3 Biggest Mistakes on SLOPERS 

Bleausard pro tip straight from Font, a.k.a. the kingdom of slopers: when smacking the holds with a rag, you have to shout at it as well (i.e. PAH, PAH...) to actually frighten it and scare the dust and chalk away. Works magic! (and psyches you up to really try hard ;) More seriously: Great video and good tips!

The biggest mistake which no content creator covers is not realizing the massive strength component of holding slopers (and not crimping them). After an intense training session of doing pullups on slopers I feel so much more fatigue in my inner hand muscles, wrists, and forearms while feeling very little strain in my pulleys. Everyone says "body positioning and friction is everything" with slopers, but it's really body position + friction + strength. There's a reason some people can jump onto the bm2k slopers and control the swing while most people, regardless of conditions can't even get their feet off the ground.

What’s great about slopers and all of these tips is that they actually apply to almost every hold you encounter and will make most moves easier (direction of pull, hips in, correct thumb/finger engagement etc)

The demonstration with the bands was really helpful.

One the big ones for me was the realising the power of opposing forces. I've had a lot of slopers that felt impossible until I found a good heel or toe to compress the sloper with from the right angle.

Instructions unclear. Fingers turned into resistance bands, drank liquid chalk and pinched my core.

Pro tip, use the screw holes for monos. It helps 100%

Brilliant. We have these bubbly looking holds at my gym that I keep falling off of. I shall try the partial crimp technique

Thanks for the great video! About getting full chalk coverage on your hands: Personally I have a chalk ball (or after reading a tip from Tom Randall it's actually an old Sock filled with chalk) rolling around in loose chalk. When I take it and roll/knead it in my hands I get the perfect full layer of chalk. So far this works for me way better than directly gripping into the chalk.

Good stuff. Thanks.

Love your videos!

So useful !!!

Does your weight affect? (sounds like an obvious "yes" question) I mean, sometimes there is only one best way to grab a slopper and in a slab there is nothing to apply counter pressure, so it's all about body positioning. Could be that certain slopper in certain angle is ok to hold for a person and physically impossible to hold for another person +15kg? My guess is that second person should get stronger.

what shoes is Aiden wearing here?

I think there is a big misconception about "surface area" in the climbing community, as long as your surface isn't breaking the formula for friction doesn't care about area, it's all about pressure and the friction co-efficient. So it doesn't matter if you have 1 finger or your entire palm, as long as your skin can handle the force (and you have a godly strong finger) I think what drives this is when people slip on a volume with their shoes and leave a big black streak down them. This isn't the foot running out of friction, this is the small area of rubber not being strong enough to support the force the friction is applying and pealing away. This is why standing on peaks of volumes feels so much worse than standing on the flat. (more surface area allows for softer rubber much like a drag car tyre) When you want your hand to get the most out of a normal sloper you have to crimp it so all the force is going through the tips of the fingers on the best part of the slope and minimal amount of force through the rounded back parts of the fingers where the slope on the hold is worse (this can be opposite if the hold slopes the otherway). This is why hanging on the beastmaker 45° slope is so much more possible in a full crimp rather than an open hand. Open handed often feels better in actual climbing practice because it relaxes your arm more and lets you focus on getting a better body position.

when im having to do a dynamic move on a sloper i feel a sharp pain in my wrist. after letting go it instantly fades. any idea what im doing wrong?

I heard a common misconception when people talk about friction. The amount of friction has nothing to do with surface area. Friction depends on the two surfaces in contact (your hand and the hold), this is called the friction coefficient, and the normal force (how hard you pull perpendicular to the hold). Each tip is still valid, so no worries. The correct body position makes you pull more in the perpendicular direction. Brushing your holds and chalking your hands will increase the friction coefficient between your hands and the holds. When you are good at crimping, a full crimp lets you pull harder on the hold and thus also increases the normal force.

It’s funny that you wanna get rid of the chalk just so you can apply more.

Why is chalk good on your hands but bad on holds?