UKC

Calling on the combined experience of the bouldering fraternity of UKC.
How do you climb those sloppy angled holds?
Is there a certain technique? can you train for them.
I climb regularly and have been doing so for years but still cant get the hang of these.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

In reply to Up High:
Outdoors or indoors?

PS I am pretty sure you can train for anything!

In reply to Simos:

indoors as I have had a year off climbing (knee op) and was down the wall last night just couldn't stick the big slopers

In reply to Up High:

A few tips...explore the hold for the best bit which may be the side or even the bottom...bend your knees and keep your weight low whilst sussing the hold out....try holding one side as you move up the other...watch other climbers suceed and try and copy them.

In reply to Up High:

Sometimes it helps to not look at a sloper once you've got a grip of it. e.g. look forward or even down. This adjusts the angle of your shoulders and keeps your body into the rock more thus gaining extra friction.
Arms as straight as possible too until you really need to pull.
Having the thought in your head that you are gradually losing grip is a guarantee of failure.

In reply to Up High:
Forgot to ask what grades you roughly boulder as it really depends what 'slopers' you mean - but just some general tips, they're probably obvious to you since you've been climbing for a while:

1. Explore the hold, find the best way of holding it before climbing

2. Stay low, make sure you have enough weight/body tension and that it's directly downwards (or inwards if overhang). An easy mistake to make is putting too much weight on your feet and losing contact with the sloper or your feet pushing you 'away' from the wall.

3. If it's a smooth one, usually trying to get as much contact (i.e. as much of your palm) as possible with the hold helps a lot

4. Matching slopers sometimes helps if possible

5. I am not 100% about this but it often feels to me that you mainly need forearm strength for them, maybe try training for that

6. Also resist the temptation where possible to climb too dynamically, a more static and gradual approach works best for me usually.

I'd guess that as you get back into climbing again after your break, you'll start naturally sticking them more so wouldn't worry too much yet...

In reply to Up High:

Find the 'plumb line' from the best part of the sloper and get your centre of gravity below it. Also some more info here:

http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/slope-dope

Train for them by climbing more on them!

In reply to Up High:

all the advice here on how to hold slopers is sound, but in the end all the understanding in the world isn't going to let you hang off a horrible 45 degree sloper, you still need forearm and finger strength. For example, when I am hanging off the 45's on the beastmaker, I can feel the amount of pressure my fingers have to exert on the hold to generate the necessary friction to achieve the hang, this is obviously different to actually using a sloper in a route or problem since body tension and position is paramount on hard sloper problems, but training finger strength will help massively (it will also help to use the subtle features and ripples many slopers bear on real rock). It doesn't hurt on other hold types as well!

In reply to AMorris:

Yes exactly that's why I had asked for the grades too - if the problem is not too hard then often it's mainly a question of technique but for harder grades as you say, there is no way you can hold them without masses of strength...

In reply to Simos:

If I've had a lay off it's the big slopers that find me out (given that my endurance is always crap anyway). You need to work get back open hand strength but the good news is that it comes back pretty quickly.