How to improve your bouldering footwork with these drills

Proper bouldering footwork is underrated for many beginners. Many folks believe that upper body strength is all you need to get up a wall. While, yes, you’ll need some form of upper body strength, the actual reason that people climb is because of their legs. Our hands are for staying on the wall; your legs are what push you up!

Think about campusing a boulder problem (not using your feet). It’s as if you’re performing a pull-up the entire way up the wall! I don’t know about you, but I’d be toast after one or two boulders if all I did was try to campus.

Good footwork matters more than you think! Good footwork lets us take some weight off our arms, giving us more energy to keep pulling and climbing longer. It also allows us to put our bodies in different positions to counter our weight and keep ourselves aligned with the climb.

Check out the bouldering drills below to improve your bouldering footwork and level up your climbing!

Understanding the basics of bouldering footwork

Proper foot placement is the foundation of bouldering. Before we get into the drills, you must understand how to use your feet. Climbing shoes are designed to generate all the force in your foot to your big toe. This is why you’ll find most shoes end in a point!

Your big toe is what you want to stand on when you’re climbing. Not only will it generate the most force, but it will also have the best edge to use on your climbing shoe. Using your toes will allow you to stand on smaller footholds (sometimes holds that disappear when you stand on them) and improve your climbing.

Furthermore, having all of the force generated to your big to will help your accuracy when placing your foot. You can focus on using this point instead of worrying about how to step on a hold. Experiment with this when low on a bouldering wall; try stepping on the smallest foothold you can find!

Balance and weight distribution are critical elements for improving your bouldering footwork. Using your toes is crucial, as is understanding how to orient your weight to climb efficiently.

Think of your body like a triangle. You always want three contact points on the wall to maintain proper weight distribution. This can be one hand and both feet or both feet and one hand. Imagine reaching up for the next hold: having both feet on the wall will help you get there easier than one foot!

The importance of flexibility in footwork should be noticed, too! Not all boulders are created equally; the more you improve your climbing, the funkier the footwork boulders get! Incorporating flexibility routines into your training will help you bring your foot to that higher hold while keeping the energy to stay on the wall.

The benefits of focusing on footwork

Improving your bouldering footwork will enhance your climbing efficiency. Think of it this way: If you only have one foot on and the other just hanging out, you use more energy in your upper body. This means you’ll tire out easier and may even get pumped before sending the problem!

Reducing your energy expenditure by focusing on footwork will help you be more precise when climbing. It’s simple, really. The more accurate you are, the less time you spend thinking about your foot placement, i.e., the more energy you keep for the rest of the boulder.

Focusing on your footwork will also minimise your risk of injury! When you practice footwork drills, you learn what you can stand on and what you need to work on. You need to know what you can and can’t do to avoid getting injured by trying something too far out of your skill level.

Assessing your current footwork skills

Complete a self-evaluation of your current footwork skills to identify strengths and weaknesses. To do this, climb the same grade of boulder problem on a slab, directly vertical, and overhung wall. While climbing, pay attention to how often you readjust, your feet swing off the wall, or if your feet aren’t helping you send the boulder.

While doing this, you can seek feedback from your peers if you miss something they pick up on. To further this point, you can hire an instructor to help you identify any weak points in your footwork.

If you don’t have the option to ask your peers or hire an instructor, use your phone to film yourself climbing. When looking it over, look for any evidence of poor footwork. I.e., readjusting, hanging off the wall, if they’re too out of balance with your body, etc.

You can also questions and connect with climbers on our forum. People are usually more than happy to help share their advice!

Essential footwork drills for bouldering improvement

Onto the footwork drills! These drills will cover a specific area of your footwork and help you improve your climbing. To efficiently improve, you must identify what you must work on and stay consistent!

Quiet feet drill: Developing precision and control

Pick a boulder problem well below your grade range to perform this drill. This exercise aims to climb the boulder as quietly as possible. Once you reach the top, downclimb the boulder while still trying to keep your feet quiet.

This drill will help with your precision and control while climbing. After working on this exercise, you’ll notice that you won’t need to focus as hard to perform solid foot placements.

Flagging exercises: Improving balance and stability

Flagging is an excellent way to counterbalance yourself when you only have one available foothold. To flag, stick your opposite leg out and press it into the wall hard to keep your body stable.

To perform this drill, choose a boulder with large holds and climb it up and down. While climbing, perform a flag with each step that you take, up and down. This exercise will help you build your confidence in precarious body positionings.

Experiment with the different types of flags while you do this! You can even perform a different flag for each move you make. Try an outside flag (most standard), inside flag, and back flag to familiarise yourself with how they feel on the wall so you can be more efficient when you need to use one!

Smear practice: Mastering techniques for tricky holds

Smearing is the art of placing your foot on the wall where there is no foothold and using it as if there were. You can smear on the wall itself or on holds, but it is the opposite of edging, where you want just your toe on a small hold.

Perform this drill on a slab wall with large holds. Practice pushing your foot into the wall and pulling yourself up with the holds. The pressure between your pulling arms and pressing feet will allow you to smear up the wall. Once you reach the top, downclimb and perform the exercise again until you feel comfortable smearing.

Toe hook training: Expanding your repertoire of moves

Toe hooking sounds like what it is. You hook your toe around a hold. This move keeps your balance and can be extremely beneficial when performing delicate moves on slab or overhung routes without great footholds.

Practice climbing a boulder well within your range and toe hook after each move. Hold the toe hook to see how stable it can be until you get comfortable doing them. A toe-hook requires shin and quad muscles to perform well, so be sure to warm up those legs before you climb!

Heel Hook Drills: Building Strength and Technique

Like toe hooks, heel hooks are a genius way to take the weight off your arms when climbing. They’re mainly used on vertical and overhung terrain but can be used to stabilise yourself, too.

Pick a slightly overhung boulder problem and practice performing your heel hooks. Use your hip muscles to engage them so you can feel just how useful they are. Heel hooks are my favorite climbing move because I have more flexibility than strength, and they allow me to reach higher holds without exerting excessive energy.

Incorporating Footwork Drills into Your Training Routine

Set clear goals for your footwork improvement. Doing so with a friend is a great way to train your footwork. You can challenge each other to see who can do the most heel hooks on a problem or has the quietest feet. A great way to instill this is to make the loser do burpees for how many more heel hooks you did (Everybody hates burpees, right?).

Integrating these drills into your warm-up sessions so they’re fresh before you start your serious climbing. This will help make these footwork moves second nature when you need to use them.

Dedicate time to footwork training sessions. This can be on a rest day when you don’t need to use a lot of energy. Since you’re climbing on grades well below your max, you should be able to perform these exercises on a day after hard climbing. Choosing a day to train footwork specifically will help instill these drills into your brain for your next climbing session.

Celebrate that footwork!

You must remember to reward your progress and celebrate your improved footwork! Climbing can be hard enough when we’re not sending our projects, so we must focus on the small victories. Be proud of yourself when you engage a toe-hook perfectly or flag your body so well that you feel like you could stand there forever!

Like anything, climbing is a journey of continuous learning. After you’ve mastered your footwork on slab, start practicing it on overhung routes where you need more upper-body and core strength. When climbing overhung routes, your core will keep your feet on the wall by using tension to keep your body close, so work on developing it when tackling steeper routes. Or take those lessons learned to your projects and dedicate some time trying to send!

Look, there will always be nuances with how to move your feet to better your footwork technique. Keep an open mind and experiment with different footwork techniques. Remember that climbing doesn’t look the same for everybody; it’s not “One Beta Fits All.” There is more than one way up a boulder problem, so don’t get stuck trying to perform the same beta if you’re not making any progress. Look for innovative ways to get yourself up and that wall and have fun exploring where your improved footwork can take you!

Let us know in the comments what drill is your favourite!

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