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Smearing drill

6-8 easy slab or vertical boulders, 2 times each, smearing instead of using footholds.

Slot
On the wall
Focus
Technique
Time
20 min
Intensity
Low
Injury risk
Low
Intervals
12 rounds
Equipment
Boulders, Slab vertical

How to do it

Smearing is pressing the sole of your shoe flat against the wall where there's no foothold, using friction. On easy slab or vertical boulders, use the handholds as normal but skip the footholds and put your feet on blank wall instead. Drop your heels, press the ball of your foot into the wall, and keep your hips away from the wall so your weight pushes into your feet. Climb 6-8 boulders, 2 times each.

Who it’s for

Slab climbers, and anyone who only trusts their feet when there’s an obvious foothold. Friction works better than most people believe, and the only way to learn that is to use it.

Common mistakes

  • Hips into the wall. Keep them out, over your feet. Leaning in is what makes smears slip and it’s the instinct everyone has.
  • Heel too high. Drop the heel. It puts more rubber on the wall and it’s the opposite of what panic tells you to do.
  • Choosing steep terrain. Slab and vertical. Smearing on an overhang is a different skill.
  • Moving fast. Slow and deliberate. A smear fails when you change weight suddenly.

How to progress

Steeper slabs, then blanker sections, then vertical walls. Doing it in old, soft shoes is harder, which makes it better training and worse climbing.

When it fits

The training periods this exercise fits into in Blok Sessions.

  • Base Lots of easy climbing, good movement and aerobic fitness.
  • Strength Stronger fingers and pulling, with weight you control.
  • Power Explosive moves, momentum and coordination.
  • Power Endurance Keep your power through one hard move after another.
  • Performance Peak for a trip or a comp: focus, reading problems, trying hard.
  • Deload Train less, let your fingers recover, keep moving.

Start with a ready-made block

A six-week strength plan with a deload, as a file for the app, and seven short emails on how to run it.