[zhuadian]

Background:
I'm an American who moved to China 10 months ago - the city I live in has two places to practice indoors; one isn't worth mention and the other is ~20 square meters of bouldering wall in a small hut the local community purchased together.

I'm about 191 cm tall and having an extremely hard time doing any of the routes set in this "gym". I believe the other people who go there (maybe 15 in all) are all below 170cm.


Problem:
As an example there is a short traverse with very, very widely spaced holds (can't cross arms, it's just too far) that are all relatively fingery. The feet are less than a meter below the hands in all cases, and I find the only way to even attempt it is to match/switch both hands and feet on every single hold, which is extremely difficult given the size of them (some I find myself matching with 1-2 fingers from each hand).

What I've already done:
I had a friend advise me that the routes just aren't set for someone my size, but I don't buy that. I feel like I have a great opportunity to learn something here if I can just figure out what it is and how to learn it. I tried searching google, reviewing some technique videos I have (the pair by neil gresham) flipped through a few books, and couldn't find anything useful. I don't often post on forums, so this is just about my first time.


I genuinely appreciate any advice anyone could give, and I assure you I will take it to heart.

I can edit-attach a photo of the route tomorrow, or maybe just a paint drawing of it. The most difficult section is 4 pairs of holds (one hand hold almost directly over one foothold) with a lot of space between each pair. The feet are fine, but the handholds are extremely small and fingery. The pairs are far enough apart that each foot move feels like bridging.

I'm using this problem as an example because it seems extremely simple but poses a substantial hurdle for me

[Stenno]

So the issue for you is the proximity of the hand and footholds?

Increasing you're core strength with some basic exercises like leg raises and crunches should help a lot with pulling your body into the wall on moves with high footholds.  The closer your body is to the wall, the more your weight is carried by your feet.

Also have a look at how the small climbers are climbing the routes. From the sound if it (wide handholds, forced bridging) this traverse would be very hard for short climbers to climb in the way you're describing. There might be some heel hooks or flag moves that you haven't tried which reduce the difficulty.

[zhuadian]

Thanks for the advice!

I'll try throwing some heel hooks with some hand-foot matching and see if that can make more sense of it. The thing that gets me is the insane amount of hand-foot switching that it seems like you have to do to complete the route. I don't know if I would know how to execute a flag on this route in a way that would benefit my movement - I feel like adjusting my center of gravity would be a big help, but it seems like the footholds are placed so far apart that flagging wouldn't benefit too much, but maybe there's something I just don't know. Thanks for the advice =)

[tomtom]

Do everything sideways. As in side on to the face rather than front on. That's my usual way of losing height when hand abd footholds are too close. (im tall too btw)