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I know myself when footlocking I need to make a concious effort to let my legs do the advancing and only using my arms for balance. Pulling with your arms...........you may as well hip thrust!
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Well said.
I can't say this as well as Moss says to Treebing;
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That's because you have excellent footlock technique. A beginner is going to have an easier time getting a good lock on a doubled rope. The reason I suggest learning to lock the tail DdRT is that you can take your time hanging on the hitch as you learn, it's a little tougher doing that on doubled rope (hitch seizes etc.)
-moss
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You can overcome the problems and disadvantages of using a hitch or a prussik by not using a prussik. It complicates and make this exercise harder. Much harder, actually. I am not talking to competition climbers or recreational climbers. I speak here to commercial, climbing arborists. You make your living going up rope. Get the right gear and ditch the methods that will keep you from progressing to the very best level you can achieve. Don't be a slave to inadequate or limiting gear. <u>You should be able to rest between strides</u>, whenever you please, and then progress at the rate that suits you. Your gear needs to allow this without penalty.
I still have to contend that learning by footlocking the single tail of a 2:1 DdRT over the dual tails of a 1:1 twin line ascent, is, I mean, why?? The 2:1, 'sliding back down a steep sand hill' feel is both frustrating and very inefficient and I can't see why any professional climber would want to footlock on 2:1. Maybe with a single ascender, but on a climbing hitch that knock efficiency down so low you may as well hip thrust. Footlocking works great in 1:1 climbing, but sucks in 2:1. This is not my opinion. Don't argue with the physics unless you want to be frustrated and not get it.
Treesandsurf says
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Well aside from the single vs. double debate; I can think of a few tips that have helped me get faster. Practicing to advance with two hands is key, it really speeds up your time and the technique is much smoother and safer.
[/ QUOTE ] I agree, totally. Two hands. One on the handle of the dual ascender and the other on the rope just below it.
Tanner, I'll take your question [ QUOTE ]
I am left handed, but right arm dominant.
Second, when standing, do you try to stand mostly with the bottom foot? Or try to do it with the top foot?
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I am right handed, left hand dominant. I skateboard goofy-foot (toes pointing left) Here's what a footlock looks like, from me, and I'll be glad to go outside in the morning and shoot a little 30 second video,
but verbally,
You're looking at the climber, from behind, viewing his heels.
His ankles cross over, forming an X. The right foot is forward, the left foot behind.
The rope(s) are nestled in to the center of the X made by your feet, sighted in there with the tops of the boots. Don't worry right now about pointing heels downward, not important, just feel natural. Now here's the tricky part; move your toes together.
If you can hang on rope, in your saddle and have the rope in between the X of your feet, and move your toes together, you can footlock. It gets easier from here.
Keeping the rope(s) barely touching the tops of your boots, and keeping your hips in toward the rope, lift your feet. Feel the light slide of the rope as you keep you feet beneath you and lift them up. The reason you keep a feel on the rope with your feet is that you never lose track of it and you don't have to look at your feet with your eyes. You can keep your eyes focussed on the next obstacle you gotta get past.
Lift your legs a comfortable distance. un-X your feet by pulling the forward, right foot rightward over top of your left foot. The rope now comes down from above, right side of right foot, underneath the right foot, up the left side of the left foot, over top of left foot and down the left side of the left foot. Footlock dissected.
Viewed from behind, the rope over the feet looks like an N-shape, only with curves instead of angles. At the point where you propel yourself upward, your right foot should be to the right and your left foot to the left, right foot is usually a bit higher than the left during a dual-line footlock, shallow curve in the rope[s}. If you want to 'lift the rope, this is done with the left foot, lifting the rope upward so your feet are even in height, big toe to big toe, and heel to heel with the rope lacing down, over, and down. Or you can go left foot even higher, stepping on top of the right foot for a deep, exaggerated S. This last 'extended version' would be like on 11 mm, single line and on a wet rope.
A paired , dual rope, with a handled dual ascender, easy peazy. SRT, the same with a little more attention to detail.
Did this help you Moosehead? Tanner?
