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Your Climbing Technique DEPENDS On It

Kris Hampton
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I recently released a Board Meeting for our Patrons and subscribers in which I asked Nate to help interrogate my current thinking around a better way to learn to move. As I explained what I’ve mostly settled on as the fundamental skills, Nate asked a great question.

He had just recorded an episode with Ryan Devlin from The Struggle Climbing Show, and they had discussed not knowing that certain techniques exist. So Nate wanted to know if there was room in my system for having an “encyclopedic knowledge” of techniques.

At the time I struggled with the answer because I hadn’t thought much about where it fits. My answer ended up being ok at best, but that was why I wanted to run it all past Nate to begin with, so that I could see it from another perspective. So that I could better understand my own thinking and how all of the dots connect.

And now I have the answer.

Individual techniques, and which one(s) you choose to employ, are important, but which technique you choose to use in my system is irrelevant.

That’s because, no matter what technique you select, its success DEPENDS on getting the basic elements right:
Position, Tension, Rhythm, Commitment, Effort.

In the example Nate gave, someone had asked Ryan about a heel-toe cam, but he didn’t even know that heel-toe cams were a thing. I don’t necessarily believe that knowing about heel-toe cams will lead to finding them faster. Not finding it, in my opinion, is a result of not exploring solutions with an open mind. I think we’re all guilty of this on some level, not least of which because we’re so reliant on the “approved beta” or “our beta” even though we’ve barely explored further.

But regardless of whether or not this is true, knowing what a heel-toe cam is – or even finding one – doesn’t mean you can effectively use it. I know dozens of people who know what a heel hook is but have still never really fully used one. Same with toe hooks, drop knees, and literally every other technique that exists.

Like I quoted in the last newsletter, “knowing ain’t half the battle.” In fact, you haven’t even suited up for battle yet.

Ultimately, we can arrive at a solution to a given problem in any number of ways. We can see it in a video, be given it by someone else, or find it by exploring with a partner or on our own. We might know the common name for the technique already, or we might not. It doesn’t matter.

All technique choices will need to be run through the same filter in order to be applied. And you’ll have to get the mix correct or the move won’t be successful, regardless of technique selection.

That filter - that mix - is output as one thing:

SKILL.

There is no good or bad technique. There is no efficient or inefficient technique. Solutions only become good or efficient when applied to a problem, and success depends on how skillfully they are applied. This is why moves can be, and are often, solved in so many “best” ways, and good climbers can do them in all of the ways. It’s why we keep seeing new techniques we’ve never seen. Someone explored and discovered it, applied their skill to it, and named it. It’s why the best climbers can try a movement they’ve never done, or even seen, and do it well on the first try.

They’ve become skillful at the basic elements, not just at that one technique.

This system I’m creating, exploring, and interrogating, that I’m calling “The Atomic Elements of Movement”, is entirely based on the skill involved rather than the technique selected. I truly believe it will help climbers improve their use of hundreds of techniques at a time, rather than just one. It will help climbers do what good climbers are already doing, even though they don’t yet have the language to describe it.

I recently saw a post that claimed “a small change to the footwork” made all the difference. This just isn’t true. First off, what is footwork? I honestly have no idea how to define it. What actually made the difference was a small change in position. Yes, they chose a different foot, or chose to stand on the same foot in a different way, but they did that because the original position wasn’t working. Not because the “footwork” was bad.

The point is that while they got to the right answer via their method and terminology, the way they explained it isn’t all that helpful. That “footwork change” is specific to that one climb. You can’t do the same on your project and see the same result. “Improve your footwork,” has been said to a million climbers a million times, and I still don’t have a clue what it actually means.

Until now, the idea of building “skill” has seemed even more abstract than improving footwork or technique. But I think we can change that, and that once we do, it doesn’t matter at all how you arrive at your solution – you’ll be far better prepared to succeed.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Now that the first season of Written in Stone is wrapped up, I’ve been putting a lot of energy into learning the ways of YouTube and making better, more informative and actionable videos. In my most recent video, released yesterday, I explore how we can better learn to climb taller or smaller. This is one of the areas where I see people having the most fixed mindsets in climbing: “I’m short so I’m good at climbing with high feet,” or “I’m tall so I’m good at getting extended.”

Maybe you are good at those things, but it’s not because of your size. And most of you aren’t actually good at it. You haven’t developed much skill beyond your natural range because you’ve been told this story that you’re just built for it.

You still have a lot of room to improve. Most of us do.

Another common place for fixed mindsets is what climbing “looks” like. In my recent episode with Udo Neumann, we discuss what makes Janja Garnbret and Tomoa Narasaki so good, particularly at competition style climbing. But they aren’t just great competition climbers. They both, while not even doing it much, excel at outdoor climbing. Tomoa has flashed V14 outside (after not climbing outside for a year) and Janja was the first woman to onsight 14b, and then onsighted another of the same grade in the same week.

They can do this simply because they are among the most adaptable climbers on the planet. They’ve gained this adaptability in part by constantly learning novel techniques that offer new solutions to new problems, instead of sticking to the same set of techniques; by becoming more skillful on boulders and routes that most people say don’t “look like climbing.” The fact is, these boulders challenge the fundamentals – Tension, Position, Rhythm, Commitment, and Effort – in ways that more traditional hard climbing doesn’t.

This is one of the reasons I’m so quick to point out that most board climbing is lacking. When you learn the hold set, you drastically reduce the potential for adaptability, which is already, by its very nature, reduced. It can still be done, but not so easily. Nate and I discuss other pros and cons of using boards, specifically in terms of using them to assess movement skills, in this recent Patron episode.

Speaking of assessing movement skills, that was one of the big hurdles of this system I’m developing. Like I mentioned before, it seems, at first, an abstract concept. But I had an epiphany this past week, and I think I’ve cracked the code. A little more testing of the assessment method, and I’ll be releasing a free version and an inexpensive mini-course in the Power Company Climbing Academy that might just be a game-changer for your climbing. Stay tuned.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably someone who enjoys thinking deeply about how we can improve as climbers. If you also enjoy  brainstorming and discourse, I’d love your feedback. If you have a lightbulb moment or a big question that hasn’t been answered, just drop a comment below. Or Instagram, or Patreon, or wherever. Just send it.

That's how we all get better. Together.

– Kris

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