Some Principles of Face Climbing

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A long time ago (about 1982) I was in a climbing shop near Stony Point talking to the owner about a re-sole and he made a remark about me being right-handed. I said "wait...how did you know I was right-handed ?". He said "because your left shoe is slightly more worn". I went "hmmmm".
A couple of years later, bouldering legend Bob Murray told me "face climbing is accomplished via cross-body dynamics". This statement is a bit abstract and might not have stuck with me if he hadn't just given me such a convincing demonstration.
I was attempting a classic boulder problem near Old Tucson Arizona. It is a very overhanging B1 (V4 or 5) with very bad feet and crimpy hands. One of the moves is a cross-match. Left hand on a hold, then right hand to the left of that, pinky to pinky. But I just didn't have the strength to hold on with just the left while I tried to place the right hand next to it. I figured the only way to do the move was to get more weight on my feet, so there would be less weight on my left hand.
My right foot was on a decent block to the right of my body. For the left foot, almost nothing. I tried the left foot on many different little holds, but none took much weight. I was about to give up. Bob was sitting behind me and said, "Drop the left foot completely off the rock". I thought, "That's just crazy, I need *more* out of the left foot, not less". He said "Concentrate on the line of force from your left hand across your body to the opposite foot". "Forget about your left foot completely, and allow your body to position itself between the two points of contact where it feels the best balance and power". Just to humor him, I tried it. And immediately made the move. It almost seemed like magic. Later I was thinking about what Bob said and I remembered what the Stony Point shop owner had said. I started observing others more carefully in light of this "cross-body thing" and realized that it was a basic mechanical principle that was never discussed in any climbing "how-to" book I had ever seen.
Some people are "naturals". They just have great balance and make subtle adjustments in body position that allow them to climb easily even when they don't follow cross-body mechanics. Some people have tons of experience and their bodies have learned how to move without their mind ever being conscious of how the process was learned or what principles might be involved. These people are often great climbers...but they are not necessarily good teachers.
I am definitely NOT a natural. And I'm not a particularly good climber. So for me a set of mechanical principles and options is a great help. Understanding the basics allows you to know quickly what your best options are for each situation whether going for an on-sight or trying to suss out the beta for a project. And the cross-body principles are great for teaching. Just the other night in the gym I saw some strong young beginner try a pretty hard problem. He had a right-hand hold and needed to get up high to get the next left handhold. So he stepped his right foot up on the next foothold (giving him right-hand, right-foot) and fired. And failed. I said "Other foot...as a BACK-step !". It took him a second to figure out what "backstep" meant and then he did the move effortlessly. Such a BASIC error. But it seems that no one thinks about such things when teaching beginners.
The rules are meant to be broken. The "naturals" prove that. But most of us will benefit from having a set of principles. Every time you...place a foot...flag...or dyno, you should know why you are doing it and what the alternatives might be.

Principle 1 The basic balance position in face climbing is between opposite hand and foot. If you are about to reach for a new left handhold, then your balance will be between left foot and right hand while you are reaching.

Principle 2 If you feel like you are about to "barn-door", it is because you are relying on same-side (left hand + left foot or right hand + right foot) contact points as your primary balance. This is a violation of principle 1. If you swap feet so you are no longer in violation, you will probably be back in balance.

(* A note on terminology -- I use the term flag to mean the act of moving one of your feet to the opposite side of your body from its normal position. It means either putting your left foot to the *right* of your right foot, or putting your right foot to the left of your left foot. The flagged foot is not placed on a hold, but simply pushed against the rock to counter a barn-door tendency. Others use the term more generally to mean a foot waving around in the air, but I'm using this stricter definition here.)

Principle 3 Flagging seems to violate principle 1, but actually validates it. Mechanically, flagging is a way of swapping feet without swapping feet. Any time you feel the need to flag it is because your two main points of contact are same-side hand and foot. This can usually be remedied by a foot swap, but sometimes flagging is more efficient, especially if it sets up the move after the current move better than a foot swap would. Flagging comes in two flavors: inside and outside. Get used to each to see where it feels best.

Principle 4 Similarly for some dynos, particularly the type I would call a "quick pop". You may be in violation of principle 1, and feel you are out of balance, but it is sometimes quicker to pop to the next handhold, so the out-of-balance time is minimized, than to establish good cross-balance and do the move statically.

Principle 5 Look ahead when climbing. Based on principles 1-4, the choice of which foot to place on a given hold should not be random or governed merely by which foot is closer to the hold. It should be based on cross-body balance or one of the expedient ways (principles 3 & 4) to get around it. People often think cleverly about what hands will go where when looking ahead, but they are often much less clever about feet.

Principle 6 It is not necessary to have both feet on the rock. Just the correct foot. In fact (per the story above) you are often stronger with just one foot. As long as it's the correct one. Any time you are having problems making a move remember that dropping the NON-CROSS-BODY foot off the rock may be just the ticket to allow your body to find that subtle balance point that maximizes your core strength.

Principle 7 Back in my early days of sport-climbing I was lucky enough to climb with two very smooth and stylish locals. I mean stylish in the sense of effortless efficiency, not just trying to look good. One of them told me "You should be using the outside edge of your shoes as much as the inside edge". This is a good goal and is principle 7. It is a particularly good thing to shoot for while practicing body positions governed by principles 1 - 6. It implies that you should often have one or the other hip to the rock, and makes the application of principles 1 - 6 much more natural. Having one hip to the rock generally gives you a better-positioned center of gravity and puts your body in more restful positions. In the gym, you can practice using principle 7 on easier climbs. Just for practice, try limiting yourself to using only the outside edges of your feet on every move to see how it feels and how it lends itself to raising your awareness of cross-body balance.
From C.P. Little: It also extends your reach by getting your shoulder closer to the next hold.

The other local used to always be shaking out one or the other hand while looking ahead. In fact, he basically climbed one- handed except while in the midst of a hard move. Another partner and I did some experiments using a hang-board and a stopwatch. We found that we could hang longer when we released a hand now and then to shake out (even though the remaining hand is under greater stress), than if we just held on til the end with both hands. So....

Principle 8 As much as possible, avoid having both hands on the rock at the same time. 2 Exceptions: when you can't hang on with just one hand, when using thumbs to rest one or both hands. Use this principle along with 1 through 7, and see how efficient and stylish your movement becomes.

This next rule is my own, but obviously is known to many.

Principle 9 Your thumb is your strongest finger. Learn to use it. It is invaluable for many rest positions where you can hold on with the thumb while you wiggle the other 4. Thumb rests come in many forms: to the side, straight down by your waist, overhead on that roof scraping your noggin. Look for them. They can provide full recovery rests in places you might never think of. My hardest redpoints would not have happened if I didn't know how to use my thumbs properly.
If your thumbs are strong you can *mantle* off them on small holds. If you can find a small thumb-catch near a dicey Gaston so it becomes a micro-pitch, you can sometimes generate way more power than the Gaston alone would provide.

Principle 10 Half of learning to climb is learning to rest. I have mentioned some rest-related information above, but there is a lot of resting technique out there. Stems are obvious. Palming and laying forearms on holds are pretty obvious. Waitress rests (palm up pushing against a roof above your head) are less so. Thumbs. Jams. Knee-bars. Arm-bars in cracks and huecos. Too much to go into. Learn them.

Principle 11 Learn to high-step. It is one of the most elegant and fun ways to get through difficult moves. It's more than just stepping high. It is getting A LOT of weight on the hold. It means really committing to getting on the hold. So many times I've seen people make a half-hearted attempt to high-step and then say "I just can't do it". You got to have a tigerish attitude toward them. You can not do hard face climbs if you can't do radical and powerful high-steps.
High steps come in two extremes: close in and extended. Extended means putting your big toe on a hold at shoulder height with leg more or less straight, and raising your body up just using that toe and your one (opposite !) hand. It requires good core strength -- so get some ! Close in means... close in. Step high and rock over. It requires flexibility -- get some.

Principle 12 (From C.P.Little AKA "The Drunken Master")
The higher an undercling is (relative to your body) the harder it is to use. If the undercling is really good this is no problem, but you want to get a difficult undercling into prime position (down by your waist) as quickly as possible, while using as little energy as possible. This is often best accomplished by MOVING INTO THE UNDERCLING WITH MOMENTUM. It requires a bit of planning even before you touch the hold. How will you generate momentum, and where will your feet go (especially the foot opposite the undercling hand) when you hit the position? It requires practice. And you have to COMMIT to the move.

Principle 13 The steeper the rock, the closer your hands and feet. As the rock kicks back to 45 degrees overhanging and beyond, your should concentrate on keeping your feet high. If they are too low, body tension suffers and off you come. If you are moving into an undercling on steep rock, you must make particular note of this principle as you plan the move.

Note 1 An odd-ball position relative to this discussion is the drop-knee. It is fully in the spirit of principle 7, but may seem to violate principle 1. And to some degree it does. Shallow drop knees probably do their job mostly by making you accord with principles 1 and 7. The inside-edge-foot is often not really necessary. Radical drop knees relieve weight from the hand by establishing a powerful vector between the feet. So usually BOTH feet are important.
In some cases (usually involving foot pockets) you can do a radical drop-knee and then realize that one of the feet can be released (because the other is twisted into a pocket). Then you are back in a standard cross-body situation with one hip in.
Push-pull (bicycle) situations are interesting to observe in light of these principles. They can be complex, but they tend to validate the cross-body thing.

Note 2 Again...all the rules are meant to be broken. There are situations where you will feel in balance and strong in spite of violating all the stuff above. There are times when same-side points of contact will feel fine. Picture your points of contact being the points of the compass where right hand is North, left hand is West, right foot is East and left foot is South. If you drop left hand and left foot you will probably feel fine because your BASE is so wide there is no possibility of barn-dooring.

Note 3 An oft-quoted instruction on climbing "how-to" web-sites and forum postings is to "have quiet feet". May be a good GOAL, but as an instruction, it is BS. It is a classic confusion of means and ends. Good, experienced climbers have "quiet feet" because they have already learned how to use them. But if a beginner tries to plant his feet on a hold and not experiment with twisting them into different positions, he won't learn which positions are useful in which circumstances. I would ENCOURAGE beginners (and even non-beginners) to experiment with different foot positions and foot angles. There are times when just switching a foot from inside to outside edge on a hold can make a huge difference. The other night at the gym I was having trouble making a move using the inside edge of my foot. My best climbing pupil was watching and said "try a backstep". Same hands, same foot, same foot-hold, but just switch from inside to outside edge. The move was almost easy that way. Even the teacher has to be reminded of his own instruction (See Principle 7 above) sometimes !

Note 4 There are lots of different climbing styles within the realm of good style. Here are a few:
The Winsley: Straight-up square-to-the-wall opposite-hand-foot climbing. Square-to-the-wall meaning shoulders and hips are usually parallel to the wall and there is very little back-stepping, flagging or drop-knee. ("Square-hipped" or "Open-hipped" are other terms I use to describe this style.) Requires a lot of power, but saves time screwing around looking for subtler positions. And sometimes saving time is the best technique of all. (Named for Jon Winsley)
The Miles: Lots of drop-knees and back-steps.
The Meryl: Inside flags, stems and high-step flexibility.
The JBak: Lots of high-steps, foot-swaps, step-throughs and outside edging.
The Vince: Outside flags instead of foot-swaps and step-throughs.
All of these tendencies constitute valid applications of the principles above. Different people just have their own biases and habits. One of the things that makes climbing great is that it resists being put in a box.

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	A long time ago (about 1982) I was in a climbing shop near Stony Point talking to the owner about a re-sole and he made a remark about me being right-handed. I said "wait...how did you know I was right-handed ?". He said "because your left shoe is slightly more worn". I went "hmmmm". A couple of years later, bouldering legend Bob Murray told me "face climbing is accomplished via cross-body dynamics". This statement is a bit abstract and might not have stuck with me if he hadn't just given me such a convincing demonstration. I was attempting a classic boulder problem near Old Tucson Arizona. It is a very overhanging B1 (V4 or 5) with very bad feet and crimpy hands. One of the moves is a cross-match. Left hand on a hold, then right hand to the left of that, pinky to pinky. But I just didn't have the strength to hold on with just the left while I tried to place the right hand next to it. I figured the only way to do the move was to get more weight on my feet, so there would be less weight on my left hand. My right foot was on a decent block to the right of my body. For the left foot, almost nothing. I tried the left foot on many different little holds, but none took much weight. I was about to give up. Bob was sitting behind me and said, "Drop the left foot completely off the rock". I thought, "That's just crazy, I need more out of the left foot, not less". He said "Concentrate on the line of force from your left hand across your body to the opposite foot". "Forget about your left foot completely, and allow your body to position itself between the two points of contact where it feels the best balance and power". Just to humor him, I tried it. And immediately made the move. It almost seemed like magic. Later I was thinking about what Bob said and I remembered what the Stony Point shop owner had said. I started observing others more carefully in light of this "cross-body thing" and realized that it was a basic mechanical principle that was never discussed in any climbing "how-to" book I had ever seen. Some people are "naturals". They just have great balance and make subtle adjustments in body position that allow them to climb easily even when they don't follow cross-body mechanics. Some people have tons of experience and their bodies have learned how to move without their mind ever being conscious of how the process was learned or what principles might be involved. These people are often great climbers...but they are not necessarily good teachers. I am definitely NOT a natural. And I'm not a particularly good climber. So for me a set of mechanical principles and options is a great help. Understanding the basics allows you to know quickly what your best options are for each situation whether going for an on-sight or trying to suss out the beta for a project. And the cross-body principles are great for teaching. Just the other night in the gym I saw some strong young beginner try a pretty hard problem. He had a right-hand hold and needed to get up high to get the next left handhold. So he stepped his right foot up on the next foothold (giving him right-hand, right-foot) and fired. And failed. I said "Other foot...as a BACK-step !". It took him a second to figure out what "backstep" meant and then he did the move effortlessly. Such a BASIC error. But it seems that no one thinks about such things when teaching beginners. The rules are meant to be broken. The "naturals" prove that. But most of us will benefit from having a set of principles. Every time you...place a foot...flag...or dyno, you should know why you are doing it and what the alternatives might be.
Principle 1	The basic balance position in face climbing is between opposite hand and foot. If you are about to reach for a new left handhold, then your balance will be between left foot and right hand while you are reaching.
Principle 2	If you feel like you are about to "barn-door", it is because you are relying on same-side (left hand + left foot or right hand + right foot) contact points as your primary balance. This is a violation of principle 1. If you swap feet so you are no longer in violation, you will probably be back in balance.
	(* A note on terminology -- I use the term flag to mean the act of moving one of your feet to the opposite side of your body from its normal position. It means either putting your left foot to the right of your right foot, or putting your right foot to the left of your left foot. The flagged foot is not placed on a hold, but simply pushed against the rock to counter a barn-door tendency. Others use the term more generally to mean a foot waving around in the air, but I'm using this stricter definition here.)
Principle 3	Flagging seems to violate principle 1, but actually validates it. Mechanically, flagging is a way of swapping feet without swapping feet. Any time you feel the need to flag it is because your two main points of contact are same-side hand and foot. This can usually be remedied by a foot swap, but sometimes flagging is more efficient, especially if it sets up the move after the current move better than a foot swap would. Flagging comes in two flavors: inside and outside. Get used to each to see where it feels best.
Principle 4	Similarly for some dynos, particularly the type I would call a "quick pop". You may be in violation of principle 1, and feel you are out of balance, but it is sometimes quicker to pop to the next handhold, so the out-of-balance time is minimized, than to establish good cross-balance and do the move statically.
Principle 5	Look ahead when climbing. Based on principles 1-4, the choice of which foot to place on a given hold should not be random or governed merely by which foot is closer to the hold. It should be based on cross-body balance or one of the expedient ways (principles 3 & 4) to get around it. People often think cleverly about what hands will go where when looking ahead, but they are often much less clever about feet.
Principle 6	It is not necessary to have both feet on the rock. Just the correct foot. In fact (per the story above) you are often stronger with just one foot. As long as it's the correct one. Any time you are having problems making a move remember that dropping the NON-CROSS-BODY foot off the rock may be just the ticket to allow your body to find that subtle balance point that maximizes your core strength.
Principle 7	Back in my early days of sport-climbing I was lucky enough to climb with two very smooth and stylish locals. I mean stylish in the sense of effortless efficiency, not just trying to look good. One of them told me "You should be using the outside edge of your shoes as much as the inside edge". This is a good goal and is principle 7. It is a particularly good thing to shoot for while practicing body positions governed by principles 1 - 6. It implies that you should often have one or the other hip to the rock, and makes the application of principles 1 - 6 much more natural. Having one hip to the rock generally gives you a better-positioned center of gravity and puts your body in more restful positions. In the gym, you can practice using principle 7 on easier climbs. Just for practice, try limiting yourself to using only the outside edges of your feet on every move to see how it feels and how it lends itself to raising your awareness of cross-body balance. From C.P. Little: It also extends your reach by getting your shoulder closer to the next hold.
	The other local used to always be shaking out one or the other hand while looking ahead. In fact, he basically climbed one- handed except while in the midst of a hard move. Another partner and I did some experiments using a hang-board and a stopwatch. We found that we could hang longer when we released a hand now and then to shake out (even though the remaining hand is under greater stress), than if we just held on til the end with both hands. So....
Principle 8	As much as possible, avoid having both hands on the rock at the same time. 2 Exceptions: when you can't hang on with just one hand, when using thumbs to rest one or both hands. Use this principle along with 1 through 7, and see how efficient and stylish your movement becomes.
	This next rule is my own, but obviously is known to many.
Principle 9	Your thumb is your strongest finger. Learn to use it. It is invaluable for many rest positions where you can hold on with the thumb while you wiggle the other 4. Thumb rests come in many forms: to the side, straight down by your waist, overhead on that roof scraping your noggin. Look for them. They can provide full recovery rests in places you might never think of. My hardest redpoints would not have happened if I didn't know how to use my thumbs properly. If your thumbs are strong you can mantle off them on small holds. If you can find a small thumb-catch near a dicey Gaston so it becomes a micro-pitch, you can sometimes generate way more power than the Gaston alone would provide.
Principle 10	Half of learning to climb is learning to rest. I have mentioned some rest-related information above, but there is a lot of resting technique out there. Stems are obvious. Palming and laying forearms on holds are pretty obvious. Waitress rests (palm up pushing against a roof above your head) are less so. Thumbs. Jams. Knee-bars. Arm-bars in cracks and huecos. Too much to go into. Learn them.
Principle 11	Learn to high-step. It is one of the most elegant and fun ways to get through difficult moves. It's more than just stepping high. It is getting A LOT of weight on the hold. It means really committing to getting on the hold. So many times I've seen people make a half-hearted attempt to high-step and then say "I just can't do it". You got to have a tigerish attitude toward them. You can not do hard face climbs if you can't do radical and powerful high-steps. High steps come in two extremes: close in and extended. Extended means putting your big toe on a hold at shoulder height with leg more or less straight, and raising your body up just using that toe and your one (opposite !) hand. It requires good core strength -- so get some ! Close in means... close in. Step high and rock over. It requires flexibility -- get some.
Principle 12	(From C.P.Little AKA "The Drunken Master") The higher an undercling is (relative to your body) the harder it is to use. If the undercling is really good this is no problem, but you want to get a difficult undercling into prime position (down by your waist) as quickly as possible, while using as little energy as possible. This is often best accomplished by MOVING INTO THE UNDERCLING WITH MOMENTUM. It requires a bit of planning even before you touch the hold. How will you generate momentum, and where will your feet go (especially the foot opposite the undercling hand) when you hit the position? It requires practice. And you have to COMMIT to the move.
Principle 13	The steeper the rock, the closer your hands and feet. As the rock kicks back to 45 degrees overhanging and beyond, your should concentrate on keeping your feet high. If they are too low, body tension suffers and off you come. If you are moving into an undercling on steep rock, you must make particular note of this principle as you plan the move.
Note 1	An odd-ball position relative to this discussion is the drop-knee. It is fully in the spirit of principle 7, but may seem to violate principle 1. And to some degree it does. Shallow drop knees probably do their job mostly by making you accord with principles 1 and 7. The inside-edge-foot is often not really necessary. Radical drop knees relieve weight from the hand by establishing a powerful vector between the feet. So usually BOTH feet are important. In some cases (usually involving foot pockets) you can do a radical drop-knee and then realize that one of the feet can be released (because the other is twisted into a pocket). Then you are back in a standard cross-body situation with one hip in. Push-pull (bicycle) situations are interesting to observe in light of these principles. They can be complex, but they tend to validate the cross-body thing.
Note 2	Again...all the rules are meant to be broken. There are situations where you will feel in balance and strong in spite of violating all the stuff above. There are times when same-side points of contact will feel fine. Picture your points of contact being the points of the compass where right hand is North, left hand is West, right foot is East and left foot is South. If you drop left hand and left foot you will probably feel fine because your BASE is so wide there is no possibility of barn-dooring.
Note 3	An oft-quoted instruction on climbing "how-to" web-sites and forum postings is to "have quiet feet". May be a good GOAL, but as an instruction, it is BS. It is a classic confusion of means and ends. Good, experienced climbers have "quiet feet" because they have already learned how to use them. But if a beginner tries to plant his feet on a hold and not experiment with twisting them into different positions, he won't learn which positions are useful in which circumstances. I would ENCOURAGE beginners (and even non-beginners) to experiment with different foot positions and foot angles. There are times when just switching a foot from inside to outside edge on a hold can make a huge difference. The other night at the gym I was having trouble making a move using the inside edge of my foot. My best climbing pupil was watching and said "try a backstep". Same hands, same foot, same foot-hold, but just switch from inside to outside edge. The move was almost easy that way. Even the teacher has to be reminded of his own instruction (See Principle 7 above) sometimes !
Note 4	There are lots of different climbing styles within the realm of good style. Here are a few: The Winsley: Straight-up square-to-the-wall opposite-hand-foot climbing. Square-to-the-wall meaning shoulders and hips are usually parallel to the wall and there is very little back-stepping, flagging or drop-knee. ("Square-hipped" or "Open-hipped" are other terms I use to describe this style.) Requires a lot of power, but saves time screwing around looking for subtler positions. And sometimes saving time is the best technique of all. (Named for Jon Winsley) The Miles: Lots of drop-knees and back-steps. The Meryl: Inside flags, stems and high-step flexibility. The JBak: Lots of high-steps, foot-swaps, step-throughs and outside edging. The Vince: Outside flags instead of foot-swaps and step-throughs. All of these tendencies constitute valid applications of the principles above. Different people just have their own biases and habits. One of the things that makes climbing great is that it resists being put in a box.