Kneebars, Heel Hooks, and Other Paperwork

Climbing has developed a clerical class. You can hear them at the base of anything steep. Kneebar. Heel hook. Drop knee. Body tension. High foot. They are not wrong that bodies bend. They are wrong that a bend is a personality.

The old sequence was a hand, and then another hand, and a foot that stayed where you put it because you told it to. It was not elegant. Elegance was a word for the people watching, and they were not on the route. The clerical class arrived when watching became the larger half of the sport. A move that can be diagrammed can be discussed. A discussion can be posted. A post can start to feel like the send. None of this pulls you up the rock.

The coalition allows technique the way it allows cold mornings. It is part of the conditions. Using your flag, your hip, and your sense of balance is not a moral failure. Turning every one of those into a branded mechanic, and then refusing to try the move until the mechanic has been explained, is how a physical act becomes paperwork.

A kneebar is a joint filing a permit to remain. Sometimes the permit is the right tool, especially on stone that wants it. File it and move on. Do not hold a seminar. The person behind you does not need the history of your knee. Your knee is not a founder.

You will be told that strength without technique is just thrashing. Some thrashing is honest work by a person who has not yet learned the clever way, and the clever way is not always available. Rock is local. The trick that worked on the plastic may be a story you are telling to a hold that is shaped like nothing in the gym. Pull anyway. Look later. The order matters.

If a move requires a diagram before you will touch it, you are not looking at a move. You are looking at a form you do not want to fill out with your arms. Fill it out with your arms. They have been patient. They do not read the comments.

There is a related hobby, which is naming every body position until the route sounds like a tax form. The coalition will not be adding these names to the bylaws. The bylaws are still the one sentence, and the sentence does not mention your heel. Your heel can come if it is useful. It does not get billing.

The coalition will not be publishing a technique manual. The manual would become the thing people quote instead of climbing. The instruction is short enough to memorize. Hands. Feet. Hips. Up. If you need a fifth word, the fifth word is again.