3 Biggest Mistakes on SLOPERS

We think slopers can be the most unforgiving holds but do we need wizard level technique to master them? It turns out more than 95% of the errors made on slopers come down to just 3 common mistakes. Coach Aiden reveals his secrets with what these mistakes are and how we can work through them. We cover the details of body position, friction and grip position. With these 3 skills, one becomes the master of slopers.
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[@Biceps_Mou]

Bleausard pro tip straight from Font, a.k.a. the kingdom of slopers: when smacking the holds with a rag, you have to shout at it as well (i.e. PAH, PAH...) to actually frighten it and scare the dust and chalk away. Works magic! (and psyches you up to really try hard ;) More seriously: Great video and good tips!

[@Perrseus]

The biggest mistake which no content creator covers is not realizing the massive strength component of holding slopers (and not crimping them). After an intense training session of doing pullups on slopers I feel so much more fatigue in my inner hand muscles, wrists, and forearms while feeling very little strain in my pulleys. Everyone says "body positioning and friction is everything" with slopers, but it's really body position + friction + strength. There's a reason some people can jump onto the bm2k slopers and control the swing while most people, regardless of conditions can't even get their feet off the ground.

[@LatticeTraining]

Yes true. But I wouldn't say lack of strength is a 'mistake'. Techniques and tactics can often be corrected on the spot or in a session. Strength is a long term pursuit. Just as important of course, so good point. Maybe better suited to a 'sloper training' video.

[@zacharylaschober]

To be fair with regards to the 45s on the bm2k, this has a tremendous amount to do with conditions but also this varies board to board. I know some boards with a nice, textured, and consistent 42° all the way to a polished near 50°. However, wrist strength is pretty essential for keeping the arm in the correct position for optimal contact.

[@dawnriddler]

Holding and not crimping is my biggest issue. I keep using tips of my fingers to hold on, instead of the whole hand.

[@tombuckett1574]

The demonstration with the bands was really helpful.

[@slapthesloper]

What’s great about slopers and all of these tips is that they actually apply to almost every hold you encounter and will make most moves easier (direction of pull, hips in, correct thumb/finger engagement etc)

[@alexgalays910]

Yeah it's true for all holds but you feel the tiny margin of error on sloppers more

[@buoyanProjects]

One the big ones for me was the realising the power of opposing forces. I've had a lot of slopers that felt impossible until I found a good heel or toe to compress the sloper with from the right angle.

[@abelabel3664]

Instructions unclear. Fingers turned into resistance bands, drank liquid chalk and pinched my core.

[@toladamatanou3134]

You tried to crimp your t-shirt too much, apply more pressure through the thumb while brushing

[@LatticeTraining]

😂😂😂 oh dear

[@BrianRoy86]

@@LatticeTraining that is such a british reply 😄 I'll give some of these tips a try tonight. thanks for another great video!

[@leonstallaert9214]

Hillarious

[@paulgaras2606]

Brilliant. We have these bubbly looking holds at my gym that I keep falling off of. I shall try the partial crimp technique

[@hidden_sense9839]

Thanks for the great video! About getting full chalk coverage on your hands: Personally I have a chalk ball (or after reading a tip from Tom Randall it's actually an old Sock filled with chalk) rolling around in loose chalk. When I take it and roll/knead it in my hands I get the perfect full layer of chalk. So far this works for me way better than directly gripping into the chalk.

[@N0ENEMIES]

Good stuff. Thanks.

[@drulilley4328]

Love your videos!

[@KungFoo1]

Pro tip, use the screw holes for monos. It helps 100%

[@iwillcontactattorneygenera1078]

Pro tip, you'll fuck up your finger this way. (Don't put fingers in screw holes. When people do that and fall... the finger doesn't always want to come out)

[@KungFoo1]

@@iwillcontactattorneygenera1078 I was joking. I’d never do this.

[@Trumanian]

So useful !!!

[@Kraneoskuro]

Does your weight affect? (sounds like an obvious "yes" question) I mean, sometimes there is only one best way to grab a slopper and in a slab there is nothing to apply counter pressure, so it's all about body positioning. Could be that certain slopper in certain angle is ok to hold for a person and physically impossible to hold for another person +15kg? My guess is that second person should get stronger.

[@zacharylaschober]

To follow on this, unlikely physically impossible but simply harder. Climbing has such a mass of variables even if we talk about a hangboard, the relative length of the fingers and distal pads plus actual length of each will mean quite a different amount of force person to person. Thus, one individual may crush a 20mm 1/4” roundover edge, but find a sharper 22mm edge much harder as the fingers don’t align as well, or vice versa.

[@savvass2149]

what shoes is Aiden wearing here?

[@damaexn]

when im having to do a dynamic move on a sloper i feel a sharp pain in my wrist. after letting go it instantly fades. any idea what im doing wrong?

[@nyao1757]

Pull your shoulder blades down and back, make sure its engaged and I guarantee it will help

[@damaexn]

@@nyao1757 i do that generally, as if i dont it instantly derps my shoulder.

[@zacharylaschober]

Likely an issue with wrist stability. Do some exercises for wrist flexion, extension, and ulnar and radial deviation. These are great exercises to do basically a couple days a week during any style of training but can be dropped during a performance phase.

[@oakleyorbit]

It’s funny that you wanna get rid of the chalk just so you can apply more.

[@LatticeTraining]

We want to get rid of loose chalk, that sits like dust on a hold. Or excess chalk that will shift or have worse texture than the holds. The chalk on our hands should be properly bedded in and not move about. Excess chalk from your hands should also be patted or blown off.

[@cheeks7050]

Why is chalk good on your hands but bad on holds?

[@LatticeTraining]

Its excessive or loose chalk on holds we want to remove, it can cause your grip to move or slip. Chalk on hands helps remove moisture but excessive chalk on hands is not good either.

[@pietervermeulen1619]

I heard a common misconception when people talk about friction. The amount of friction has nothing to do with surface area. Friction depends on the two surfaces in contact (your hand and the hold), this is called the friction coefficient, and the normal force (how hard you pull perpendicular to the hold). Each tip is still valid, so no worries. The correct body position makes you pull more in the perpendicular direction. Brushing your holds and chalking your hands will increase the friction coefficient between your hands and the holds. When you are good at crimping, a full crimp lets you pull harder on the hold and thus also increases the normal force.

[@babsds0]

True, but if you have a larger surface area in contact with the hold you won't need to generate as much force.

[@tysonwhitman3303]

this is completely true in an idealized physics scenario! However, because skin is malleable and holds are textured, adding more surface area fill more divots which is very relevant!

[@pietervermeulen1619]

@@babsds0 that would suggest that friction is dependent on the surface area, which it is not

[@pietervermeulen1619]

@@tysonwhitman3303 Interesting point, but I'm not quite convinced. On a microlevel, friction is partially caused by deformation or in other words filling up divots. Nevertheless, there is no dependency on the surface area. So unless the texture pattern is bigger than a finger pad, I don't think it would matter if you crimp or use your full hand. But I'm not sure about either

[@oohall]

@@pietervermeulen1619 the amount of deformation is going to depend on the force applied so it's conceivable the coefficient of friction between your hand and the hold changes based on the force applied. My pet theory for why surface area seems to matter is that sweat from your hand effectively lubricates the surface. If you have more contact area there's a greater chance that some part of your hand is still experiencing "good" friction, but that's just spitballing on my part. It'd be cool if someone who actually knows what they're talking about could do a deep dive on the subject. Interactions between surfaces can get pretty gnarly so I'm like 99% sure the simple friction model doesn't tell the full story.

[@Lexcommentyoutube]

I think there is a big misconception about "surface area" in the climbing community, as long as your surface isn't breaking the formula for friction doesn't care about area, it's all about pressure and the friction co-efficient. So it doesn't matter if you have 1 finger or your entire palm, as long as your skin can handle the force (and you have a godly strong finger) I think what drives this is when people slip on a volume with their shoes and leave a big black streak down them. This isn't the foot running out of friction, this is the small area of rubber not being strong enough to support the force the friction is applying and pealing away. This is why standing on peaks of volumes feels so much worse than standing on the flat. (more surface area allows for softer rubber much like a drag car tyre) When you want your hand to get the most out of a normal sloper you have to crimp it so all the force is going through the tips of the fingers on the best part of the slope and minimal amount of force through the rounded back parts of the fingers where the slope on the hold is worse (this can be opposite if the hold slopes the otherway). This is why hanging on the beastmaker 45° slope is so much more possible in a full crimp rather than an open hand. Open handed often feels better in actual climbing practice because it relaxes your arm more and lets you focus on getting a better body position.