Also called straight-arming, hanging on your skeleton · Body positioning
You hang with your elbows straight or nearly straight, so your arm muscles work less [10]. You move by pushing with your legs and turning your hips, not by pulling [5, 8]. Chapter 1 shows the difference in a figure.
Grade Learn it from your first session (this book’s suggestion): when you pause on a steep wall, hang on nearly straight arms with your shoulders set, and on a vertical wall stand tall instead. It matters more on your first overhangs, and on V3–V4 overhangs it can decide whether you run out of strength (judgement). The UK’s coach training lists it as a way to find a rest [11].
How to do it
Between moves, let your elbows straighten. Keep a slight bend of a few degrees [125].
Set your shoulders. Draw your shoulder blades a little down, away from your ears [10, 13].
On steep ground, lower your hips until your arms are nearly straight [5]. Keep the hips close to the wall [12].
Start every move with your legs. Push with your feet first. Bend your arms only after the legs have started [126].
Later, to gain height, turn the hip on the reaching side to the wall instead of bending the arm [102, 127]. See Turning the hip in.
Rest and shake out one arm at a time from a straight-arm stance [8].
Bend your arms for the end of a move, a precise catch or a lock-off. When you catch, tense your shoulders [10].
Common mistakes
Sagging onto fully straight arms with slack shoulders. The coach Neil Gresham says this strains the shoulders [125]. One physiotherapist calls it a risky habit, and says he has seen it contribute to a shoulder dislocation [10]. We found no study that measures it.
Sinking low on a vertical wall. It moves weight from your feet to your fingers [2]. Stand tall there and accept a slightly bent arm.
