Paige Claassen – Precision Footwork

Precision Footwork

If you’re serious about climbing harder grades with reduced fatigue, then improving your footwork will help you accomplish your goals—and send your projects. Climbing Magazine and pro climber Paige Claassen have teamed up to create this 7-week online course, which focuses solely on footwork, one of the most crucial—but all too often overlooked—aspects of rock climbing.

Don’t be a myopic climber who’s so focused on upper-body strength that you neglect some of the strongest—and most useful—muscles in your body: your legs. Learn to power your movement from your toes up through your legs and core to send your very best—and hardest.

What You’ll Learn:

Improving footwork is one area many climbers neglect, yet it’s one of the best ways to progress. In this online course, pro climber, footwork specialist, and master technician Paige Claassen will teach you how to up your footwork game; she’ll also explore why it’s important, and give you specific tips and drills to incorporate into your training program.

If your feet skitter and skate as you struggle to find footholds, or if you often fail to integrate foot moves into your sequencing, then this course is for you.

Syllabus:

Course Intro

• How improving footwork has helped Paige’s climbing
• At which point in her career she realized the importance of footwork
• Why she addressed it
• Specific gains she saw as a result of the footwork focus

The Importance of Good Footwork

• Why is footwork so important?
• Crucial component of integrated beta
  • Pull harder moves using less strength
  • Efficiency & energy conservation
  • Eliminate “reachy” moves
  • Injury prevention
  • Preserve your climbing shoes
• Why is footwork often neglected?

Analyzing Your Footwork

• What does it mean to have good footwork?
• What does it mean to have bad footwork?
• Self-Analysis

Dialing in Climbing Shoes

• Anatomy of a Climbing Shoe
• Proper Fit
• How tightly to size shoes based on goals and intended usage
• Shoe break-in tips and tricks
• Consider if your objective requires specific foot techniques
  • Toe hooking, need toe rubber
  • Heel hooking, need a well-fitting heel, might be narrow or ball shape

Improving Body Position

• Analyze where footholds are in comparison to your body and your desired direction of travel
  • Feet under body = move up
  • Feet to the sides = move laterally
• Turn outer hip into the wall and stand taller (outside edge, drop-knee)
• Pull center of gravity over foot (heel hook, toe grip)

Honing Technique

• Edging (inside and outside)
• Heel hook (and outside heel hook)
• Toe hook
• Drop-knee
• Flag (inside vs. outside)
• Smear
• Stemming
• Match
• Foot cam
• Bicycle (and reverse bicycle)
• Kneebar
• Toe drag
• Pogoing/Moon kick

Applying New Skills

• Quiet feet = accurate foot placements
• Repetition
  • Traversing with only smears
  • Toe hooking up the Moonboard/systems wall/corner
  • Choose technique you want to practice and repeat it for an entire route
• Roof hangs
• Choose technical routes
• Ankle weights
• Hovering feet/lockoffs for feet
• First foot placement
• Observe others
• No-hands climbing
• Other exercises to practice

Core + Supplemental Exercises

• Strong core = control over feet
• 5–10 core exercises for better footwork
• Strengthening toes/arches
• Strong hands/fingers allow you to focus on feet

Course Wrap-Up

• How to apply the concepts
• Improving footwork is a lifelong endeavor

FAQs

• Do I need to be a certain level of climber to take this course?

You do not, no! We can all—climbers of all skill and experience levels—always improve our footwork. It’s a lifelong learning process, and a touchstone to return to at any point in our career when we want to see improvement.

• Why do I need good footwork?

Being able to climb with precision footwork is one of the most important parts of climbing well. Because your legs are stronger than your arms, using your feet precisely will help you ascend the rocks more easily. It will also help you save energy through efficient movement, and will help prevent injury by letting you better calibrate how much you’re weighting your fingers, forearms, and shoulders.

• Do I need a specific type of rock shoe to take this course?

You don’t, no, but in order to get the most out of it, we recommend a tightly fitting, performance- or precision-focused pair of rock shoes in good condition, either recently broken in or newly resoled.

About the Author:

As a kid growing up in Estes Park, Colorado, Paige Claassen struggled to fit in to traditional activities. But when her parents took her to the climbing gym for the first time when she was 9, she found her place: climbing.

From that day on, Paige has spent each year training, competing, and traveling to sport climb both in the United States and internationally (in places like South Africa, India, Ecuador, Norway, and Australia).

“Climbing provides a very personal challenge—a battle between you and the rock,” Paige says. “It’s best to find a rock you truly want to battle, because when you’re trying at your limit, you never know how much time you’ll be spending with that piece of stone. Those long battles are what get me fired up!”

While attending school at the University of Colorado Boulder (where she earned a marketing degree), she sent routes like Grand Ole Opry (5.14b/c) at the Monastery, Colorado, and Just Do It (5.14c) in Smith Rock, Oregon. Since then, she’s climbed numerous 5.14a, 5.14b, and 5.14c routes, including two first ascents graded 5.14a and 5.13d. She loves to choose aesthetic projects that challenge her, but excels at technical sport climbs with intricate footwork.

“I’m not naturally very strong, so I have to rely on my footwork to get me up tricky routes,” she says. “The phrase ‘toes before throws’ has helped me send many sport routes I’m proud to have completed.”

Beyond climbing, in 2016 Paige founded the Southern Africa Education Fund (SAEF), a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to providing kids in South Africa and Namibia with the education necessary to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. That means helping fund new classrooms, update infrastructure, and more.

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