Footwork is how you stand on the wall. Edging puts the edge of your shoe, usually the inside edge under the big toe, onto a hold; smearing presses the sole onto rock that has no real hold and relies on friction. Novices tend to haul with their arms, but moving your weight onto your feet lets the bigger leg muscles lift you, and on slab and vertical walls the feet carry more of your weight than on steeper ones. The app reads your body and stance; the exact shoe-on-rock contact and the friction itself are hard for a camera to see.
Edging: stand on the shoe edge
Before you move a foot, look at the foothold and pick the exact spot where your big toe will go.
eyes on the hold until the foot lands.
Place the inside edge of the shoe, just under the big toe, on that spot in one movement. Don't bounce or shuffle it around; put it there and commit.
one placement, then stillness.
Shift your hips over that foot so your weight goes down through it, then bend the knee and push with the leg to stand up.
the leg lifts you; the hands mostly hold balance.
Keep the heel at a middle height on an edge. Too high puts you on tiptoe at a steep angle; too low shifts your weight back off the toe. Either can make the foot pop.
pressure under the big toe, not the arch or the heel.
Learn the other contact points too: the outside edge (little-toe side) and the tip of the toe. On a big hold, pivot from inside edge to outside edge and notice how it lets your hips and torso turn.
the foot stays planted while the hips rotate.
Smearing: friction and weight
Where there's no edge (a blank slab, a volume), place the front of the sole on the surface to get as much rubber in contact as you can. Dropping the heel adds contact.
a wide patch of rubber pressing the wall.
Get your weight over the smear. On a slab your centre of gravity has to drive down the leg into the foot, so stand up over it instead of leaning your chest onto the wall.
standing on the foot, not hanging beside it.
Commit your weight fully. A tentative, half-weighted foot is the one that pops; a properly weighted smear is far less likely to.
trusting the rubber and pressing down.
Choose and trust your feet
Edge when the hold has an edge; smear when it doesn't. Footholds that look too poor to a beginner often hold once you press and weight them, so test them on easy ground.
more footholds start to look usable.
Stay safe
Warm up before you climb: something to raise your pulse, joint rotations, then easy climbing.
warm and loose before any hard moves.
Practise new footwork on easy routes or low traverses, close to the ground, so a slipping foot costs little.
relaxed enough to experiment.
Feel it
Your legs do the lifting and your hands mostly keep you in balance. Each foot goes onto its hold once, without bouncing, and stays put while you move above it. On a smear you feel the rubber bite as you stand over it. If your forearms burn on easy ground, you're pulling instead of standing. The app reads your body and stance; the shoe-on-rock contact and the friction are hard for a camera to see.
Fix-its
- You haul with your arms and treat the feet as an afterthought Before each hand move, shift your hips over a foot and push with that leg. The legs are built to carry your weight; arms tire fast.
- You bounce or shuffle the foot onto the hold Look at the hold, aim the big toe at one spot, place it once and commit. Practise it on every warm-up route.
- You stand on the arch or middle of the foot Move onto the inside edge under the big toe. Climbing shoes are designed to put power and precision there.
- Your heel is wrong for the hold On an edge, avoid tiptoe and avoid dropping the heel so far that weight slides back. On a smear, drop the heel for more rubber.
- Your smear slips Get more rubber on the surface, move your weight over the foot so it drives down the leg, and commit fully instead of half-weighting it.
Drill
- Precise placement: on your warm-up routes, aim each big toe at a chosen spot and place it in one go, with no readjusting.
- Pivot drill: put the inside edge on a big foothold, pivot to the outside edge and back while your hips turn. Use smaller holds as it gets easy.
- Any-feet traverse: traverse low on the wall using any footholds, and shift your hips over each foot before you move a hand.
- Smear practice: on a low-angle wall or volume close to the ground, step onto smears, drop the heel and stand up over the foot. Find the heel height where it sticks.
- Film from behind (you face the wall) with your whole body and feet in frame, and count how often a foot gets re-placed after it first lands.
Sources
- Mountaineering Ireland — FUNdamentals of Climbing workshop guidance notes (2014)
- Lattice Training (Aiden Dunne) — Rock climbing footwork: the basics (2023)
- Bonelli, Rampichini, Esposito, Rossi, Colombo, Limonta — Climber's muscle excitation and force distribution at different wall angles and body positions, European Journal of Applied Physiology (2025)
Last checked 2026-10-26.