Easy things to learn from a World Cup climber

Hello Cracksters

You can learn so much from climbing with new people! A few months back I had the  pleasure of climbing with Sofya Yokoyama, a professional competition climber from Switzerland. I'm going to let you know 3 things that I learnt (both crack and none crack) from climbing with her, that you can start thinking about in your own climbing right away!

1. Your climbing speed (pacing) is so important

After editing footage together of our board session, I noticed that I was slower at climbing every single problem. This is probably due to our background (myself being Trad and Sofya being Competitions).

What does this mean?

Well this can be both good and bad in certain situations, but in general, on styles like board climbing having a quicker pace will be beneficial (less time on the holds, meaning more energy higher on the board). Whereas onsight trad climbing for example it’s the opposite end of the scale.

All this made me think about pacing of climbing. Good pacing is something I think that all climbers can work on, myself included. If you don’t know what good pacing is, put simply it is the ability to move at the correct speed through a certain section; When to move quickly and when to move slowly. It’s not just about doing one or the other.

Sofya also reminded me that pacing wasn’t just in relation to a number of moves over a section of a climb, but you can also have different paces through a single movement (that is slightly more advanced).

So how can you work on it?

I really think the easiest way is to watch how other people around you are climbing. see how your friends (of similar abilities) are doing moves, and compare whether moving quicker or more slowly had a bigger impact.

Film yourself and film your friends climbing and compare things like;

• how long you actually spend on the wall?
• Are you shaking in the same places?
• Who is moving through the hard sections faster?
• Who is taking their time on certain sections? Was it successful?
• Did a quick rock-over or slow rock-over work better?

I thought I was actually climbing at a good pace when bouldering, and by filming us both, I picked up on the point I actually wasn’t.

A lot of the time, I definitely don’t use the footholds on steep climbs to their potential. When I actively think about the grab, pull and push foot techniques that are needed on the steeper boards, I often have greater success on the problems.

3. When you start crack climbing it’s all in the technique

After seeing how good/strong/technical Sofya was on the Tension Board, it was interesting to take her on a crack climb.

Again it was a huge reminder that when you start out crack climbing it is all about technique. Sofya did absolutely great, but having taught 1000s of people crack climbing techniques over the past 15 years, I’ve had many pupils who were no where near as strong, actually climb to a very similar level in this style.

This got me psyched to remind you, to get out there, give it ago and try out some jamming. You can have great progression quickly, just by mastering the basic skills, and on this particular style, you may be able to keep up with some of the best in the world!

Always remember to protect and get some rubber on those hands of yours 

Keep spreading the crack climbing joy

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