Basic technique

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Footlock

With a footlock you use your feet to stand on the rope and get the weight off your arms. With a good footlock you don’t even need your arms.

1. Grab the rope as high as possible.
2. Bring one of your knees to the outside of the rope and the foot of that same leg to the inside of the rope.
3. Now hang on the rope with straight arms and use your ‘free’ foot to spin the rope around the other foot.
4. If you want to put down a successive footlock, straighten the legs and start again from step 1.

Tips:

• The usual way of attaining more grip is to turn the lower foot so that the sole of your shoe is verical.
• An other way to attain more grip is to push the heel of your feet towards each other if you have your feet on top of each other.

 

Swingover

At a regular swingover you have to get over a horizontal beam to which a rope is attached.

1. Go up using a footlock.
2. Put the beam in your armpits and place another high footlock if necessary.
3. Push yourself onto the beam by straighten the legs and pushing down with the arms.
4. Grab the rope with one hand and make sure your thumb is pointing upwards.
5. Wrap your other arm around the beam.
6. Roll over the beam and place another footlock.

Tips:

• If you don’t entirely trust your arms, you can also roll over the beam sideways leaving one leg on the other end
• To get your footlock higher, rotate your knees outwards.

 

Tarzanswing

The tarzanswing is an obstacle where multiple vertical ropes are hanging side by side and you have to make your way from the first to the last rope.

1. Do a footlock in the first rope.
2. Stand on the footlock and grab the next rope.
3. Release your footlock and place one in the next rope.
4. Pull with your last hand to create a swing and grab the next rope with your front hand.

Tips:

• Make sure your arms are fully extended when putting down the footlocks to conserve your strength.
• Use the swing you create to easily reach the next rope.
• If the distance between the rope is large:
  • Use your hind hand to pull at the previous rope a few times and really create a swing.
  • Make sure that your footlock is towards the lower end of the rope.
• Place the footlock on your hind foot, otherwise you’ll end up fighting the ropes:

The proper way:

The not so proper way:

 

Apenhang (“Monkey hang”)

Apenhang is moving across a horizontal rope while hanging from it.

1. Hang from the rope on your arms and legs.
2. Release an arm and the opposite leg.
3. Reach out as far as you can with your ‘free’ hand and grab the rope, at the same time place the calf of your ‘free’ leg as close to your other hand as possible.
4. Now do the same for the other hand and leg; rinse, repeat.

Tips:

• First practice it slowly and in an exaggerated way to get the technique down as shown above.
• Make long strides.
• Place the rope low on your calf or even on your heel, not at the back of your knee.