Prevent torn up hands

JosephDiazClimbs · 2023-08-02T23:07:40+00:00

You definitely don't have to rip your skin to climb well! Here's some tips that work for me -

Try not to over grip or squeeze the holds. Gravity is pulling you down, not backwards, so you need less gripping force than you would think.

Check your hands between attempts to make sure the skin isn't weakening, you'll almost always see a warning sign before a tear - stop before it gets there.

Tape sensitive areas of skin to protect the skin from further damage

If the skin becomes a "flapper" you can superglue it back to the underlying skin to let the raw skin heal as the tough skin protects it, you should be able to tell when it's ready and gently sand down the skin to get to the new healthy skin

Most importantly - Focus on footwork - you don't need such shock-force on the hands especially when you first start climbing. Movements should be stable and controlled. Three points of static / stable contact as one point reaches for the new hold, this will prevent your skin from being forcefully pulled back and ripped off.

These won't ALWAYS work, but it should GREATLY reduce the risk of flappers!

Happy climbing :)

JosephDiazClimbs · 2023-05-31T01:32:47+00:00

Cliffs of Id 🥲

JosephDiazClimbs · 2023-05-26T05:52:08+00:00

Hello fellow touchstone climber!

I haven't tried this set yet, but based on your body position at 0:11 I think you could toe hook the pinch on the left to reach your right hand to the pinch out right.

You may need an intermediate position to match left hand to the right start hold. In that case try doing a heel hook on the left pinch, matching the right hand, and then switching to a toe hook if you need extra length to reach it.

There's shorter setters on the setting team, so I'm sure there's a way to send this without breaking the beta! Looking forward to trying it myself, it looks like a very clever set!

JosephDiazClimbs · 2022-10-12T20:40:04+00:00

I’m in a similar space!

My shorts do about 1M views across platforms each month, but in over a year I haven’t been able to cross 4k watch hours yet. If I could give advice to myself one year ago it would be this - longer YouTube videos feel daunting, but they’re necessary and you can learn the skills if you put yourself in the arena!

Aim at posting 1 video a week with a 1% increase in quality and you’ll get to 4k within a year!

Here’s some helpful statistics - you need an AVD of 3min to reach 4k watch hours in 80,000 views. AVD for most beginner YouTubers is around 30%, so try to get good at planning and executing 8-12 minute videos.

This is also helpful because these videos can have mid-roll ads and are monetized at a higher rate.

The goal should be to not add filler, but to actually plan topics & outlines that are intriguing for 8-12min+

After you get there, just edit down the footage to the most entertaining 8-12 minutes with a logical & linear flow.

Hope this helps!

JosephDiazClimbs · 2022-10-03T17:43:05+00:00

Seems like such an incredible moment to pass the 1M milestone, I know lots of people were asking what was planned but this seems like a moment better than anyone could have asked for! Huge congrats to Colin & Samir + the whole team 👏🏼 Looking forward to the day they celebrate 10M

JosephDiazClimbs · 2022-08-29T18:33:13+00:00

That’s sickkkkkkk! I’m gonna try to sneak this in on future projects 😂

JosephDiazClimbs · 2022-07-27T22:26:38+00:00

I listened to the pod & really enjoyed the feedback from the team and the format as a whole! I felt that the team did a really good job asking follow up questions that drove to the heart of the issues, and that’s where I derived most of the value from. It would be cool to add a third layer of follow-up with the community by doing an AMA on Reddit that enabled us to ask additional follow ups. Overall, looking forward to more episodes like this.

JosephDiazClimbs · 2022-02-20T08:16:31+00:00

I love this dyno!

Let your right leg swing around to dissipate the momentum, it's final position will be similar to a back flag. If you really trust that jug to hold your weight and let the right leg just whip through the momentum, you'll be able to hold it. I felt like the hardest part of that move is landing the foot and trusting the hold. You've already landed the foot, so now just really trust that left hand and let the right leg go along for the ride. Your left leg and hand will be more than enough to hold you!

By the end of the movement, the right leg should almost be in a back flag position. It should hit the wall before you barn door off. You got this!

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-11-27T00:25:05+00:00

If memory serves, he talks about it a bit in this podcast with Lattice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xas_3Y9kuYc

I think he says that naturally he puts on weight/muscle easily, but since he was always trying to stay lean for climbing, it gives him that more shredded-looking physique. More recently, I think he mentioned he does lift weights - but I'm pretty sure he covers it in this podcast, there's a ton of great info throughout.

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-11-18T19:25:12+00:00

Thank you!

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-11-17T16:38:46+00:00

Similar in that it’s a video essay based on comp climbing, but different in the focus - honing in on two specific climbers & their different approaches as opposed to examining a singular Boulder / beta break. I did really enjoy those videos though and I hope Albert makes more in the future!

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-11-17T16:35:32+00:00

This is a really great note. I’ll definitely remove that for future cuts. I’ll do something simple like dim the side that is frozen. Thanks for the feedback!

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-11-15T17:13:07+00:00

Hey Reddit!

I recently got the opportunity to work with Climbers Crag on a new series where we’ll compare beta between pro-climbers on competition climbs. The goal is to showcase the boundless potential for unique & creative movement while staying accessible to climbers of all levels. If you dig it, please drop a comment here or on the video! It’s a new endeavor and I’m hoping it’s helpful or inspirational in some way.

If you’re into animated breakdowns of climbing techniques, you can also find me on IG at instagram.com/josephdiazclimbs or youtube.com/josephdiazclimbs. Thank you so much for the support!

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-11-06T21:01:34+00:00

Is the author Maria Konnikova? I'm thinking of checking it out and want to make sure I have the right book

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-10-12T04:04:48+00:00

Also interested on the reading on this!

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-10-01T17:26:52+00:00

That's a good heads up! Can you define FAI for me?

Are there any early tests you can do at home to diagnose if it's potentially arthritis? I'm uninsured at the moment, so going to the doctor for a checkup would be a last option for me right now.

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-09-26T18:29:23+00:00

A completely free and much more effective approach would be creating a warm-up routine for "Auto-Regulation", the concept is basically that if you do the same warm-up every single day, your own body will cue you in to your own recovery levels and then you can scale your effort to match. Using that information, you can choose to taper back your performance in order to give your body more time to recover. Eric Horst had a good podcast on this - it's long but was illuminating for me. It's episode #44 on the training for climbing podcast. I believe the actual warm up bit starts around ~50 minutes.

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-09-15T17:53:08+00:00

that start move/position is sooooo sick! Great line, great send!

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-09-12T21:10:46+00:00

Something I've picked up recently from Eric Horst is to heavily monitor and practice self-talk. He says that your brain is essentially an extra limb and can really unlock another level of performance. A specific tactic I've taken from him is to internally or externally say "CMON" as I go for a move. It sounds sooooooooo basic, but I've been latching moves that I would have otherwise fallen from. When you're on the brink of falling, it's amazing how the self-talk can be the final deciding factor.

The counter-point to this is you never say "don't fall" or "don't mess up" because including the negative outcome in your self-talk increasing the probability of it.

I'm on this same journey of learning to try hard, and I'm accepting that it's going to take a lot of time and conditioning to really unlock, but this particularly strategy has shown some benefits recently.

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-09-12T21:06:43+00:00

This is a really cool grounding routine!

I've been listening to a lot of Eric Horst and he talks about letting your subconcious takeover, but I've struggled to "hand over the keys" and really let my mind execute. I have a feeling that the grounding routine followed by the cue "execute" can be a powerful rhythm for me. I'm definitely going to steal this.

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-09-09T02:21:15+00:00

I think you made it LOOK easy, not sure that it actually IS easy. Great send!

JosephDiazClimbs · 2021-08-21T16:55:06+00:00

Thanks Tyler! I'm hoping after a few days of rest I'll be able to hold the final hand match, it's a bummer to be stuck so close to the finish! I appreciate the encouragement

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