it counts as an extra limb, like an elephant's trunk. footholds, handholds and chin/mouth holds. Seriously that freak neck, it must weigh a stone. Are there muscles in it that help in body tension? Or if its dead weight then he could have surgery to get half of it removed, then being 5kg lighter he could do a 9c+
You might be joking, but actually there might be some bio-mechanical advantages to a long and strong neck when climbing. This should be analyzed....because that's what sets Ondra apart from others.
exactly my excuse for why I can barely dunk despite being 6'7". I had a 6'4" friend who used to swear he was taller than me because his shoulders were the same height, and one day I realized that he could reach up almost 5" higher than me.
Wow I was fascinated that you climbed your first 8b+ when you were 11 years old. Really strong. Keep the series going, love these type of climbing videos
I was worried this video might be depressing (I’m 5’6” with a -3 ape index) but turns out it was inspiring. There really are advantages and disadvantages for so many body types and features, and it’s all about finding ways to work with the body you have. I’ve heard this from other climbers before but it’s great to have another breakdown of the ways this is true from such a knowledgeable source. Thanks for the video!
Don't worry, I'm 5'1, female, with a -.5 ape index. I literally can't fathom how people can have an ape index of +11 like Kai Harada, they must've dragged their arms under their feet 💀
5'1" male here. While obviously there are going to be limitations(I know I'm never going to dunk a basketball), but I've learned not to focus on it in whatever I do. As an offshore commercial fisherman I would spend 15+ hrs a day on my tiptoes which is exhausting but never held me back. On the other hand I spent a few years building & repairing transmission lines w/some steel work mixed in(old electrical towers and cell towers). That was something that my height really hurt me. Steel was fine. Loved it & was quite good. Climbing huge creosote soaked wooden transmission poles was fine until I was up & supported by my spikes & trying to operate gas powered drills w/three+ foot long bits. I would have to get my body nearly horizontal(not cool w/spikes & old wood) just to get enough distance to bring the tip of the bit to the face of the pole. That placed the body of the drill right by my face. They frequently jam w/immense power & you don't want your face anywhere near it. God I hated those drills. In most cases it's all about learning to get the most out of your body type & to know what your limitations are.
I learned some things about myself. 1. I have good climbing hands 2. Being short isn't so bad. (I'm 5'3") 3. Short limbs aren't so bad, either 4. This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak male performance looks like.
I remember being a bit discouraged from climbing because I’m 5’5, and thought lanky guys would automatically just be better at climbing. But, I have small strong hands and feet, with nice big thumbs that are good for pinching holds, so, in reality I have more strengths than I thought! Sadly I don’t have the neck benefit haha
Every body type will be better for some types of routes. Maybe short people have better stability and equilibrium, and even more explosiveness because of the lighter load. Girls have better flexibility. IMO, tall people only have an advantage when the holds are far away enough so that short people have to jump whereas tall people can just reach easily.
I am 14 and my height is 158 cm My friends always laugh at me when I put my feet at the same height as my stomach, but now I can tell them that I am not crazy!
I love how he says his grip strength hasn't increased since he was 7 as he can hang for about the same time. If the average seven year old weighs about 50 lbs and he could hang for X seconds at that weight he wouldn't be able to hang at the average adult weight of 196 lbs what so ever. Now that he is an adult and can hang for X seconds at this weight is a giant strength increase compared to before as he is technically 4x stronger.
Its also funny because he said he couldn't do the campus board very well before he won the bouldering world championship at 17 but now is a master lol to me that sounds like progress. Maybe his weakness was his arms and not his grip which would be weird considering how well he could boulder lol
@@SilencedButNotForgotten destroyed... I think you mean improved. If he were making a video game character, he maxed out his neck length and whatever was left went into the fingers.
This reminds me of a problem, I did with my dad a while back. The start meant that u had to push yourself into the wall and under a overhang. My dad struggled with it because he was really squashed and couldn't find space to reach with hi arms whereas I am samller so I found it easier to get under that overhang and then move enough to shift my weight and reach the next boulder. This just goes to show that u don't have to be tall and strong and have a wide arm span to do boulders easily and it's about figuring out how to use ur body as an advantage.
Sean McColl, short and very dynamic and Adam Ondra, tall and more static... They're both on the overall lead podium this year 👍 Thers's not ONE perfect body !
Damn, I kinda feel bad that after putting so much work to pull together some quality content and share some insights, everyone seems to focus on his neck. Once you see every top comment is about that, it kinda feels like cyber bullying. I think this guy wouldn't be like this if he saw your or my pathetic attempts at rock climbing. Get over it.
@@maymeewi If you read carefully you'll notice I never suggested that he did. Having said that, I think it's pretty lame to dehumanise someone just because they have accomplishments or money. Anyways, I think this is not so much me saying "oh poor Adam he must feel terribly" but rather pointing it's kinda sad people focus on that when he is actually putting something cool together.
what adam says from 01:13 is not totally correct. the thickness of the fingers grows not because of their strenght - as fingers have no muscles. in fact, regular intensive use of the fingers deformes the bones in shape and structure, the bones are bent which makes them appear thicker. so putting a lot of force on your fingers frequently will make your fingers thicker, but if you lose the muscles that control your fingers, your fingers will still stay thick. if you are interested on xray-pictures of these deformation, check the paper "Degenerative Veränderungen der Fingergelenke bei Sportkletterern" from "Hochholzer & Schöffl" 2009
Adam I loved you're video.thank you for the tips..youre climbing has really inspired me.i just climed my first v 9 boulder problem at the climbing gym.please post more Adam! Great job.
He's definitely not a strenght mutant. But his technique and overall mental game is just very superior to the other guys. Genius in terms of climbing IQ. One day there might be a strength mutant with his climbing iq and we'll probably see 10a then.
God, he's 2cm shorter than me and 25 odd kilo lighter, even if I cut down to low body fat I'll still be 85, or maybe 80 with no fat to spare, does Adam have the proportions of slenderman?
The finger lengths shown at 1:45 are wrong. My hand is exactly as long as his, 19.5cm, and when I put my hand on the screen, it fits almost exactly from the tip of the middle finger to the wrist. However, my middle finger measures 9cm. The 19.5cm hand lengths bar is not in the same scale as the bars for the fingers either. You can easily masure it yourself. I have no idea why they would put wrong measurements in there and it's not important, but somehow it bothers me enough to have written this comment.
@Kavriel .......... true, but Adam is an Ectomorph & is just built thin. Compare him to the legendary John”One Tonne” Dunne. Adam arguably has THE BUILD for today’s Sport Climbing
@ Michael K ...... BMI, as it’s been propagated by MetLife, is bullshite. Compare him to another world class athletes Kyle Dake, Freestyle World Champ. IMO Alex Ondra arguably has “a perfect” build for today’s Sport Climbing
I know, this guy talks so much about himself, he includes his name in pretty much every title even though its the name of the channel. I mean I am not saying he is not really good at climbing but some humility wouldnt hurt.
I'm 178 in height, and 182 in wing span. My hands are pretty average in length at 197 mm. (But mildly short in width.) My weight is at the moment 65.8 kilograms. Some would say I'm skinny, and lack muscle, because I'm skinny, and I lack muscle.
Do your hands get thicker the more you climb? Can you build stronger hands/tendons? I have very similar body type to yours, and if I could get my fingers stronger/thicker, it would help out a lot... I am an adult now, so I don't know if that is possible.
The last time I was 158 pounds (72 kilos) was about 19 years ago. Now I weigh 190 pounds (86 kilos). Hopefully I can lose 20 pounds or so on this keto diet and improve my climbing.
Exactly what I was thinking, I do wonder how much of it comes just from his strength. The efficiency and climbing technique are obviously extremely good as well.
i loved climbing when I was a kid, i could hang by my finger tips no problem, but now i'm wide shouldered and bulky with hands that are definitely not large and my fingers will not take me hanging on them, so my feet stay on the ground these days
Much respect man I'm so fat and out of shape I can barely climb out of bed most of the time lol. We have a guy at work that has one big finger and they call him dick finger. I wonder if he could use it for climbing.
more height = more weight because of the amount of bone in your body. I'm a 6'8 climber. It's basically impossible for me to ever get below 185lbs (84 kilos). 200 lbs (91 kilos) is where I'm at while being incredibly toned down, and at this point still considered underweight.
I am a bit under 170cm tall and have ape index of about +15cm... A bit crazy, huh? I am not a climber, I have only tried it a couple of times, but I would really like to get into it.
Got I love this fucking accent EDIT: I relate to people always bein like "lol I wish I had his armspan" when I'm actually negative like 2cm! I just happen to be kinda tall lol
“As I was short..” *screen says 159cm* That’s not short! I’m 5’0 (152cm) and I’m typically only an inch too short to be able to reach the holds. (These are the ones you NEED the reach) honestly, some bouldering problems are not designed for climbers who are short short. It’s physically impossible. My friend who is a v7 climber sometimes can’t do V3-4s.
I don't know anything about climbing, but somehow I'm still very skeptical about this video. While obviously, every body type has its pros and cons, I tend to believe that somebody type would give a bigger advantage on average. It will be interesting to see the world champions / Olympic games winners in 10-20 years (when the sport will be an Olympic sport for a while) to see if indeed we have a wide diversity of body types among top athletes.
Really hate that stressful music. But as for anatomy of climbing being tall is not without consequence it means additional weight from long legs. One area where Adam didn't train well in childhood is leg flexibility. Eldinger the father of free rock climbing in the early 1980's said it well you have to be able to do both leg splits and was the most balanced and ballet like fluency climber with perfect movement. You can see how Ondra lacks that leg flexibility and is forced to compensate by bending the hip which moves him away from the rock face which is a drawback.
At an advanced level being tall is actually is a disadvantage. Most of the best outdoor or competition boulderers or climbers are below average height. In Sport where height is an advantage the pro athletes are way taller. This is caused by simple physic ( cube square law, longer levers, w = f x d, proportionally less surface area on holds, crimps are proportionally smaller, more momentum when cutting loose) who lead to decrease in strength to weight ratio with increasing height ( the same physics cause pro gymnasts to be short). Theoretically one could calculate the percentage impact of those factors in strength to weight ratio , but it is very hard to calculate the positiv impact of height and longer limbs into climbing performance as every problem is different. Taller climbers are more disadvantaged on overhangs than on vertical climbs. In conclusion you can see that top tall climbers are always physically weaker than shorter climbers but sometimes can use their longer reach as an advantage. The optimal height is 5’5” to 5’9” for men and 5’2 to 5’6” for women. Question to everyone: In my opinion competition boulders and routes should be set to favor tall people due to the fact that if there are no moves that favor tall people short people will always have the advantage because they are stronger. Do you also think high level setting should be fair?
I'm only 5'6", but when I was growing up I was told that I had a swimmer's body. Shorter legs, long torso, long arms. He has a freakishly long neck, yikes.
Good video. This is why I feel like the ape index is measured wrongly. Body height is always a bit misleading because of neck length differing so much. We should actually measure height up to the collar bone.
Very interesting subject! If you stop training hard, the muscles loose water and you are leighter, hmmm... I have much bigger hands, now I understand my disandvantage. I have nearly the same body height and a bit more weight. I have to transfer more weight into muscles. My wing-span is + 1" but Tomoa Narasaki or Kai Harada has +4", WOW! .
