Has the Moonboard helped your outdoor climbing

[erk]

I'm curious if people climbing V8 and/or 5.13 and up have had any success with the Moonboard.

There is a lot of hype around Moonboarding these days. There's no doubt it's an awesome idea and super fun. However, I've spent two season training on it and had limited results.

My best seasons have all come from when I spent my power phase bouldering outside.
This is what Mark says we should try and replicate when practicing in the gym.

Mark's post about limit bouldering

It seems like the only similarity between Moonboard problems and Mark's limit BPs is that they are short and dynamic.

Otherwise a lot of Moonboard problems aren't realistic for a lot of outdoor climbing in that it's too steep and the holds are too good.


What are your thoughts?

[suprcrmpr]

I think you have all the info you need. If it hasn't worked in two seasons, it's time to do something else.

If you have the opportunity to go bouldering outdoors for training you are very fortunate.
I'd choose outdoor bouldering over moonboarding every time.

[tetrault]

Have not been able to use one, but, as you pretty much said, wouldn’t the value of the board be proportional to how similar your goals are to the style of moonboard routes?

[avaserfi]

Right now I spend most of my time outside bouldering. I've found the Moonboard useful for specific skills. I tend to like moving statically an in control, the Moonboard helps me cultivate a more aggressive and dynamic style of climbing which is a great benefit when I get outside. I've also noticed the Moonboard highlights certain areas my flexibility is lacking. I wouldn't use it a sole source for limit boulders, but in addition to more realistic problems.

[tsh]

Late to this thread, but maybe this will be useful to somebody considering training on a moonboard or something similar. I’ve had good success using the moonboard for most of my “hard bouldering” and “limit bouldering” workouts in combination with the campus board and outdoor bouldering per the rctm power phase. The outdoor sessions have been a rewarding component of the power phase because I'm sending hard grades much more quickly than before and it's super motivating to be outside "training" on classic boulder problems, but I think that the other workouts on the moon and campus boards are responsible for the gains in power that I've seen. They have helped me track progress and train power more systematically, and have the benefits of time efficiency, skin friendliness, etc., that indoor climbing offers.

I would disagree that the moonboard holds are too good, at least on the 2016 set up, unless you climb mostly vertical. Most of the original/yellow holds are very small in my opinion, especially for how steep it is, and you get pretty good variety of sizes with the A and B hold sets that allows for the really big powerful moves. I’ve only briefly inspected the new Masters set up at a nearby gym. It seems to have bigger holds on average and perhaps allows for more variety on the easy end of the grade spectrum. I have the moonboard and campus board at home, but if I were training at a gym that has a moonboard, I would probably do the wbl’s and “hard bouldering” on the regular bouldering walls, and do all of my “limit bouldering” on the moonboard so that I could continue to project those problems longer-term. Here are the pros and cons of the moonboard as I see it:
Pros:
-Big powerful moves close to the ground for limit bouldering
-Benchmark consensus-graded problems can be useful for tracking progress. But I have to admit that sometimes the moonboard grades are pretty outrageous.
-I think there’s value in practicing moves set by other people. With my own setting, I think I’d be more likely to create moves that fit with my strengths. There is no shortage of creative and awkward (or not my style) moves on the moonboard which I would never have thought of.
-The problems aren’t going anywhere (as opposed to a gym bouldering wall that gets re-set) so I can project the really hard limit boulder problems over the course of seasons if desired.
-Slightly off topic, but it's been effective for power endurance training at 5.13 level. I primarily do linked bouldering circuits for PE and I added some mini jugs in between to help with the downclimbs. And I can always go back to the same circuit to compare progress in later seasons.

Cons:
-The problems are pretty sparse on feet. More often than not, it's a big high step to a big foothold, so it is very lacking with regard to practicing footwork.
-Most of the holds are pinch-able, making the moves less core-intensive than they could be. I suppose I could just make it a point to avoid pinching to better train body tension, but I haven't been doing that.
-Only one angle of 40 degrees. Steeper than average outdoor climbs so it's not as specific. However, I haven't noticed any glaring weaknesses when I get on other less-steep walls.
-Not symmetrical. If money weren’t an issue, I’d probably swap my holds for the Tension board set up so that I could train right and left equally.

[jetjackson]

I prioritise limit bouldering and power training into;

1. Boulder outside
2. Moonboard
3. Campus board

I'll do whatever my schedule and availability of training facility will let me based on that order.

I feel moonboard>campus board so far, after using it for 2 seasons. Also, it's more fun, and if I'm having more fun, I find I can train harder.

[jetjackson]

Feb 25, 2018 22:05:27 GMT -7 tsh said:

-Most of the holds are pinch-able, making the moves less core-intensive than they could be. I suppose I could just make it a point to avoid pinching to better train body tension, but I haven't been doing that.

You find those holds pinchable!?

There are some gym holds that I can pinch my way through, ones that may have been inteded as 2F pockets etc. but no way am I pinching any holds on the moonboard that were not intended to be pinched - not at this stage of my climbing anyway.

I would have though if you can pinch those holds, then you can probably pinch your way through problems outside where others couldn't and you probably deserve the core savings that you glean as a result

[tsh]

Feb 26, 2018 3:59:19 GMT -7 jetjackson said:

I would have though if you can pinch those holds, then you can probably pinch your way through problems outside where others couldn't and you probably deserve the core savings that you glean as a result

Haha now I can see what I wrote was a little misleading.  I didn't mean that I can use most of the holds primarily as pinches, but just that it seems a majority of the holds (including many of the small crimps) have an opposing edge or surface that is use-able enough to get some purchase with my thumb, even though I'm using them primarily as edges.  So on average they tend to be more pinch-able than the ideal limit boulder holds that Mark described in his article.  To be more fair to the Moonboard, it does have several holds that aren't pinch-able at all, and there's no shortage of core intensive problems.

[jetjackson]

Ahh yes, I think I get you.

I think the problem for me with that, would be that bringing my thumb up to the edge would transition my grip from open handed to half or full crimp, and there is an associated risk with that.

[scojo]

I think the new setup really broadens the range of hold style/difficulty. The big red holds (apples?) are clearly quite large and most of them are easy to use (also in regards to the hold angles/positivity). The wooden holds are the most difficult to use (at least for me). Unlike the resin holds, they're generally quite rounded requiring much more precision and nuance. Most of the problems within my project grade range don't use the wooden holds.

Especially if you climb at a gym (and don't have your own wall that you can set), the moonboard is very valuable IMO. Here are the main points for me:

- It doesn't go away every month
- Much shorter, more powerful than most gym boulder problems
- Low to the ground, easy to work individual moves
- ease of use (can add your target problems to a list before heading to the gym and flip through them as needed during your session)

Isn't there a 20 degree setup now? Has anyone used it? My feeling is that the holds are generally too good to make many hard enough problems at that angle.