Ice climbing technique animation

I made the following animation to try and illustrate the pattern of ice-climbing movement described in Will Gadd's blog post "Spring and Sag, a suspension view of ice climbing movement" in the hopes it might be a useful teaching tool for novice ice climbers. Perhaps it will be useful to someone else. Please feel free to point out any errors / refinements / etc...

1. One usually aligns one's center of gravity (COG) below the high tool placement (your animation moves the COG towards the high tool, but in my opinion being almost directly below it is better.) Hence the sayings: "align your jacket zipper with your high tool" and "your high tool steers the car, while your feet are the engine"--I think those are the phrases...

2. Multiple kicks are fine (you depict 4) between each tool placement; more efficient climbing, however, often involves 3 kicks--an intermediate, then two final placements equidistant from your COG--shoulder width or slightly wider than shoulder width. This is the so-called "triangle of stability" with your high tool being at the top and two feet at the bottom, and your COG in the center.

Hope this helps--this is my 2-cents as an intermediate ice climber.

Also: Quarks >> Nomics

Pretty good but I agree on the center of gravity part, the body follows the high tool. Imagine monkey hanging from the high tool with your feet already walked up, butt out, and lower tool dangle down to the side for a brief rest. You will be forced to hang directly centered below the high tool.

Other comment is when it is really steep and stretched out you often rotate your torso so the low tool shoulder is out and the high swinging shoulder is in.

I think the animation is useful, as it is.  I also agree with the suggested refinements from other posters.  

That being said, simply modeling the movement is generally not enough for beginners.  For further refinements, I would also suggest adding an encore versions of the animation, which highlight important aspects of the movement (staggering tools, keeping center of gravity between feet, keep feet at the same level, shoulder rotation to lock off, sag, spring, etc.), identify and correct common problems.  For example, see https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/skills/steep_ice_climbing_technique-4316.  Alternatively you could also just try to add your animation to an online resource for ice climbing instruction, such as the one I linked to (which is the best that I have found).  

Good animation! Very usufaul, I think.

Clever...

Great stuff, but I just read Will's book having not climbed ice for 20 years, and I too think he is saying get almost all the weight below the upper tool and 3 foot movements. As a teacher I would say Karl is spot on. without some text or equivalent, there is less chance people will take home what you want them too. Great effort. If you do a second version, please re-post.

All the best

D

Thanks everyone for the comments / suggestions. I took some notes and will incorporate them eventually. (Eventually could be anything from a couple months to a few years). 

Will ended up sharing the animation on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/B5a7Be7Jyex/ along with a few suggestions. A couple other experienced folks had some additional suggestions in the comments.

Will:

"Basic steep ice climbing technique in a GIF! There are a lot of ways to climb ice, but this fun GIF [...] shows a lot of in very few words. Most issues in ice climbing come from two basic problems: Not understanding how ice works, and then bad technique leading to insecure and off balance climbing. Done well, ice climbing should feel in-balance (no barn door tension your shoulders or trunk), secure, and fun. Done poorly it’s none of these things. I spend a lot of each winter coaching at festivals as well as instructing and guiding, this GIF hits a lot of basics.

A few key points:
 -Feet level.
-Tools staggered.
-Hips out and eyes down to place the feet with arms straight, hips in and chest out in to swing.
-Move hips back and forth to unweight the foot you want to move. No hopping a loaded foot.

There are a million refinements to the above, but it’s a great place to start, and fun! I’d like to see the climber’s feet slightly more to either side of the upper tool before standing up in this GIF (prone to barn dooring off balance moves when feet are to the side of the upper tool), but pretty cool."

In the comments Sean Isaac added:

"In addition to adding slightly wider feet and the body shifting left and right under the upper tool, Be more efficient to eliminate the extra two intermediate foot placements. The intermediate extra foot moves are not required if properly committing to the straight upper arm. My 3 cents"

Great animation!
If making a next version of this animation is in planning,
in addition to all those previous suggestions, such as, in back view, moving the feet and hips a little sideway such that the center of weight (belly button) in-line with top tool (ie the dotted line position changing as top tool placements),
I'd suggest to draw some arrows in side view to visualize what Will said "Hips out and eyes down to place the feet with arms straight, hips in and chest out in to swing":
at up-foot (squat) frames, drawing arrow at hips pointing out (and eyes down), and arrow at shoulders pointing in;
at stand-swing frames, drawing arrow at hips pointing in (maybe also knees in), and arrow at shoulders pointing out.

Regarding the "extra" two intermediate foot placements what Sean suggested, I'd guess that it is less important for basic tips.  Any of the moves of 2, 3, 4 steps before the "stand" can be used, depending on preferences and circumstances (I do not like odd steps, feel imbalance).  Besides, small steps are good for beginners.