Do a tutorial of your favorite move: the backhand slap to the other palm. You do it almost every video and each time it makes a satisfying slapping sound.
I have watched a few, but I gotta say this is hands down the best "top X tips for climbing" video for intermediate-ish climbers out there. As a climber myself the tips resonate very well with me and the slow realisations that climbers I know (or myself) have had through the years. You can tell the video is made out of your mind and experience and you don't waste time focusing on not-so-relevant detail (e.g. "always use the tip of your toe" kind of things). Well done Emil!
Thanks, that means a ton to hear! Since this is my first "tip"-video I've been unsure if this format would work or not for people, and it gladdens me to hear that it did for you :)
Another great tip that I don’t see people talk about is to see how changing your point of focus on a move makes the move easier/harder. It’s natural to focus on the next hold you’re going to use, but too often this results in climbers not getting the most out of the holds they’re already on! Most climbers, while doing a move, are focusing on the next hold and only the next hold. You’re at your limit, trying hard, and focusing all your attention and energy on hitting that next right-hand pinch and squeezing the shi*t out of it. Often the move can be easier if you do exactly the same beta, but instead focus all your attention and energy on one of the many factors that affect that move OTHER than grabbing the next hold: pulling with your left foot, or your right foot, locking off as close to the wall as possible with your left hand, maintaining maximum body tension, moving your hips as close to the wall as possible, etc. etc. When I say focusing, I really mean it. For this to work well, you sort of have to be projecting the move so that you have the muscle memory to grab the next right hand without thinking about it. You do the move with all your attention and focus on the feeling in your left foot and leg, pushing/pulling as hard as possible with it, not giving that next hold a single thought. There have been countless times when I’ve been projecting a move, struggling to stick it, and as soon as I focus on my foothold I’m already on, instead of on the hold I’m moving to, it feels easy. So if you’re stuck on a project, try shifting your focus to different parts of the move and see how it changes the perceived difficulty.
I started bouldering this year and fell in love with it. As a pianist, I quickly developed an RSI from climbing/practicing too much when I first got my gym membership. Found how to balance the two things. As a musician, it's crazy how much this advice applies to practicing an instrument too. I never thought I'd learn about becoming a better musician in a climbing gym... I think it's good to be open to all kinds of experiences.
I'm finally working on crimping correctly to avoid injury. It means practicing a lot more on easier problems, but it'll be worth it if I don't get injured.
For a professional climber, your video editing skills keep getting better and better. It's impressive how you keep it captivating by switching back and forth between your arguments and the many camera angles on the wall. Great pacing!
Nice protips, I always talk with people about just concentrate on not getting injured. I mean sometimes it happens with an accident, but for the most part, you have to prepare your body in so many different ways, so that its able to absorb those massive forces that climbing needs and develops.
I love the format for this video it makes me feel like I'm just climbing with a friend (who is way better than me). This video has a real personal touch that is really captivating. One of the best climbing tips videos out there. Thanks for the great content!
These are really well done, Emil! There are many “how to improve” climbing videos out there, many of which are obvious or over simplified. These tips are well thought out and explained. Thanks!
I find sometimes with projecting at lower grades, I tend to fall in too the trap of thinking, well I can just go away, get stronger and then come back and do it. Which has been very counter productive.
Really good tips that are aimed at all skill levels. Even a beginner can think about the best way to hold a jug. Probably the best “Top X climbing tips” video I’ve seen. Keep it up!
Thanks Emil, seeing tip videos from top end climbers that focuses on helping people to figure out what they need to do to make themselves better opposed to "just do this and become a great climber" is very awesome and I'm excited to focus on some stuff mentioned in this video!
Would love to see a video about finding beta outside. I recently went bouldering outdoors for the first time and found it challenging to read problems, especially when the lines were completely clean of chalk. Love the content!
the last tipp is so true. even slight injuries are so bad. You feel like you can still climb, you do it and the injury either becomes worse or stays the same.
Great tips, though the stretching part is arguable. It seems that the static stretching leaves muscles in a weaker state (basically deformed and less elastic), so it is not recommended to do it before any hard work. I have heard it from different sources, one of them was a state team coach in a running related sport. They prefer dynamic stretching to warm up (it does not affect elasticity). Now I am reading a book on the subject: Science of Flexibility by Alter M., and in this science-powered book the author states the same. So I would advice to take some research on this, if you haven't already :)
Bump. I'm studying physiotherapy and the literature recommends dynamic stretching when warming up. Static stretching before activity makes you more prone to injury. It should be done afterwards. The theory behind it is that the lengthened muscle tissue gives the brain false info as of what position the joint is in, compared to what it's used to (because it's lengthened). Therefore the amount of motion and power the brain will signal the muscle to do, won't be adequate and may lead to injury.
Great point! Admittedly I made a mistake here, and should've explained my reasoning better. It is true that static stretching will leave muscles in a weaker state, and I would never do static stretching before, for example, doing squats. I warm up with static stretching as it instantly makes me a lot more flexible, which results in me having much much more control on the wall, and personally I haven't felt any difference in how my climbing performance is affected.
@@gizdyret I think it's important to keep in mind what the goal of a session is. If I'm trying to send the hardest, most powerful boulder I can I only stretch dynamically. For me flexibility and mobility are big weak points though, so some sessions I stretch statically before I climb. At home, I do some light exercise in the extra range of motion I got after stretching. It feels like this way I improve my muscles' ability to lengthen, and then afterwards train my body to use the additional range of motion. Sort of like recalibrating mechatronics after upgrading some parts. This is only in relation to climbing for me though, and even then I'm careful with my fingers and shoulders. I very much believe the extra risk of injury in sports like football or MMA where the movements are harder to predict.
'Food for thoughts'! Who would've guessed that theory could be so much fun! Attached footage to each topic was very helpful. Thanks for your tips and time ;) Episode 2 would be welcome :)
Life saver for climbers, stress balls after every climb, loosens your fingers sooo much and makes your sessions a lot more time efficient whilst not increasing injury risk
What an amazing video! Honestly learnt so much, and definitely stuff that's going to help throughout my whole climbing career. Easily my favourite RU-vidr, keep it up!
Great video, watching others climb is an amazing tip. Especially where you can see many climbers on the same problem, e.g. Moonboard vids or World Cups/Comps. You can see nuance technique differences between climbers, problem solving skills, their strengths and weaknesses.
Since I got here early for once, just wanted to say how much I appreciate your content man. You’re hands down my favorite climbing channel on RU-vid now, just keep it up man!
That was awesome! I'd definitely be interested in a video on your prehab/rehab routines. Shoulder and elbow injuries have plagued my climbing progress.
5 weeks to top, 2 months to perfect is my longest project so far. Managed my perfection of it the day before reset day :) Can't wait to get into outdoor bouldering next year :)
Hi Emil, Thank you for the amazing video! I really appreciate that you gave different tips than what I usually see, as well, a lot of it was about how to approach climbing. Your third tip about hand engagement was incredibly insightful; just hearing you break down your thought process was so eye opening. I never really thought about approaching climbing from that kind of perspective and I'm really excited to keep that in mind for my future climbing! I also loved your fourth tip about footwork. That is something I'm working a lot on these days and funny enough, there was a steep overhanging climb I was on during my last session. As you mentioned in your vid, I just committed to driving through my feet as hard as I could and I was in total shock at how different (and easier!!) all the moves felt. I never knew I had that kind of extra strength in me, haha, so it was just so cool. Any ways, just thought I'd mention that because tip #4 just really resonated with me. Overall, really great video. Even though I didn't mention the other tips I thought they were fantastic as well. Thank you again! P.S. I loved the editing in the video as well! It was cool seeing you talk about everything but also have examples and clips from so many of your past climbs. 3:05 was fantastic :D
Thanks for making really relevant tips for intermediate climbers! There are definitely concrete things I will bring with me from this one! And grats on the sponsorship :)
100% agree with importance of strength, mobility and antagonist training outside climbing. Even I now it as a fact every once in a while I lack motivation to do it and only climb instead, I usually start having some aches or tweaking in different places. At first it didnt matter as much but when progressing to higher levels the importance of that really shows.
Great video, thanks for putting it together! And I usually can’t stand “Top N tips for...” videos... Keep up the great work and good luck on The Big Island! :)
Really great to watch this video. I was at various stages of making these five revelations myself. 1. projecting: I did notice that my most memorable technique lessons were from limit bouldering where I couldn't overcompensate for bad technique or not knowing how to move properly by just pulling harder 2. training your weaknesses: I've redirected all my energy to making sure I can climb my max grade on both three finger drag and crimp (chronic crimper, I climb 2-3 grades lower on three finger drag. I have crimping overuse injuries now) 3. hand engagement: this one was hazily coming into my consciousness recently, as I noticed that I was the first in a send train because I decided it'd be better to hold a gaston jug as a pinch to right far right. great to hear you say this explicitly. 4. complex footwork: recently switched from solutions to pythons. same rubber but big thickness difference. huge difference in how I feel climbing. 5. avoid injury: rip. pip synovitis means I have to take several months off to allow the inflamation to die down + figure out what combination of rehab, warmup, and climbing habits will prevent another flare up. if I don't solve this I probably can't ever try hard again for the rest of my life.
Awesome! Please do more tip videos in the future!!! Watching you climb is one thing but having you explain the small things you do really helps me. 🙏 thanks
Interesting video! I'd be really interested if you have any specific advice on a) body tension, and b) using momentum on small /medium sized moves between difficult holds. I'm climbing about 6c/6c+ in bouldering and lead, and the techniques I'm trying to mainly focus on right now for my progression are body tension, and using momentum (not so much on big dynos, which I'm relatively good at already, and tall, which helps, but more smaller moves between bad holds, where precision also really matters). Would be interesting to hear any tips you have for these technique areas. And what you said about hand engagement is so true, on at least 2 of my projects that I've sent recently, certain moves have been entirely dependent on the exact way in which I've placed my fingers on a hold and the direction of pull
Like, for real, I have pretty much same focus on hands grip as you are talking about before I watch you video. Nice that I spot your chanel at some point. That nerdy stuff would come in handy for shure!
For some reason the 4th tip on engaging your legs more on overhangs was so obvious, but I don't even think about it when I'm struggling on them... I have really strong legs too, so I'm going to be thinking about that tip every time I climb now. Thank you Emil for opening my mind haha!
The problem is when there are no foot holds on overhangs or if they are in very awkward positions. One more tip (from Dave MacLeod) which really helped me: Don’t just push with your feet, you can use them to pull as well. Especially with incut footholds on overhangs you can really use the tip of your feet to pull yourself to the wall.
Great video. My footwork is my biggest weakness so I really liked your second last tip. I'm trying to focus pushing and weighting my feet as much as possible, but its not easy! Would love to see some footwork drill videos.
Great great video man. As someone who currently has a finger injury I'd be interested in another video about injury prevention in particular like you mentioned.
Been following you and the others for a while now and I must say this was definitely one of the most valuable vids. Thanks for the great content and keep on getting on 💯 Finally subscribed too.
Really nice video! Extra fun since I spent some time on Bleau Vibrations and Crazy Friday yesterday (which can be seen in the video). Also because many of the tips really apply for me on BV (finding the exact right way to grip the holds, driving force through the legs not to cut lose etc.). Just need to work on the warm-up and not getting injured part ;)
shocked that you didn't get some kind of overuse injury from 6 straight months of crimps. I was a chronic crimper for the first 3 years of my climbing career and it took me to V7. However, now whenever I try hard my synovitis on both hands swells up. seems to be a pretty common thing to, and short of just crimping less there appears to be no real cure.
This was awesome! I normally don't watch these kinds of tip videos but you are one of my favorite climber-guys on youtube right now so I gave it a go anyway and I have to say I am so glad I did. Your point about injury prevention is just so important and I am glad I got someone to remind me of that because I am prone to ignoring warm-up stuff. Just wanted to share that I am thankful for all the effort you put into these videos! I hope you have a nice day and on a side note what are your thoughts on handcare/hand-specific injury prevention? Do you use/or do anything special? Any magical super healing products you can recommend?
Point is probably separate talk should be raised about crimping and in general hold gripping. Like, body have muscles for last and before last phalanges movement. And Ic really curious about like what's principal difference between dragging and crimping?
There is some research out there which shows that static stretching before strength exercises slightly reduces strength and doesn’t help against injuries. However, as a very not-flexible person I’ve found that my flexibility is better immediately after stretching and I’m much less reluctant to use that flexibility. I still don’t do full blown stretching sessions before climbing but keep them as separate “workout”.
The conventional wisdom is indeed dynamic stretching during warmup, static and deep stretches after exercice (or way after). In the video he's not going all in on his stretch, plus it's not like losing a bit of strength in the legs while gaining range of motion is going to hurt you when climbing.
I added a comment to a separate thread on the subject, this is what I said: "Admittedly I made a mistake here, and should've explained my reasoning better. It is true that static stretching will leave muscles in a weaker state, and I would never do static stretching before, for example, doing squats. I warm up with static stretching as it instantly makes me a lot more flexible, which results in me having much much more control on the wall, and personally I haven't felt any difference in how my climbing performance is affected.
Started few months ago, but alone. It's not the same atmosphere, I'd like to have a group of friend in climbing,, trying outdoor and improving in a group seems way better
Driving more force to my feet and avoiding injury have been the tips ive learned most recently. They helped A LOT! I suck at slab and i know i should climb more slab, but i don’t waaaaanna! Haha. Fine fine fine....
a super interesting video. would you ever do a much longer video going into detail about the stuff you kinda skipped over so you wouldn't create too long a video?
LOL when you said "let's take a short break" and stood up, for a second I thought you were going to play something on the piano! XD Maybe an idea for the future haha Great tips though! I definitely need to "hop on a slab" more often... #scary
I so freakin damn want to climb again but since the gyms are closed since 2 month and theres just no end to this corona bullshit i dont think well be able to do so for at least one more month - this is so damn frustrating ...
Definitely! I've seen some requests on this :) Haven't been there in a while, but it's on the agenda. I just gotta talk with them first and see that it's OK if I film there
Oh ye avoid injuries. 2 years ago I fell on my elbows on a staircase and even when I went to the doctor and no fracture was discovered and I was then only prescribed a bandage, I always have a sting in the elbow when I do a lot of sport and also after the sport. It upsets me so much and prevents me from exercising more.
This is the third comment I've ever written on youtube. You have an amazing personality and you seem like a genuinely good person. Take your time with the channel and it will slowly grow. Just please don't start putting in statistics in your video like I've started seeing other RU-vidrs started doing, stuff like "only 30% of people who are watching the videos are subscribed to the channel"(drives me nuts). People need a gentle reminder sometimes in the beginning-middle of the video, something like if you enjoy my content make sure to subscribe for more. Good luck!
Heyo! Best warmup for outside is for me a pre-warmup inside, at home or in the gym . If I'm at home I'll do some stretches, and typical stuff like pushups etc. Regarding wrists, wrist curls would probably be your best bet :)
