kevin trieu wrote:rhyang wrote:.. you jam more vertically instead of sticking your foot straight in .. hard to explain online...
I'm not a 12 crack climber but that's the basic or foundation of a correct start of foot jam. The same as a ham jam. Majority of the time you want to go with big toe up, small toe down, with the bottom of your shoes paralleling the crack. How deep you stick your foot in depending on the size of the crack and foot. After that you want to twist your foot and lock. A correct foot or hand jam should NOT hurt. Crack climbing technique came to me easy. A lot of my friends cannot climb crack and think it is not natural climbing technique. There's a constant fear of their hand or foot getting stuck should they fall.
Not the best picture but it goes something like this:
For some people it does hurt their ankle. I know a pretty decent climber, (he's doing .13's daily at the age of 52) but had to give up trad climbing (he was an old grit stone climber) because of damage to the feet and it just hurt too much. If it hurts your ankle, work with a PT and a good massage therapist to see if they can work on range of motion, otherwise it could be a specific limitation for your body (mine is a deformed pinky which is residual from being struck by a drunk driver years ago when I was out on a run).
Some cracks, especially as they get harder, will be painful (when Mike Sokoloff did Parting Gift on the previous page) he left a trail of blood because of of painful jams. Myself I added to the blood trail on the last 1/4 of Rubys Cafe at the Creek. Some cracks will just do this, especially tight finger cracks. On some finger cracks (tight fingers) leaving a finger in the crack as you fall away is a valid concern. Rattily fingers, ringlocks, handjams, butterfly stacks, not really.
The key is efficiency. I found that finding a crack that is difficult for you and practice it over and over until you have developed clean technique. Work with someonew who has super clean technique if you can. The PG-Sunnyvale climbing gym is actually well setup for this. For hand sizes, work thumbs up hand jams (which will come more difficult then thumbs down for most people. You can cover large sections of a crack with just a few moves with thumbs up jams or a combination of thumbs up and thumbs down. Work ring locks. Ringlocks will feel insecure for most people. Its a jam that takes a bit of power, but the real issue is the feet. At ringlock sizes you will only get a small outside edge of your pinky toes into the crack, or smooging (a smear/edging) on the edge of the crack. This will become even more important with finger cracks.,
Once you have a specific technique clean, work other techniques. The more techniques you have in your repitoire, the better off you will be.