Many climbers spend their careers intimidated by steep overhanging terrrain. They may tackle a vertical route with
enthusiasm but balk at a route of the same rating when the angle dips past vertical.
At the chiding of friends, these climbers often claim, "I'm not an overhang
climber," as if fate had decreed it. The naive assume that overhangs
requires insane upper body conditioning, but like many potential pleasures in this world,
the right technique can make an amazing difference . Very simple principles can make
overhanging terrain infinitely easier. Today we cover the most important and
general overhang technique principle, "straight arm twisting".
Climbing on straight arms is efficient because body weight is transferred to bone
structure rather than muscles. Try hanging on a pullup bar with straight arms and
then on bent arms and compare the effort output needed. Straight "arming"
allows the climber to make upward progress without using powerful pullup-like
movements. In fact, the efficiency of straight arms allows kids to climb monkey bars
(a completely overhung roof) all day. "How do you reach any higher without bending
your arms?" you might ask. The key lies in rolling your body and
folding at the shoulder rather than at the elbow. To illustrate, try this simple
exercise:
Straight Arm at the Kitchen
Counter
- Stand at a counter or table and put a glass
of water about 3 feet from the edge of the table.
- Put both hands on the edge of the table with
both arms extended straight.
- Now reach for the glass of water while
keeping both arms completely straight.
- Try to drink the water with straight
arms. (Just kidding. It won't work. I've tried.)
- Practicing the Straight Arm Reach
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- Try this a few times to
get a feel for the motion. Remember, don't allow yourself to bend at the elbow.
Unless you're some kind of mutant, you probably need to roll into your shoulder to reach
that water. Notice in this animation that Shawn's chest and arm hinges around his shoulder
as if you were folding a book closed. His body orientation changes during this
motion. While he starts facing the glass of water, his turns to the side during the reach.
In essence, this should happen to your upper body during most reaches on overhanging
terrain.
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- Practicing On Your Own
- When practicing, start at
a bouldering area with very large holds. Make a short reach to a large hold and then
progressively larger reaches to holds higher and higher. In addition keep the
following points in mind.
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- Use imagery. Rehearse the water reach
mentally, and act out the reach on the ground before you climb.
- Keep your feet high and spread out when you
reach. Often you can make a straight arm reach with feet lower, but after
you've reached the higher hold, you will feel extended, and your feet will cut
loose. By keeping the feet high to begin with you won't be too extended after you've
latched the next hold.
- Remember that your chest and torso should
face to the side when reaching for the next hold. Very often, the toes and knees
also face the same direction. In other words, your body should be oriented toward
the shoulder that folds. In fact, your torso and lower body will drive you into the
folded position, so exaggerate this motion.
- Get Feedback. Others can tell you what you
can't see yourself. Ask the local hotshot who likes to show off to critique your
technique.
- Experiment, Exaggerate, and Practice.
You will feel awkward initially, but experiment. Shift your feet and grip around
until the reach feels as effortless as possible. Exaggerate the motion to an
extreme. You will often feel exaggerated when you perform such new movements
correctly. Once you feel like you can make twisting straight arm reaches, practice
them. The goal is to use this technique intuitively when you need to, especially
when you're tired or at your limit. Unfortunately, when you're tired or at your
limit is when you're most likely to revert to bad technique.
- There's no steadfast rules. One
technique can't solve every problem, so don't exclude other techniques when you run into
trouble.
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