Skipping campusing--because too weak?

[ryanmcd]

Will I gain more by just limit bouldering and skipping the campus board for now?

I've been climbing about a year and a half and am in my third cycle. I'm redpointing mid-to-hard 5.11 now without a chance to project anything, and am hoping to move into easy 5.12 during a five-week trip this summer. My first cycle I worked up to 1-3-5 on large rungs. I skipped the power phase on the second cycle for a long multi-pitch trip. While my redpointing has improved by a number grade since the first cycle, I wasn't even able to do 1-3-5 in my first campus session this time. I've noticed that I have a lot of trouble with moves that involve a big powerful pull like campusing, even off large holds. Meanwhile, I'm sending V5 pretty regularly and was close to sending a V6 on the second session of limit bouldering--one with a big powerful pull. 

So I was just reading Dave MacLeod's 9 out of 10 Climbers, and he says limit bouldering is more efficient for building power than campusing until you are climbing at a very high level. So I'm wondering, should I skip campusing this cycle and just work on limit bouldering, particularly problems that require dynos and campus-like pulls--so I'm working that weakness while also spending more time building technique? Our gym also just got a Moonboard, and I'd be happy to thrash myself on that the rest of this phase. 

My basic quandary: Does my relative success with some hard, dynamic bouldering mean that doing those kinds of problems helps with the big moves that campusing is supposed to help with, or does it that I'm where I should be technique-wise, and really do need the campus board to just develop the raw dynamic power?

[scojo]

In my opinion, you could forego the campusing in favor of more limit bouldering. When I was around your level, I stopped campusing due to skin issues (I also seemed to reach a plateau) and did more bouldering instead. My climbing ability seemed to improve after I did this.

I've found that the Moonboard is great for building power in a way that gym set boulder problems usual are not. I also find it's easier to find a boulder problem at an optimal difficulty level or one that targets a weakness. There are some techniques you won't be able to target on the Moonboard, but you don't have to only use the Moonboard of course.

[marcusyoya]

I feel like if you are not injured, do not skip campusing. It focuses on power/contact strength vs limit bouldering is more coordination. I haven't made progress in a year from my campusing, but still never skip it due to the increases I have on real rock. If you can do ladders, you aren't too weak to do campusing. I know many women doing power training and it's beneficial for everyone.

[andreas]

My partner was in a similar situation last fall. She felt too weak for campusing and had trouble with big moves and dynamic climbing. She started campusing with me assisting her. She could barely do one move on the big rungs in the beginning and at the end of the 5th session she stuck her first moves on the medium rungs.
Campusing was maybe the most beneficial training she did so far. Her ability to move dynamic, her contact strength and her coordination with dead points increased greatly. Her climbing also increased by almost two letter grades since she started doing it.

If you can get someone to spot you - i think this could benefit you a lot.

[tedwelser]

I found that it was helpful to take videos of myself campusing.  My standard ladders looked fine, but bigger pulls like 1-3-5 show that (during the second move) I am not strong enough with one arm lock offs to avoid sagging down a little while bringing up my lower hand.  This makes max ladders a risky roll of the dice where I might hurt my shoulder or a finger by latching with poor control.

I think I mentioned something like this in an earlier thread but I think people should carefully consider the pre-reqs for the two main types of campusing.  Attempting campus exercises when those pre-reqs are insufficient can make campusing more risky than it needs to be.   Consider that when Gullich was pioneering campus boards he was easily capable of one arm pull ups and hanging from small edges with much more than his body weight.   Campus boards were a way to fill in the explosive movement dimensions that were missing from what he had already developed in terms of training.  So, it is logical to suppose that he developed his pull up strength and his finger strength prior to pushing his contact strength and explosive power on the campus board.  ". . . the hard part is getting stronger without injury."

Max ladder pre-reqs seem to be about pulling strength and lock off strength.  A conservative minimum would be a capacity for one arm body weight lock-offs.  Better would be capacity for rapid pull ups with some added weight, and ideally be capable of a one arm pull-ups.

Standard ladder pre-reqs are more about finger strength sufficient to hang an edge with some additional % of body weight.  For me, +20% was enough for me to get started and get the technical benefits.  After training and another season or so, +25-30% seemed to allow workouts that were much safer feeling. 

There must be some point, in terms of finger strength and pulling power where a person is plenty strong for each type of campus training.  There must be another point where a person is not strong enough on one or both dimensions to safely attempt campus workouts without too much extra risk of injury.