Skip to content

Rikomatic

Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff

Menu
  • Follow Me on Instagram
  • My Professional Site RangerRik.com
  • Every Roller Rink in California (Map)
Menu

Topping a Hard V4+ Boulder: Progressing over Nine Sessions

Posted on November 1, 2018November 8, 2018 by

This morning I finally topped a difficult V4+ boulder route at my gym, after three weeks of effort. I wanted to share some of my process for beating this route, and videos showing my progress over the last 9-10 sessions.

Just getting through the first set of holds was a big challenge for me. Finally, after three sessions, I managed to get past the first crux – a large, awkward hold on the left that I somehow had to get past. Here’s how I did it.

The key to this section was foot placement. Getting my right heel properly placed on a hold helped me to get stable and boost up using both that heel and my arms. One problem is that I’m barely controlling my legs, which swing around a lot and take a lot of energy to control.

A couple of days later, I’ve made a lot more progress getting toward the top. My foot placement is a lot more secure. You can see that I’m hardly swinging at all when I’m climbing.

Overall good stuff. But my flow is not very good. I’m still flailing a bit.

I’m very close in this next attempt, one session later. I actually touch the top, but I don’t quite grab enough to hold on. You can see how much more solid my foot placement is here.

And finally, I reached the top in this last attempt today!

There’s a lot I like about this top:

  1. I figured out how to change foot position toward the end, that got me a little higher, helping me reach those last holds.
  2. I used my knee to stabilize myself in the last couple of moves, which really helped.
  3. My flow was much better. I wasn’t rushing, I was carefully placing every foot and hand hold. This helped me hold enough energy in reserve to make that last more dynamic move.

I also like that this video begins and ends with a fist bump with another climber.

Yeah, I know I did cheat and didn’t start from the beginning. But I’m calling it a win.


UPDATE November 7

Here’s a better video of me sending the route from the actual start.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

“3 Hats” Skate Performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y00hSZ1eHPg

Recent Posts

  • Riki’s Top Six Experiences in Japan
  • Osaka Foodie Adventures: Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki, Cake in a Can and… Starbucks
  • An Epic Three and a Half Days at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea
  • Rhythm Skating and a Formula for Getting Better?
  • May the 4th Be with You!

Categories

  • Books
  • Cats
  • Civil Society
  • Creative Writing
  • Current Affairs
  • Dancing / Music
  • Education
  • Family
  • Film
  • Food and Drink
  • Frankie Manning
  • Games
  • General
  • Health
  • Information Society
  • Machinima
  • Media Reform
  • Music
  • New York
  • Politics
  • Real World Places in SL
  • Religion
  • Science
  • SF Bay Area
  • Television
  • The Spirit
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • United Nations
  • Virtual Worlds
  • Web/Tech
  • Weblogs

Tags

b-boy (76) breakdance (51) breaking (26) brooklyn (36) charleston (11) competition (11) coney island (10) dance (17) dancing (30) documentary (15) education (21) festival (12) frankie95 (16) frankie manning (52) frim fram (10) global kids (70) hip-hop (31) human rights (11) inaug09 (11) jazz (12) lindy hop (142) lindyhop (17) lowcarb (18) lxd (11) macarthur foundation (12) machinima (22) memorial (14) mermaidparade (22) mtv (13) performance (16) pmt (10) popping (11) quaker (27) recipe (38) rockclimbing (16) second life (81) shim sham (15) skating (44) soul music (14) swing (52) swing dance (45) united nations (10) virtual world (19) virtual worlds (29) yehoodi (38)
© 2023 Rikomatic | Powered by Superbs Personal Blog theme