Effective footwork is the key to enjoyable progress in Rock Climbing.

Most (if not all) books and articles on the subject of rock climbing technique make this point effectively. My personal experience is that small improvements in footwork have provided me with large improvements in my ability to progress in technical difficulty.

Better footwork has also improved my overall climbing endurance, since I'm using my forearms less and flowing smoothly and quickly up the rock or wall. This has improved my onsight ability, since I have more "gas" to spare figuring out crux moves in real time.

This article focuses on the most basic elements of footwork: maximizing weight on the feet, quiet footwork, and agility. More advanced topics, such as counterpressure and maximizing direction of force on hand holds, are not addressed.

Basic Exercises in Footwork Awareness

The first step in improvement is to set up a "feedback loop": you have to be aware of your footwork so that you can make adjustments. Climbing is a very complex movement centered sport. Your climbing on a particular day is affected by your mood, your energy level, your skill at the specific type of rock and movements required of a climb, etc., etc.

The key to increasing awareness is to set up exercises that reduce or eliminate other factors so that there is a very direct relationship between your footwork and your climbing. Here are a few that work for me. Some of these I have discovered on my own, and some I have learned from fellow climbers or read in books. I encourage you to purchase and read as many books on technique as possible!

Assume the Position!

This is a very basic exercise I recommend for beginning climbers. Stand, feet shoulder width apart, facing a wall and place both palms flat on the wall as if "under arrest." Do not clench hand holds. Now lift either foot as if to place it on a higher foot hold. What happens?

Obviously, if you have your hips centered between your feet you cannot lift a foot without some help from your hands. If you cannot get enough friction from your palms on the wall, you will fall. To lift your foot with confidence, you have to shift your hips so that your weight is on the stationary foot before unweighting the foot you intend to move.

Very simple, no? Yet, when most climbers are climbing, they do not shift their weight onto the stationary foot before moving the other foot. The result is that they must "hang" from their hands while they move their feet. It's a small amount of effort, but it adds up with every step.

The Patriot

This exercise is the natural progression from "Assume the Position!". Pick a climb well within your abilities. Whenever you move a foot from one foothold to another, first lift it and find a static, stationary position with the foot "flagging"--not on any foothold. Jockey around and feel for the balance point where your weight is fully on the stationary foot. Take your time and really strive to put the least weight on your hands.

You are working towards a fluid climbing style where you shift your hips before lifting a foot, and you do such a good job that there is no need to move your weight around once the foot is "flagging," because you have automatically moved to the balance point before lifting your foot.

Note that as you progress, this exercise is still useful. Your movement and balance changes from front on climbing to back steps, to lay backs, to twist locks on overhangs... The Patriot is an excellent warm up activity.

Quiet Feet

Having extremely "quiet feet" is an important component of good footwork. What are quiet feet? Feet that don't scrabble around looking for their final resting place on a hold and feet that keep movement on a hold down to a minimum. In many cases, quiet feet alight on exactly the right place on a hold in exactly the right "attitude" and do not move until they move to another hold.

Quiet feet do not smack into the wall and then slide down onto a foothold. Quiet feet do not slouch on a hold, rolling about and leaving rubber smeared everywhere. Quiet feet do not slam into a hold, regardless of how much precision is used to direct them. The alight on a hold like a hummingbird hovering to drink nectar.

Quiet feet are often accompanied by an active climber who looks the feet onto each hold with precision, who scans the climb ahead with as much attention to where the feet will be placed as to what the hands will grasp.

Aquiring Quiet Feet

Try to exagerate your quiet feet as much as possible, especially on a warm up climb. On a climb with relatively straightforward footwork, try for any of the following exagerations:

Silent footwork: try climbing while making absolutely no noise with your feet. Tip toe!

One touch: when you place your foot on a hold, do not move it around. If you need to change its position on the hold, castigate yourself and then lift it off the hold and replace it in the new position. Strive to eliminate even this crutch in favour of finding a position that would serve your movement onto and off of the hold.

Soft shoes: wear the softest slippers you can find. Old shoes that have their soles worn paper thin are perfect for this. Climb, feeling every hold with your feet and toes.

Agile Feet

Agile feet know many different ways to help you climb. Improving your footwork agility is as simple as trying to discover many new ways to use your feet to progress. Here are a few:

Attitudes

 

On a straightforward face climb, try it three times in succession. On the first climb, face your body to the left, using the inside edge of your left foot and the outside edge of the right foot. On the second climb, face your body to the right and use the inside edge of your right foot and the outside edge off your left foot.

On the final climb, face the wall and use the tips of your toes to climb. This can be strenuous for beginners, but it's the fastest way to strengthen your foot muscles and your technique at the same time.

Footwork Eliminator

 

This is a game that can be played alone, or in a group. An easy climb or bouldering wall traverse with many options for feet and hands is needed.

The first climber simply climbs the route. The first climber should not make an extreme effort to use a difficult sequence: the journey from easy to difficult is the point of the exercise. Note which holds are used for feet and count them.

The next climber must use exactly one fewer foothold. If holds were used for both feet and for hands, the next climber may still use them all for hands, but one hold that was used for feet must be eliminated.

This process continues until a climber cannot successfully use one fewer foothold. That climber is eliminated from the game. The game ends when one climber is left. That climber buys everyone a beer in exchange for the right to brag about their footwork.

The game improves footwork by training you to find new ways to use your feet: high steps, foot matches, heel hooks, and other extremities.

Balance

 

I'll end my list of suggestions by returning to the beginning. Good footwork is a question of balance, maximizing the weight on the feet and minimizing the force on the hands.

The simplest of all exerices is to climb with the minimal use of hands.

On low angle walls or slabs, try climbing without hands at all, or using the hands only for smearing the walls, not for grasping holds. At first, you may only be able to stand on holds without hands but need them to move between "rests." Keep working on your balance!

At my local gym there is a low angle slab with huge holds. It is used for teaching beginners how to climb. I use it as part of my warmup every workout. You can also find a delightful variety of no hands problems on surprisingly small boulders: if you can stand up on a rock, you can move around on it and circumnavigate it. One good boulder in Toronto sits on the edge of a reflecting pool. The penalty for slipping off can be a splash!

If this is not possible for you, try climbing or traversing with one finger on each hand. Or with one finger of one hand. The key to success will be eliminating movements that place force on your hand(s) in favour of maximizing the force on your feet.

(c) 2001 Reginald Braithwaite-Lee. All Rights Reserved.

See also: Effective Footwork II: Use of the Hands