Learn it
Start on the ground, not the wall. Four things describe where your hips are:
- Open hips. The insides of your knees face the wall, frog-like.
- Closed hips. The outsides of your knees face the wall. This is the rotated position.
- Distance from the wall. Close in, or hanging back.
- Hips over feet. This is the balance one, and it is what today is about.
Then ask the question the whole lesson turns on: when you reach high for a hold, which hip should be turned into the wall?
Apply it
On the mats, the whole group with both coaches, wide stance, everybody moving at once.
- Shift your hips side to side and ask where their weight is when it sits over the right foot, then the left. They copy it.
- Ask them to put their hips directly over their left foot. Now ask them to lift that left foot.
- Let them discover they cannot. Then ask where the hips need to go before the foot can move.
Take it to the wall by having every athlete climb 3-5 climbs one below flash grade - shifting their hips all the way to the left or right before each move. Exaggerating the moves forces the athletes to think through where their weight should sit as they climb.
Demonstrate understanding
- They can say why you cannot move a foot your hips are parked over.
- Reaching with the right hand, the left hip turns in without being told.
- They shift their weight before the move rather than during it.
If the concept isn't sticking
Participants can explain where their hips should sit throughout a climb while reading the route - not just while climbing.