What jumpuphigh said. There are times when your arms will naturally bend to "take up slack", as you say, and there will also be plenty of times when you need to pull with your arms.
But especially on overhangs, it's much easier to hang off straight arms as much as possible, and use body position to enable yourself to move up -- things like twisting side-on to the wall and counter-balancing yourself with a foot, which puts one shoulder next to the wall and means you can suddenly reach much higher with that arm.
(This is really hard to explain without a visual aid ...)
When you're on a vertical wall, you don't have to cling on like a bushbaby: it'll feel like you want to flatten yourself as close to the wall as possible, but you mostly don't need to. If your hips are over your feet, you can lean your upper body back quite a bit -- you'll often see climbers hold on with one hand and do this to shake the other arm out.
On a slab (where it's less than vertical), trying to press yourself against the wall will actually make your feet skid back off the holds; you need to hold yourself away from the wall so your centre of gravity stays over your feet.
I keep failing at writing up reviews, but my great technique bibles are The Self-Coached Climber by Dan Hague and Douglas Hunter, and the Neil Gresham Masterclass DVD.
There are also lots of short free technique videos at Mountainzone, which I remember finding useful.
no subject
But especially on overhangs, it's much easier to hang off straight arms as much as possible, and use body position to enable yourself to move up -- things like twisting side-on to the wall and counter-balancing yourself with a foot, which puts one shoulder next to the wall and means you can suddenly reach much higher with that arm.
(This is really hard to explain without a visual aid ...)
When you're on a vertical wall, you don't have to cling on like a bushbaby: it'll feel like you want to flatten yourself as close to the wall as possible, but you mostly don't need to. If your hips are over your feet, you can lean your upper body back quite a bit -- you'll often see climbers hold on with one hand and do this to shake the other arm out.
On a slab (where it's less than vertical), trying to press yourself against the wall will actually make your feet skid back off the holds; you need to hold yourself away from the wall so your centre of gravity stays over your feet.
I keep failing at writing up reviews, but my great technique bibles are The Self-Coached Climber by Dan Hague and Douglas Hunter, and the Neil Gresham Masterclass DVD.
There are also lots of short free technique videos at Mountainzone, which I remember finding useful.