The Yin Yang Drill

The Yin Yang drill is another classic drill that forces climbers to concentrate on how and where they derive their movement forces from. The athlete climbs a problem or sequence three times. The first time they generate all their movement from below the waist, driving and pulling with their feet and legs and only holding onto the wall with their hands and arms, not pulling. The second time they generate all their movement from above the waist with their arms and trunk, trying not to press with their legs. The third time is a combination of these two styles.

It can often take a number of sessions for this drill to really sink in with athletes as it requires a lot of concentration and involves them dividing two means of power generation that for many have always worked simultaneously, never separately. With repetition though this is a very powerful tool for climbers as it inherently creates a tremendous amount of body awareness.

I like to start climbers out on problems that are 8-12 moves long, vertically oriented (no traversing), and are gently overhung ~20˚. Climbing that trends too far to one side or the other can prove extremely difficult with this drill, particularly on lower angle terrain. As the wall angle gets steeper, problems that veer to the side become more manageable. I typically program this drill for up to 8-10 sessions over the course of a training cycle.

Many climbers find that the first couple times practicing this drill they struggle isolating legs from arms. Within a few sessions many athletes notice that they gravitate towards one method versus than the other. Again though with continued practice and repetition the two styles start to make more sense independent of one another.

I particularly like this drill for anyone wanting to work on steep climbing, 45˚ or steeper. Learning how to generate movement and power with our legs on really steep terrain isn’t usually our first instinct but it’s a very powerful tool to have in the arsenal.

Keep this drill in the 20%-40% intensity range to begin with and slowly increase the intensity either in the difficulty of problem or steepness. Adjustable boards such as a Tension board or systems wall can be really great tools to practice this on as well.