Twist-Locking Series: Prevent Back-Stepping Spinouts

Spin Out vs the Barn Door Spin out is a phenomenon that feels similar to the barn door, but has a different underlying cause. A barn door occurs when a climber fails to obey cross-body tension. This results in a lack of balance causing the body to “open up” from the plane of the wall. […]
Twist-Locking Series: Advanced Concepts of Back-Stepping

Back-steps are the simplest version of a twist-lock. Being an advanced article, we will assume you know the basics of the back-step. If you need a refresher, here’s how to get into the back-step position. Now, let’s focus on a few details which are important to keep in mind. The key areas we’ll be touching […]
Twist-Locking Series: The Basics of Back-Stepping

What is Twist-Locking? Twist-locking refers to a family of skills, all of which are based on the same underlying concepts: the twist, and the lock. These two concepts provide a new, and flexible, approach to “locking out” our lower body, and therefore reducing the weight our upper body needs to carry. The family of […]
Knee Bars: The Coolest Move in Climbing

Our next skill we are going to cover is also one of the coolest moves in the sport. The principle of a knee bar is similar to that of a heel toe cam, but generally provides much greater support. The Basics of a Knee Bar Place your foot on a foothold (inside or outside edge). […]
How to Deal with the Fear of Slipping in Climbing

At the core, the fear of slipping off of a hold is essentially a fear of falling. It’s specifically the fear of feeling vertigo. It is useful to examine this issue separately, as the solution to this problem is not as simple as the previous issue. It highlights a difference in the fear of […]
The Climbing Basics of Heel Hooks

Heel hooks, like a reverse flag, can be useful on lower angle terrain. However, they become a mandatory tool for roofs and roof exits. The basics of a heel hook are quite simple. You put your heel on a hold and pull your weight toward it. That’s it. The trick to this move is knowing […]
The Ultimate Guide To Dyno Tips and Tricks

Now that you understand the mechanics of double dynos and single dynos, we will finish this skill with some final tips to allow you to hone your abilities and gain greater distance and precision. The Lower you Go, the Further you Throw One of the best ways to ruin a dyno is to start with […]
Learn All About the Single Dyno

While starting with double dynos is a good way to get the feel for the movement, and develop your chops, the single dyno is where you will get the most mileage from dynamic moves. This is the most common form of dyno, but is in some ways the hardest to teach. And the hardest to […]
Soar Through the Air with These Double Dyno Techniques

Despite being the best starting point for learning dynos, the basic double dyno is actually a very uncommon move on an actual boulder problem or route. Why? It is very rare to throw with both hands. Typically, when the handholds are close enough to keep your feet on, a deadpoint or a single dyno will […]
Climb Like a Pro: How to Effectively Use Pinches and Slopers

Slopers and Pinches are Inevitable. When we break into the higher grades, we will inevitably encounter more pinches and slopers, which are frequently the bane of newer climbers. Both types of hold are, by nature, more slippery than crimps and their larger cousins, and as such are far less forgiving of poor footwork and weight […]