Speed Climbing Techniques : The Vaichekowski

If you were almost 2 meters tall, how many holds would you skip? That might be the question Evgenii Vaichekowsky asked himself in 2012.

To lower your times on the speed climbing wall, there are several strategies you can adopt. One of them is to improve strength and speed, but another is to change the technique on the wall.

Evgenii Vaitcekhovskii was the first climber to think in an alternative way and revolutionized the speed sequence.

He's almost 2 meters of height (sorry Americans 6’5”) allowed him to be able to avoid the use of some holds: the initial jump is the same as the basic technique (two hands on the 3), but the left foot goes directly to the last foot hold, avoiding a transition. Then left hand on the 4 and the right hand goes directly to the 6 while the left foot goes to the 4.

This reduces the lateral shift to the right after the first two movements and allows you to stay “on your lane”.

The use of this technique at first glance may seem slower, in fact, athletes using it opt for long and "slow" movements instead of quick but short movements, but its potential was expressed when Evgenii first went under 6 seconds for the first time in the Speed Climbing History in 2012 with this technique.

Here the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSD8uPn7-IA and yes, there were still ropes to belay the athletes!

Now the fastest athletes to use this technique is Bassa Mawem that have written the history of speed climbing with his Olympic Record Run at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 with the time of 5.45".

Have you ever tried this technique? What do you think about it?

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