Climbing slabs is mostly about technique. If you are a beginner, it might take you some
time to get good at climbing overhangs because it takes time to build up finger strength and
arm strength. However, you could potentially get good at climbing slabs really fast because
learning techniques is easier than building up strength. Today I want to share with you a slab
that I climbed recently, and I will talk about five key techniques for climbing it.
Let's take a look at this route. There are four very small holds for our feet. A volume
here that can be potentially useful. A crimpy starting hold. A long slightly slopey volume and
a small crimp above. Another small crimp above. A hold that looks too difficult to hold onto,
and then a crimpy finish hold. With the close-up shots of the holds I showed, you can pause the
video a bit and see what beta comes first to your mind before I start talking about it.
Alright, even though the small holds might look kind of intimidating, it should be quite doable if
you apply the right technique. Initially, I made the mistake of assuming every hold should be used,
so I tried using the lowest foothold, but it seemed impossible to start with it.
Eventually I figured out that the easiest way to start is to step on the volume with my left foot.
One important technique for stepping on the volume is to lower the heel and maximize
the surface contact area between your shoe and the volume. This allows you to better put your
weight onto the volume and greatly reduce your chances of slipping. Next, I got both hands onto
the long volume and directly reached out to the crimp on the right. During this entire movement,
my left foot was completely planted. I was actively pressing onto the volume though
my body was moving upwards. Maintaining foot tension at all times is very important in slab
climbs because the handholds on slabs are usually way worse than the ones you see on overhangs
and you don't want to end up holding most of your weight with your hands. Next, I reached
out to the crimp on the left. Notice that instead of directly reaching out to the crimp, I shifted
my hips to the left and then reached. This allows me to crimp less with my right fingers while doing
the movement. Knowing when to move the center of mass to shift most of your weight to the foot
is key to holding onto bad handholds on slabs. At this point, naturally I thought I had to reach the
next handhold with my right, and the most logical way to do this was to get my right foot onto this
foothold and then reach. This was an incredibly tough move because of how bad the foothold is.
Eventually I was able to touch the handhold but I realized the handhold was incredibly bad,
and it would be challenging to hold onto it. I decided to think outside the box and try to
break the beta. As my friend, Max, mentioned in my previous video, beta break usually consists of
dyno or high foot. After some search, I discovered that I could potentially take advantage of my good
hip mobility, bring my right foot up way high onto the long volume, skip the incredibly bad handhold,
and directly reach the finish hold with my right. So first, I brought my right foot to this small
foothold and then brought my left foot up to this small foothold. The key to stepping onto
these kinds of small footholds is to step on them with the tip of the shoe and press down
and in. Common mistakes are pressing down only or not even pressing at all. Remember to also
press in and as a result, the foothold will feel a lot more solid. You also must resist the urge
to brute force the moves by full crimping. If you feel the need to full crimp, jump down right away
and redo the climb with the aim of making the feet feel solid at all times. You will see that during
the entire movement, I never did the full crimp and the most I did was the half crimp. In any
case, I brought my right foot high onto the long volume but I had trouble reaching the last hold.
Eventually I figured out the mistake I made was assuming that the higher I place my foot,
the better it will be because I am supposed to be closer to the finish hold. However, what I didn't
realize was that for this particular climb, the higher I place my foot, the farther my foot will
be away from the finish hold horizontally, which means my body will be more tilted when I reach
the final hold. It also means my center of mass will be further away from my foot horizontally
and consequently, I will have to put a lot more weight onto my hands to hold the position.
Therefore, the counterintuitive fix is placing the foot lower on the long volume, so that my foot
will be closer to the finish hold horizontally. This means once I reach the final hold, I can
still put most of my weight on the foot and bring up my left foot onto the long volume to finish the
climb. Here's the full send without any pauses in between. In the meantime, here's a quick recap if
you ever want to come back to this video to review the techniques. First, lower the heel and maximize
the surface contact area when stepping on volumes. Second, actively maintain foot tension even when
you are moving up. Third, shift your hips to move your weight to your feet whenever possible
before making a move. Fourth, press down and in when stepping on bad small footholds. Lastly,
when you step up with a single foot, make sure to place the foot as close as possible to the target
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