Problem selection:
Select problems that include heel hooks for this session. The problems could be any grade, but being able to at least repeat the moves several times will help to learn the skills. Being able to do the entire problem is not necessary, but may help to increase the resiliency of the skill and keep the session more interesting.
Focus:
When you perform heel hooks on the moves/problems, focus on one of the following things with each “rep”:
- Turn out – focus on externally rotating the hip on the heel hook side. Try to keep your pelvis neutral/parallel to the wall. Externally rotating will help improve your flexibility over time, and help you keep your center of mass close to the wall during the move.
- Toe point – focus on pointing the toe of the heel hook foot. You don’t need to point it as hard as you can, but maintaining posture through the ankle can increase the stability of the heel hook.
- Point of contact – focus on the patch of rubber on your shoe that will make contact during the heel hook. This may take some time to figure out, as the contact point often changes as you progress through a move.
- Turn out and point away – as a progression of “Turn out,” try pointing your toe away from the wall while heel hooking. This should help exaggerate your external rotation and make it less likely that your toe will contact the wall and leverage your heel hook off of its contact point.
- Trailing foot – focus on the pressure of the trailing (non heel-hooking) foot into its foothold. This will often help you create lower body tension by squeezing the footholds together.
- Flagging trailing foot – when your trailing foot doesn’t have a foothold, focus on pressing it into the wall as in a Rudder flag. This will also help create lower body tension. Dropping your trailing foot off its foothold also increases the amount of weight on the heel hook. While this can be more strenuous, it can also help keep the heel from popping from the added pressure/friction.
Combination:
This is a general session and can be combined with any session. Perform after warming up and before any conditioning.