[rlovatt]

I'm pretty good on crimpy problems and slabs. However I'm really not too good on big powerful moves on open large holds. What am I lacking and how can I train to improve in this area?

[sasscotty]

Train your weaknesses by climbing on that sort of rock/holds until you feel confident. It worked for me with slopers.
Scott

[rlovatt]

I know what you mean but it's hard to get the motovation, always seem to drift back to the kind of problems i'm good at.

Like I say my fingeres are pretty stong, but am I weak in the arms shoulders? or is it just a sloper grip type i need to improve?

[monkey boy]

It might be your open handed strength that you need to improve, if so just try using lots of slopey holds and dont crimp them. If you find it really hard to use them try doing it with big foot holds. Alternatively just get injured so that you cant crimp and have to open had! 

If its your arms that are weak perhaps some one armed pull ups (assisted if needed) and weights?!

It is obvious but the best way is just to keep persisting using those types of holds. I was the other way around and couldnt crimp but i am learning now, it does taketime though so be prepared to put in the work!

Hope that helps

[(woz)]

Perhaps hit the fingerboards too. You won't need to do too many open handed hangs before you start to see an improvement.

[SA Chris]

it's hard to get the motovation

One thing you can't train for. Either deal with the problem, or live with the results.

[davej]

we bought some excellent bleau stone slopers and set them up system fashion on our board seems be working .

[dave]

little moves on slopey holds is mainly about openhand strength. big moves however has got a lot to do with upper body, shoulders, biceps, triceps etc. I was/am the same, always a lot more comfortable on positive or flat holds, using momentum and leg-push to move around, cos i naturally had weak arms and shoulders. if you're anything like me then you'll find yourself climbing straightarmed on steep stuff, swinging around and moving in little flicks to make the most of weak arms, and find it desperate when you have to hold a slopey hold and actually contract your arm up like doing a pullup to reach the next hold. your people who are good on the big slopey stuff tend to be able to beef it up a bit more bicep-wise.

so if you want to improve, hit the weights and shit.

[Fiend]

Dave are you really claiming that you don't lank past everything 

Good assessment though, whole body usage is important. Oh, and conditions too. Mmmm conditions.

[moose]

I'm a pretty extreme example of what dave describes.  For a climber of my grade, I can hang poor holds for a long time (both crimps and slopers) but to actually move between them I am completely dependent on a combination of "foot-faggotry" and straight-armed swinging.  If I can't gain height by some sort of body-tensiony footwork or heel-hookery I am often buggered by a lack of upper-arm and shoulder power - regardless of how juggy the holds are (last time I checked I could do the same number of pulls-ups from a 1-joint door-frame as a proper bar).  This really struck home on my first trip to the Bowderstone - a place where good footwork can take you a long way, but at the end of the day you've got to be able to bend those arms and pump for the holds. 

Although for me it often seems the problem is as to do with approach as my physical limitations.  Being willing to pull hard, move fast and risk a spectacular spanner-off seems to be the answer.  Rather than my usual hanging around, trying to get everything set nice and making a doomed static reach. 

For what it's worth, my own attempts to address the weakness re big moves has involved dedicating my mid-week bouldering session to big slappy problems.  Concentrating on long dynamic moves between bigger (though often slopey) holds that force me to bend my arms or at least not be so bloody static all the time.  At Sunderland these usually seem to be found on 45 degree type boards, as - at my kind of grades anyway - I seem to be able to use my feet to "cheat" my way through both roof-problems and crimpy stuff in a fairly static style.  It seems to be working... at least re my ability to do a greater range of problems indoors (more fun too, albeit more knackering).  The real proof though will come when I try to apply my new more burly stylings on some old projects... weather willing that should be soon....

[dave]

I'm a pretty extreme example of what dave describes.

I'm willing to put money on you having spent a fair bit of time at the berghaus wall, am I right?

[r-man]

moose, it aint just a difference between static and dynamic strength. I'm similarly rubbish on large slopers, despite having reasonable open handed strength and being generally quite dynamic - I'll quite happily slap between smaller open-handed holds, but just holding onto big slopers is a real struggle, nevermind powering off them. As dave says, it's about brute body strength - thugging upwards using lots of muscle. I'm not saying there's no technique to it - grit sloper clutching is an art in itself, but the all over ache you get after a grit session shows how many muscles are needed, compared with say the shoulders and arms ache from a typical limestone session.

Still, what you describe - big moves between big slopey holds - will surely get you good at that sort of thing.

[SA Chris]

When I made the move from crimp central to sloper city, the first thing I noticed was a different part of my forearm getting really pumped; the centre of the pump moved from about a third of the was from my elbow to a third of the way from my wrist.

[moose]

I'm a pretty extreme example of what dave describes.

I'm willing to put money on you having spent a fair bit of time at the berghaus wall, am I right?

Aye lad - the Berghaus Wall still features in my wet-weather weekends: lots of old-school "climb the greased crimps using the teflon footholds" type stuff, rather than the campussy jug ladders the yoof-of-today like!  Also I only really got into climbing late in life, when I had a car  - so I got a lot of "rock action" from early on and was probably moulded by going alone to places likes Slipstones: developed my fingers more than my general brawn and reinforced a naturally static approach (a few too many unpleasant hobbles back to the car after missing my mat made me say no to the dyno!).

[Johnny Brown]

Get a Bachar ladder. Instant BEEF.

[Paz]

Try some of the sport routes at cheddar quarry.  It's like grit but with bolts and no friction.

[Jim]

Get a Bachar ladder. Instant BEEF.

that reminds me. will get it up next week- need some beef in me now my hair has gone

[cofe]

Bachar ladder. Instant BEEF.

those were the days.

[a dense loner]

noticed you were looking a bit porky on sat, have you stopped climbing altogether now?