Footwork

Footwork is probably the hardest technique to learn and of, course, the most USEFUL. If you learn to place your feet perfectly on a hold and allow them to bear a significant portion of your weight, you save critical strength. If you don't climb efficiently using your feet, you won't have any power left in your arms when you need it! You will have wasted it on moves where footwork would have saved you a lot of grief. Since women usually have less brute strength, than men, but are more flexible and have better balance, footwork can be the great equalizer in the sport of climbing.

This photo is taken from BELOW. I am stepping on a tiny little hold, called a crimp or jib. If I am facing the wall, I will use the INSIDE front quarter of my foot. I have the inside of my foot adjacent to the wall, and sometimes I even rotate my foot slightly inwards, in the direction of the wall, to maximize the traction I can get. A tiny little hold like this will easily support your weight, if you know how to use it.

Sometimes your body is oriented in such a way that you can't use the inside of your foot to step on. Instead, use the outside front quarter of your foot. This picture shows my RIGHT foot. Notice how I am putting the outside of my foot against the wall and stepping up. In this position it is very important to keep your hips (your side) against the wall, otherwise you will slip off of the hold.

In this picture, notice that I don't have any holds under my feet! That's because if I know how to STEM, I don't need any. Stemming is a technique where you are in a corner and put one foot on EACH wall. Your feet are on two separate walls, pressing outward to maintain tension, and your body is balance between them. If there are holds on the wall, you can certainly use them to stem. But if you generate enough outward force, you don't need any holds.

Last but not least, there is smearing. When you absolutely don't have a foothold to use, use the wall itself. Because the soles of climbing shoes are super sticky, you can grab a hold, lean back, place your feet on the wall, and simply walk your feet up the wall. In order to smear effectively, you must find that delicate balance between the pulling of your hands and the pushing of your feet.