Rock Climbing Training Tips

Climbing Training Tip 3 – Traversing

Leave a response January 31, 2008 / Posted in Tips, rock climbing

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Another good training tip is to practice traversing. If you’re new to climbing, you’re probably wondering what the heck is traversing? It is basically a horizontal movement across the wall as opposed to a vertical climb up the wall. It is normally done as a climbing warm up before you start climbing in earnest at the gym. Just start at one corner of the gym and keep traversing horizontally until you drop off.

When you first begin traversing, you may find yourself unable to stay on for very long. Keep practicing until you can make your way around the gym easily or do laps across a short section. Try traversing with different holds and finding different rest positions instead of coming down when you need to take a break.

If you are traversing as a “warm up”, then do so only until you feel your muscles warming up and stop well before the lactic acid builds up in your forearms (often called a “pump”). If you traverse until your arms are pumped, you won’t be able to do much climbing, especially if you’re new to the climbing scene.

What does traversing do for you?

It teaches you to use your feet and it helps you think of different ways to move on the wall. You can learn which moves are easier for you and you can work through a problem close to the ground which allows you to tackle the problem without wasting energy on the parts you can do easily. If you find it too easy and you want something harder, try skipping holds or use fingertips only – vary the exercise. As you get better at traversing, you can graduate to “bouldering” which I will talk more about in a later post. In the interim, if you’re new to climbing, master the art of traversing first.

Below: traversing at the boulder wall in Safra Yishun, Singapore.