How to Heel & Toe hook || The two most powerful climbing techniques

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Timestamps:
0:00 Why these are important
2:45 How to: Heel Hook
3:20 How to: Toe Hook
3:45 Training them
4:03 Practical examples
Today we'll discuss the two most important climbing techniques, heel & toe hook. We will also look at how I apply them in a practical scenario and some tricks I use to figure out the details behind the techniques.
My gear:
Favorite shoes
MadRock Drone madrock.com/collections/shoes/products/dronehv
MadRock Drone CS madrock.com/collections/shoes/products/drone-cs-hv
Chalk Bucket
madrock.com/collections/chalk/products/hanger-chalk-pot
Chalk bag
madrock.com/collections/chalk/products/bolt-chalk-bag
Everything shot on Sony A7SIII with Tamron lenses.
PATREON LINK HERE: www.patreon.com/emilabrahamsson
Any support is incredibly welcomed and appreciated. You all make the content happen!
Instagram:
emil_abrahamsson_
cordiclimbs

[@hannahmorrisbouldering]

Hereby awarding Emil with the ‘most entertaining brand integrator’ award 👑

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Haha thanks a ton. Miss the two of you already!

[@Nicoandthepage]

This one really got me hooked.

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Cheers homie!

[@JamkoOfficial]

Really appreciate all the effort you put into your videos Emil! I'd like to request a breakdown of the technique for outdoor mantle top outs as a future vid please. Keep up the great work!

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Fun one! I'll see what I can do

[@fysio_Kajsa]

Great vid. Good breakdown of the techniques. I really like the way you explain and happy to see you at grepp since then I can get the chance to see you in action IRL And thank you for actually making the ad enjoyable

[@vapofusion]

More videos like this mate! Some amazingly simple, but informative vids that explain some of the areas that some KZbinrs gloss over. I am a beginner climber and found most of your videos so helpful with understanding the mindset and how to go about improving as a climber. Top notch content as always 👍

[@vapofusion]

I learned more in this vid about how you explained foot placement and how to precisely move my feet on tricky holds than anything I've watched.

[@SnapDash]

I was so proud of using a right hook to get through a crux... But then I saw my pal do the route, and find an easy hold off on the left that I'd missed! Still, I am glad I got the practice; heel- and toe-hooks are definitely high on my to-improve list. Thanks for the excellent video-

[@Calle.Andreasson]

Grym video! Du lyckas verkligen vara informativ och underhållande på samma gång Emil. Extra kul när du spelar in på Grepp där jag själv klättrar. En himla trevlig plats att spendera tid och svett på. Awesome video! You really manage to be informative and entertaining at the same time Emil. Extra fun to see recordings from Grepp where I climb myself. Such a lovely place to spend time and sweat.

[@TheHujosh]

This is the only channel where I dont skip the sponsored content... Emil should receive a raise for this creativity :D

[@berzseb]

That’s fully right!!! I do also skip them always but on that way , imagine, I watched more times. 😅 Yeah, cool creativity Emil!

[@Evan-Lennert]

Gonna send this video to my friend who refuses to use heels regardless of situation

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Sounds good, they have to learn! Heel hooks are too good to not do

[@TodayWeLearn]

Hands down the funniest brand integration I’ve seen in a while. Almost spat out my chalk

[@int0x21]

Your videos from Grepp is always nice ! should come and do a video of the black circle ! :)

[@maximedelmas]

3:31 this slowmo shot is beautiful!

[@TheReggaesauce]

Fair play Emil, I actually listended to part of an AG1 ad today! 😆

[@sideshowfrost]

Welcome to the UK!

[@Atiff_Abdullah]

Hello Emil, I have been climbing for about 6 months now and I just wanted to tell you you’re one of my favorite climbers to watch and I love when you drop informational videos like these they help me grow my knowledge and IQ on the wall even more so thank you!

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Thanks a ton homie! Good luck with your climbing journey my friend

[@Atiff_Abdullah]

@@EmilAbrahamsson thank you!!

[@niklaslins99]

Wow, that's the first ad I watched from beginning to end. Nice job Emil!

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Love that mate, thanks for letting me know!

[@aviduke]

Starting to climb roofs. Need to work my heals ans toes. Will try to take these on board

[@AllegraClimbingPsychologist]

Coffee with Moca! I see you are a man of culture, my friend! Really nice video! I love both techniques but I find my shoes lacking in support for both of them. Looking now to find a better pair for me!

[@HotPockets-40k]

Emil has got bars for days 🔥

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

haha thanks for the love homie

[@SelcraigClimbs]

That rap hahaha absolutely fyah ❤️‍🔥

[@karimchahine4883]

I have the impression you might be quite biased towards not only bouldering (I would argue lead climbers care more about other things), but also compression and overhanging boulders, for which of course hooks are going to be fundamental. I would say the dropknee is a much more fundamental technique to learn. All this is to say that now we want a technique tier list!

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Ooohh that's a fun one. I'll put it on my list! And... you might be right haha. This video is certainly more dedicated towards bouldering, and the techniques are less important the more vertical terrain we're on

[@karimchahine4883]

@@EmilAbrahamsson Great! Sounds like a fun vid. Agreed! I personally struggle on those kind of boulders and indeed I'm often not sure what the best thing to do with my feet is, always seems like there's so many options. I think those are highly technical climbs (+quite physical). Currently working on it though!

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

@@karimchahine4883 cheers mate! Haha I actually got so excited for your idea I’m already writing up a script for it. It’s perfect!

[@evanpowers1795]

I'd agree with the dropknee statement for sport routes. But when it comes to steep sport heel + toehooks are extremely useful for resting. But any good steep sport climber will know, KNEEBAR (if you can find them) will save that pump!!! Good breathing and shaking techniques are also key!!!

[@karimchahine4883]

@@EmilAbrahamsson haha wow I'm honoured! Have fun writing it! I think it has potential

[@eurekaflows]

Emil sneakily including Soudain Seul in his montage of 9A boulders 👀🤫😂

[@njpag]

Great video! Bit of a side question but I'm curious if you do much 'classic' strength training beyond climbing especially in the legs to get some hamstring/glutes pulling power or does it just come with more climbing?

[@shmelvin4659]

The amount of pulling power in your legs is gonna be more then enough to help you out and the the con of increase the size of them would imo be way worse than just having slightly week heel hooks

[@alvarobriceno4500]

Awesome

[@TheOdekirkian]

You’ve gotta come do a trip state side and see all the wonderful bouldering we have here like Joes Valley and Bishop!!

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

i'd love to, just gotta find the time!

[@Cr1ms0nSE]

Awesome video. Been trying to figure out some training to get better on those hooks. Cause while it may be true that just doing them trains the actual technique, getting your muscles to the point that you can really engage is a whole different story. Any suggestions? PS: 3 of your 4 favorite great links are either wrong or not available anymore 😢

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Firstly, thanks a ton for bringing the link to my attention! Weird.. Secondly, for heel hooks there's tons of hamstring workouts that do help, and one big thing I would say are deadlifts. I've definitely noticed gains from it. For toe hooks it is a lot more tricky, first off you need a good shoe for it, and then I think since it's a fairly passive engagement you really need a lot of time under tension with it, so like stretching it almost and just holding very very easy positions frequently.

[@Sepp2009]

Can I ask a different climbing question, not related to this video? Not sure how else to get in touch with you... My question is: what is the correct way to "half crimp"? I know, everybody says that the fingers should bend 90°, but what about the wrist? for me hanging with completely straight wrists feels good, but not that much stronger than open hand. So i think the mechanical advantage from the half crimp comes from bending the wrist aswell, right?. For me this feels a bit more sketchy and I think of it as "not so safe" as it's closer to a full crimp position. So which way is the correct way to train? TLDR: my half crimp with straight wrist feels very weak on the wall on tiny crimps, am I crimping wrong?

[@jaisinghvi7860]

Dude you are crazy !

[@ryanmorrison8833]

Hmm... will there be a video about that clip of you on the Burden replica at 2:16? O.o

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Oh yeah! Also with a big twist to it.. probably coming out in about 2 weeks!

[@KirstenRietveld]

I really struggle with toehooks that are close-by making it hard to actually stretch my leg. Any tips for that?

[@tienyichi]

Came for some climbing, stayed for the rapping 😂

[@sthrbnmickson5474]

08:10 how the left bicep quivers haha

[@loganwassill7003]

Let’s see Emil on V17

[@giesskannenbauer]

That AG1 ad had serious Macka B - Medical Monday vibes! Love it.

[@ThundersLeague]

How do you deal with toehooks with more aggressive climbing shoes? (Ex: Solutions) I have 2 major problems: - If the shoe is too small, my toes are curled, so I toe hook with the bones/joints of my toes. This is super uncomfortable/painful. - If my shoe is bigger, my big toe moves a bit inside the shoe, when toehooking, and now there's pressure on the top part of my toe, near the nail. This happens in all cases when the hold doesn't have an amazing edge.

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Hard to say, aside from "try a different shoe", which isn't really helpful :P I don't have a specific technique to avoid pain, but it definitely hurts differently with heel and toe hooks depending on the shoe you use. A big part of why I use mad rock (drones specifically) is because of this

[@ThundersLeague]

​@@EmilAbrahamsson Thanks for the comment. Yeah, I also think "different shoe" is the answer. The softness of the shoe, specifically the toebox, has a huge impact. One thing I noticed in the video, you tend to toe hook with the inside of your foot. The pressure is centered around the big toe. This makes sense, because it's also where the toe patch is located. Is that true, or is it just the camera angles? (Ex: ~7:00) When I toe hook, I think I do it will the whole foot, so the pressure is evenly distributed across all toes (and that's why the knuckles on the smaller toes hurt). I will have to try this. Perhaps I've been doing toehooks wrong for years 😅

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

@@ThundersLeague Oh interesting! You might've just provided the answer yourself. I toe hook much more with the big toe part of each foot

[@TheBenjaminsky]

Heel hooks tend to cause a lot of knee pain. Any suggestions to avoid this?

[@ravenruppie96]

Gotta strengthen the area with similar movements and less weight

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Time under tension! I'd say a big recommendation is what I mentioned here in the video, make sure to always do a few light-weight easy heel hooks in the beginning of the session. If the only time you do heel hooks is when it's forced on a boulder you're not gonna be conditioned for it!

[@Mike-oz4cv]

The big problem is that heelhooks and toehooks usually require a huge amount of flexibility to be done properly.

[@maximedelmas]

Sometimes it's a problem of body positionning. You can be unable to heel hook because your hips are placed in a certain way, and the second you turn them, it becomes easy.

[@zacharylaschober]

in as much as there is a "limit" heel or toe hook placement, definitely good flexibility is valuable, but there is a significant technical aspect to exploiting any amount of flexibility. I find many climbers who have certainly greater range with the hips to get a heel in, but I can more readily rotate myself to provide the extra range as well as better dial a heel placement to get the most out of this.

[@kajesimpson126]

If I could subscribe twice I would.

[@mikeminson6250]

“ChatGPT, write me a rap about AG1” lol

[@apolyedapolyed7524]

heel hook, toe hook.

[@robinsonnyaupane3380]

We all know that one mf who can put their heel above their head on climbs. (I need to train flexibility)

[@basketman52]

First

[@jonnes__4657]

But the toe hook unfortunately is for me a bit painful. .

[@sCnInfinity]

Came for the climbing, stayed for the ad 🎙

[@chrille5551]

Couldn't you argue that a bunch of different hand grip "techniques" are equally or more important if we are going to rank "techniques" and then list heel and toe hooks? Like brother I think you use the "crimp" technique on a few of these

[@philipegoulet448]

I think a video saying that crimping is the most important technique and showing you how to crimp would be quite pointless on this channel

[@chrille5551]

@@philipegoulet448 I'm just pointing out that the title is a bit strange

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Oh I just wouldn’t think of crimping, or grabbing slopers, punches etc as a technique, that’s more of a “grip type”. But I guess the word can be used quite broadly though 😅 considering there’s tons of technique involved in crimping.

[@jonathanrossddsmhs1271]

Adam Ondra: kneebar b!t€#!!!

[@euerhenning5780]

Guess i made it to be first Edit: guess i did not actually.

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Haha your efforts were appreciated though!

[@basketman52]

Ggwp EuerHenning gl in your next one!

[@euerhenning5780]

@@basketman52 🤝 💖

[@vegetable1335]

first

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Tight fight

[@mongoose1804]

Why did he start rapping?????

[@fiddzels]

World hardest boulder only has a dyno i think your wrong abort this sorry…

[@yograndom6928]

AG1 has insufficient scientific backing, and does not provide enough of any single of the 75 ingredients to reach visible benefit.

[@sovereignyx3158]

Why is there so much AG1 advertising among boulderers lately? 😢 Can't you just ask your viewers more directly if they have a few euros left that they could donate? …Instead, a product is advertised that has been proven to have almost no positive properties at all, except for placebo. Doesn't that feel like exploiting your community a little bit? :/ 107€ per month could be much better spent for most of the people than purchase a ripoff product.

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

I think we have different perspectives on the product, and that's alright. The people I've talked to have all, off camera, in person, told me that they really noticed some great benefits from it and they use it regularly. I've also seen benefits myself and for people around me, so I'm psyched on it. If it's placebo or not I can't say, but if it works for literally everyone I've talked to it works well enough for me! There's too many opinions, "shook"-news and critics online for me to take them seriously, and if I trusted the online community I'd be on a ketogenic, carnivore, 1 meal a day - diet by now :-P Everyone has a perspective and individual needs, best is to try stuff for yourself and see imo!

[@SnowmansApartment]

Sorry dude, just can‘t watch any more green stuff ads, this stuffs everywhere..

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

I know they're popping up everywhere. But common, not even the rap got you?? Dang I tried so hard...

[@klausweiskopf2184]

At least it’s not Soylent Green - yet…

[@stf6086]

@@EmilAbrahamsson Emil, Please educate yourself about These Vitamin and Mineral Supplements and decide if you want to represent them. There is a lot of research around, despite being useless for most People, this stuff can actually be harmful in some Cases. I love your content and am happy for you to get sponsors, but this Scam product triggers me so hard. You can do better than that. ✌️

[@janweickert1765]

​@@stf6086I am also really sceptical about it. I hope you are wrong and it doesn't harm anybody

[@stf6086]

@@janweickert1765 there is a lot of Information, podcasts and Research out, dont just believe me. make sure it is a Credible source . Taking to much Vitamin Supplements to long is assumed to increase the Risk of Cancer some groups.