Possibly the most common movement error made by climbers from beginner to elite. Fortunately, also one of the easiest to fix. My book on training for climbing: www.davemacleod.com/shop/9out...
There's relatively little content on RU-vid describing climbing technique with this level of detail AND applicability. Echoing the sentiment that more videos like this would be very welcome!
Yes I find most climbing videos on RU-vid are either entertainment, or just say the same things, hips close to wall, use your big toe, straight arms. This is the type of video I needed, hard to find.
I've been climbing steadily for over 25 years and consume a lot of (too much) climbing media. This is the best "beyond the basics" footwork video I've seen, not only for its structure/editing but also its content. Thank you so much for the detailed analysis and excellent examples.
Thank you dave. This is something that i think many of us tend to notice, while not being able to explain or fully understand. You have a great way of describing and breaking down technical elements of climbing, and i hope to see more from you in the future
This is fantastic. It's endlessly fascinating how small movement adjustments can have such big consequences in terms of results. Movement-intensive videos like this are so practical.
Hey Dave, thank you so much for this! As I was done with work I saw the notification of a new video of yours, replayed it a couple of times and jumped into the board to try it out. I'm one of these climbers who feel a little too strong for the grade they're climbing, the legs being passive comment certainly hit the nail in the head for me. At first this technique felt a little awkward and counterintuitive but I kept trying it. THEN... THEN... I proceeded to have the most ridiculous climbing session that I've had in a while, movements where I usually depend a lot on gaining momentum with my arms suddenly felt super easy and soon enough I was doing moves that I thought were out of reach for my level of strength. You single handedly improved my climbing with a single video!! I sincerely hope there's more of this types of videos. Once again thank you!
Coming back from dislocating my elbow after a bad bouldering fall I am very out of shape due to just comfort eating myself into oblivion. I am finding that I am extremely weak compared to prior to the injury, however I am still able to get up certain v6s and the odd v7 boulder largely due to heavily prioritising my leg tension and footwork to compensate for my lack of upper body strength... it's actually been quite the profound learning experience for me to be in the worst shape of my life... but on paper almost climbing as hard as I was when I was in the best shape of my life, despite knowing my grip strength is not great and feeling drastically weaker overall. It makes me wonder how much strength masks inefficiencies to the climber, as only when that strength has been taken away from me have my eyes been opened to lots of little tricks or mistakes in my old approach, the majority of which seem to be related to application of power through my legs - simply because I cannot move or hold power as I could. Great video Dave, this really resonates with me and my personal experience.
Climbing a V6 while being out of shape is really impressive! Of course I'm not sure what shape you're in exactly but even if you're in decent shape already if you're climbing v6 now I bet you can move up a few grades pretty quickly if you start getting in better shape since your technique is already so good.
Totally get this. I had surgery from a climbing injury (shoulder dislocation) and became very weak over the 6 month recovery before I could climb again. I also prioritized my legs and footwork and saw great gains in performance, my awareness on the wall is much higher. And I’m now dealing with a finger injury and I’m doing the same thing again, and also improving with slopers
Keep the faith, your climbing may improve beyond your current expectations. I seriously injured my left ankle three years ago (comminuted transverse fractures of the tibia and fibula and serious damage to the ankle joint) and it took me 2 years to get back to my previous level of climbing. Now, three years later, I've exceeded my pre-injury level of climbing. It's very demoralising to sustain a serious injury, but with patience and commitment you can bounce back!
I've been climbing for 20 years and have a fairly intuitive technique and still found this super insightful, thank you Dave, this community is fortunate to have you!
For a warmup drill like you mentioned at the end, I personally like a combination of making every single foot movement an outside flag (as in one foothold, one flag) + hovering hand over next hold, then changing to an inside flag on the next warmup problem. It puts you into some awkward positions that very quickly help to make you more aware of your feet, and you'll really feel if it's not right when you hover over the next hold!
Man this is crazy ive been getting into climbing in the past year and my dad talks about you alot as one of the most legendary climbers "of the time". Awesome to see you make content on yt:)
As a beginner climber who finds overhangs IMPOSSIBLE, I'm excited to start working on this and maybe send some overhang problems! You explained this really well, I appreciate it :)
yeah i got better with overhangs by doing rows in order to strengthen my back. But i was definitely missing this technique and looking forward to trying it out.
When a new Dave MacLeod vid drops its like Christmas honestly, so well thought out and I love that you take the time to explain and show, instead of just saying "flag foot" - also actually showing how it looks on a hard problem! I will definitely try to be a lot more conscious about exact foot placement and pushing into the wall as I have noticed that I can sometimes do a move easily, and sometimes not at all, while at same strength/fatigue level, and I really don't know why :D
Dave you got me:) One of the most detailed Videos i have ever seen about explaining one aspect of climbing techniqhe. Great job, and thank you a lot! All the best, Dave
You're a legend Dave, massive inspiration. Also, that 80's synth wave techno tune at the end. Awesome. Great for watching you send, like the Screapadal Prow vid. More of this please!
Been playing around with this since watching the video 2 weeks ago and amazing how much more I can feel getting out of my legs. Seems that my foot was often slipping during the move and now I'm thinking about its position and putting some force through it its so much easier to hold tension through certain moves. its been a game changer for me especially on the board. There's no other content at this level of technical depth on youtube please keep it coming Dave!
Absolutely brilliant! Your truly good at teaching Dave. I knew that already from your books but it's such a treasure having this channel to see you demonstrate these things 🙏
I went to the gym after watching this video and immediately had a breakthrough on an old project. There are so many flagging technique videos on RU-vid but none of them get to this level of subtlety. Thank you Dave!
Thank you Dave! This video is extremely helpful! As someone who has been struggling with endurance when lead climbing, I love hearing tips on how to save energy! I hope there's more in the same vein in the future! Cheers
Super good! I've never seen that piece of advice before, will definitely try it out. Really cool to see it "in action" with your own hard climbs. Thumbs up!
Ive noticed a shortage of videos about highly specific techniques that are critical to improve ones climbing ability. Thank you for this video and I hope to see more like it in the future.
I always just flag a leg out for "balance" but never thought about pressing it into the wall as part of counterpressure between both feet. Looking forward to more of these videos.
The overhead view ( @6:22) was the real key to understanding for me! Kinda blew my mind! I've been trying to teach this concept to others for a while, but I have only done it intuitively so I didn't know how to explain it with depth. Thanks, Dave!
I started climbing at around 4yrs old. I've always told people to use the Johnny Dawes "phantom hold" when only on one foot. This how ever I've never even considered as a full concept so can't even know if I actually make this mistake or not. Will be investigating and hopefully getting a level up very soon !! This is kind of attention to detail and analysis of movement is why Dave is one of the best !!!!
Very well explained. Thank you for the video! It was very helpful to be shown what the common mistakes are. Not being a very technical climber, I often find myself brute strengthing my way through routes and pulling in ways that are not so good for my body. Instead, I should focus on applying techniques such as this to make routes significantly easier.
Best training tip ever for an intermediate climber. I tried it at the gym today and it worked on a problem that has been vexing me. Thank you and I am looking forward to the next training tip.
Dave you're the best. I swear you're the only climbing channel that digs deep into the details of this stuff. We all know flagging helps provide balance but this video really helps understand how best to do this. Can't wait to try!
There's a whole lot of junk food climbing channels popping up. People who can do intermediate problems giving advice on climbing. You are very clearly well read, practiced and very deliberate in your teaching. Subbed!
Very well explained, great video! What seems strange to me, is that the basic technique/body position where you use the 'counterbalance foot' has no term in English climbing. In Dutch we have 'indraaien' (literally, turn in or twist in). You showed the quintessential 'indraai' position in the first example with the black holds and red foot; two handholds with one foothold roughly in the centre, and the other foot is flagging out, allowing you to twist your hips/shoulder into the wall. Because this is one of the first techniques you learn in the Netherlands, I think it helped me with being vaguilly aware of the position of the 'counterbalance foot'. Never gave it this much thought however. Great stuff and thanks for the detailed insight
Thank you so much!! Best content as usual. You are one of the rare guys who really show us that the focus should lie on technique and not (only) on strength. There is so much to learn on each move we (can't) do. You already gave us so much free advice on this channel that I almost don't dare asking for even more. ... I'll to it anyways... According to certain online strength tests I should only be able to send V2s but currently working on my first V5 in my total anti-style (mini moonboard) after sending V4s consistently. This is a 40° overhang with bad crimpy holds and often bad footholds and/ or drop knee starts. Could you give tipps on how to do hard deadpoints in overhangs - in a situation where you can hang on all the holds with two hands (feet on) but immediately drop off if trying to move to the next hold statically. That means you have to find the perfect deadpoint timing and movement to succeed. Is there an effective strategy to work on such moves?
Thank you for this video. I watched it 3 weeks ago and used it in my indoor training and outside. Its a small adjustment, but makes a big difference. I feel much more in controll
A brilliant takeaway that I think will stick with me for a long time is to actively try and use my lower body just as much as I use my upper body in terms of intensity. Also pushing into the wall with the foot is going to be a game changer
I think there are some interesting differences between the example move in the first half of the video and the crux move at the end. It's been super interesting watching these in slow motion to see what's going on. In the initial example the hips start at an oblique angle and end perpendicular to the wall. The holds follow the center line very neatly and involve no major shift. This involves a larger twisting motion that activates the entire body, and personally feels far more intuitive. In the crux move the hips are nearly parallel throughout the entire motion and the right knee is flared away from the center line. The move brings the right hand in, shifting the center of gravity towards the flagging left leg. I have always struggled with this move but never quite realized why. So there's a few things I'm noticing that make moves with a flagged leg more difficult: 1. Opening the hips and consequently using a foot that is further off line 2: Performing a move that shifts the center line towards the flagging foot With these two points in mind I can totally imagine developing a simple move progression of increasing difficulty and complexity to train my flagging technique. The quality of the hand holds certainly affect all of this (e.g. having a jug or well angled hold will reduce the necessary technical complexity). I'd love to hear your thoughts! Hopefully this isn't too far off from what's going on. Can't wait to try this stuff out, and thanks for the video! :)
Thanks for the explanation. I've heard how important it is to emphasize body rotation but not how to apply or how important foot position is to it. This was a really good video.
The way to find the correct position for me has been to check the end position (where the foot needs to be after you hit the next hold), and occasionally even tickmarking the spot. Over time you get better at finding the correct spot onsight.
I totally get this, I've watched better climbers than myself doing a problem and have noticed thy have had there foot in a slightly different place to me then tried to replicate it and stuck it. Now I know why, this video is brilliant! PLEASE DO MORE LIKE THIS 🙏🙏🙏
Great stuff! I'm a coach and trainer myself. Your content is a continuous inspirations for me. And I find myself quite often thinking about your videos while prepping my training. It really helps seeing your perspective on climbing technique. And even just something as simple as the language you use to describe the situation sometimes really helps. It helps structure my own thoughts, and ability to communicate about climbing technique. Keep it up!
Thanks Dave. I’ve been climbing for years, and was only vaguely aware this was a weakness for me and I under utilised good flagging. I’ve since started practicing using flagging and really pressing into the wall, and it’s amazing how much it helps. Like getting much stronger, without doing so! I think this will translate to being very useful outdoors too, with the lack of good foot placements there
I applied this "pushing into the wall" technic on an overhang with small holds I was working on (overhangs being my weakest spot) and it made such a difference ! I was able to perfectly hold my core using barely no strength, my foot never cut off the wall. It really changes how I'm gonna approach that kind of problems in the future. Thanks a lot !
It would be great if you would consider making a video of you actually training someone of much lesser ability, so we could learn with them too. Great video BTW.
Nice one Dave. Really detailed video. I'm trying to improve on steeper climbs and using the feet more actively and foot placement on the flag is definitely something I'll think about. Looking forward to next sesh to try drilling this
