravity is. Imagine a line that gets drawn from your waist, directly downwards towards the ground. That line is where you will feel the gravitational pull. In general, it would be best if this line could also be located roughly halfway between the handhold you'll be relying on when you let go with the other hand, and the nearest footer to it. So basically put your waist there by means of bending knees, twisting your body etc. In the picture, the little girl has let go with her left hand. So speaking in horizontal terms, her waist should be somewhere halfway between her right hand and the nearest footer (or possibly even directly over the nearest footer). How convenient… her waist is located where it should be. Added benefits are that she can now use her right leg to "kick" herself in a rightwards or up and right direction. Also she has twisted her body, which also reduces power needed to hang on. Why? Her waist is closer to the wall, thereby putting all her weight on her foot, rather than hanging out in space sucking her off the wall.

Stuey

29-May-2006
3:15:11 PM

On 29/05/2006 Peacey wrote:
. I still have trouble keeping my footing on the overhangs

Start working out your core muscles (do hanging knee raises/front levers and leg raises etc) and concentrate on *really* pressing your feet onto each hold and feel the tension between your arms and your feet. Look for crafty heel/toe hooks to keep your feet from cutting.

A good little exercise to help you improve this jump on a steep wall, paste your feet on a couple of screw ons or small foot holds, then ladder your hands up to the highest holds that enable you to only just keep you feet from losing contact and hold that position for as long as you can without cutting loose.


Peacey

29-May-2006
4:16:03 PM

Cool Jac,

So what I should do is try and keep "the line" in between the nearest footer and the hand hold I'm keeping myself on the wall with? At the same time keeping my waist close to the wall? So in theory I should be able to use the power of my legs to "stand up or kick" towards the direction of the climb?

Cheers

Tristan

29-May-2006
4:18:43 PM

Hey Jacquie, maybe an "easy" 'drop knee' and a 'flag' on the vertical wall could help learn the techniques required.

climbingjac

29-May-2006
4:35:46 PM

On 29/05/2006 Peacey wrote:
>So what I should do is try and keep "the line" in between the nearest
>footer and the hand hold I'm keeping myself on the wall with? At the same
>time keeping my waist close to the wall? So in theory I should be able
>to use the power of my legs to "stand up or kick" towards the direction
>of the climb?

... in general, yes. ideally combined with twisting your body like the girl in the pic, with opposite hand/foot combos in contact with holds. eg left hand on, and right foot on. left foot doesn't necessarily need a hold, just flag it on the wall.

gfdonc

29-May-2006
4:56:08 PM

One thing I feel worth saying (and not negating any of the wise words above) is that it takes a certain amount of strength to develop some technique on the steeper walls.

(whoa! heresy! I hear them claim).

Seriously - when I started climbing at gyms a couple of years ago my base strength was pretty low so it was hard to put any pulling power on the holds. My point is: you have to be able to hang on to be able to get your body in the right position.

In particular I reckon strength in shoulders, back and upper abdominals helps you be able to twist about and get load away from your arms. Try doing sit ups (which I find work the lower abs more than the upper) as well as pullups with your knees up (thighs horizontal to the ground, they hurt! As those muscles get fitter you will be able to spread the load, and endurance will improve.

- Steve

climbingjac

29-May-2006
5:29:37 PM

On 29/05/2006 gfdonc wrote:
>Try doing sit ups (which I find work the lower abs more than the upper) as
>well as pullups with your knees up (thighs horizontal to the ground, they
>hurt! As those muscles get fitter you will be able to spread the
>load, and endurance will improve.

Yup all this sort of stuff would help. If you are lazy like me, just do more climbing :-) The best training for climbing is.... yep.... climbing !!!


damon23

29-May-2006
6:37:13 PM

Excellent advice peoples.. :-)

Some good reading on Dalai's links..


Peacey

29-May-2006
8:52:47 PM

I do heaps of running and situps, but at this stage I have only just started climbing at Burnley. So I guess the solution to my frustration, is to keep on climbing until I get better.

Cheers

Tristan

Stuey

30-May-2006
8:25:49 AM

Don't waste your time doing sit-ups. They may make your belly look good on the beach but they do nothing for your core strength and the movement does not relate to a climbing movement. Active core strength exercises which can be applied to 'moves' (as I described above) are much better for you.


adski

30-May-2006
9:51:15 AM

active core exercises such as?
(feel free to start another thread)

There are 45 messages in this topic.