Learn it
Do this in a quiet corner so they can play with each placement as you name it.
Parts of the shoe
- The power point is your big toe, and it is where your foot goes almost every time. It is what lets you pivot.
- Edging uses a small amount of rubber on the front of the hold, heel high relative to the toe. Force goes through the power point.
- Smearing is the opposite: heel low, as much rubber on the wall as you can get.
- The mid-foot is the arch. Standing on it locks you in place, so we never use it.
Three ways to switch feet
Both feet want the same hold. There are three ways out, and which one you get depends on what the wall gives you.
- Match. Both feet on the hold at once. Needs a big foothold.
- Skip. Take your weight on your hands and swap. Needs a big handhold.
- Ninja swap. Thread the new foot through the gap between your leg and the wall, put your big toe on top of the big toe already there, then pull the bottom foot out. This is the one that works on a small foothold and a small handhold, which is why it is the one worth owning.
Then watch their feet rather than their hands. The question is whether they look at the foot until it lands, or slide it down the wall until it catches something.
Apply it
Teach the shoe to the whole group, then take half each onto two stretches of traverse or two easy problems, both with a mix of big and small footholds.
Work through the switches in order.
- Match on the big holds, so they feel how much room it takes.
- Skip, on a section with one good handhold, so they feel where the weight goes.
- Ninja swap, and spend most of the time here. Start on a foothold big enough to be forgiving and work down to small ones.
Call the switch before they climb, so they are choosing a technique rather than improvising. That call is the lesson, and it is why the group splits: you can make it for five climbers and not for ten.
Demonstrate understanding
- They choose the switch that suits the holds instead of defaulting to a match.
- A ninja swap lands toe on toe without the standing foot moving.
- Hips stay in through the switch rather than sagging away from the wall.
If the concept isn't sticking
The ninja swap keeps slipping off. Almost always the hips have dropped away from the wall. Bring them in and go back to a bigger foothold until the shape is right.
They match everything. Take the big footholds out of the problem, or make it a rule for one climb: no matching.