How to Improve Your Dynos: 3 Key Principles Every Climber Should Know

Introduction

Dynos can look like nothing more than jumping from one hold to another, but there's far more to them than meets the eye. Behind every dyno is a combination of timing, coordination, body positioning, and power. While strength certainly helps, refining your technique is often the fastest way to become more consistent and confident on dynamic moves.

In this article, we'll explore three principles that will help you improve your dyno technique faster. Whether you're struggling to stick your first dyno or looking to push your grade, these concepts will help you get there.

Master the Movement

It's easy to think that dynos are all about power, and while power is certainly an important part of dynamic climbing, all the power in the world is wasted if your movement pattern is inefficient.

One of the biggest misconceptions about dynos is that the answer is always to pull harder or jump more explosively. In reality, climbers often make much greater improvements by focusing on how their body moves and the timing of each phase of the movement.

By refining your body position, coordination, and timing, you can transfer force much more efficiently into the wall and towards the target hold. This will usually have a far greater impact on your ability to cover the distance and latch the hold than simply throwing yourself at the move.

Think of power as an amplifier: good technique allows you to make the most of the strength and power you already have, while poor technique wastes it.

Top Tips

1. Slow the movement down

You don't need to give every dyno 100% effort. Slowing the movement down makes it much easier to understand where you're generating force, how your body is moving, and where things are going wrong. Once you've refined the movement pattern at a lower intensity, you can gradually build back up to full speed.

2. Film your attempts

Filming your climbing is one of the simplest and most effective ways to improve your technique. It's incredibly difficult to accurately judge your own movement while you're in the middle of a dyno, so video gives you an objective view of what actually happened. Watch your attempts back, identify areas for improvement, make one adjustment, and repeat.

3. Make investigative attempts

Not every attempt needs to be a send attempt. If you're always trying your hardest to complete the move, you'll often miss opportunities to learn. Instead, dedicate some attempts to experimenting. Try different footholds, vary your body position, change which hand leads the movement, or adjust your timing. Treat each attempt as an experiment, and you'll often improve much faster than if you simply throw yourself at the dyno repeatedly.

Building Confidence

Confidence is one of the most important aspects of successful dynos. Dynos demand complete commitment, if you hesitate or hold back during the movement, you're far less likely to reach the target hold. More often than not, failed dynos aren't caused by a lack of strength, but by a lack of commitment.

The good news is that confidence can be developed. Start with dynos that feel well within your ability and gradually increase the difficulty as you become more comfortable. Every successful attempt reinforces good movement patterns and helps build trust in both your technique and your ability to execute dynos.

It's also important to remember that confidence comes from preparation. The more you practise your technique, understand how your body moves, and expose yourself to a variety of dynos, the more natural committing to the movement will feel. Over time, what once felt intimidating will become just another move in your climbing toolkit.

Top Tips

1. Start small

You don't have to begin with the biggest dyno in the gym. Instead, create your own dynos at a level you're comfortable with and gradually increase the commitment. As your confidence grows, make the dynos slightly bigger, further, or more complex. Small, consistent progress will build confidence much more effectively than repeatedly attempting moves that feel out of reach.

2. Use drills

Drills aren't just for improving technique, they're also a great way to build confidence. Exercises such as eliminates, double catches, and French starts allow you to practise committing to dynamic movement in a controlled environment. As these movements become more familiar, committing to harder dynos will start to feel much more natural. If you're unfamiliar with these drills, check out our Beginner's Guide to Dynos to learn more.

3. Know your landing

Feeling confident about the landing is an important part of committing to a dyno. Before you jump, make sure the pads are positioned correctly, understand how you'll land if you miss, and, if you're climbing outdoors, ensure your spotters know exactly what to do. Removing uncertainty about the landing allows you to focus entirely on executing the movement, rather than worrying about the consequences of falling.

Accept Failure

Learning to accept failure is an essential part of climbing, and it's even more important when it comes to dynos. Dynos are inherently low percentage, meaning you're likely to miss them far more often than you stick them. That's completely normal and should be expected.

Unlike longer climbs, where you can still make progress by linking moves together or improving your efficiency on individual sections, a dyno often comes down to a single movement. If you miss the catch, the attempt is over. That can make failure feel more frequent and more frustrating.

Instead of viewing a failed attempt as a setback, treat it as feedback. Every miss gives you valuable information about your timing, body position, coordination, or commitment. The climbers who improve the fastest aren't the ones who never fail, they're the ones who learn something from every attempt.

Top Tips

1. Redefine success

Don't judge an attempt solely by whether you stuck the dyno. Success can also mean generating more height, improving your timing, or committing more than you did on the previous attempt. By measuring progress instead of sends, you'll stay motivated and improve faster.

2. Learn from every miss

Every failed dyno tells you something. Did you jump too early? Were your hips too far from the wall? Did you hesitate before takeoff? Instead of immediately trying again, take a few seconds to identify one thing you could change on the next attempt. Treat every fall as valuable feedback.

3. Embrace repetition

Dynos often require dozens of attempts before everything clicks. Don't be discouraged if you don't stick the move straight away, repetition is how your brain develops the timing, coordination, and confidence needed for dynamic climbing. Every attempt, successful or not, is building experience.

Ready to Take Your Dynos to the Next Level?

Improving your dynos isn't about finding one magic technique, it's about consistently refining your movement, building confidence, and learning from every attempt. The more deliberate your practice, the faster you'll improve.

If you're serious about mastering dynamic climbing, Waddage Coaching can help. Every coaching plan is tailored to your strengths, weaknesses, and goals, with personalised training sessions, technique analysis, and ongoing support to help you improve faster than training alone.

Whether you're aiming to stick your first dyno or progress your dynamic movement, we're here to help.

Ready to start? Get in touch today and let's build a training plan that's designed around you.