How to move on a rock climbing wall

Before embarking upon a training regime to boost your grade, have a think about your climbing style. Moving efficiently when climbing may help more than any number of one-arm pull-ups!

All activities involve specific types of movement. Tennis, swimming, high jump, walking and climbing are different, and improvements in technique allow participants to hit the ball harder, swim further, jump higher, walk for longer, or climb at a higher grade.

The predominant movement in climbing is going up - nothing earth shattering so far. The leg muscles are very strong, and better placed for pushing up a climb, than the arm muscles are for pulling up it. However, as the hands are around eye level and out in front when climbing, a common 'error' is for moves to be initiated by the weaker arm muscles, when the stronger leg muscles could be used instead.

Some moves do of course require pulling very hard with the arms. However, with the body positioned appropriately, the leg muscles can be used to best effect.

In order to achieve this, there's an important concept to consider, namely, Centre of Gravity (CoG). A simple exercise demonstrates the link between CoG and supporting your body with your legs. Stand up with feet together, and whilst keeping your feet on the ground, raise an arm and reach out to your side as far as possible. You can't reach very far until having to move a foot to stop you falling over. When stood upright, your CoG falls between your two feet. Lifting an arm shifts your CoG towards it. Reaching out further shifts your CoG more, until outside your legs, requiring a quick action to stop you falling.

The exercise demonstrates that when not holding on with the hands, it doesn't take a lot of movement to shift the body's CoG until the legs can't support it anymore. When climbing, both arms and legs are used to support the body, and it's easy to climb inefficiently: taking weight on the arms that could be placed upon the legs instead.

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