Critique this 43 Second Video of Me Climbing, Please...

I heard someone mention that people would be up for critiquing a video?  Hopefully constructively :)

Here I am on a boulder problem that is at about my flash level.  The gym calls it V1/2  Can you tell anything from that?

Thanks so much for any thoughts!

I see lots of hesitation, as in when you grab a hold, you seem to be spending a lot of time on it pulling and testing and weighing it. I’m not sure how else to explain it. Notice when you first grab the start hold, you seem to flex your arms a few times as if you’re testing out the hold, before you move to the next one. It might not seem like a big deal, especially at lower grades. But it might build a habit that won’t benefit you later when you start climbing harder grades with harder moves. That time spend hesitating and flexing your arms a few times before the next move might be the difference between making the move or using up all your energy. Try practicing just grabbing and going. It will build confidence in your hand placement and body movement. 

I’m certainly not a climbing coach and don’t really climb anything hard, so maybe take my observations with a bucket o’ salt. First, it looks like you might still be trying to use those biceps by leaving a little flex in the arms rather than using “straight arms” as we all have been taught (where appropriate). Second, just because there is a yellow hold there for your foot doesn’t necessarily mean you have to immediately put a foot on it. Sometimes it can help to flag out against the wall with a foot while you reach the next hold, then place your foot on the plastic. I mention these two things because they were (are!?) issues with me. Just my two cents. Real climbing coaches I’m sure will chime in…

I agree with Daniel, he makes good points. And take mine with a bucket o’ salt as well. I am also not a coach. I mention the hesitation because I find myself doing the same thing sometime. Hesitation before that next big move. I find all it does is burn energy 

Mildly confusing seeing this, for a second I was like - I don't remember posting this..   

I agree with the other comments! A couple drills that might be helpful for you:

- Glue hands. As soon as you place a hand on a new hold, it's "glued" until you move it to the next hold. This will force you to choose a good spot and commit to it.

- Work on stepping on footholds primarily with your big toe/the tip of your shoe, not the side of your foot. As you get more comfortable with this, you can practice traversing sideways along the wall to work on turning and flagging. Traversing is also a good time to practice climbing with straight arms. 

- Also, silent feet! I.e., place your feet as quietly as possible each time. New climbers almost always benefit from that.

Have fun! The Self-Coached Climber has a lot of excellent movement drills if you want to learn more. I tried to find a good video on flagging drills but didn't find any I liked, if others have suggestions.

Also not a coach and It’s so hard to tell from a video but You seem to be unnecessarily in a “spider” position for too much of the route. Moving your left foot up to a high hold before you move your right hand in a couple of places actually shortens your reach. You’re tall so you can still easily reach but this position moves your hips out from the wall, and has you using more bent arms for more of the time. I see a lot of newer climbers doing this because they have yet to learn flags, backsteps, heel hooks, foot switches, straight arm, etc. 

It might be useful to spend time on a toprope on longer easier routes so that your body develops a wider repertoire of good movement engrams. Don’t know about your gym but outside V1/V2 is 5.11 and you have the movement technique of a beginner. 

Ok, wow, you all are awesome!  Maybe not coaches, but I’m pretty sure you could be if you felt like it.  Super helpful comments.  Thank you all so much!  I’ll count this as my first climbing lesson :) I’m going to follow up on all the ideas here.

For how much I love climbing, not sure why I didn’t think of this sooner.  Thanks also to whoever it was on the site who mentioned that people will help in situations like this…wish I could recall who that was.

Mike J the Secondwrote:Thanks also to whoever it was on the site who mentioned that people will help in situations like this…wish I could recall who that was.

That was me, I'm crazy positive and helpful.

Daniel Joderwrote:

I’m certainly not a climbing coach and don’t really climb anything hard, so maybe take my observations with a bucket o’ salt. First, it looks like you might still be trying to use those biceps by leaving a little flex in the arms rather than using “straight arms” as we all have been taught (where appropriate). Second, just because there is a yellow hold there for your foot doesn’t necessarily mean you have to immediately put a foot on it. Sometimes it can help to flag out against the wall with a foot while you reach the next hold, then place your foot on the plastic. I mention these two things because they were (are!?) issues with me. Just my two cents. Real climbing coaches I’m sure will chime in…

Thank you so much, Daniel!  I think you are right on the straight arms.  Something I'm aware of, I think, but I need to do something about.  Going to work on this.  May be right on the second point too.  I'm going to reclimb it after all these great comments.

Dude.  Speed climb that thing.  5sec video 

Jeremy Swrote:

I agree with Daniel, he makes good points. And take mine with a bucket o’ salt as well. I am also not a coach. I mention the hesitation because I find myself doing the same thing sometime. Hesitation before that next big move. I find all it does is burn energy 

Thank you so much, Jeremy!  I think you are probably right.  Something for me to look at.  Appreciate it!

Michelle Jwrote:

I agree with the other comments! A couple drills that might be helpful for you:

- Glue hands. As soon as you place a hand on a new hold, it's "glued" until you move it to the next hold. This will force you to choose a good spot and commit to it.

- Work on stepping on footholds primarily with your big toe/the tip of your shoe, not the side of your foot. As you get more comfortable with this, you can practice traversing sideways along the wall to work on turning and flagging. Traversing is also a good time to practice climbing with straight arms. 

- Also, silent feet! I.e., place your feet as quietly as possible each time. New climbers almost always benefit from that.

Have fun! The Self-Coached Climber has a lot of excellent movement drills if you want to learn more. I tried to find a good video on flagging drills but didn't find any I liked, if others have suggestions.

I think you might be a coach!  If not, you are close enough.  These are so helpful.  I had a copy of SCC a while back and read it pretty carefully (lost in a move...).  Realizing now that I need to go back to it.  Thank you so much, Michelle!

where is this clean gym? nice 

So much bad advice.

phylp phylpwrote:

It might be useful to spend time on a toprope on longer easier routes so that your body develops a wider repertoire of good movement engrams. Don’t know about your gym but outside V1/V2 is 5.11 and you have the movement technique of a beginner. 

I agree about toproping for mileage to get your body used to climbing positions. Many bouldering training regiments actually call for repeating the same climb, often times to increase efficiency. I think this could be a great idea to implement on TR for a beginning climber…..I have to disagree about 5.11 equating to V1/V2 though. I also didn’t watch the video or have any idea what I'm talking about.

Not Not MP Adminwrote:

.I have to disagree about 5.11 equating to V1/V2 though. I also didn’t watch the video or have any idea what I'm talking about.

It wouldn’t surprise me if most gyms grade on the soft side. But when Sherman originated the V scale, V1 was 10d. V1/V2 is definitely 5.11. 

phylp phylpwrote:

It wouldn’t surprise me if most gyms grade on the soft side. But when Sherman originated the V scale, V1 was 10d. V1/V2 is definitely 5.11. 

So 5.11d isn’t considered 5.11 anymore? Interesting…my point is that if the OP gets on a 5.11d with the intent of doing “V1/V2”  he will experience some sandbagging. If the OP is going to focus on technique, in the V1/V2 difficulty range, and plans on doing to do so by roped climbing, then they should be getting on routes in the 5.10b-5.11c range…..not just “5.11”

phylp phylpwrote:

Also not a coach and It’s so hard to tell from a video but You seem to be unnecessarily in a “spider” position for too much of the route. Moving your left foot up to a high hold before you move your right hand in a couple of places actually shortens your reach. You’re tall so you can still easily reach but this position moves your hips out from the wall, and has you using more bent arms for more of the time. I see a lot of newer climbers doing this because they have yet to learn flags, backsteps, heel hooks, foot switches, straight arm, etc. 

It might be useful to spend time on a toprope on longer easier routes so that your body develops a wider repertoire of good movement engrams. Don’t know about your gym but outside V1/V2 is 5.11 and you have the movement technique of a beginner. 

I was trying to respond to everyone, but MP only lets you post so many times in a thread per day, it seems.

phylp phylp, I think you are right.  Good points.  Thank you!  I kind of thought my technique was pretty bad.  I think all of these comments are validating that, which is good to know.  I’ll be doing some technique drills for sure.

First, good use of your feet & solid route-reading skills. Second, I agree w/ most people here noticing that you re-adjust, probably more than is necessary. Third, you tend to keep your hips square to the wall by using the footholds (i.e., having both feet on holds) but you don't quite get your hips close to the wall by doing so. What you can improve on is adding more flagging, particularly outside flags. Outside flagging will get your hips into the wall more and will start to get you to push into the footholds more.

edit: I'm also realizing that someone else had the same exact advice as me. My other advice would be to keep doing this climb & see how efficient you can make the climb AND to play around with some dynamicism where you feel comfortable. Static climbing is good but so is dynamic climbing.

Cheers!

jbak xwrote:

So much bad advice.

So why not add to the conversation and explain what you think is bad advice? I guess it's easier to hurl a brick than to engage in thoughtful conversation.