How to get better at footwork?

I am pretty new to climbing but I wanna get good at it and want to know how I can better my footwork. 

Slab and vertical climbing. Try to place your feet silently. Also, watch a ton of climbing videos and competitions, really paying attention to how they place their feet. Lattice Training has some great vids on this subject too

What John said- he is one of the best!

I’ll add - climb granite slab as thin and as much as ya can handle. It pays off. 

Guy Keeseewrote:

What John said- he is one of the best!

I’ll add - climb granite slab as thin and as much as ya can handle. It pays off. 

What he said on the granite^
Potentially scary, yes, but helps gym feet feel bigger and then you trust those more and then that comes back to outside, etc in a great cycle of applying footwork on different terrain. Also worth noting what JStar always says about climbing on as many different types of rock as possible is great for improvement, just don’t expect much to make your granite slab footwork better except granite slab

• Quiet Feet exercise - Every time you place your foot, it should be slient - Looking at your feet while climbing makes as significant difference in your precision and intentionality (Don't smash your foot into the wall and smear down till you find the hold, place your foot on the hold)
• Sticky Feet - Where you place your foot is where it stays on that hold for the duration, this incentivizes precision and placements at the toes where you can pivot as your center of gravity shifts
• Climb 1 handed or with tennis-balls in your hands (only works on lower angle slab)
• Coin exercise - (Bouldering) - Place coins on the foot holds and place your feet such that you don't knock the coins off
• Downclimb routes - Forces you to look down and place your feet

• Traverse drills. Find a wall you can traverse on mostly easy holds.
  • Traverse right to left with your toes pointed to the left the whole time. You may have to turn your hips in to the wall!
  • Then traverse right to left with your toes pointed right the whole time. Sometimes this is harder!
  • Then traverse right to left and this time, every time you move a hand, only the same-side foot is allowed to be on a hold; the other foot must be flagged (i.e. pressed to the wall but not standing on a hold). if you're moving your left hand, your left foot can stand on a hold and your right foot must be flagged.
  • Then traverse right to left one last time, but only the foot on the opposite side from the moving hand can be on a hold. if you're moving your left hand, you right foot can be on a hold. This is almost always harder!
  • Then do all four drills traversing left-to-right.
• Pulling with your feet. find a traverse or easy TR and focus on only pulling with your feet - step high and use your hamstrings to pull your hips up and over. Or step way out to the side and pull your hips over. Imagine you're dragging a piece of paper across a rug with your big toe. Or picking up a marble with your toes.

Down climbing and traversing. Those two steps will force better technique faster than anything else. 

Climb slab 

Try the forgotten art of no-hands bouldering (outside).  

I have struggled to not climb like a meathead, banging and slapping my way up routes. I have heard and tried to implement the "quiet feet" climbing with minimal success. It mostly results in the same precarious movement with an abrupt deceleration prior to touch off. The feet are silent, but lacking the grace intended to be achieve. 

The other day a friend gave me a phrase that finally made it click for me. 

"Climb delicately" 

When I say this to myself before or while climbing I pretend like the holds are very fragile. Rather than kicking, flailing, and yanking on holds I find myself placing my limbs. I use less muscle energy and climbing with more flow.

I hope this helps you.

Walk around and hike barefooted as often as you can (in addition to the great suggestions above). Many of us have forgotten how to walk barefooted. It builds strength in ways you can't imagine till you try it. In no time you'll be able to hike on gravel, rocky trails, etc. And you'll be able to stand in dime edges and you're be in greater command of what your feet are doing. 

It costs you nothing to try. Get to where you can hike for a couple of miles at least, without shoes. You'll be surprised how fast your feet adapt.

Cherokee Nuneswrote:

Walk around and hike barefooted as often as you can (in addition to the great suggestions above). Many of us have forgotten how to walk barefooted. It builds strength in ways you can't imagine till you try it. In no time you'll be able to hike on gravel, rocky trails, etc. And you'll be able to stand in dime edges and you're be in greater command of what your feet are doing. 

It costs you nothing to try. Get to where you can hike for a couple of miles at least, without shoes. You'll be surprised how fast your feet adapt.

Just don’t break your feet like I did when I tried this as a teenager

Take a few washers or quarters, run an X of climbing tape a couple inches in each dimension over them, front and back so the tape sticks to itself.

Do circuits with one balanced on each foot, without dropping them.

Climb at night with a headtorch on easy stuff. So much fun, and you're forced to really watch your feet like a hawk.

footwork is an interesting thing, and like any skill it is something you are never finished building - you want to always be trying to retain it and cultivate it. in particular i find friction footwork to be something where i feel like i am almost starting over if i haven't done it for a while.

the first thing i always recommend is "watch your foot the entire way until you have successfully put it where you want it."  i can't count how many times i have seen somebody look away at the last instant, only to land their foot completely not where they wanted it.  then, when their foot blows out they blame the shoes/holds/whatever.  if you watch your foot the whole way, you know your foot is as good as it can be - you don't need to wiggle it around, adjust it, etc.

i don't worry quite as much about the whole "quiet footwork thing".  it's easy to be really quiet when placing your feet slowly, but sometimes it's better to place them quickly (yet accurately!), which may not be perfectly quiet.

Down climb a lot

Lots of good suggestions - I would add that Undergripping is a great way to trust and have to trust your footwork. Get on a line, find a rest spot, rest until you pass the little point of anxiousness most people get where they feel the need to move, and then once you are really calm on the wall climb with your hands using the softest touch on that route you can. This really engages your feet and asks you to put precision and control into the different aspects of your feet like your loes, torque, relaxing into a smear, or really pointing to get throgh something tough.

Undergripping is easy to remember and is a good starting point for climbers that are in often stuck in  "Font Wheel Drive", especially when it gets hard.

Cherokee Nuneswrote:

Walk around and hike barefooted as often as you can (in addition to the great suggestions above). Many of us have forgotten how to walk barefooted. It builds strength in ways you can't imagine till you try it. In no time you'll be able to hike on gravel, rocky trails, etc. And you'll be able to stand in dime edges and you're be in greater command of what your feet are doing. 

It costs you nothing to try. Get to where you can hike for a couple of miles at least, without shoes. You'll be surprised how fast your feet adapt.

You may also shed a few lbs from parasites! I'm going to give this a real go for the reasons you mentioned. When I fished barefoot all of the time I had a lot of stable agility and defintiely surefooted. 

Try climbing using only the backs of your hands for balance. The only way you'll be able to move up is by using your feet. Next, try using only one finger.
If you've seen the movie Free Solo of Honnald soloing Freerider on El Cap, you'll notice a scene where his is climbing the second slab pitch using only the backs of his hands. The handholds on that pitch suck and he wanted to be sure of his footwork.

ah, one step at a time