Most climbers train fingers. Quite a few train pulling strength. Some train endurance. Almost nobody trains movement with the same deliberateness.

That's a problem, because tension and footwork are where the biggest gains live for the majority of climbers. You can campus your way through V6, maybe V7. Past that, the climbers who progress are the ones whose feet stay on, whose hips stay close, and whose body tension doesn't leak out of every move.

We wanted to add structured movement drills to Crimpd, but we didn't want to do it ourselves. We wanted someone who coaches this stuff at an elite level. That's how we ended up working with Charlie Schreiber.

Charlie and Paradigm Climbing

Charlie has been coaching climbers since 2010 — not part-time, not as a side project. Coaching is the thing. His athletes include Youth and Open National Champions, World Cup Top 10 finishers, 5.14d sport climbers, and V17 boulderers. What makes his coaching distinctive is the focus on movement quality: how you use your feet, how you create and maintain tension through your body, and how you sequence movement so that strength isn't wasted.

He runs Paradigm Climbing, which offers coaching and a community of climbers built around shared knowledge and progression.

What we've added

A new playlist called Tension & Movement Drills — six workouts specifically designed to improve how you move on the wall. Each one targets a different aspect of movement quality:

Tension Project — You create a custom boulder with moves that punish you for losing foot engagement. The drill trains your body to pre-load tension through the lower body before you reach. Open-hand positions only, to prevent overgripping.

Footwork Project — Targets the techniques most climbers actively avoid: hand-heel hooks, foot compression, deep dropknees, inverted heel hooks. You design a boulder using 2+ of these techniques and practice until it feels controlled, not just sent.

Tension Activation — A regression-progression drill for the common problem of cutting feet on extended reaches. You set up a move where your foot cuts, then shorten the reach until it doesn't, and gradually work back to the original distance.

Tension Trainers — Three custom boulders on steep terrain at escalating difficulty, each requiring sustained toe engagement. Repeat weekly until they feel easy, then make harder versions.

Max Velocity Deadpoints — Explosive power work on steep boards (Moon/Tension at 35–45°). Leg-driven movement, starting matched on a jug, driving through to near-maximum span. Short session — you stop the moment speed drops.

Heel Trainers — Three progressive boulders built entirely around heel hooks at varying distances and angles. Like the tension trainers, you repeat weekly and progress when mastered.

Every workout follows the same pattern: you create the problem yourself, at your level, using specific constraints that force the movement pattern Charlie wants you to practice. The drills grow with you because you're always building at your current limit.

Free (as in beer)

The entire playlist is free. No subscription required. We think movement drills are the kind of training content that should be accessible to everyone, and Charlie agreed.

The workouts are available now on both the web and mobile versions of Crimpd. Open the app, find the Tension & Movement Drills playlist, and start with whichever drill targets your weakest area. If your feet cut on steep terrain, Tension Activation and Tension Trainers are good starting points. If your footwork vocabulary is limited to edging and smearing, start with Footwork Project.

Work with Charlie

If the workouts click and you want to go deeper, Charlie's community is worth checking out.

His Discord (The Crux Collective) is free to join and includes technical analysis videos, live Q&As, educational resources, and forums. A paid membership gives you access to an expanded video library of movement analysis and technique education, plus a community for organizing meetups and sharing beta.

You can find Charlie & Paradigm Climbing on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, or visit paradigmclimbing.com to learn about their coaching.

Workout videos filmed and edited by Dylan Hickerson.

-pk