TECHNIQUE vs STRENGTH: Which one wins? | Anatomy of the Climb
Hooper’s Beta Ep. 70
Anatomy of the Climb Ep. 3
Intro
Welcome to episode three of the Anatomy of the Climb series! This time we take a look at a super challenging and dynamic climb Aiden and Emile did in Joe’s Valley called Great White. We even have the original footage from Griffin Whiteside! (@griffinwhiteside). Enjoy!
Climb Info
Climb: Apple Bottom Jeans (V10)
Location: Joe’s Valley, Utah
Climbers: Aiden Gloyd (@aiden_gloyd), Emile Modesitt (@emile166), Griffin Whiteside (@griffinwhiteside)
Video Credit: Jason (should I really take credit for this though… hah!)
Movement Info
Movement 1: The first big left hand
Jason’s Thoughts: This move is quite simple, both Aiden and Emile are making a big move out to the left hand, why is this special? It’s not, it’s something we do so often in climbing, but that’s what makes it important to note. At this position, our scapular is in an upward rotated position. YOu can see Emile start to fall back, BUT, he has the strength to keep himself close to the wall. This strength is in the foot, the core, and… the lower trap! The lower trap is super helpful for climbing yet most people don’t train it enough. This can be a simple adjustment to your training that most climbers would benefit from .
Recommended Training: I recommend D2 flexion as part of your warm up and training. Or for a harder challenge, face pulls with overhead press.
Emile’s Thoughts: For the first move, my left hand actually comes off the start hold before I make the big swing, whereas Aiden swings and then releases the left hand to catch the next hold. The reason I did this is to increase my accuracy aka my chance of hitting the left hand in the right spot. By “assigning” the work to my right hand and feet (taking the weight off my left hand), it allowed me to extend my left arm sooner, making the hand-eye coordination a bit easier/more controlled.
Movement 2: The Drop Knee
Emile’s Thoughts: Drop knee holds my body close to the wall and takes all the weight off my right hand without requiring more force in the left hand. Aiden’s beta for this move requires an extra foot movement which also requires him to create much more tension through his left hand and into his right foot to be able to hold his body close to the wall and move his right hand to the next hold.
Recommended Training: hip adductor training
Movement 3: the big right hand
Jason’s Thoughts: … Do we notice any similarities to the first move? Just pointing this out. Again. Lower trap. Again… D2 flexion or face pulls with overhead press.
Recommended Training: as above, D2 flexion and/or face pulls with overhead press
Emile’s Thoughts:
Aiden hits the first crimp slightly more accurately and engages the crimp fast. You can see in his body position that he’s standing up on his feet more and pressing out with his right hand, allowing him to bend his left arm and engage his arm, shoulder, and back to stabilize his body. I hit the hold with a straight arm and open hand, so I barely caught it. I then have to reel it in. We both make a small adjustment to get our fingers into the slot so we can pull in and down harder with a pseudo full-crimp.
The pseudo full-crimp: We get hyperextension in all or most of our fingers joints on this hold, but our thumbs are not wrapped around the top of our index fingers. Instead, our thumbs are stuck into the slot and used for down-force like another finger.
Movement 4: when Emile let’s the left foot come off the wall, why?
Movement: Emile discusses why it was better force / position for him to take 1 foot off of the wall to prepare for the big move.
Movement 5: the big cut!
Jason’s Thoughts: this is priceless. Allow the body to go out too far and the angle of force may change too greatly at the hands and force you off of the wall. Here is where good integration of core and upper body tension comes into play. This is engagement in the back of the shoulders / upper back and in the core. For this type of control, I recommend L-sit pull ups or other activities that promote engagement of the upper extremity and core.
Recommended Training: L-Sit Pullups
Emile’s Thoughts: I think I swing a little bit less on the big left hand move compared to Aiden. Is that because I set up for the move better or because I just controlled the swing better? (Upon looking at the comparison, I set up in a very different way than Aiden even though we’re using the same feet. My body is higher and my shoulders/back muscles are more engaged right before we “launch” for the hold. This makes my swing much more controlled and allows me to bring my knees in quickly and stab the foot to control the backswing, whereas Aiden’s legs swing way out and then he has trouble stopping his momentum on the backswing. Bringing the feet up midswing by bending the knees means less weight far away from your hands, which means less of a “pendulum effect” and a slower swing, just like how you can control your swing on a playground swing by bending and extending your legs).
Movement 6: the big heel hook, obviously
Movement: Now, we all know that I love Nordic hamstring curls, BUT, this is a case where a single leg deadlift or T position is really helpful! ESPECIALLY if you add a little bit of upper body rotation to really practice this movement.
Recommended Training: = Single leg deadlift with 3 way reaches
Oh, and also train your hip mobility, look at that boy move!
Movement 7: The Pockets
Emile’s Thoughts: The two pockets towards the end: I bend my fingers and keep them bunched together, almost like a half crimp, whereas Aiden is full-on open handing them the whole time with his “unused” pinky and index fingers very separated from his middle and ring fingers. The way I did it made the pockets feel much “safer,” but perhaps also used more energy to keep my fingers bent rather than relying more on skin friction in the open hand position. Aiden’s open hand position may be more energy efficient but also feels like it puts more stress on the fingers by having the “unused” fingers flexed and the “used” finger completely extended.
My body is also high in this position, whereas Aiden is sagging down directly under the holds more. This is because he is stronger and feels more comfortable hanging on his tendons, whereas I’m trying to compensate by holding my body up and tensing a lot of muscles. This is obviously much less efficient and as a result you can see that my arm is at an angle from the wall rather than straight up and down, which shows that this bad form is making it so that I have to not only pull my body UP, but also use my hand to keep myself IN to the wall so I don’t fall back to much and lose tension/friction.
Movement 8: The left heel hook
Movement: Notice the difference! Now there is significantly more knee flexion. This is where nordic hamstring curls come into play. Go get em!
Recommended Training: Nordic hamstring curls
Movement 9: the pistol squat, ish
Movement: I mean… Don’t forget to do those pistol squats boys and girls! It’s a good rule of thumb that the max leg strength you need is the ability to do a single leg pistol squat. Never know when you need to pistol squat it out to finish the proj! If you can’t do a pistol squat you can do 4 way single leg squats, or even a double leg deep squat to work up to it.
Recommended Training: Single leg pistol squats, single leg 4 way squats, or double leg deep squats
Griffin’s footage:
Griffin uses the same foot and body position (or very similar) to Aiden for this move, though he’s so strong that he’s able to create enough tension through his left hand and right foot that he can casually match his right hand to a higher and worse hold rather than coming into the closer/juggier undercling (note: Aiden comes into this slightly dynamically - listen to his breath, you can tell it takes a lot of power/tension for him to do that move).
Griffin uses the lower, worse pocket for a left hand. Interestingly, his fingers are more in the half-crimp position, bunched together. In his case, though, this is most likely to allow him to pull harder rather than avoid injury. If you climb V15, you’re probably not too worried about a two-finger pocket on a V10/11. It’s hard to see but it looks like he actually got his index finger in the hold too somehow.
Griffin’s move up to the left hand pocket: this is why he graded it V11. This beta is MUCH harder and takes a TON of strength to do. This climb is quite overhung, probably about -30-40 degrees in some spots, yet he’s able to keep his left foot on the hold waaaayyy down low as he reaches his left hand above his head in a very extended position. He’s actually pinching the right hand, which is just a flat diagonal slot, so that he can create more friction with his fingers which allows him to pull his body UP and INTO the wall with his right hand rather than just TOWARDS his right hand (which is actually not the direction he wants to go for this move).
You can tell how much tension he had been holding in his body to keep his left foot on, because as soon as he tries to move onto his right foot, his whole body swings out from the wall and both feet cut.
For the next move, where Griffin moves his right hand into the high pocket, you can see his feet almost come off the wall again as his body starts to fall backwards before he can engage the right hand. Why couldn’t he hold the tension between left hand and right foot and come in statically with the right hand? While he still has the lower right hand pinch slot, he’s able to keep his body over his right foot, creating a nice stable position. However, when he takes his right hand off that hold, there’s nothing to hold him over to the right (the foot is not good enough for that), so his body starts to fall back towards his left hand. Because of the overhang, he’s not able to push UP very well with his feet. Instead, much of the force is actually pushing his body OUT away from the wall. Luckily, he’s able to compensate for this by pulling his body IN with his left hand just enough to buy him enough time to snag the right hand and reel things back in.
You can see the challenge of overhung climbs evidenced in the angle of Griffin’s arm when his left hand is in the crappy pocket and he moves his right hand to the better pocket. His forearm is not straight up and down, it’s at an angle to the rock face. Why? Because he’s not only pulling up with that arm but pulling IN as well, and it’s much easier to pull in by using your back muscles rather than rotating at the shoulder (ask Jason to clarify this).
This is different from the point I made earlier when talking about my technique on these pockets and how my arm was angled out. In my case, I was compensating for fatigue and lack of tendon strength. In Griffin’s case, it is proper form and a testament to his strength that he can pull that hard on such a tiny pocket!
Disclaimer:
As always, exercises are to be performed assuming your own risk and should not be done if you feel you are at risk for injury. See a medical professional if you have concerns before starting new exercises.
Written and Produced by Jason Hooper (PT, DPT, OCS, SCS, CAFS) and Emile Modesitt
IG: @hoopersbetaofficial
