Footwork is very important, many people are beginners to rock climbing, and they always blame their lack of strength for their inability to climb. The actual situation is that rock climbing does not rely on strength alone. Many large muscles trained in the gym will also feel very tired and cannot climb.

Correct footwork is an integral part of effectively distributing energy in rock climbing. Land lightly, move slightly, and rely more on leg strength, so that you can achieve success when climbing difficult routes. You also need to trust your footwork enough that the friction between your shoes and your feet is enough to keep you balanced to move decisively on the rock face

Here are six tips for improving your footwork. Follow these tips for a period of time, and I believe your climbing level will improve.

Correct footing, thrust upwards

The upward force in rock climbing comes from two diametrically opposed ways of exerting force: pushing and pulling. Climbers usually need to pull with their arms and push with their legs and feet.

Among the two methods of exerting force, the pulling force provided by the upper body often consumes more physical energy. Excessive use of the pulling force will make the climber's arm congested quickly, unable to exert force, and it is difficult to climb up effectively, and eventually the route cannot be completed. In comparison, the strength of the legs is much greater than that of the arms, and the human legs have the strongest muscles in the body. If a climber uses his legs to push himself up, he can save some upper body strength and use it at the key points of the route and where he has to rely on his arms.

Therefore, rock climbers should practice consciously mobilizing the strength of their legs during the climbing process, and they can even try to use their legs first for every action to drive their bodies to climb upwards.

Observe the movement of the feet
You should look at your feet as they move between moves.
When you rely on your limbs to hang your body firmly on the rock wall, you should move your eyes to find the next foothold. The foot point is generally easier to find, but sometimes there is no suitable foot point. In this case, you need to use a small edge or an inclined plane to keep your body balance. Once you've settled on the foothold, you're going to move your foot there, and at this point you should pay attention to your foot's movement all the way: from when it leaves the current foothold until it hits the next footstep firmly.

If you're not watching your feet move, you may be doing ineffective movements, lacking confidence in your footholds, or grabbing your handpoints too hard for fear of being unbalanced under your feet, wasting a lot of energy.

The following tips will be introduced in detail in the next article, Stay tuned!