UKC

I couldn’t find this in the forums or on Google but apologies if already covered/well known.

The end joint of my fingers goes backward about 30-45 degrees and it feels like this is making my half crimp very weak. Basically, holding the end joint of the finger in a straight line is really hard, as it just wants to either go full bent (like in open hand) or fully back into full crimp, and tends to do so with more than a tiny weight*. Open hand is way stronger than half crimp, as is a sort of half crimp with the finger tips flipped down rather than horizontal (not sure if this has a name).

Anyone else experienced this and have any advice? Is it worth training this half crimp, or is it always going to be weak, given the lack skeletal support in half crimp with the double jointed fingertip. Or is everyone’s fingers like this? Or do I just need to practice.

*For reference I am having to do max hangs with half crimp at -18 (yes, that’s 18kg taken off with a pulley). I climb up to 6b and V5 indoors, 6a and VS on the odd occasion I get outdoors, and everyone else at those grades seems to be able to at least do bodyweight hangs (I literally can’t on half crimp, only for like 3 seconds max and then it feels tweaky). So wondering if either this is something to keep training in the hope it gets better, as a potential blocker for harder routes, or sack it off and focus on full crimp and open hand where I might actually be able to get strong (rather than merely not super weak).
 

Sorry for a rambling post, any thoughts would be helpful

I have no specialist joint knowledge but my fingers do that too.

Most of my training is on half crimp and I can add 40 something kgs on a max hang so don’t expect your structure will hold you back.

I think if you did some half crimp training you’d see progress pretty quickly.

Thank you! This is exactly what I needed to hear (my fingers aren't weird, I should get back on the hangboard, and will probably get stronger from doing so).

My fingers do this also, have asked the question to some rather experienced climbers and its apparently normal to 'get up on your tips' to some degree.

I'm not sure about double-jointed tips, but my half-crimp strength was much lower that my "chisel grip" in spring this year, but even with a very lazy and erratic 'once-a-week unless I'm tired'  fingerboard "regime" it's become noticeably stronger, e.g. from 8s of desperation with no weight added to 15s comfortably with 14kg added. It's brilliant when you start fingerboarding, because whatever effort you put in seems to payout disproportionately I can definitely feel the difference when bouldering on rock, too.

This is called crimping.

No, weakness is weak muscles, which can be trained, not the lack of skeletal support

Everyone is made slightly different. For instance I have short pinkies (tip only just reaches halfway up the second joint of my middle 3)  which makes a 4 finger half crimp quite awkward and significantly weaker than my middle 3 alone.

Practice training to get stronger

Great news, this means that you have better technique than your mates and will climb much harder if you can improve your finger strength.

Yes, if LatticeTraining are to be believed then training in half crimp will improve your strength in open and full-crimp

If you want to climb well on pockets you have to have good open grip strength, because there isn't room to get the fingers in that  crimp position in a pocket. Also worth noting that open hand is more reliant on friction, especially between the crease of you finger joint and the edge of the hold unless it has a very large radius, fooling you into thinking you are stronger than you actually are.

With a sack it off attitude  you'll never get strong on anything, but if you only want to climb on very small holds, focus on training that grip.