Reading the Wall

Troubleshooting: from symptom to technique

In this chapter
  1. Balance and swinging
  2. Feet
  3. Reach and steep ground
  4. Holds
  5. Slab and volumes
  6. Corners and traverses
  7. Endurance
  8. Reading and tactics

Find what goes wrong on the wall in the left column. The middle column gives the usual cause. The right column lists techniques to try; try the first one first.

Balance and swinging

Symptom Likely cause Try
You swing off like a door when you let go with one hand. A barn door. Your hand and foot on one side form a hinge. Nothing stops the swing. Flag the free leg: Side flag, Back flag, Inside flag. Or turn in: Drop knee, Backstep. Or use your other hand [35, 39, 107].
Your body sways after a jump, or your hips zig-zag on steep ground. You lose tension as you catch the hold. Hold Body tension as you land. Move your hips straight into the end position: Overhangs [35, 44].
On an arête your feet slip and your shins hit the edge. Your body is too close to the wall. Turn to about 45° to the edge. Hook a heel round it: Arêtes, Heel hook [50].

Feet

Symptom Likely cause Try
Your feet come off when you reach on steep ground. Your hips sag away from the wall. Your feet push instead of pull. Keep the toes loaded and clawing: Pulling with the toes. Bring the hips in: Overhangs. Hook with a toe hook or heel hook [35, 107, 113].
Your feet swing off as soon as you move a hand under a roof. You push on footholds that face down. Pull on them: Toe hook, Bicycle, Roofs. Downturned shoes help [48, 113].
After your feet come off, you can’t get them back on. The swing is out of control. Let one foot go before the other. Don’t fight the swing on the way out. At its peak, tense your stomach and use the backswing to lift your feet: Cutting loose and swing control [35].
A toe hook keeps popping off. The foot isn’t flexed, or your hips drift out. Pull the toes towards you and tense the shin and core: Toe hook [51, 113]. If it still pops, clamp the hold with both feet: Bicycle.
A heel hook doesn’t take any weight. The heel is too low or isn’t pulling. Place the heel at or above hip height. Pull with the back of your thigh: Heel hook [42].

Reach and steep ground

Symptom Likely cause Try
The next hold on steep ground is a few centimetres too far. Your hips face the wall square on. Turn the reaching-side hip in: Turning the hip in, Backstep, Drop knee, Twist lock [35, 47].
You can touch the next hold but can’t hold it. You arrive off balance or too late. Time the grab to the top of your movement: Deadpoint. Plan where your hips must end, under the hold [35, 52].
You can’t get your hips up at the top of the wall. Your feet are low. No heel is on the lip (the top edge). Feet to waist height, heel on the lip, knee in, chest over: Top-outs [248, 249].
You can’t press out of a mantle. Your hips are not over your hands. Push with your feet to lift the hips. Lead with the chest. Straighten the arms: Mantle [249].
You can’t get off the mat on a sit start. You sit square with knees splayed. Turn the hips 90°, outside edge on the foothold, bottom close to the wall: Sit starts [35].

Holds

Symptom Likely cause Try
You can’t hold slopers. Your hips are too high and your arm is bent. Your body is not under the hold. Keep your centre of gravity below the hold and the arm straight. Steer with the hips. Keep one foot low: Sloper [35, 43].
A big volume gives you nothing to grip. You are looking for an edge that isn’t there. Squeeze it: Compression. Press with your palms: Palming. Hang low under it on straight arms: Volumes [35, 43].
A hold feels useless with the hand you planned. It faces the wrong way for that hand. Use the other hand or cross: Crossing hands. Try it as a sidepull or gaston [40, 42].

Slab and volumes

Symptom Likely cause Try
Your foot skates off blank wall on a slab. Your heel is high and you half-commit your weight. Your chest leans in. Drop the heel. Commit all your weight at once. Keep the hips back over the toes: Slab technique, Smearing [45, 243, 245].
Your foot slips as you stand up on a slab hold. Your weight wasn’t over the foot before you stood. Shift your hips over the foot first. Take smaller steps: Slab technique, Rockover [243, 245].
Slab handholds feel useless. You try to pull on them. Steer with them. Press with a palm: Palming, Slab technique [46, 243].
You slide off a volume you’re standing on. You stand on its near side, close to the wall. Stand on the far side, heel lower than the toe. Move slowly: Volumes [43, 44].
A jump between volumes fails: your foot slips at take-off or you topple on landing. You launched at the wall, not along it, or bailed at the slip. Plan the end position first. Stay relaxed until the catch: Dynamic slab, Run-and-jump [44, 52].

Corners and traverses

Symptom Likely cause Try
Your arms tire in a corner with footholds on both walls. You aren’t pushing into both walls. Spread your feet across the corner and press: Stemming. Rest with no hands where you can [51, 134].
Traverses feel slow and pumpy. You shuffle your hands and swap feet twice. Cross through. Flag instead of swapping feet: Traverses, Crossing hands, Side flag, Back flag [35, 247].

Endurance

Symptom Likely cause Try
You get pumped (forearms swollen and weak) on every problem. Coaches blame bent arms and hips away from the wall. You also stop on the wall to re-read. Hang on Straight arms. Bring the hips in. Read the problem first so you stop less. Shake out at rests [24, 107, 113, 244].
You take many attempts and make no progress. You are tired. Your rests are too short. Rest 10–15 minutes between full attempts at your limit. After four to six failed tries, change the sequence or stop (judgement). See Chapter 2 [58, 69].

Reading and tactics

Symptom Likely cause Try
You get lost mid-problem, or end up with the wrong hand on a hold. You didn’t read the sequence. Number the holds. Give each an L or R. Find the matches and crosses: Matching hands, Crossing hands. See Chapter 2 [34, 41].
Your first try fails on the easy top section. You read only the hardest move. Read the top from far back. Check the top-out and the way down [33, 34].
You fall at the same move, the same way, every time. The sequence or the body position is wrong. Name the cause of each fall. Try other sequences and small changes to grip and feet. Watch climbers of your size [36, 58, 66].
You feel scrunched on a problem others call flowing. It was set for a shorter span. Use lower or wider footholds. Skip intermediate holds. Keep your arms straight (judgement). See Section 9.1 [37, 57].
A problem feels two grades harder than its tag. The style doesn’t suit you, or the gym grades hard. Judge the gym by style, not number. Compare with your own reference problems. See Chapter 2 [56, 64, 73].