Flags can be used on walls from overhanging to vertical, on slab walls the flag stops becoming as effective. The flag is used in its simplest form to keep the body in controlled balance whilst moving between holds. It is therefore very important to get your flag right as to climb effectively. We still haven't answered the question though, what is a flag?
All flags can be practiced whilst stood on one leg, lets say the left. Now follow this chain, touch the floor to your left, did your right leg raise? see how far out to your left to really exaggerate this action. Now touch the floor to your right, I bet your leg swung behind you. These are our first two flags, open and closed outside in order of appearance. There is a third, closed inside, trickier and more unnatural on the floor but elegant on the wall, to demo this stay on your left leg and again touch the floor to your right but this time make the right leg go in front of the left.
So there we go 3 flags, open, closed inside and closed outside. But there is more to it that this, whilst stood on the wall you have two choices to make before applying these flags. does the foot get placed on a foot hold on the same side or the opposite side to the center of gravity (COG)?
For example, the left foot is put on the left hand side of the COG, this is a same side placement. So by deduction if the left foot is placed on the right hand side of the COG this is an opposite placement.
So in total their are 6 different flags, each has its own character, pros and cons. The only way to know which one to use is to practice each one and experiment with it.
To start with practice in a controlled environment where each move is easily repeatable, an ideal set up is with foot holds below a finger board in a triangle shape, one low base hold and two higher holds to make the flags. here is a quick set up I have and an example of the flags.
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/62938522?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=c9ff23" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/62938522">6 Falgs</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user17370478">Eddy</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
or if that hasn't worked (cheers for changing your embedding vimeo...) try this. Its just a quick vid I threw together as a demo. the flags to note are same open, closed outside, closed inside and opposite open, the other two (opposite closed inside and closed outside) are just included to show the 6 possible flags.
