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Technique & Skill Technique & Skill TrainingTraining

Eric J. Hörst

TrainingTraining44Climbing.comClimbing.com

Assessing Your Technical DevelopmentAssessing Your Technical Development

Technical Elements & Skills Excellent Good Fair Poor

Precise, quiet foot placements that carry your weight

Handholds are gripped lightly; arms play a secondary role

Economy of movement (rhythm, pace, poise)

Use of rest positions

Use of nonpositive handholds (side pulls, underclings,

slopers)

Use of flagging to aid stability and prevent barndooring

Hand–foot matching and mantling

Twist lock, backstep, and efficient movement on overhanging

terrain

Use of creative footwork (heel and toe hooks, & knee locks)

Dynamic moves (deadpoints and lunges)

Jam crack climbing

Overview of Motor LearningOverview of Motor Learning

Motor learning is the process by which we acquire physical skills. Motor learning occurs in three identifiable and overlapping stages: the cognitive, motor, and autonomous stages.

Characteristics of Motor Performance Stages:

Cognitive Stage Motor Stage Autonomous Stage

Stiff-looking Movement More Relaxed Movement Smooth/Fluid Movement

Hesitant/Timid Approach More Aggressive & Confident Aggressive and Confident

“Muscle” Through Moves

Inefficiently

More Efficient Movement “Styles” Through Moves

Efficiently

Needs to Work Moves

Repeatedly

Figures Out Moves Quickly On-sights Most Moves

Needs much Coaching/Beta Needs Less Input/Feedback Solves Moves and Recognizes

Errors by Self

Poor Proprioceptive “Feel” Better Proprioceptive “Feel” Excellent Proprioceptive “Feel”

Rapid Energy Burn More Economical Use of Energy Highly Economic Climbing

The Importance of ProprioceptionThe Importance of Proprioception• Proprioception is your internal sense of body position and movement in space. No matter what you do physically, proprioception provides the brain with a high bandwidth of sensory data from the nerves in all of your muscles, tendons, and joints, as well as from the vestibular apparatus of your inner ear (provides sense of orientation with regard to gravity).

• This vast amount of sensory feedback from the limbs and inner ear is processed unconsciously in doing simple tasks such as walking, cranking pull-ups, or dancing up an easy climb that requires little thought. More complex tasks, however, require conscious attention to proprioception—and it’s in the awareness and diligent use of this information that separates master climbers from the mass of climbers.

• Awareness of specific aspects of proprioception, or what I call “proprioceptive cues”, varies on a continuum from extremely course and general on one end of the continuum to exquisitely subtle and well-defined on the other end.

• Beginning climbers initially possess a course, limited sense of internal feeling as they climb. For example, they may sense the basic quality of a foot placement, whether they are in balance, and most obvious, how pumped they are getting! This most basic proprioception is important, but it represents just a tiny fraction of the broad bandwidth of proprioceptive cues that an elite climber can perceive and leverage.

The Importance of Proprioception The Importance of Proprioception (continued) (continued)

• With increasing experience (hundreds of hours of climbing) and a determination to grow your awareness of proprioceptive cues, you will come to recognize a steady stream of valuable movement cues from your body’s internal sense organs.

• When practicing a new skill or working a move on a hard boulder problem or project climb, it is highly instructive to ask yourself “how does it feel when I do it the right way (most efficiently) compared with when I do it the wrong way.” Making this distinction empowers you to detect flawed execution and make corrective adjustments on the fly.

• Becoming an intermediate or advanced climber, then, will correlate to your deepening sense of proprioception in a wide variety of climbing situations. Each type of rock, cliff angle, type of climbing, body position, and family of moves provides unique proprioceptive feedback that you must learn to interpret in order to move with fluidity and high efficiency. Much of this proprioception (and the resultant physical adjustments) occurs preconsciously when you are climbing submaximal sequences.

• Crux movements and many novel moves, however, demand full attention to proprioception, thus leaving little remaining cognitive focus for other purposes. Many falls off crux moves that you have rehearsed and seemingly wired—or off “easier” moves when on-sighting—are the result of poor attention to proprioceptive cues.

Examples of Proprioceptive CuesExamples of Proprioceptive Cues

Slabs Slabs Vertical Vertical

Feel relaxed throughout the upper body.

Feel soft forearms.

Feel a natural bend at hips that shifts your center of gravity over your feet.

Feel the shoe edging or smearing on the rock.

If smearing, feel your heels hanging low and the calf muscles stretching.

Feel the majority of your weight on your feet.

Feel weight shifting side-to-side as you stand up over each foot.

Feel relaxed and steady “belly breathing.”

Feel a sense of calm and lightness throughout your body.

Feel center of gravity evenly positioned between all points of contact or centered over a dominate foothold.

Feet more weight on your feet than on your hands.

Feel the quality of your shoe contact with the rock.

Feel your fingers’ “touch” on the rock, and relax them to the point just shy of letting go.

Feel tension in your torso increase and decrease as needed to optimize leverage between your hand and footholds.

Feel your leg drive propelling upward movement, while you sense the arms playing a secondary role.

As much as possible, feel relaxed through your arms and shoulders.

Feel relaxed, steady breathing, except for when you need to hold your breath for a hard move.

Examples of Proprioceptive CuesExamples of Proprioceptive Cues

Overhanging Overhanging Crack Crack

Feel your weight hanging on straight arms with relaxed biceps; except on big moves feel biceps contract.

Feel “soft forearms” when you are hanging on good holds; feel taut forearms when pulling a small hold or pocket.

When climbing straight on (facing rock), feel your legs and hips turning out and your feet pulling your center of gravity closer to the rock.

When twist locking, feel tension throughout your torso—feel the tension connect your hand and foot contact points.

When twist locking feel your center of gravity drawing in close to the rock (more over your feet).

Between hard moves feel relaxation through your biceps and shoulders.

Feel relaxed, steady breathing, except for during maximal moves.

In finger cracks, feel your fingers twisting and biting in the crack, while your forearms feel somewhat relaxed.

In hand cracks, feel the muscles in your palm squeezing and contracting, while the forearm muscles feel more relaxed (wiggle fingers to relax the forearm muscles).

When jamming thumbs-down, feel your elbow torque downward to secure the jam.

In fist cracks, feel hand muscles contract maximally, feel forearm muscle contract partially.

Feel the crack securely squeezing on your toes or foot.

Feel your weight positioned over your feet.

Feel arms relaxing as much as possible.

Feel leg drive propel the upward movement. Feel your arms playing a secondary role.

Feel relaxed, steady breathing, and an inner sense of calm.

Lessons from the School of Lessons from the School of Motor LearningMotor Learning

1. Accept that you don’t know it all and that you have a vast potential to improve. Regardless of your level of expertise, know that there’s always room for improvement. No climber ever graduates from the school of motor learning!

2. Embrace a beginner’s mindset.Foster a constantly curious mindset in order to discover new moves, distinctions, and proprioceptive cues. Be a voracious learner.

3. Engage in scheduled practice sessions.Commit a portion of your indoor climbing time to practicing skills, rather than constantly focusing on sending boulder problems and routes. Dedicate occasional outdoor-climbing days to practicing weaker skills and gaining exposure at new types of climbing.

4. Withhold judgment of your climbing performance during practice sessions.Let go of the need to perform—leave your ego at the home—and concentrate on learning skills and refining movement, even if means falling and “looking bad.”

Lessons from the School of Lessons from the School of Motor Learning Motor Learning (continued)(continued)

5.Repeat newly learned moves/skills to develop accurate knowledge of proprioceptive cues.

Take mental note of the specific cues and consider writing them down to help lock the cues into long-term memory.

6.Train and climb with an open mind. Aspire to glean wisdom from all you do—acute awareness of subtle distinctions of

mind and body is a common trait of all master climbers.

7.Accept feedback from a coach (or others) without ego. Recognize that constructive feedback is essential to elevating your game. Make it

your long-term goal, however, to develop the acuity to self-diagnose and self-correct technical flaws, as your awareness of intrinsic feedback grows.

Tips for Improving Technique and Tips for Improving Technique and Enhanced Learning of New SkillsEnhanced Learning of New Skills

1. Engage in regular climbing practice.Frequently go climbing with the intention of learning new skills and improving quality of movement, with little regard for absolute difficulty. Climb on as many different types of rock, wall angles, and areas as possible to build diverse skills and true climbing expertise.

2. Practice new skills and techniques early in the session while you are physically and mentally fresh. Strive to discover the novel feeling of each move—take note of the proprioceptive cues of your successful attempts at a move.

3. Use blocked practice to accelerate learning of new moves.During the initial trials of a new move, skill, or sequence, focus practice with repeated attempts until you develop “feel” and quality, controlled movement. After two or three successful repetitions, cease blocked practice in favor of variable and randomized practice.

Tips for Improving Technique and Tips for Improving Technique and Enhanced Learning of New SkillsEnhanced Learning of New Skills

4. Employ variable practice to expand command of newly acquired skills over a wide range of conditions.Vary the “route” conditions (angle, hold size, rock type, etc.) greater than you expect they will vary in real climbing situations. Note how proprioceptive cues for a given move change as the rock conditions change.

5. Practice known skills in varying states of fatigue.Practice core skills and recently sent routes in various levels of fatigue to increase mastery and to build long-term retention. Strive for crisp, economic execution despite your fatigued state.

6. Use random practice to enhance recall of widely varying skill sets.Climb several very different routes back to back in order to mandate recall of many different motor programs.

7. Model the techniques and tactics of advanced climbers.Also seek out high quality media to obtain sage advice and expert tips that will accelerate learning.

Tips for Improving Technique and Tips for Improving Technique and Enhanced Learning of New SkillsEnhanced Learning of New Skills

8. Aspire to dominate at a climbing grade. Focus practice on routes at or just below you maximum difficulty and resist the urge to constantly work routes beyond your ability level. Eschew constantly hanging on the rope as a modus operandi.

9. Resolve to find the best way to do a move or sequence and resist the urge to just thrash up the route and deem that as “acceptable.” As a practice method, climb a route several times to identify the proprioceptive cues that will guide you to the most effective and efficient movement.

10.Possess a long-term perspective to learning to climb. No matter how fast you improve or how hard you climb, realize that you can still improve technique and learn new skills—even after ten or twenty years or more!

The End!The End!