Feet on campusing

[boulderdaz]

Hi

i'm hoping someone may be able to offer some advice. I'm about to start my first power phase, and as such, will be attempting a beginner campus routine. The book mentions that if moves are too hard, then a power spot can be used, but I was wondering about whether feet on campussing is an effective option, or whether it would still be best to try and do the moves feet free - even if I only manage a couple of movements in control. 

What are peoples experiences? Have they gone through a process of starting with feet on campussing and found that it's helped progress to normal campussing?

thanks
daz

[tedwelser]

Hey Daz, 

I can only speak from my experience, so please take with a grain of salt.  I use feet on campusing as part of my warm up for sure.  It is certainly helpful and is a good starting point for getting in the campusing mindset.  However, campusing has two parts, pulling and then latching the next rung.  Feet on prepares you well for the pulling but not as well for the latching, since you will have some much more time to latch each hold.  In my experience, the intensity of the latching is much, much greater footless (especially when the edges you are using are hard to hold). So, you want to work towards that latching intensity by using footholds that are progressively worse.  A single small chip foothold is not too far away from full foot free campusing.  Also, you can also get a lot of value out of setting up some deadpoint limit boulder problem moves.

I guess as you probably already know-- be very careful in how you ramp up the intensity of your campus workouts so that you can find the right level of effort that will maximize the training value without too much risk of injury. 

Ted


  

[coachseiji]

I'm in the same boat, just started campusing and IMO tedwelser is correct..the latch is a main component and I would say the most important..you are essentially elongating muscles, tendons, etc. while firing off a contraction...this eccentric loading causes a much higher required tension than just pulling on a hold. Think of it as plyometrics for the climbing specific muscles of finger flexors.

[Carl0s]

IMO if you can't perform the beginner's campus routine, then you are not ready for campusing. The book has other power training alternatives, like limit bouldering. You can train dynamic moves in the boulder area, start with dead points and work your way up to all points off dynos, by then you'll be ready for campusing.
Good luck boulderdaz.

[slimshaky]

another option would be to use larger rungs.  not sure if you are campusing at the gym on a board, or using your own board?  movement (in boulder) has a 4th size of rung that is about the depth of a 2x4 and is very positive.  if you have a bouldering cave at your gym you can also use the jugs to get you started.  it is well worth it to start with real easy ladders and get the general hang of it.

for me, by far the hardest part of starting to campus was mental.  i have pretty bad shoulders, so i was really hesitant to campus.  so, i started with baby steps (like the options listed above).  after a couple sets i started feeling more confident.

the 2nd crux of learning to campus, for me at least, was the technical aspect of it.  campusing takes practice to learn the coordination of latching the rung accurately.  not just latching it, but latching it well enough to make the next move off of it.  these are 2 very different things.  at this point i am good at latching enough to hang on, but not good enough to move off of it consistently.

like anything else, it just takes time and practice.  for me, it was very worth it as it added a component to my climbing style that was greatly lacking - the ability to move more dynamically and aggressively.  my wife says that my climbing style really changed and i started climbing more aggressive and confident on hard redpoints.

[boulderdaz]

Thanks for all the input. I decided to take a different approach and used my hang board pulley system. It seems to be working a treat, making good progress over the last few sessions and will be 'assistance free' next week