Rope Climb Technique:
The rope climb is a very technical movement that challenges your grip strength, and works your arms, back, and core. Rope climbs requires upper body, core, and grip strength. They also require coordination and overall body awareness. Most people may think that upper body strength is the most important prerequisite for climbing rope. While upper body strength is important for climbing rope, having good rope climbing technique is going to be the most important aspect for learning how to climb rope efficiently.
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Unless you are performing legless rope climbs, the legs and the core play an important role in having an efficient rope climb technique. Before you actually start ascending a fifteen-foot rope, you must first practice the techniques starting from the ground. Here are some progressions to teach you the techniques of how to efficiently climb a rope:
- Seated hand-over-hand pulls: From a seated position, pull yourself into a standing position. Place your hands over each other until you have reached that standing position. Try to pull yourself up using your arms, rather than standing with your legs. You can sit on a bench, box, or chair.
- Seated-to-standing rope climb: Start seated on the floor and then pull yourself up, hand-over-hand, into a standing position. If you lack the upper body strength to pull yourself up using only your arms, allow your legs to assist you into the standing position
- Laying-to-standing rope climb: This drill is very similar to the last, except you will begin laying flat on your back on the floor to increase the difficulty. Since you are starting flat on your back with your legs straight out, you will not get any assistance from your legs during the ascent.
- Seated clamp down to stand: Start in a seated position on a bench, box, or a chair. Clamp down on the rope, pinching the rope between your feet. The rope will rest on top of the shoelaces of one foot, with the other foot “clamping” down on top of that foot. Once you have a secure clamp, begin standing, pulling your hands up the rope until you are in a complete standing position.
- Standing rope pulls: From a standing position, pull yourself off of the ground, using your arms only. Keep your legs straight and your hands in position. Engage your lats and pull yourself as high as possible off of the ground. Switch hands each rep to simulate going hand-over-hand on the rope.
- Standing clamp-down: From a standing position, clamp the rope between your feet and extend your legs straight. Move your hands in to place, up the rope, until you are standing extended with your fleet clamping down on the rope. For a low clamp, keep one leg straight and lift the other leg just high enough to clamp the rope between your feet. For a high clamp, pull both knees up towards your chest and then clamp the rope between your feet.
- Clamp-down with one pull: This is very similar to the previous progression with an extra pull added to the ascent. Once you have clamped down your feet and achieved a standing position, pull your knees to your chest, going hand-over-hand up the rope, re-clamping your feet and standing to extension.
- Rope climb: Adding to the previous progression, continue the ascent all the way up the rope. Knees to chest, hand-over-hand, clamp down and stand up on the rope. Think about a toes-to-bar when you are pulling your knees toward your chest. Lean back and try to get your feet as close to your hands as possible before clamping down on the rope.
- Legless rope climb (advanced): This is an advanced movement where you are going to ascend the rope using just your upper body. This is going to challenge your grip and upper body strength. When performing these, make sure you have enough strength to get all the way up and down the rope.
Rope climbs can be a tough movement to acquire or master. They require a lot of upper body strength, core stability, and coordination. When learning how to climb rope, make sure you take the proper steps to ensure that you are progressing properly in order to ensure safety and efficiency. Always start by learning the movements on the ground before learning in the air. This will allow you to stay safe while still practicing the proper techniques that will allow you to learn how to become more efficient at the movement. Once you are ready to start ascending the rope, be sure to focus on the fundamentals and progressions, and apply the proper technique that you have learned and practiced to get to that point.
