Bouldering Tip: Why are Slab Holds so Hard to Grasp? (Zach Richardson)
Because they aren’t meant to be grasped
“The holds are bad because they are not actually meant to be grabbed on and pulled on very much.”
- Zach Richardson
For a long time I assumed every climber hated slab. Like lawn maintenance or laundry, slab climbing was something so universally despised that hack comedians could build entire routines around it. “I mean, they call it cheese grating when you fall from a slab problem, but I don’t see anybody paying monthly memberships to take turns rubbing an actual cheese grater along their thighs…” (hold for uproarious laughter…still holding…a bit more…okay, I’ll move on).
My position was only strengthened by Anna Hazelnutt’s brazenly oft-declared insistance that Slab is Sexy, a statement so oviously untrue that its entire purpose is one of counter-culture flamboyance. Yeah, sure, slab is sexy like walking around with a pet lizard on your shoulder is sexy or how mullets are sexy. The thing is so obviously untrue that the joke is the statement itself.
What’s fun about a slow, delicate shift along a sheer wall? What’s fun about dry-firing from a millimeters-thick edge hold? What’s fun about digging into a shallow hold with a crimp so full and knuckles so angled you can feel your wrists nearly give out?
But then I learned something. People actually, truly, unironically like slab climbing. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I learned this, as I was likely so befuddled by the realization that I blacked out. Something about a friend telling me they preferred slab to overhang and that statement not being capped with a “gotcha, jk” laugh probably short circuited some kind of logic synapse in my brain. I’m lucky to be alive, honestly.
Ever since, I’ve been on the hunt to understand the appeal of slab climbing, if only as a way to prove to myself that my friend should remain my friend. And that hunt was fruitless…until recently.
In a recent video from the always amazing Hannah Morris Bouldering channel, Zach Richardson (a Canadian National Bouldering Champion) said something simple and seemingly obvious; it changed my approach to slab climbing.
In response to a climber explaining why they don’t like slabby climbs (“I don’t like pulling hard on small holds”), Richardson says: “The holds are bad because they are not actually meant to be grabbed on and pulled on very much.” He goes on: “...my mission [when standing on small foot holds and grabbing small hand holds] is to have my hands guide myself over the foot and balance, not to pull.”
Of course. Duh.
I’ve always heard that slab generally requires more technique than other forms of climbing (at least when compared against strength), but I’d only ever registered the statement as a platitude, something almost folksy, too quaint to be of any real import. So, I ignored it. Even as I told myself that I wanted develop better climbing technique (and not have to depend so much on big, momentum-heavy movements) I ignored slab as a means of getting better. Why? Because slab is so damn…ugh.
But Richardon’s perspective change has changed my perspective on the wall, literally. Where before I would approach a slab problem from the front, seeing hand holds as things to anchor myself to, I now approach a slab problem from the side, seeing hand holds as guiderails to usher me along, almost parallel to the wall. Slab is something I actually consider at the gym, now.
As a bonus, I now have a reason to work on my calf muscles.
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The climber: Zach Richardson
The source: Pro Analyses Intermediate vs Elite Bouldering Technique ft. Canadian Champion