Climbing Techniques — Treetop Trouble

The Foundation

Three-Point Contact

This is the single most important rule in tree climbing, and it's simple enough for a five-year-old to internalize: at all times, three of your four limbs should be in contact with the tree. Two hands and one foot. Two feet and one hand. Only one limb moves at a time.

The reason is physics. With three solid contact points, your center of gravity stays inside your base of support. If one hand slips or a foot slides, you still have two points holding you. Move two limbs at once, and a single slip means a fall.

Make it a game at first. Call out the contact points: "Right hand on the branch, left hand on the trunk, right foot on the knot — okay, move your left foot up." Within a few sessions, kids do this automatically, like checking mirrors while driving becomes second nature for adults.

💡 The Ladder Analogy

Tell kids to think of a tree like a ladder with irregular rungs. You wouldn't climb a ladder by grabbing both hands up at the same time. A tree works the same way — it's just a more interesting ladder.

Before You Commit

Testing Branches

Every branch is a question mark until you test it. Teach the "press, then step" method:

Press first. While holding on securely with your other three points, push down on the target branch with your hand or foot. Apply gradual pressure. You're feeling for flex, listening for sound, and watching for movement at the junction with the trunk.

Listen. A healthy branch under load is silent or makes a slight woody groan. Cracking, snapping, or popping sounds mean stop immediately.

Step gingerly. Transfer weight slowly. Keep most of your weight on your established contact points as you gradually load the new branch. Only commit fully when you're confident it's holding firm.

Body Position

Staying Centered

The instinct for most new climbers is to hug the trunk. It feels safe, but it actually reduces stability by forcing your feet out at an angle and your hands into a grip that's hard to maintain. Instead, teach kids to keep their hips close to the trunk — but with arms somewhat extended.

Think of it like this: feet close to the trunk for stability, hands gripping branches or the trunk at chest to shoulder height, hips underneath your center of mass. Avoid reaching too far above your head — if you're fully extended, you have no leverage to pull yourself up if a foot slips.

One common mistake: stepping on the top of a branch instead of hooking the arch of the foot over it. Flat-footing a branch works on wide limbs but fails on anything narrower. Teach kids to hook their foot so the branch sits in the arch, like resting your foot on a rung.

The Hard Part

Getting Down

Every experienced climbing instructor will tell you the same thing: going up is the easy part. Coming down is where most injuries happen, and here's why. When climbing up, you can see your next handhold and foothold. When descending, your body blocks your view of what's below. You're reaching blindly for branches you could see clearly two minutes ago.

The solution is to teach descent technique separately from ascent. Practice climbing down from low heights before ever going higher. Key principles:

👀
Face the tree. Always descend facing the trunk, not facing outward. This gives you the best grip and lets you see your footholds by looking down past your body.
🦶
Feet first. Lower your feet to the next branch before moving your hands. This is the opposite of climbing up (where hands lead). Your legs are stronger than your arms and better at absorbing the shock of stepping down.
🐌
Slower than going up. Deliberately slow down. The adrenaline of wanting to be back on the ground makes kids rush. Rushing leads to missed footholds.
🚫
Never jump. Even from what looks like a short height. The ground around trees is often uneven, with roots and rocks. An ankle sprain from a four-foot jump is the most common tree climbing injury. Climb all the way down to where you can step off.