4 Climbing Techniques Every Beginner Should Master

The sport of climbing has been growing in popularity as more people are drawn to its fun physical nature and mental problem-solving challenge. Whether you enjoy climbing as a hobby or are looking to excel in the sport, there are basic techniques that every beginner should master to have successful and enjoyable sessions.

1. Proper Foot Placement: How to be quiet, smush bugs, and smear

Most of us are accustomed to sports where our feet stay on the ground, but on a homogeneous and flat surface. Climbing can be disorienting, suddenly requiring the use of your feet, and on varying types of surfaces, sizes, and angles of the wall. One of the most common beginner mistakes is relying too heavily on upper-body strength to execute pull-through moves. In both bouldering and top rope climbing, your legs are your strongest assets, not only helping you conserve strength through more efficient movement, but also creating full body tension to take weight and strain from your arms.

Practicing the following foot-forward skills will help you become aware of your feet on the wall.

Silent Feet: Practice placing your feet quietly onto holds as you move up a climb. This will force you to be deliberate and intentional with your placement, giving your feet the attention they deserve.

Squash the Bug: When putting your foot on a hold, place the tip of your toe on the hold rather than your entire foot, and drive your toe into the hold as though you were squishing a bug underneath it. This will help you learn how to drive through your toes and gain confidence in your balance, tension, and control.

Smearing: Instead of letting your foot dangle in the wind, practice driving the tip of your toe against the wall where there is no foothold at all. This technique, known as smearing, will be particularly useful for shifting your center of gravity and maintaining body tension.

2. Body Positioning: Your hips don’t lie

Your hips can significantly influence where your momentum, center of gravity, and force are applied to the wall. Use these techniques to explore the effects of different body positions and become comfortable with moving your hips against the wall.

Keep Your Hips Close: After every move on a climb, see how close you can get your hips to the wall. You will be able to feel how adjustments in your hips affect the force on the holds and your center of gravity.

Tense Your Core: While climbing, check in with your gut. Are you engaged? If not, tense up your core. Do you need a cue to help you do it? Make a “Tsss” sound as though you are a bike tire losing air. This will help you engage your core muscles and discover how core tension can make it easier to maintain a hold.

Twist and Shout: Before grabbing the next hold on a route, rotate your hips to one side and then the other to feel how putting a hip into the wall instead of always staying square can help you extend and reach your next hold. And then shout “WOOHOO” when you finally send that climb you’ve been working on!

3. Flagging: Were you raised in a barn?

Flagging is a technique where one leg is extended horizontally to maintain balance and shift the center of gravity in a desired direction. Often, flagging can be used to prevent a “barn door”, where moving to a hold causes you to swing off the wall as though you are a door on hinges. Flagging is a great way to execute ipsilateral moves without peeling off the wall.

Try these flagging techniques.

Inside Flag: Cross one leg behind the other to stabilize your body, allowing you to create enough body tension to reach an extended move.

Outside Flag: Extend one leg to the side while remaining relatively square to the wall, creating a counterbalance to a lateral move.

Back Flag: Cross one leg behind the opposite leg and press against the wall, allowing you to shift your center of gravity in the opposite direction of your flagged foot and reach holds farther away.

4. Grip Use: Grip it and rip it (but hopefully don’t get a flapper)

The holds that comprise a route will tell a story about the type of grip required for the problem. Knowing the best way to grip a hold efficiently will help you begin to plan beta and keep fatigue at bay.

Utilize these grip types and their associated holds.

Open Hand Grip: A relaxed grip with fingers long and draped over a hold—good for slopers and big edges, like volumes. These require staying close to the wall and the center of gravity below the hold.

Crimp Grip: Finger tips pointing into the wall, with the pads of the fingers engaging on the top of the hold. These holds are the hardest for new climbers and carry a risk of injury if you full crimp (place your thumb over your pointer and middle finger) or overgrip. You will recognize crimp holds by initially thinking they are feet.

Pinch Grip: Fingers on the opposite side of the thumb, grasping a hold as though you are picking up a cereal box. The more vertical these get, the harder it is to hang on.

Jug Grip: The comfiest way to hold yourself to the wall, a hold that allows you to curl your entire hand around. However, the biggest offenders are causing flappers, where your skin rips open on your palm or the lower parts of your fingers. 

Only practice will make perfect, but understanding, recognizing, and implementing these basic techniques will set you on the path to becoming a more confident and capable climber. Whether you’re projecting a short bouldering problem or working through a top-rope route, focusing on footwork, movement, flagging, and grip will help you develop the fundamentals to elevate your climbing game.

What other basic skill drills do you like to incorporate into your regimen?