So when you're bouldering, a lot of the motion gets pretty complex, some of the moves can
be pretty involved.
So right now I'm going to share with you five advanced techniques, some moves that you might
not always think about, but some pretty interesting ways to kind of use your body and coordinate
some motion.
The first example is something called a rose move, and a rose move is when you actually
open away from the walls, that your hips are facing in a different direction.
Often times the way the holds are laid out on the wall will dictate whether or not these
types of moves are going to be necessary.
So the rose move would be when my left hand was here, and I'm crossing underneath with
my right hand, turning my hips away from the wall.
Another example of an advanced technique will be what's known as a knee bar.
A knee bar is when you're using not necessarily your knee, but more commonly the to of your
thigh, and you're going to use that thigh and your foot to really create some opposition
and allow your body to really be weighted on just that knee bar, and the tension that
you're getting between those two points.
So right there you'll notice I can take all my body weight and place it right here on
this knee bar with my left foot really pushing and getting that thigh up against that hold,
which allows me to turn this corner.
One other technique would be similar to using a toe hook, except you're using two toe hooks
at the same time, which is also known as a bat hang.
In this instance, a bat hang allows me to make this change in angle and complete this
transition.
So that would be a bat hang.
Another technique is something known as a bicycle, and a bicycle is where you're using
the bottom side of your toe and the top of your toe, which would be a toe hook, at the
same time to basically squeeze one hold or two holds together to create that same sense
of opposition, almost like closing a vice.
So right here I'll use a bicycle on this yellow hold to keep both of my feet up, keep my body
in position.
So in this position, you can see one leg is pulling, the other leg is pushing the whole
time, I have my core involved to help keep those legs up, my body in position.
That's how you use a bicycle.
The final move here is something known as a drop knee.
The drop knee is a great way to kind of lower your center of gravity, and keep it in your
base of support, which are the contact points you have with the wall.
When your center of gravity is lower, your base of support, it makes you more stable,
more capable of doing a move slowly, with a bit more control.
So to get into the drop knee, I'll place my left foot on this hold, and then literally
turn my knee in, dropping it down, and twisting up.
That drop knee allows you to really keep your center of gravity nice and low within your
base of support, making your body nice and balanced and stable, really allows you to
suck that hip in nice and close to the wall, to get a little bit of extra reach out of
that whole system.
And those are a couple of advanced bouldering techniques you might encounter here in the
gym.