"Crimpy" holds

Crimpy holds are the kind of holds you get your fingertips involved in. Instead of being able to use the whole palm of your hand like you're holding onto a large outcrop of rock, you're restricted. These, as a beginner, are the types of holds I dreaded because I had an idea in my head that my fingers weren't strong enough to pull up my body weight. I wasn't wrong - I can't pull my whole bodyweight up using just my fingertips on a tiny slither of outcropped rock. Apart from them not staying locked in place under 12st of weight, it really really hurts. The edge of the rock will start to dig into your skin and, well, it ain't pleasant. However, I was going into these climbs with a: the wrong mindset and b: the wrong technique.
First off, don't try and pull your whole body up with just your hands on a crimpy hold when you're a beginner. One of the climbs I did in Font taught me just that. I used one leg with my bodyweight shifted over that foot to push myself up the rock, while my hands took maybe 40% of the weight just to aid the the move. When I first started the route my ass was pointing out so I could look at my feet (no idea why I wanted to see my feet), my fingers were trying to grip crimp with my arms bent and my leg pushing me off the wall instead of up the wall. It's kinda hard to explain, but there are a few golden rules to follow.

1: Keep your ass in - the closer you are to the wall the less effort your arms have to make to keep you on it. Keep your bodyweight as vertical as possible. If your face is close to the wall, and your feet are on the wall, and your ass is out so you look a bit like this symbol: < then your fingers/hands/arms are going to really struggle to keep your weight. If your body looks more like this symbol: | then your fingers are only used to keep you on the wall, and the bigger and stronger muscles in your legs can do the lions share of the pushing while your arms just keep you in and your fingers are just anchors.

2: Slow and steady - Sometimes it just makes sense to go slow. If you're on a precarious piece of the route and all it will take is the lightest of zephyrs to unbalance you, go sllooowww. It's more effective than I thought it would be. I surprised myself that I can actually push and pull my weight up slowly, I don't have to explode upwards, and I think other beginners will be surprised by this too. Shifting weight, keeping your grip and being poised will improve over time (I hope) but until then, slow and steady wins the race. Completing some routes has come down to how fast I try and stand up on a foothold. If I go fast I get unbalanced and my hands rip away from the wall and I blame my strength, when really all I did to complete it was slowly move and carefully shift my weight so that my fingers weren't put under too much strain and voila. The sense of achievement is amazing.

3: Get your nails involved - I learnt this last week at Font. Stop being a pussy, stop assuming you're not strong enough, and just get your nails involved if you need to. Find that little bit extra. Take the pain! You won't regret it. It's unlikely you'll break the skin, and it's unlikely your nails will rip away from your fingers and leave you bleeding and squealing in pain. Man up! One wall I did, David nailed it first time. I couldn't understand how he got such purchase on his fingertips. I gritted my teeth, turned my hands into claws and forced them downwards into a gap until I could feel my nails gripping and then tried the ascent again using my legs to push up 80% of my weight and using my arms to pull up 20%, and voila. It was easy to get up that first stage that was previously hard for me when I wasn't trusting my fingertips and using my nails. So, do it. *nod*

4: Use your face - Ok this isn't strictly something you should do, but I have used my face to get up a route in the past and I plan to in the future until I don't need it any more. Just use anything you can to get yourself up. It feels so good in the end to stand on top of a boulder.

5a: Trust your grip - A lot of the time I've jumped from a route because I think my foot is going to slip off. It feels like I'm being held up by my arms alone and the very tip of my shoe won't stay on the rock if I put some weight on it. It feels that it's going to slip. Just trust your grip, you'll be amazed what your shoes will stick to. Sometimes I feel like my toes aren't even on the rock and it's a little bit of rubber holding me up, but that's fine. Your shoes are so tight that it might as well be part of your body. Even shifting 10% more weight onto your foot can mean the different between success and failure. If your foot does slip you can just keep your body arms length away from the wall as you fall and land on a crash mat. Simples.

5b: Bend your legs - As you land on a crashmat

5c: Exit Strategy - I have not come off a wall yet that I didn't expect to. That means, I haven't been climbing and confident of staying on the wall and then suddenly fallen off it. I've always known I was going to come off, and prepared for it. Had an exit strategy in my mind. This way it's all expected, I know where my body will shift, I know which hold is likely to come off first etc. I bend my legs. I keep myself away from the wall so I don't hit it with my face. I enjoy climbing.

6: Heroism - If you don't wanna do it, don't do it. Don't be a hero, you'll only be hurting yourself. Confidence is a massive part of climbing - If you try something really scary, fail and hurt yourself, you'll take more than just a physical knock. Easy routes are fun, and if you're on the harder routes, have an exit strategy from the wall. If it goes too high and you're not confident, just jump off - you can always go back. If you don't like the top out, jump off before it, the top-out is the highest point of the climb. Especially with crimpy holds because you can't trust sheer brute strength, it's more about finesse and skills that pay the bills

7: Clean your shoes - Sand, water, foliage, anything on the bottom of your shoes will mean less grip, so make sure they're clean!

Yet another wall of text. I thought my posts would be shorter after the first ones, how wrong was I. More of what I've learnt later.
Peace out fellow beginners!

Rick