5 EASY Climbing Hacks to climb harder | Climbing Training Tips

Boost your climbing instantly with these easy climbing hacks! Here’s some simple climbing training tips to help you climb harder fast. So if you’re looking for the perfect dyno technique, tricks to improve grip strength, or simply how to heel hook properly - You're on the right video!

Robbie Phillips talks through some climbing tips and tricks for beginner climbers, climbing advice for intermediate climbers, and some advanced climbing techniques.

Follow Robbie Phillips, pro rock climber, and Culann O Brien, Filmmaker, on ridiculous climbing adventures. From van life and travelling to wild places like Yosemite and Pakistan, to indoor climbing training in the climbing gym. All craic, no crap – it’s just pure unadulterated climbing!

Time Stamps
Intro 0:00
Hack 1 The Sticky Heelcam 0:50
Hack 2 The Vice Grip 3:16
Hack 3 Kneebar (Cheeky!) 5:03
Hack 4 Secret Quarter Crimp 8:57
Hack 5 Dyno Higher! 12:10

[RobbiePhillips]

Hey guys, we get so many repeat comments and not all the time in the world to reply to them, so I thought I'd pin this here in reply to them :) I appreciate people will not agree with me, and that's OK, but I certainly don't have time to have a YouTube comment debate on the fact, but I appreciate your opinion nonetheless

Comment 1) These aren't HACKS, they're TECHNIQUES!
Reply: Sure! Never said they weren't techniques. We used the term hack to describe a technique that could be quickly implemented to make some obvious improvements. Of course honing these techniques would lead to further improvements in them, but I chose these because when I discovered them they made instant gains for me. I have since coached many others who've utilised the same techniques and found them game changers. As to whether you agree with me or not on whether they are hacks or not... let's not argue semantics, it's just a word in a title of a video teaching climbing techniques, hardly offensive language.

Comment 2) The Quarter Crimp Causes Injury
Reply: Sure! As does Full Crimp, Open Hand, Monos, 2 finger pockets, heel Cams, Heel Hooks and climbing in general.I have personally not found the quarter crimp more injury prone than any other grip types, in fact I've found it less prone than full crimp and marginally more than the open hand, but to satisfy curiosity, I actually utilised the quarter crimp a lot when I had an A2 pulley injury and couldn't crimp... It was the only way I could get a bit more support through my grip without resorting to full crimp. A big part of avoiding injury is conditioning your body to dealing with new stresses. Why does Alex Megos not blow a tendon when he does a one finger pull up? Because his body is conditioned to it. I would recommend anyone tackling new techniques to approach them with due care as anything new could feel awkward or a bit tweaky at first.

Comment 3) These are beginner techniques, nothing special about them at all
Reply: Cool! You don't have to watch this video and instead get back to climbing your 9c's :) But seriously, these are just techniques I have learned over many years climbing. I personally don't think these should be pigeon holed into beginner category - having been a climbing instructor for many years, my understanding of beginner is basic footwork and body positioning. Anything after that is advanced... and to be honest, there aren't really any secret techniques to climbing hard, just honing the ones you learn as a beginner and taking them to a more advanced level :)

[Nimeva]

ngl i pictured a go pro on the foot when hearing heelcam

[cameronlane]

This is literally like 3 years of trial and error condensed into a 15 minute video. Props.

[korraang]

the "kneebar-bar-bar"
Wicked lmfaoooo

[spacescienceguy]

I'm new to climbing, but my perspective on kneebars would be that banning or shunning a specific move would be a very inorganic way of going about things. It would be like saying 'dynoing is cheating because you have zero points of contact on the wall'.

[CE]

I brushed a boulder last year with a big dyno, i have probably tried it a hundred times and never been able to stick it. Sent it the session after watching this. Thanks a lot! And congrats on the 10k, to be honest I’m surprised you don’t have 100k. Love the videos! Keep it up!

[BomberBeta]

I have to say the "quarter crimp" is very interesting. I appreciate channels on here that actually have unique ideas focused on climbing harder. Well done Robbie!

[mihkelhint]

I thought this was probably gonna be a silly joke video, but these are like actual legit cool tips :D

[cw]

Thanks for the video - it's definitely worth thinking on. I've a couple of hacks I've been shown, too.

1. On a very narrow (two-finger) edge, you can mush your index finger and ring finger together on the hold, with your middle finger bearing down on top of these. This allows you to pull with three fingers instead of two! I've a feeling it works better on slabs and walls than steeper ground.

2. It's fairly well known, but if you can get a heel on a hold, bring it to your crotch and sit on it, you can manufacture a hands off rest pretty much anywhere except really steep ground. This one does take practice: both to trust it, and to see all the opportunities for it.

3. Even where you don't quite manage a heel-cam, turning your foot down and out whilst you're heelhooking (i.e. as RP does whilst heel camming) seems to allow you to engage your muscles better and really pull with heel hooks - compared to foot vertical/toes up.

Happy climbing!

[danflak]

I paused after the "Quarter Crimp." Walked over to my Hangboard and gave it a go.... Very interesting.

[agatssu]

I have been climbing for a bit more than a year now, and did my first 7A last week. I’m super keen on learning new things, and this video gave a lot of new ideas. Thank you ! 💜

[natehochuli]

I came here like yeah I’ve been climbing for a while... there no way a “hack video” would hold any legitimacy. I was pleasantly surprised:)

[reedmelicher]

This is exactly the type of video I need. An in depth break down of technique. Heck, I'd watch a 10 minute video dedicated to one specific movement.

[chickenspy]

The vice-grip is gonna be a game changer for me! Thanks!

I am proud to say that I figured out the dyno-hack on my own. I thought it was the beta for one dyno problem I did and just kept using for all the ones I did after that. haha

[nigelpearson]

wow this was incredibly useful. i have been climbing for years and you covered things i didnt know about.

[JenniferLangen]

love a crinch!!! pinches are not my strongest suit and i feel like maybe i can hack them a little bit better now!

[adriansalas]

Like the ideas shared in these climbing techniques. If I may I would like to add a little explanation on how these "hacks" work.

So the biggest thing in how any foot beta works is how much weight you can get on the foot, preferably in the toe but were talking heels here. In a heel hook/cam the more you point the toe down your knee will eventually lift and then start rock over the foot, and a very good heel hook/cam your hips will rise up all bringing more weight on to the foot itself. And we all know that climbing starts with the feet. You can see a little example of this at 1:33 in this clip as Robbie sets in his cam. Bringing the hips up would even further the goodness of a heel hook, but ultimately if you can use your toe its better as you do not have to do two extra steps to get the weight back on the toe for the next sequence. Heel hooks can sometimes be the only option in situations where the only foot option is well above the hips in a zone limited by flexibility, or even around an arete were you are trying to prevent a barn door. Also great for clipping and resting, but if at all possible USE YOUR TOES! Using the toe will allow for more pivot allowing you to twist and turn on the wall, along with give you at least your hands length of reach.

The next tip given in here that can be further explained is the order of operations given in the dyno. This however can be applied to most movements in climbing. As you climb you want to move in J like motions, moving horizontally first bringing you beneath the target grip and your weight onto your feet. Once you have your weight on your feet you can then use the might of your legs to push you upwards to the target grip. Always Always Always think J motions dynamic or static... unless campus climbing which you do not use your feet so it just can not be applied the same way. Some movements will be more subtle then others but if you try hard to see it, the J is there. Watch the hips of someone who knows what they are doing at your local Gym/Crag. Example shown in the diagram given at 12:51

The hand beta is pretty on point here. I will say though that as mentioned the open hand crimp is the weakest of the crimps, which is way when training you want to go with the open hand crimp. Work at what you suck at to get stronger. Also using an open hand crimp will ensure that your tendons are as straight as the can be when hanging all that weight on the fingers promoting less chance of injurie. Training this way will allow you to train longer and even though you are not specifically training the full or half crimp, your over all crimp will get stronger. So when you do use the other types of crimps given they will have developed just as nicely and you will have built up proper finger strength in all your fingers!

Sorry if this was a long read but knowing the reasons why and how we use these different betas might help to focus and dial things in. Don't know if there has been a Knee bar clip yet but lets see it, WOOOOT! Happy sending my fellow rock people.

[ongon]

Every single thing in this video other than the knee bar is something that I instantly know what problems in my local gym I can use them to help me on.

[bangmind]

Great hacks! Pleasantly surprised to learn new things. As a return, i offer you my secret crimp: "the 5/8 full crimp"! As the name suggest, it is is half full crimp, half quater crimp and works like a charm for slots. Basically, bended 4 fingers as from full crimp, but the thumb is not next to the nail of the index finger (as it is blocked from the slot) but instead on the second pad.

[brendan.perdue]

It seems like the quarter crimp is less about generating more force through your fingers and more about changing your wrist posture to make your flexion muscles function more efficiently. Normally you would rely entirely on your extensors to bring your wrist back into the cocked position given by a quarter crimp. This would not be possible (or at least very difficult) with an open hand or similar grip type due to the angle at which your extensors are forced to operate, which is why a relatively higher shoulder and elbow are necessary for a full crimp. With the quarter crimp you are able to gain much of the increased firing power from a cocked back wrist similar to crimping without sacrificing reach length, energy to extensor use and friction/pulling direction.