Taped Tips | The Setup Mistake Climbers Make on Hard Moves
Where is the first place your mind goes when you don’t stick a move?
If you’re like most climbers, it’s probably your finger strength, or tension, or even your effort, and you’re already considering what hangboard protocol to use or some front lever workout… but it’s possible you’re looking in the wrong direction entirely.
That’s because one of the most common places things start to fall apart is at the very beginning of the move, the part we do over and over. And, if we’re not sticking the move, the part we never know for sure that we’re doing the best way. And I’m not talking about leading with your hips or driving with your legs.
It’s much simpler than that, it has to come first, and it’s shockingly easy to improve.
All of those things you hear climbers and coaches preach about as movement rules – lead with your hips, start the movement with your toes, straight arms vs. bent arms, pre-loading for momentum, triangles and plumb lines, etc. – are all individual techniques for specific moves. And they all work. Sometimes. But none of these are hard and fast principles that can be applied across the board. And we’ll bust some of those movement myths in a future video, but for now, let’s talk about something that is a general principle.
When climbing, most movements start and end in a relatively stable position. That’s sort of the goal – move from relatively stable position to relatively stable position.
And this idea is baked in to difficulty.
As moves get harder, they usually begin and end in less stable or harder to control positions.
Static moves, in general, remain fairly stable throughout, though the middle is still usually less stable than the ends, while dynamic moves go through a much less stable space, but will, usually and ideally, end with relative stability. In our last Taped Tips episode, we discussed those finish positions and how to practice them, so if you haven’t listened to that yet, you should.
Now, here’s the thing:
These stable starting positions should not always be the most stable position. It’s about finding the most advantageous stable position.
Take runners for example. Short distance sprinters start with both hands on the ground and feet in blocks. By the time the distance is 800m, the runners start crouched over, but standing, with no blocks. They start differently because that’s what’s advantageous for their next move, and that goal is different. The 800 runners aren’t trying to create as much acceleration as possible right away. They want to be more upright. If they started like sprinters, there would be a bunch of unnecessary movement right out of the blocks, that isn’t contributing to them going faster. And the same with sprinters. If they started like the 800 runners, they’d have to spend time getting lower to accelerate before coming upright to finish the race.
That’s what we want as well:
A relatively stable position that’s advantageous for what happens next, and will allow us to remove the unwanted or unexpected movement from the equation.
Which may be things like falling away as soon as you release the hand that’s moving to the next hold, barndooring after hitting holds, or crashing into holds violently. Getting rid of those extraneous movements at the end of moves very often starts at the start.
As moves get harder, we generally have less opportunity for stability, or we have to absorb more movement when we stick the move – something like holding a big swing that’s just unavoidable. In that case, we’re looking for the advantageous setup position that allows us to initiate the movement and then absorb whatever forces we can anticipate.
And in all of those cases, there is one common thing we get wrong that causes the moves to be either unsuccessful, or harder than they need to be: put simply, we rush it, which nearly always means we aren’t finding the most advantageous stable starting position for the next move.
In a world where everyone is telling you to climb faster like Adam Ondra does, I get it. But you’re not Adam Ondra. Let’s discuss a few common examples, and then talk about how we can get better at finding the best position.
Very often I see climbers set up for static move by getting high enough that they can reach the next hold, usually via locking off, and then as soon as they release the hand to move it, they start to fall away. This lets me know that either:
The position is incorrect and we might explore that to find the advantageous stability we need.
OR
If no position proves more stable, we need to be moving through that space rather than trying to hold the position where we’re not stable. Which puts the advantageous position a little lower and usually more relaxed, and in a spot where we can begin to create some momentum.
You probably imagined a square, frontal lockoff there. It’s an easy to recognize example, but let's try another, less straightforward example of the same thing: particularly on steep walls, it’s really common to hit a pretty good sidepull, get setup with a good foot directly below that sidepull, that hip to the wall and the other foot flagged, hold that tension and then rush it, causing you to fall away and crash into the target hold. If we had taken the time to find the lower position that was more stable and advantageous, we would have a little more control over the move and could completely avoid that big crash.
In general, sport climbers tend to be better at this on lower level to moderate moves. They find efficiency. They are used to stopping to clip or chalk up. But I often see career sport climbers rushing the moves when they are doing several difficult moves in a row. At that higher level, on harder moves where stability isn’t as possible, boulderers nearly always have the advantage. But I often see good boulderers not taking the time to find stability on long endurance boulders or when they try to switch to sport climbing.
A bit of a side note here:
Your most advantageous start position for a move might change with your strength.
If the hold I’m going to requires some precision, but I’m not strong enough to control the middle of the move, then I have to go dynamically, which is less precise. As I get stronger and can control the middle, locking off and going static might become my better start. And again, as I get better at using momentum, but can then create enough tension to slow the move down at the very end, that might be the better method.
It all depends, but it will never be just about strength. It will be about how well you can move with the strength you have.
And of course, whether you’re a sport climber or boulderer, it’s always possible to stick the move in an inefficient way, but over the course of several moves in a row, absorbing and countering all of this unwanted movement is going to take a toll. Or having to generate movement from less than ideal positions is going to wear you out. And honestly,
…if you’re sticking the move, how do you know when to re-evaluate what you’re doing?
Well, that comes down to awareness of how much control you can exert over a move, and whether it’s more efficient to exert that control, or to release it. This awareness only comes with experience, which usually takes a lot of time.
But we have a couple of drills we use to help develop that awareness faster, as well as to improve your ability to find those stable, more advantageous setup positions:
First is Sloth Climbing, or Half Speed Climbing. It’s exactly as it sounds. You aren’t locking off over and over, instead, you’re climbing as slow as possible, but constantly moving. It should literally look like a slow motion video. You should start with this on your easiest warmups and progress the difficulty to a place where you’re finding it nearly impossible to stop unwanted movement – things like falling away or needing to move a hand or foot quickly. As much control as possible – foot cuts, barndoors, all of it. In order to exert this extreme level of control, you’ll have to create a ton of tension, remain aware of all of the moving parts, and more important, find stable positions.
While doing this, If you find specific styles of climbing or grip types more difficult, spend more time on those and figure out why. If you find a specific move that you just can’t do at half speed, play with it a little and try to sort it out. Just be aware that this is going to be physically taxing as well – you’re creating tons of tension, over and over – so depending on the goal of the session, you may want to be sure you don’t overdo it.
The next, which I’ll call False Starts, is essentially the opposite of the popular hover drill that most of you already know. Rather than hovering as you get to your target, you’re going to hover on the release of the hand you’re moving. This is going to force you to find that stable position to start out of, or you’ll fall away immediately. After you’ve released, you’ll either have to grind to create a more controlled move, or find a way to create momentum out of the hole.
You should aim to do this on moderate terrain. The easiest warmups will likely be too easy, with relaxed, stable positions, and we want some level of challenge in our drills that comes from the constraint in place, which is in this case releasing the hand and holding position before moving.
Now, keep in mind that we can stay in positions that are pretty compromising if we try hard enough, but those will also often end up being hard to create movement from. High-effort positions will sometimes be required on really hard moves, but remember, we’re looking for advantageous stability here, which often translates to efficiency. So sometimes you’ll have to weigh several options.
When doing static or slow controlled moves that don’t require much momentum, you might want to get setup higher and lock everything down, or else you’ll have to grind slowly through the move. If it’s a dynamic move, you’ll usually want a lower, more relaxed position to generate out of. For some dynamic moves, you’ll need to come back to the start hold to create momentum, but for others that have really stable start positions, you can use the discus throw technique to create the necessary momentum.
This is actually one of the places I see better climbers still getting stuck – setting up for a static move but then moving dynamically, or vice versa.
If your setup doesn’t match the movement, it’s going to result in either coming up short or some sort of unwanted movement you have to absorb or control.
Now, while doing this drill, or any drill for that matter, ask yourself questions about what feels difficult. If you’re left stranded and can’t make the grind, is it in your setup? Can you setup higher and not have to grind as hard to get there? Can you create momentum out of the hole and make it to the target that way? Does that result in a finishing position that is less stable?
The entire purpose of these drills is to force you to spend a little more time exploring and challenging the tension, position, and rhythm of your moves, particularly when initiating toward the next hold. Over time you’ll not only be able to tell the difference in efficiency between different approaches to any given move, but you’ll get better at anticipating which way is more efficient. And that means sending more hard rock climbs faster.
EXPLORE FURTHER
You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:
Taped Tips | The Secret to Hard Moves that Most Climbers Are Missing
Our Movement Practice Resource Page
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One of the most common places things start to fall apart is at the very beginning of the move.