Paige Claassen – Precision Footwork

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.

How This Course Works:

We know you have a busy schedule, so we’ve designed this course to be taken at your own pace. You’ll learn through a variety of interactive formats, including video instruction, photo descriptions, and more. Each lesson builds on the last, and, while we’ve designed the course to be 7 weeks long, you can take it as quickly or slowly as you want. Plus, once you purchase the course, the lessons are yours forever.

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?

Homework

Analyzing Your Footwork:

What does it mean to have good footwork?

What does it mean to have bad footwork?

Self-Analysis

Homework

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

Homework

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)

Homework

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

Homework

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

Homework

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

Homework

Course Wrap-Up:

How to apply the concepts

Improving footwork is a lifelong endeavor

About Paige Claassen

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.”:V

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.