Rock Climbing Notes

Key notes from a lot of videos on youtube:

1. Obviously, keep your body in tight to the wall whenever you are making a move
2. Whenever possible, keep your center of gravity on the line perpendicular to the hold's edge, and pull your weight along that line to make the next move
1. particularly important for "slopers"
2. Also want as much surface contact as possible
3. Use straight arms to hang to save energy, until you make your move
1. The hip of whichever arm is extended is the one that should be close to the wall when reaching. 
4. Put your weight either on the inside of your big toe, or the outside of your pinky toe
5. Most natural progression of moves: Find a solid hand hold, set your feet to be able to push yourself to the next solid hold, make the reach/grab, reset the feet, then release the original solid hold and start again. If you release the solid hold before resetting the feet (and your center of gravity), then your body will make a more dramatic swing to its new base, and cause you to fall off.
6. Use your leg as a counter balance, whether it's out in the air, or flagging against the wall

Notes from Improve Your Climbing:

1. Have an active leg and a balancing/stabilizing leg
2. Twist lock - can keep the straight/hanging arm nearly straight even when making the move, by twisting your body in toward the wall.
1. Bend the knee on the side of the reaching arm
2. pivot toe from straight on to outside edge
3. Extends the range of the reach
4. Keeping the arm straight improves blood flow in addition to saving energy
3. Outside Edge - Don't need to use foot holds on the left with the left foot, could step through with the right foot, placing the outside edge of the foot on the hold
1. Forces a hip into the wall
2. same as the twist lock
3. get your feet into position with the active leg bent, then start the move by extending that leg, THEN making the reach, not the other way around
4. General Note: Ok to be parallel and have the butt out when setting up for the move, but bring the hips in tight to the wall during the actual move
4. Flagging - Pushing the free leg against the wall for stability.
1. Use the counter balancing leg to push against the wall either in front of or below the active leg
1. If the active foothold is high, then flag behind
2. If the active foothold is low, flag in front
2. Should fully extend the active leg at the start of the move, then make the reach
5. Drop Knee - the above moves are all for a single foothold. For two footholds, use an analogous technique where you pivot your hips to the wall, but now the knee is bent downward, rather than leg extended
1. move enables you to utilize a very high foot hold
2. in this case, the active leg stays very bent, and the one usually acting as the balancing leg may give a bit of a push or stay bent
3. the outward pressure from both legs creates a bit of a bridge between two stable points
4. must have careful foot placement in order to have room to pivot from inside to outside of your foot
5. place the pivoting foot while you're hanging with straight arms. Ok to have butt away from the wall to make the placement, then as you pivot, the hips come to the wall as the knee clears out of the way
6. need to rotate fully in order to lock into place (will look like you are running along the wall, with toes, hips, and knees all pointing in the same direction)