Today I returned to Red Spider Climbing, I worked on my Blues and Greens, then I started to work on Oranges. I have been skipping them and going straight to green but they’re essential to help with my technique. It would be great to find a partner to do it with but no one has seemed interested yet at college so I’ll keep it under wraps for now, the crew at red spider are great and everyone on the wall is very friendly it’s a great environment!
My goal is to now perfect my Dropknee technique for the following three reasons:
- Employing a dropknee can help you reach holds that seem far away. When you lock in a great dropknee your hip turns toward the wall, taking most of the weight of its corresponding leg, and your feet stay in a stable position. This allows you to generate upward motion with your feet and your hips, as opposed to using your arms to pull. You’ll find that this actually increases the overall distance you can reach.
- Employing a dropknee can help you balance on the wall while climbing, and therefore stick to relatively bad holds. Given the relative stability of your body and your ability to reach a long distance, you create more time to optimise your grip on the next hold—a huge advantage, if said hold is terrible.
- Employing a dropknee at any given moment gives you the appearance of a climbing master. All the hotties in the gym will be impressed which is always a bonus.
With a little bit of repetition and constant practice I should begin to feel the natural feel of the position and the motion it creates, when I watch other climbers attempt the competition wall they use it a lot the amount of energy it saves is very helpful.
The technique depends upon the climbers level of flexibility, which I find myself to be during BJJ, the possibility of damaging tendons, ligaments, and muscles around the knee are very much real.
Whilst doing this if I start to feel any pain I’ll drop, taking my time is crucial too just in case if I were to jerk my knee into the position then end up tearing my Medial Collateral Ligament.
Ellie Thornton Music 