Your body swings open like a door when one hand lets go. It happens when the hand and foot holding you are on the same side. Your weight hangs beside the hinge between them, so you rotate around it [2, 17]. Chapter 1 explains the mechanics.
Grade Hörst teaches the cure, opposite hand and foot, as a basic [17]. Rowland teaches it on a slab first [120]. At V1, start with fixes 1 and 4 (this book’s suggestion). Stopping a door on steep V3s needs the flags in this chapter.
How to do it
Before the move, name the hand that stays on and the foot you stand on. If they are on the same side, expect a door.
Fix 1. Stand on the other foot. Stepping up with your right foot? Keep your left hand on and reach with the right [120].
Fix 2. Swap feet or step through, so the opposite foot carries you [19]. See Foot swap.
Fix 3. Flag. Put the free foot on the wall on the far side of the hinge from your body [18, 20]. See Side flag, then Back flag at V3 and Inside flag at V4.
Fix 4. Press your off foot (the foot not carrying you) into the wall, about at right angles to the hinge [130].
Fix 5, once you can deadpoint. Move fast. A quick deadpoint beats the swing [19].
Holding the door shut with arm strength works on good holds. It costs a lot of energy [19].
Practise on a slab. Let yourself swing open on purpose, then try fix 1 [120].
Common mistakes
Reaching before the flag is set. Place the foot first.
A loose flag leg. Straighten it and press it into the wall [20].
Trying to stop a door that has started. It is hard to correct once it begins [18]. Set up so it never starts.
