Taped Tips | The Most Underrated Climbing Movement Skill

I don’t even think it’s debatable.

Despite the fact that it’s constantly present when we climb, and is often the top reason we fail, Rhythm is the most underrated and undervalued of the five Atomic Elements of Climbing Movement.

And I know some of you are thinking that you rarely fall due to a Rhythm error, but here’s the thing: Rhythm makes up a considerable portion of efficiency. Errors that have a significant Rhythm component show up as hesitation. As saying “Take!” instead of continuing. As dropping off when something feels wrong or looks difficult. Or as stopping mid-crux to place gear or clip. Or to desperately shake out when you’re starting to feel tired. 

Yeah, I thought that might sound more familiar.

I’m going to try to answer three important questions and give you a couple of powerful ways to improve the most underrated component of climbing hard. So question number one:

What do we mean by Rhythm? 

More commonly we talk about pacing, and this might be semantics, but I see pacing more as an overall strategy, whereas Rhythm is how we move between and connect individual positions. It’s the tempo that is built into the most efficient way for you to do any given move. We all have a natural rhythm that we feel most comfortable in, but it doesn’t have to – and shouldn’t – be a fixed thing.

Instead, I like to think of rhythm as existing on a spectrum that is best visualized as a dial. A dial with Sloth at one end and Monkey at the other. Now this doesn’t mean just slow and fast. There needs to be a tempo to your slow and your fast. An intentional using of, or a purposeful restriction of, momentum. 

If you think of a sloth, they are in constant, but very slow, motion. This allows movement to be more deliberate and precise. Monkeys move faster, sure, but it’s not a chaotic movement. Their brachiation – the locomotion we see monkeys using to swing through trees – is very rhythmic, utilizing the potential energy created by their mass and gravity, in combination with the kinetic energy created by their motion, to propel them forward. 

In short, momentum. 

Using this momentum comes at a much lower mechanical energy cost, and we can do it, too – assuming we spend time practicing and learning it.

I recently spoke with legendary coach Udo Neumann. We were discussing coaching movement skills, and the subject of Janja Garnbret came up. It’s not hard to spot Rhythm in Janja’s climbing. Maybe it’s her natural style. Maybe she worked for it. I suspect some of both.

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But climbing is a game of compensation. We can nearly always find a way to do a move that fits our natural style. Which brings us to question number two:

If we can nearly always compensate with what fits us, why even bother learning to move differently?

I see it as similar to finding beta: just because we do it this way first, doesn’t mean it’s the best way or most efficient way. And if we can get comfortable using these other methods, or a wider range of rhythm, then we open ourselves up to new possibilities and a higher number of effective movement solutions.  

Let’s look at the two sides a little more in detail:

On the sloth side is where new sport climbers – and the vast majority of trad climbers – usually live. They are trying to always be in control, seeking stability. There’s a need to place protection and clip or to stop in order to shake or chalk up. This sloth rhythm also allows them to be more precise going to small pockets or slots or carefully placed feet or painful jams. The movements are most often reversible. So to some degree, it’s valuable. But it comes at a higher cost in terms of mechanical tension. It’s more taxing in a lot of ways. 

On the monkey side is being more comfortable moving through unstable positions. This is where boulderers, particularly if they spend a lot of time indoors, often live. The lower mechanical cost is often far more efficient for most difficult terrain, as long as it doesn’t drastically affect precision. 

It might seem obvious that better holds and easier moves lend themselves to monkey-like Rhythms, whereas worse holds and harder moves lend themselves to being more sloth-like, but we have to be careful with these generalizations because they just aren’t true.

We can see this regularly if we watch Adam Ondra placing his feet. When he’s in the middle of a hard section where he’s skipping clips, his footwork often looks sloppy and careless. It isn’t, it’s just that it’s faster for him to keep moving instead of being careful, and because he trusts his feet, that speed makes up for any tiny percentage points he loses from not placing his feet in this agonizingly slow and precise way. 

But Adam Ondra and Janja Garnbret are better than us. And part of what makes them better is their comfort across the entire spectrum of rhythm. I’d be willing to bet that most of you can be a little more monkey-like in the gym but as soon as you get outside above a bolt you turn full sloth. Janja and Adam don’t. 

And we don’t have to either. We can improve the entire dial of our rhythm, and we’ll absolutely be better climbers because of it. 

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Which is where question number three comes in:

How can we improve our ability to turn the rhythm dial?

Let’s say we went through the evaluation in our new course The Atomic Elements of Climbing Movement and what our Polar Chart shows us is that Rhythm is the main element we should be focusing our efforts on. Next, we look at the included Drill Matrix and decide which drills fit our needs. 

I’m going to zero in on the Sloth Monkey drill because it’s such high value, helping considerably with Tension and Position, as well as Commitment, which is often tied into the Monkey side of Rhythm. But I’m also going to work on the Matched Breath drill, largely because I notice that when my Rhythm doesn’t match what will be efficient for the move, I end up holding my breath.

I bet a lot of you do the same.

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So let’s take a look at these two drills:

A few episodes back we discussed the Sloth side because of its importance in learning Position. But that’s not its only benefit. Not all rhythm is fast. We also need to learn when and how to slow it down in order to be precise or exert more control over a move. To learn how to fully engage and grind through when moving quickly isn’t going to be efficient. But for our purposes today, we’re going to look at the contrasting side of the Sloth Monkey. Like we already talked about, it’s not just moving fast. It’s learning to use momentum to be more efficient. And this drill, when done with intention, can help you with three important things:

1. Comfort
   If it feels chaotic to you, it’s not going to be efficient. And to expand your comfort zone, you have to consistently be pushing at the outer boundaries of that comfort zone. 

2. Seeing new sequences.
   The more momentum you use, the more the sequences will change from your normal more sloth-like rhythm. Being able to spot those earlier in the process means you’ll send more things faster. Period. 

3. Even within seemingly slow and controlled sequences, recognizing when momentum can be utilized.
   Just like the move we looked at earlier, there are plenty of times when you’ll be forced to lose a little control that you’re trying your best to keep hold of. In those moments, can you then use the resulting momentum? If you can, you’ll get better.

How to do this drill is simple: On the same boulder, climb first sloth-like; slow and controlled but with constant movement. Avoid any real pauses and try to keep it smooth. This will help you learn how to engage everything to exert control over any part of a move. Next, climb like a monkey. A higher tempo, experimenting with changing sequences to see what works best and seems most efficient. The important part here is that you consistently challenge yourself. Up the difficulty of the boulder, change the styles, try new ideas. Keep making yourself a little uncomfortable, and your comfort zone will get wider and wider and you’ll be able to use more of these skills in performance situations.

The next drill is Matched Breathing. Calling it a drill is actually a little misleading. It’s more of an intentional practice. I don’t necessarily give it its own time in my program, rather it’s something I work on during other parts of the program – particularly during projecting and any type of endurance work. I simply spend time intentionally finding breathing strategies that work best for either ramping up my nervous system (intensive) or in keeping me calm and moving efficiently (extensive) and all of the variations and permutations between those two extremes.

This is because how you breathe will, or at least should, change between intensive effort and extensive effort – another concept we discuss in the Atomic Elements course. And I can’t necessarily tell you what sort of breathing will be best for you – you’ll have to experiment to figure that out.

But it might help for you to hear how my breathing changes. You can watch this episode’s video below, where you’ll see both the climbing and the waveform of my breathing.  

What you’re hearing is me climbing a circuit that fits in the extensive effort category. Easier moves, but more of them. Think long sport routes. The Red River Gorge for instance. Pay attention to the steady rhythm of the breathing.

Then as I move into more intense climbing – this being a harder circuit that has a few really big or really hard moves sprinkled throughout it – you’ll hear the breathing ramp up. If you look at the waveform you’ll see bigger spikes and a lot more variation as I dial my effort and my rhythm up and down. 

And finally, when I get to a jug and begin to shake out and rest, you can hear and see that my breathing gets gradually slower and more even. It gets quieter and closer to baseline – essential for being able to do hard moves afterward. And all the while, even while resting at a jug, there’s a regular rhythm to all of it.

Breath is so deeply connected to the way we move, the way we feel, and how much control we have over these things, that we’re making a big mistake if we ignore it. Figuring out how to match your breath to your climbing, and making that part of the beta. will certainly result in more, and harder sends, in less time.

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Look, there are a lot of ways to improve your climbing. A LOT. But if you’re not taking stock of how you move and how you find efficiency, and spending time intentionally exploring that, then many of those “proven” methods of improvement might never have a chance to actually translate into your performance. 

But knowing where to start with movement has historically been either very specific to a single move, or ridiculously abstract. If you want help finding a good place to put your focus, The Atomic Elements of Climbing Movement and the evaluation inside it might be for you.

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EXPLORE FURTHER

You might enjoy these related articles, episodes, and other resources:

Taped Tips | The Secret to Hard Moves that Most Climbers Are Missing

Taped Tips | The Setup Mistake Climbers Make on Hard Moves

Our Movement Practice Resource Page

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