5 Signs You Have Poor Technique (And How to Fix Them)

Download Your Free e-book: "How to Maximize Your First Year of Climbing" - the guide I wish I had when I started:
www.movementforclimbers.com/f...
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(Filmed on location at Momentum Millcreek)
There are plenty of variables that come into play when it comes to sending a climb. Strength, fitness level, and of course technique. While some of these measured or controlled, technique is often the most difficult to quantify. We may be climbing harder, but are we actually climbing better?
0:00 Free ebook
1:25 Intro
2:08 Sign #1: Noise
3:22 Sign #2: Impact
5:10 Sign #3: Cutting Feet
6:31 Sign #4: Too Many Moves
8:14 Sign #5: Stiff as a Board
9:39 Outro

[@movementforclimbers]

Get my FREE ebook here: www.movementforclimbers.com/free-ebook Thank you for all the support these last 5 years!

[@Jasond29223]

hi im having problems with claiming the ebook

[@mikewickett]

The signup form on your site is responding with an error 😢

[@Dilvanon]

The website still gives an error when you try to claim the book :(

[@jbyon8230]

Clearly a targeted video 😢

[@movementforclimbers]

haha. it's the start of your intervention ;-)

[@KamuiSeph]

Bruh I do all of these, jesus. Next 3 months I'm doing all these damn drills and getting my goddamn shit together.

[@pronoob7296]

​@@KamuiSeph how did it go? It has been 3 months since your comment.

[@TheAlexm710]

We will never know ​@@pronoob7296

[@k.a.8725]

The fun part about having bad technique is that you can improve it a lot

[@ThatLaggyNoob]

As a very static climber I'm going to have to try that last drill, it seems like exactly what I need

[@baumundallesandere]

as a more dynamic climber I will focus on the other 4 :)

[@lmao1214]

I feel like the issue of high impact on your hands is not only due to timing errors or weak lock off ability, but more often because of poor body position. That why the hover hand drill is effective in my opinion, as it forces your to find suitable body positions to stay in before making use of the next available hold. The same thing can be said about the soft hands drill as well.

[@movementforclimbers]

Agreed. A good drill is to combine Soft Hands with intentionally unbalanced positions like pogo-ing from a back flag. Even from a bad body position, if your timing is good enough you can still catch holds with minimum impact.

[@nancychen5992]

oh man i’ve been trying soft hands on top rope warm ups but im going to try hover hands next. i really need to get it together so maybe i’ll try it bouldering

[@samrobbo8837]

Best climbing advice on youtube, and my favourite ASMR channel. Hes back ❤ Ps, congrats on the 5 years! And 200k subs. So we’ll deserved.

[@TheDrwpuma]

“Technique is a perishable skill”. Truer words have never been spoken. Find myself regularly regressing in areas. I’m going to mix in a drill session or two in every week to stay on top of this.

[@Putzinator]

Man I just want to say I love you and your videos. Your concepts, ideas, philosophies, etc. are all great and your ability to describe and illustrate them are even better. I recommend your channel to anyone trying to improve themselves and oftentimes coming back and rewatching videos just for the hell of it. Thanks for all you do Siawn.

[@OMDAT]

I feel called out but am grateful for the great suggestions

[@javelin2075]

I’ve been watching your channel since before I started climbing about a year and a half ago, and it has helped me so much in getting started. I was super surprised to actually see you at the gym the other day as I just moved here for college. Keep up the good work!

[@librapower7810]

I've been climbing 5 years now and a lot of the skills I picked up have been through your channel. Thanks so much for imparting your knowledge and sharing.. namaste

[@samuelaseolas]

I've been watching you off and on for years so happy to see you're back creating content again! I owe many a v3 sends thanks to your vids. Ebook looks dope too!

[@ginoginoh]

Congratulation on your 200k subscribers! I can't stop recommending this channel to everyone. I started bouldering regularly 2 years ago, but I feel I really started when I found your videos. I improved following your suggestions and, more importantly, I was climbing more consciously. I also love your video's style: short, on point and with actionable advice. Well deserved and good luck with your future projects (bouldering and not).

[@stephencheung4642]

I've watched so many of your videos and this might be the most informative and actionable video yet. Love the breakdown of technique, and the demos of "bad" and "good" along with clear drills on how to improve technique. Just excellent all around!

[@Djdavidnyan]

thanks so much for this video and the book, I am looking forward to read it!!

[@dipen7895123]

WOW!! I recognize so many things that I've been doing that I didn't even know was a problem. Thank you for sharing those exercises. I'll definitely have to try those out next time I'm in the gym!!

[@sleve_mcdichael]

Excellent video, I'm gonna try some of these!

[@kiveonn]

Wow this video puts so well into words what I struggle to explain to my beginner friends when they ask me how I make the climb look so fluid. My go to advice is minding your center of mass but this video goes so much deeper! And I realise I still struggle with unnecessary adjustments and unintentionally cutting feet. So yeah, very helpful video!

[@jpsluckhaus]

This seems like a great list of diagnostic tools: I'll try them and see which I struggle with most/seems like it changes my climbing the most. I hit a plateau years ago and fell into the trap of thinking it was a strength issue. First time watching your channel but definitely not the last. Keep it up

[@soulshine8531]

Great video and coaching! Thanks!

[@shanybody]

Excellent content!!! And welcome back to youtobe LOL!! I feel like every second of this video is solid as huge jug that I can definitely hold on to and gratefully appreciate!! Keep up the high quality content dude!!!

[@ghostly_cheese4929]

I'm finally not feeling called out by this kind of video. Good sign.

[@Labbfreak]

Such a great video and appreciate the specificity and approachable nature of the corrective drills

[@annikulke]

This was SO helpful!

[@mitchellfoye1998]

I previously didn’t understand the hover hand , but you’ve clearly explained it. So much to chew on here and great to watch before a climb

[@Pixelghostuk]

Excellent video. Gets to the point quickly and great techniques to train. Thank you!

[@ivohanza8926]

Great video, thanks man!!

[@luisjuarez3234]

great video my guy definitelygoing to try this out next session

[@IDn0tfound]

Excellently refined! It feels like it's the perfect sum up to improve, for most of us. 🤙

[@the_kat7180]

Thank you so much for adding actionable drills we can do :)

[@404JNF]

I struggle with the last one. I could feel something was wrong, but didn’t know what it was or how to correct it. Seems I need to loosen up a bit. Thanks for explaining them and giving us some corrective drills so we can improve!

[@craigbritton1089]

Excellent video.

[@muumarlin1731]

Very helpful!

[@Arunnn241]

I think the last part of the title gets cut out on mobile, so I was pleasantly surprised to get the drills on how to fix them. Very useful video.

[@JerrafurOscar]

Combination of signs #1, 2, and 3: when feet cut and the climber loudly kicks their feet at the wall to nullify the swing back into the wall. This is more advanced, but is a very big factor that prevents many climbers from performing coordination dyno movements that require a more delicate touch. Quietly absorbing the impact helps significantly for climbs that require landing on volumes or friction surfaces. We see very successful comp climbers excel in this aspect.

[@jerm381]

That fourth drill is perfect for me. Going to try it at the gym tomorrow. Thank you as always! :D

[@movementforclimbers]

I like that one too, and always challenge the people I coach to do it. It's super useful for building flow, especially for sport climbing.

[@kenanirocks]

Thank you for sharing 🙏

[@lekanteto]

Thank you!

[@Blue-pb7kz]

I feel like there's an overlap between strength and techniques in these videos though - I have loud feet and hands on climbs that are hard for me, even though I'm quiet when climbing my warm ups! I'm just not going to be able to control my body tension in the same way on a move that feels desperate. And often, I feel like advice for improving technique is actually improving strength, like in the case of the hover hands which is really just lock off strength. Silent feet is about awareness (technique) but also body tension (strength). I think I have ok technique because other people tell me that, and because my strength is really poor relative to the grade I climb, and I find myself having to use creative/roundabout beta to get up the wall or just focus on the perfect beta a lot. Idk, maybe someone should define what technique actually is (efficiency? creativity? Is it an aesthetic thing, like I feel like a lot of people use the two interchangeably?), vs strength, so that there's more clarity!

[@ComFurt]

From my perspective, technique is anything that lessens the amount of strength/exertion needed to do a particular climb. Someone with great strength but poor technique will tire out much faster than someone who has learned how to take as much weight off their muscles as possible.

[@TheUnknownFactor]

@@ComFurt I think that's oversimplifying things. Often you can save energy by doing a short burst of higher energy. For example, comparing crossing over againast matching: crossing over is more powerful, it requires more strength than matching, but for a much shorter period of time. It is one move that can be done quickly (especially if you have "excess" strength), you'll save quite a lot of energy. By leveraging more power briefly, you save energy; but you _need_ to have more power to start with. IMO Points 2 and 4 in this video could just as easily be symptoms of lacking strength/core tension, and point 3 "poor lock off strength" is straight up, strength.

[@Blue-pb7kz]

@@TheUnknownFactor yes, totally! For example I recently found myself with my feet above my head on a move that everyone else was campusing. Arguably, campusing was actually better technique in that scenario, it was faster, fewer moves and more efficient, but I did not have the finger strength to hold on to that hold with no feet, so I had to go the roundabout way. I'm thinking, maybe we could define good technique as knowing how to get the most out of your particular body and specific strengths? Like maybe we could say that good technique for someone with a lot of endurance would be to static most of a lead route and avoid risks bc they have the endurance to back it up, meanwhile someone who's very powerful would do best in going as quick as possible? Which of course doesn't mean to neglect training to becoming a well rounded climber? But anyways, I just really wanted to point out how do many things people call good technique are only doable if you're strong enough. Idk, things to think about.

[@RicePattyBoix2]

@@Blue-pb7kz Well said, having strength is important the higher the grades you go but as someone who is significantly weaker than my peers and climbing a higher grade I tend to figure out funky betas or things that suit my strengths. My strengths include good hip mobility (but not good hamstring flexibility), good compression (core helps for full body), my foot work is generally very good going with ym finger strength but my overall strength in muscles/lock offs are below my peers. I think proper technique is making a climb as easy as possible for your body strengths, sure it should eb noted that you should work on other aspects like strength and flexibility; but these should be to improve your climbing style versus climbing like others exactly. I do not really agree with lock off being a technique required as it's one of my weakest aspects for climbign so I do other things such as drop knees, or smearing etc. I don't know if I would call the campusing the better technique but the more straight forward technique. Even though in some climbs you may do 3+ mroe moves to get to the same point if they are very easy and not taxing it can be better technique than the one move dyno which is very taxing on the body.

[@ComFurt]

@@TheUnknownFactor That's definitely a good point, well said

[@lukasbpunkt7269]

thank you, mate!

[@robertobreve8623]

I feel attacked :) amazing video, for a long time I was searching on how to improve my technique, this is perfect, thanks. Subscribing.

[@halloweenhopes2063]

Nice! Thank you

[@jonnes__4657]

🗽 Thx for the explanations. In overhangs with small holds I more often struggle with the lack of body tension. .

[@TheParkourFencer]

Those are some nice drills! will be sure to use them. Since I only go twice per week my focus is almost always on solving new routes and pushing myself. I do a warm up and conditioning at the end but very rarely drills on the routes. Do you have a rule of thumb for how often to focus on drills instead of regular climbing?

[@Nixthyo]

Wow October just started and I already feel called out.

[@liechtenstein6775]

I feel like a good method to increase your footwork and precision is to always climb down a boulder after you finished it. Helped me a lot with my footwork at the beginning and is also good warm up!

[@TheNewMediaoftheDawn]

I’ve enjoyed your vids over time as an amateur gym climber…🎉. Technique is obviously subjective, personal, as some can do everything technically wrong and still be good climbers…. But’s always good to learn. You seem like a skilled climber, cheers🎉

[@blindgeorged6386]

The best decision I made with climbing was to stop grade chasing and just get better technically. I may not have sent the hard climbs that my gym buddies were sending at the time but I rarely feel pumped and can really apply my technique on the harder stuff where I would probably just be pulling as hard as possible if I didn’t drill technique.

[@Glenners]

I always struggle to hear your voice over the music :( I downloaded the ebook though! Thank you!

[@Ipzan]

This video is so good! I definitely have poor technique 😂

[@eloaba57]

I use a drill that consists of making a V6/7 feel like a V4/5 this way if you struggle in the climb you reestart and try to make the hold that you were struggling at the EASIEST catch/continué the better so that It MUST feel like a easier climb. If you tense the body unecessarly you reestart also. Its been working wonders tbh but i'll apply some of the tips n tricks of the video!

[@fizzelmydizzel]

Firstly, great vid. 😊 One question: isn't training hover hand misseffecting my sag and push skill? My fear is losing my momentum of climbing. Thanks a lot for your videos!

[@johnshipley1389]

So close to 200k subscribers!!!

[@Leo-ry6zh]

could you do a video going into #4 in a bit more depth, on how to know if swapping feet, drop knees or just flagging is more efficient? Not just how to do them, but how to decide and know which one to do

[@raymondyu08]

“you make a lot of noise” got me and my adam ondra inspired power move scared for a sec 😭😭

[@oovlocityoo2671]

Silent foot hold. Is so correct!

[@lolzguyl]

Hover hands reminds me of something Louis Parkinson does as a drill. Iirc he calls it the robot. The gist is to only be able to move one limb at a time, keeping the others completely still while the one moves. Effectively forcing you to find stable body positions before detaching any one limb.

[@terraflow__bryanburdo4547]

I also do drills for slow and fast speeds.

[@EdselsBakedGoods]

"My technique isn't that bad" *Has 4/5 signs of bad technique*

[@230mps]

I really struggle with technique for some reason. Naturally being nimble also holds me back. Like I’ll send a 5.10c and then look at video of myself climbing 5.7 and it looks like my first day. Lol

[@movementforclimbers]

you know that can happen sometimes when you are presented with too many good options for holds. The movements on harder climbs are a lot more straightforward to me because there's less to choose from and I can see the move a lot more clearly.

[@felipetorodiz4007]

what i find i do wrong mostly is i adjust too much, but im trying to fix it now

[@Olixer109]

I just started climbing a month ago (casually once a week) and my forearms are toast for 3 days... Would anyone care to tell me what an optimal amount of climbing is per week? I want to get serious! Videos like these are super informative :)

[@itspluhs]

7:18 dude eating it while you explain lol

[@junyuzhang414]

I find it hard to implement soft hands or even silent feet at times when I’m projecting a hard climb is that ok ? Or should I still try to strive for better technique versus climbing ugly ?

[@movementforclimbers]

Great question. It really depends on the movement of the climb you're trying. I'd say focus on climbing as well as you can with those technical focuses (soft hands and silent feet) but not to the point to where it's compromising the success rate of you executing the moves. In my experience, I find that if I try to climb a project as well as I can (which involves having silent feet and soft hands), it actually allows me to execute the movements better. However, I try not to over-emphasize any of those focuses like I'm treating it as a drill. If you do encounter situations where you have to force a move vs drop down, by all means climb ugly and get that move done.

[@user-lv2qp1oq5b]

#2 impact - I would say there is one more reason I see often - poor body positiong. AND also inability to create enough tension from the feet.

[@ZyneBeatbox]

For minding the feet, should you in general always mind the feet for climbs?

[@dvdjhp]

Not trying to nitpick but silent feels similar with soft? Im curious about the difference. I want to improve.

[@tashima42]

Thank you, but I already knew I have poor technique.

[@ramsessiereveld2824]

" a bad habit of constantly adjusting on handholds" so I took that personally xD

[@artemdorin]

You should have named it “how to show off climbing a v2”

[@massimodelguerra8208]

I really liked this video, but I noticed that you don't really explain why those techniques makes us better at climbing, some are obvious some less. This said, this is really helpful so thank you very much

[@user-jb9uq4lv7c]

Omg, it really is you. I’ve been seeing someone at my gym that looks exactly like you, but I thought it wasn’t you because I thought you weren’t based in Utah. I thought you were in cali or something.

[@davidbielsa5188]

How do you keep tension?

[@dawnriddler]

I definitely do a lot of foot swapping, but mostly cause I can't reach anything 😭

[@benja_mint]

Bingo! i got all 5 😀

[@zacharylaschober]

Want to begin by saying you have a great foundational explanation, and the pacing and demonstrations are obvious (even on the inobvious ones) to help especially introductory climbers. This said, the "hover hands" drill is one which needs to be abandoned by climbing instructors, and "silent feet" encourages this similar slowdown and needs to shift the focus. Problem with these is an arbitrary slowdown of limb movements while on the wall rather than getting climbers to develop the precision and fluidity. They are useful, but in a roundabout manner the same way being nonpowerful and using a campus board is. Still, the content is great, and the drills are far better than someone kicking haphazardly at the wall and violently swinging themselves for every hold.

[@jacob8088]

What is wrong with matching?

[@Harrysreptarium]

Why are you calling me out bro👿

[@nanj8970]

I personally prefer your old video style where you were only doing voice over. This new change would be exciting though if you could improve the audio quality for non voice-over part.

[@movementforclimbers]

For sure. We got some better mics to capture my voice more better. The audio in the next videos should be drastically improved.

[@craigbritton1089]

It keeps saying oops something went wrong. When my name and Gmail are all correct

[@sophiaxiao5824]

I hit every single point

[@Mr.Cupcake]

Feet coming off the wall? Here's a drill: don't let your feet come off the wall :D

[@crispycrimps865]

Sign number 3: I feel like captain cutloose would beg to differ! lol jk

[@andrewhunter6536]

Many of these points don’t apply so much when climbing hard at your max grade. Sometimes kicking a foot out onto a volume to kill rotation is loud. When doing big or powerful moves your hands will experience impact. When you are fully stretched out feet might pop. On a boulder with bad holds you might need to do many delicate foot or hand swaps. On micro crimps you can’t always sag to push. When is it applicable to use these indicators? Sure I can make climbing a V5 look smooth and like there is good technique but a V7 will probably require at least one move that indicate ‘bad technique’. I recently did my hardest outdoors boulder and except the easy top out every move had something to criticise. If something is rehearsed to death or we’ll below your strength level these indicators seem good but at our max it seem less clear

[@movementforclimbers]

I agree that you can't implement all of these components together all the time, and some are very climb specific. I do think that we should always strive for good technique especially when we climb closer to our limit. I see strong climbers at my gym projecting V11 and still being absolutely silent and contacting holds as softly as they can even when they're cruxing. It's just a good habit to ingrain early and has amazing carryover towards hard moves later on as you'll be giving yourself the best chance of executing them well. Having something to criticize when reviewing footage is kind of a good thing as you know there's always something you can continue to work on. I think it's great to always celebrate your milestones and victories and know that you can still get better. Congrats on your outdoor send and hope you continue to improve and tick off more climbs!

[@La0bouchere]

I'm starting to think there's a completely different set of "technique" that is important for climbing hard. Mainly using strength to be able to do moves. This is a different skill than moving to save energy, and is necessary on harder stuff. Aidan Roberts put out a video with lattice where he discusses all the things he does to stay close to the wall on hard problems (mainly to be able to use footholds). Pretty much every single thing he mentions would be considered bad technique.

[@andrewhunter6536]

@@movementforclimbers I guess I see these pointers as generally useful but it’s always tempting to point out edge cases. Upon further reflection I believe that at higher level (approaching our personal maximum grade not some external grade threshold) they are useful in the sense that we should be able to justify why we break these rules. I think this way they maintain their utility but there is flexibility for interpretation. I remember an outdoor climb that was only possible when my foot popped, I could not deliberately cut loose or keep my feet on. It only worked if I pretended I was stepping through to another foothold and the foot popped. My friend that day ended up with the same solution as it changed the body position. Here we really thought through why things worked the way they did. So the utility was in understanding the exception to the rule. Thanks on the congratulations, I don’t know v grades well but it was maybe V8 and it went in a few hours. A complete surprise as I was recently in hospital so my body strength was not good. I think because it was such a quick send and not a project the moves were not dialled so it was very messy for a hard (for me) boulder. Also I am exceptionally unbalanced in my strengths and weaknesses so sometimes rules are broken to leverage a particular strength

[@andrewhunter6536]

@@La0bouchere yeh I guess near our max simple rules do not have enough nuance. Principles like opposing pressure can be thought about but even those will have exceptions

[@yourshitsweakx100]

No foot swap NO Match! How i suppose to climb that's 😢

[@Gillass]

so the dynos are just bad technique?

[@Schyluer]

You climb at Millcreek???

[@movementforclimbers]

I do! That's my home gym.

[@firegodlive]

We're spoiled with all the gyms around SLC. Great video.

[@jambakamba571]

Guy on the left at 7:20 😀

[@manumo1]

well..i have poor technique love climbing though

[@FlamingGuppy]

Personally attacked. But seriously great video, thank you for the advice!!

[@Djellowman]

And how to fix it* You're welcome.

[@acasccseea4434]

I climb v12, why did youtube think i need this

[@floijd]

Too much impact on handholds? Just use "technique" of having insane lock-off strentgh Feet cutting loose? Just keep them on the wall, man. 😉

[@riotchock4259]

I dont like that this was suggested to me

[@nicoleriekert1443]

Thank you so much for this video! I've written out notes and a going to try these drills out today. I love the idea of focusing on technique and climbing efficiently. It's definitely become a goal for me, above the goal of reaching higher grades. Your explanations are super clear and man, I'm pumped to try this all out! 🧗🌀

[@wowwies4090]

definitely subbing after watching this! imagine every view doing the same