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Source: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/14685
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

<p>I'm working on a problem in bouldering where the swinging of my feet take the grip away from my fingers and throw me off.</p>

<p>Specifically, I am in a bat-hang, and need to reach an edge hold about 3.5 ft. away from my hand's current hold. I cannot reach this edge without my feet slipping off. But of course, when my feet do slip, even when I manage to grab the next edge, the swing of my legs inevitably throws me off from the other side.</p>

<p>I can include a photo to show what I'm doing, but I mean to ask a general question:</p>

<p><strong>What are some things I can do to minimize that swing?</strong></p>

<p>I saw several others doing the same problem, release one foot from the bat-hang and bring their knee to their chest, as if to compact. I see that this reduces mass at the outer radius of my body being accelerated by gravity.</p>

<p>Is there anything else I can do? I tried slowly slipping my last foot off the bat-hang, but that's only reducing the foot's fall by a few inches (while destroying the top of my shoes).</p>

<p><hr></p>

<h2>Edit</h2>

<p>Here are some photos of the specific problem I'm working on. But I've had the same question in other problems, anywhere where the feet come off while reaching for a hold.</p>

<p>Here's the starting position of a bat-hang, then how my legs swing after release and finally how I swing off the edge holds due to the swing:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/WEqw0.jpg" width="200" />
<img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/lkFaG.jpg" width="200" />
<img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/qbdLO.jpg" width="200" /></p>

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