LEVEL 1UP! Top tips for our beginners
Hello 1UP family! Today we want to show you some cool techniques that will help you level UP quickly.
The basics
If you’ve never climbed before, here are some tips to get you started.
Warm up
It is essential to warm up if you want to avoid injury. You can do this is 3 parts; move around to get the blood flowing, stretch everything from your fingers to your toes and start by climbing easy problems well below your capability with down climbing
Use your legs
Your legs are much stronger than your arms, if you can bring attention and balance to your legs you will find it is much easier to stand up using your legs than it is to just pull up with your arms. Also remember if you stand on your toes rather than your heels it will make it much easier to pivot your feet to reach the next hold in the problem.
Slow down and down climb
When we first start, we all want to rush up the problem as quickly as we can, however, with climbing, the more graceful and precise you are the easier it will be to send it! Remember to consider your movements, place your hands and feet delicately. A good way to build up your stamina and get more practice is to downclimb. This is also a great way to prevent injuries!
Make sure you have the right fit shoes
If you have never worn climbing shoes before, they should feel a lot more snug than the shoes you normally wear. Come in and speak to one of our friendly staff about the right fit!
Assess your beta
Beta is the specific route you want to take to complete the problem. Remember to plan out which hand/foot goes where before you jump on the wall, this will help you climb more gracefully as your visibility decreases once you are mid climb
Don’t be afraid to fail and fall
At 1UP we have the newest technology in crash mats, don’t be afraid to fail. Failing is part of climbing, we need to overcome the fear of failure and go 1UP in our climbing. If you aren’t failing, you are not trying hard enough
Try everything, work on your weaknesses
A lot of us tend to focus on the climbs we are good at, however, if you struggle with a certain angle or type of hold structure you should focus on that. Training your weaknesses is one of the quickest ways to improve your climbing ability and leveling 1UP!
Climb with everyone
You should try to climb with as many different people as you can, this will help you see more techniques in use (everyone has a different beta for each problem). Try to climb with people of all different levels, the more you watch experienced climbers the faster you pick up on technique
Don’t take things too seriously, have fun and ask for help!
At the end of the day bouldering is a social thing and here with the 1UP family, we just want you to have fun. The community is our favourite part of bouldering so just ask others for advice!
1UP Volumes