Question about campus momentum

[heelhook]

Hi Mark and Mike

I had my first contact with a campus board yesterday and now I'm going through the book to try to make more sense out of it. On page 140 of the book it says:

"Practice deadpointing each move. At first, this will take a great deal of control and concentration, but with practice you will be able to do this on moves right at your limit. This skill transfers directly to the rock and will save your elbows and fingers tremendous strain."

Then in rockclimberstrainingmanual.com/2014/01/08/tips-for-effective-campusing-part-1-the-basics/ the post mentions momentum and how its the basic component of campusing.

When the book says "practice deadpointing each move", does it mean to get the body under control before performing each move? Say on a matching ladder going from B1-L2-R2 that B1-L2 should be one move, get the swing (upside-down "J") under control and then initiate the next move? Or what do you mean with that statement?

In this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUbN9yC6goA you seem to be doing the initial warmup ladder (from 00:00 to 00:04) in a single move, using the momentum of each move for the next one, whereas on the next exercises (starting on 00:08) the moves are followed by a slow pause.

Thanks!

Pablo

[MarkAnderson]

First, that youtube video is pretty old, and I would say my use of momentum is pretty poor in that video. Instead, check out the video on this page:
rockclimberstrainingmanual.com/2014/01/08/tips-for-effective-campusing-part-1-the-basics/

Ideally you would "paddle" up the board, with your center of mass constantly moving upward. That's what I'm doing in the warmup ladder. However, that's not a very realistic goal for a campus move at your limit--if you could do that, then you could surely do an even harder move. Nor is it realistic to think you could translate that to climbing outdoors (although, maybe that is the future of elite rock climbing).

You should aim to deadpoint each move, but also use the momentum of your hips to initiate the next move. You should NOT hang out and bounce your hand onto the hold (so the slow pause in the video you linked is not ideal). For your example of B1-L2-R2, as you deadpoint L2, your hips will swing left and then start swinging back to the right. At that moment you should initiate the second move, so your hips never stop moving, although they may briefly stop moving upward. The video in my link above does a good job of illustrating the type of continuous movement you should be striving for. You may notice my hips actually sag as I initiate the second move; that's a result of extending my arms to "coil" for the next move, but the point is that there is no clear break in motion between the two moves.