What is the Technique?
It’s called straight-arming.
In a previous article, we covered what your lower body should be doing on slab climbing. Now you’ll learn about the upper-body technique of straight-arming. With these two articles, you’ll be able to put it all together and climb with total body efficiency on slab climbing.
The basic idea behind straight-arming is to minimize the work our arms need to do in order to keep us on the wall and get us to the top.
It's All About Your Arms
Straight-arming is one of the simplest skills to explain and demonstrate. In fact, we can sum it up in one sentence:
Keep your arms as straight as possible as often as possible.
Simple, right? Well…
The trouble is that this skill is one of the most frequently neglected in practice. One reason for this is that new climbers, in particular, have a tendency to pull in with their arms. They do this in order to get their weight over their feet, often in an effort to feel more stable.
Unfortunately, pulling in onto bent arms (one form of something called “over-gripping”) wastes a great deal of energy.
This is because, in addition to putting more weight on our hands, our natural grip strength is weaker when our arms are bent. Which in turn means we are putting more weight onto a weaker muscle. This leads directly to getting tired or pumped, far more rapidly than we otherwise would.
Keep Your Arms Straight
So, what is the proper technique?
The proper approach to straight-arming is to first recognize that you only need to bend your arms when you are actually doing a move.
If you are on the wall, either resting or planning your next move, there is no need for your arms to be bent.
Instead, the goal is to sag onto straight arms, feeling your body pull up on your shoulders, and then, in turn, slightly squeezing your neck.
Practice Straight-Arming on Slab
On a slab wall, as we covered in the previous article, it is possible to get all of your weight completely on one foot or the other.
As a result, the slab is a great place to practice straight-arming without the distraction of weight on your hands.
To start, we recommend getting into a comfortable position, and squatting down as low as you can, while keeping your weight in and over your feet. This will allow you to straighten your arms while in a resting position.
When doing an actual move (i.e., reaching for another hold), straight-arming is a two-part process.
First, for practice, try and configure your body position so that you can reach for the next hold, without bending your lower arm at all.
You might be surprised to know that, on easier slab routes it will be possible to do this on nearly every move. It may feel a bit strange, but after you’ve done it a few times it should rapidly become more comfortable. And if you pay close attention, you should notice how little effort you need to put into your grip to stay on the wall.
As moves get more difficult though, it will not always be possible to keep your arm straight through the entire move. The goal, however, should be to bend your lower arm only as much as necessary to allow you to stand up to the next hold.
Finally, this leads to the second part of straight-arming: once you grab the next hold with your upper hand, make sure you straighten it!
Don't Do This When Practicing
Don’t overgrip as a result of having a bent arm. That may seem like an obvious thing to say, but it is a necessary reminder nonetheless. This is because, when you first grab a hold your instinctive reaction will be to put more force on it than is actually necessary in order to latch it. Straight-arming helps to prevent this from happening.
Over-gripping results almost invariably, for novice and expert climbers alike, in you bending your upper arm to put more force into your grip (like doing a tiny pull-up).
In my experience this is not strictly a habit, but rather a physical response. In other words, it’s not something we have much control over. That extra force helps us generate more friction on the surface of the hold, and therefore provides a better grip, which is a good thing.
But what we do have control over is what we do immediately after a move.
Many climbers fail to notice the slight bend in their arms when grabbing a hold, and therefore never return to a straight arm position after they’ve moved.
In the extreme case, this results in climbers hanging constantly off of bent arms for an entire climb, yet thinking that their arms are straight!
The reality is that, in general, climbers are completely unaware of this pattern in their movement. As a result, it requires a conscious decision to straighten our arms after each and every move.
And this is the core skill involved in straight-arming–telling yourself to straighten your arms whenever you possibly can, especially after a move.
Slab vs. Vertical Walls
Despite being an excellent angle to practice on, the benefits of straight-arming on slab are not always that apparent.
Remember, on a slab wall, we can generally get all of our weight on our feet. This means that even if your arm positioning isn’t ideal, your arms are doing very little of the work. If you are shifting your weight properly, your legs should be doing the work.
Once you get to the vertical wall, however, getting pumped becomes much more common. This is where straight-arming shows great benefits. Our next article, ‘What is Straight-Arming and Why Every Climber Should Do It,’ dives deep into straight-arming on vertical walls.
How to Climb on Slab Using This Technique
Practice straight-arming on slab to understand the proper technique. Keep your arms as straight as possible as often as possible. Bend your arms only when you are actually doing a move. Make sure to remind yourself to keep a straight arm after every move or you’ll risk over-gripping with bent arms for the entirety of your climb.
All material is reprinted with the permission of the author. Copyright 2022 David H. Rowland. All rights reserved.
