Topic: Vertical Wall Run

[twitchkidd]

After spending some quality time with a beast of a wall the other day, I'd like to talk about the wall-run a bit.

Firstly, are more steps effective? I don't think so because there's more moving around after the initial push, which never produces anything more than a lump for me. It could be that my multi-step technique sucks though, so if you have any thoughts or technique tips, please enlighten me.

Secondly, how far away is the best place to take off from? And whether the dominant foot should be planting on the wall, whether both hands should be thrown up, what angle should the planting leg be at, and whether there should be any delay when you push off the wall. If you've clinically tested any of these, please post the results.

Any other thoughts are welcome ...

[Cliff Boz]

Well if you play Prince of Persia, then a solid 5 step vert wall run is best.

Seriously, though, I would suggest re-studying the wall run in UFF's fundamentals section. That and get a friend to watch you and make suggestions. Or to film yourself and see what goes wrong where if you're having trouble feeling your way through it. After each attempt, go through how it felt in your mind and analyze what just happened right and wrong, and then adjust.

[Ryan Ford]

You just need to experiment and find what works best for you. I have seen some people do better with 2 steps while other people prefer just 1 solid step. It is a technique with so many fine points to consider and just takes a lot of practice to reach your full potential.

[Asa]

Twitch is phenomenal at wall runs. Don't let his modesty fool you, this guy conquers walls twice his height.

As for wallruns, you can't just make a sweeping generalization about less steps or more steps. Each wall and situation is different, so each wallrun is unique. Also, as Demon said it varies from person to person.

An extremely beneficial technique is instead of thinking about running to the wall and then running up the wall (figure 1), perceive it as one continuous motion in your head (figure 2). I don't remember where I heard this concept before, but it is very useful and helped my wallruns tremendously.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

[twitchkidd]

almost twice my height ... workin on it ....

[Invisiblex]

well since we're on the subject i have a little question of my own

i was in boston last week and i was doing some wall runs by the aquarium
for some reason i would hit my knee against the wall on some of the runs
any suggestions on how to avoid that?

[Rafe]

I think whether more steps will actually help you or not depends on the grippyiness of the wall, your shoes, and if their is any slope. The more grip you can get on he wall the more you can use extra steps for extra height, on perfectly flat relatively smooth wall I don't theirs any point in that second step. The best wall run I have seen was by a couple of builders I know who two steped a 15 odd foot wall(I think its that tall what would you say Undaunted?)

[burn2k4]

i think a basic rule of thumb is you can only take as many steps as you can explode out of, you have to have grip to explode and as gravity works against you it becomes harder to continue moving up. i agree that no one technique will work best for everyone, practice makes perfect and you just have to practice what feels comfortable, dont try to change your technique into something that feels awkward, i really think your gut instinct and natural reactions will tell you what works best for you.

[twitchkidd]

to stop yourself from hitting th wall, lean back just a little bit in your run-up and use more force to push with at a higher angle.

how much does everyone lean back? reviewing a clip and i can't see too much difference between my tilt and normal walking tilt.

15 ft? that's quite tall.

[hardcoretraceur]

ive got the twice my height mark, working on adding another foot.

ive been thinking lately that it might be possible to hit with both feet at once and spring up the wall like a frog. i have had zero sucess with this, but im convinced it will work.

one solid step is all ive seen to be effective, but i think that its possible with some intense training to get a second full one in. with a full second step, you could get like 17 feet.

[Gearsighted]

Usually more than one step is counter-productive. Every subsequent step seems to push you more away from the wall. I've only had one wall run in two years where a second step was beneficial, and it's that HUGE wall in Georgetown University, where the second step keeps you airborn just enough to get that last little fingernails width of height to grab the top....that wall is insane.

As for the best place to take off, I've found that if I stand where I can lift my leg and lean foward slightly, placing it at hip level, that's just about right, but it really is a personal preference, you just have to find what works best for you.

[Altimot]

i usually just experiment a lot. I try things that seem uncomfortable at first but then you think, hey that was better then my other one.

[Tyson Cecka]

Faelcind that wall is not 15, and neither was the tree. Wall's prob about 12 I'll measure when I finally get it, not sure about the tree.

As far as steps I think it depends on fast you are going. I used to run really slow and do a two foot many handed scrambled. But now with better grip shoes and more confidence I run faster at the wall and explode off my first step, at that point your legs are actually rotating away from the wall while your hands are reaching and rotation toward the wall if that makes sense. Second step can be done to help control and get a bit more height but can't really explode off of it. You aren't really pushing down with your feet or they will slip, it's aat an angle.
oh and you can reach farther with one hand rather than two.

[Rafe]

I'd be interested to see the measurment Undaunted. Out of a run I can jump catch the top of ten foot walll, so I don't think 12 feet with a tap would be way out of my range, that wall seems way out of my range. 15 feet is probably bit high of guestimate it been awhile since I looked at the wall. What tree are you talking about?

[Prozac]

 When wall-running, you will only stick to a wall as long as your centre of mass (COM) is moving toward or away from it; as soon as you stop, you drop. When using a one-step technique, the leg on the wall first has to absorb the impact as the COM moves toward the wall, then it must push the body away.

 The vertical movement first comes from the jump from the floor. The leg makes contact with the ground, absorbs the impact, then pushes the body up from the floor. The step on the wall is the same thing; as the leg first makes contact with the wall, it starts absorbing the impact at an almost horizontal angle. Then, as the COM rises in relation to the foot on the wall, the angle gets steeper so that as the leg continues to absorb the movement toward the wall and then push away from it, the force is directed in an ever more downward dirction (making you go up!). The trick is to time your effort to generate the maximum explosive force from the leg on the wall at the steepest angle that the traction between your foot and the wall will allow.

 The difference with a two-step technique is that the first leg on the wall absorbs the impact as usual, but then the other leg contacts the wall and performs the away and upward movement. This technique can be used to good effect by those with one leg significantly more powerful than the other (which is a significant percentage of people) as it allows the favoured leg to perform both major explosive movements. It also has the advantage of allowing the push from the wall to be performed from a slightly higher position. The drawback is that more effort is spent messing about with feet on the wall intead of getting up the wall!

 Overall I have found that the best one to use varies with the individual, but I would recommend that both techniques are perfected so that you can make the best decision as to which one really works best for you.


 (By the way, I have made a point of travelling to meet several different people who claim 14 and 15foot wall-runs, and not a single one has ever actually been above the 12foot mark. Not that matters in the slightest, but if you want to know how high you can actually go, please measure accurately.)

[Invisiblex]

hmm, i think i might have the crew come over today and see if we can set something up for wall runs (some of you might know, i dont live in or near a city so the best we can do is use Eagle's woods and whatever we can find in town or at our houses as obstacles) but i think we could set up my picnic table on its side for this, not high at all but its better than nothing
and ill try leaning back more and see if i can avoid hitting my knee

EDIT:// i had Eagle come over and i got my wall run so im not hitting my knee
and i also got a nifty new vault out of a tic tac

[Rafe]

Tested out my passe murailles today at the gymn, chalked my hands and measured it like vertical jump, I was able to get up to 11 feet 4 inches. Which means I could probably grab the top of an eleven foot wall, 12 feet would be indeed be significantly out of my range. I think you got it right Undaunted, guess my memory exagerates more then i expected. 

[Flippusmn]

Don't know but what I do is jump from about legs length away from the wall and use both hands to push my body weight even hight then finally grabbing onto the wall unless, the wall is huge then I use my left hand to further push myself by pushing my hand against the wall upward. But one thing is that I have a very strong grip and can easily grab onto something with one hand. Just keep tring it untill you find a good technique for yourself.

[willgrind747]

personally, i use a 2 step wallrun technique, but wether you use 1, 2, or more, the one thing  i think is really crucial for the big walls , is committing to it. sometimes that means some serious hangtime with your face only inches from the bricks, but time and time again i find i will come sooo close to grasping the ledge, I will never get it until i throw both my arms up and go for it.

[twitchkidd]

willgrind, can you explain your technique? i think two steps has a lot of potential, but i really don't understand how to do it. thanks in advance