Flagging and Smearing

Learn it

A flag is a free foot used as a counterweight, so you can move your hands without swinging. The further the hand reaches to one side, the further the trailing leg goes the other way.

Flagging is what stops a barn door before it starts.

Have them stand and try each one on the ground before anybody climbs.

• Outside flag, which covers both the back flag and the side flag. The free leg goes behind or to the outside of the stable leg.
• Inside flag. The free leg threads through the inside of the stable leg. Your hips turn away from the direction you are reaching and both knees end up pointing the same way.

Smearing is the other half of this, and it wants slab: heel low, as much rubber on the wall as you can get, and trust that it holds.

Apply it

Run both at once rather than one after the other. One coach takes half the group to slab and smears, the other takes half to the overhangs and flags, and they swap at the halfway point. Each technique still gets the terrain that rewards it, and nobody spends half the lesson waiting for a turn.

Demonstrate understanding

• The flagging toe points opposite to the reaching hand. This is the single check that catches most of it.
• They keep smearing above head height rather than hunting for an edge.
• They are still flagging on the last problem of the block, when they are tired.

If the concept isn't sticking

Flagging the wrong way. Very common early. The leg is a counterweight, so the toe goes opposite the hand. Check the toe, not the hip.

They will not trust a smear high up. Take it back to slab at head height until the foot stops hunting.