Skate

A Skate is a foot coordination move where the climber runs, shuffles, or otherwise steps their feet dynamically across the wall. Skates are an extremely popular competition move, and are often combined with other movements to add complexity. 

Setup

Start the climber on incut holds to allow them to generate momentum, with comfortable feet for swinging sideways. The simplest feet to provide for Skate moves are volumes, but certain types of slopers or rounded fiberglass may work just as well. The feet should be low-profile enough to suggest the climber move across them dynamically, but high-profile enough to support meaningful horizontal movement. Ensure the feet are appropriately high off the ground to give the climber room for swinging and running. The target hold or position should be far enough away from the start such that the climber can’t statically reach it, but also close enough so the climber doesn’t fall out of the wall by the time they arrive.

Tweaks

Because Skate moves are largely foot coordination, much of the difficulty comes from the quality of the feet. A low-profile, upward-tilted volume will be much harder to run across than a higher-profile volume parallel to the ground. Having the climber gain vertical distance as opposed to merely horizontal distance is another way to introduce difficulty. The starting position can also be made more strenuous or awkward, and as stated in the Combinations section, the target position can become another coordination move to add complexity.

Combinations

With the Skate move’s growing ubiquity, it has become very common to change the target hold/position to something more complex than a comfortable hold. Skate moves can lead into Redirects, Palm-Presses, Tobinators, Toehook Catches, and many more coordination moves as well as more nuanced positions.